Speed Control rockers bring “Rawk School” music to Iqaluit

Members of Speed Control (left to right, Graeme Peters, Ian March, Jody Peters,) a Yukon band performing in Iqaluit Sept. 10 at Inukshuk High School, pose in the lobby of the Frobisher Bay Inn Sept. 9. The band tours the country bringing their “Rawk School” to classrooms and festivals, and were brought to Iqaluit for World Suicide Prevention Day by a partnership between Alianait Music Festival and Nunavut’s Embrace Life Council. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

How do you teach a group of youths, most of whom have barely picked up a guitar, to play a rock song in 40 minutes?

Students at Inuksuk High School in Iqaluit, where Yukon-based rockers Speed Control taught a music workshop Sept. 9, might be able to tell you.

Alianait Music Festival brought the band to Iqaluit in partnership with Nunavut’s Embrace Life Council as part of Sept. 10’s World Suicide Prevention Day events in the city.

Speed Control, comprised of brothers Graeme and Jody Peters and childhood friend Ian March, have been touring the country for the past three years to teach students of all ages their “Rawk School” music history program.

In addition to the Inuksuk workshop, the band will perform at the high school Sept. 10 and in the morning of Sept. 11, when some of the 14 students from their workshop will join in the performance.

“You gotta get kids playing right away, making sounds,” Graeme Peters said from the Frobisher Inn, where band members met with Nunatsiaq News Sept. 9.

“Now they can go play with the recording or with their friends. That’s a big part of the musical thing,” he said.

All three band members picked up music as kids but playing music became more than just a hobby for the Peters brothers — it was also a coping mechanism.

“I never fit in too well at school, got kinda alienated away from the ‘normal’ crowds,” Graeme said, “and I would just turn to music.”

By putting his feelings of alienation into his music, though, Graeme found he could connect to people and feel a sense of community.

“If you can just hang out and jam, that’s a positive way to connect with people and express what’s going on inside, right?”

“It’s fun and you can express any emotion you can think of,” Jody added.

“And if you’re mad, you can just turn your amp up really high, and there goes some frustration, “ Graeme said.

The trio are able to teach the basics quickly, but it takes time, patience and dedication to get good, they said.

“And then you can form a band, and band’s are awesome, they’re fun,” Jody said.

Both Graeme and Jody followed their musical ambition to the university level, where Graeme studied performance and Jody studied teaching music.

Graeme also performed in a jazz trio with his older brother for about eight years before he formed Speed Control. At one point the trio’s jazz recording was the best selling album in Canada, Graeme said.

Graeme had taught some jazz camps, but when the jazz trio broke up, he turned to another dream of his: to be a rock star.

“Basically our end goal is world domination, just like any other band,” Graeme laughs.

With music camps at festivals and schools around the country, on top of performing their own songs, they’ve already gained legions of young fans. Maybe world domination isn’t so far off.

Speed Control has also worked with a handful of schools across Canada to develop a “Rawk anthem” unique to each school.

The band collects input from students on their school identity and then writes lyrics and music with the help of students. After that, the band records the anthem in their professional studio, which the school can use at school events.

“Imagine that playing at your assembly,” Jody said. “When I was in school, assemblies were so boring.”

The themes for a rock anthem in Iqaluit would be different than what the band has seen elsewhere in the country, Graeme said. One big theme he’s noticed is hunting.

“It’d be pretty cool to have a school song about hunting. Add some other traditional things to it. It’d be really cool.”