Music creation, to most people, is a foreign concept. Nearly everyone consumes the arts, but only a few are offered the opportunity to create them. 

Having had that opportunity granted to them through the Rock Roulette band competition and fundraiser, Isabella Bullock and Kiersten Owens now work to provide that same opportunity for others by serving on the board of the organization that made that opportunity possible for them.  

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Started by Jessica Lynn in 2014, Y’all Rock Carbondale (YRC) is a southern Illinois based, radical music organization that offers young girls and other members of the gender marginalized youth a way to express themselves through songwriting, musicianship and camaraderie.

A branch of the larger, international Girls Rock Camp Alliance (GRCA), YRC is part of a broader movement focussed on gender equality and the acknowledgement of marginalization in the arts. 

In 2019, to be even more inclusive, the Carbondale branch rebranded, changing its name from Girls Rock to Y’all Rock, setting southern Illinois slightly apart from the larger umbrella organization. 

Since then, YRC has been running year-round programs that help participants find their voice – whether that’s learning an instrument for the first time or connecting with a stranger whose upbringing is different than theirs. 

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Through art workshops, music camps, festivals and more, YRC paves the way for people to scratch their creative itch and make their dreams of music creation come true. 

A prime focus of YRC programming includes a one-week summer camp for girls and gender-nonconforming youth and a hybrid program that serves as both a band competition and a fundraiser for the camp called Rock Roulette.

Gathered as groups of strangers, Rock Roulette participants are tasked not only with raising money for the organization, but with raising their hands, their spirits and their vibrations in the name of rock and roll. 

Despite its inclusive nature, the sheer concept of the Rock Roulette fundraiser rattles the nerves of even its most confident participants, including Bullock and Owens.

The first time that either of them had ever picked up a bass guitar was in a room full of people that they had never met. 

Fumbling your words when trying to make friends is one thing, but fumbling your chords when trying to make music is another. 

Couple those concepts together, and it gets difficult to hear the consistent click of a metronome over the thump, thump, thumping of four nervously beating hearts. 

Ironically, this collection of commotion is exactly what made Bullock and Owens the rock stars that they are today – not just on a stage, but in their community as well.

Bullock, who is now the board president of YRC, first got involved with the organization as a camp volunteer in 2021 and has since become an integral part in keeping the organization rocking. 

“I just wanted a way to make music,” said Bullock. “I didn’t feel like there was an opportunity like that for me before – like the encouragement or the ease of access.”

Through Rock Roulette, YRC offers to adults, as it did for Bullock, a creative way to get into music making, all while raising funds for children to do the same. 

The Rock Roulette band competition and fundraiser, which had its kickoff party on Feb. 3, is a six-week-long event that groups gender-marginalized individuals together to form brand new bands with strangers that are tasked with raising funds for YRC programming. 

Women, trans and gender-nonconforming adults sign up as individuals and are placed into a band with others as dictated by the YRC board members. 

YRC provides a space for participants to create, experiment and perform music without the usual barriers that often inhibit marginalized gender groups. 

No prior musical experience is necessary, and participation is completely free.

“With this program, we give you the instruments, you know? We give you the space and the guidance to learn how to do this thing,” said Bullock. 

Before Rock Roulette, Bullock had never strummed a tune, nor had she ever met the people that she would be doing it alongside. 

“I didn’t know how to put a band together – I had never even picked up a bass guitar before,” said Bullock, who has now served as a volunteer, participant and president of the program.

“It was both exciting and nerve-racking, and I think we all grew pretty close during that time,” said Bullock of her bandmates. “You have to see each other at least once or twice a week for that period, so we got to know a lot about each other’s lives. I still know and see all of these people when they’re around, which is sweet.”

On top of the lifelong friendships that Bullock made, she also developed a special bond with her instrument. 

“It got me into playing bass, and I still play bass to this day,” said Bullock. “It was really easy and really motivating, because the whole purpose is to fundraise for the program and to help fund camp.”

During Rock Roulette, each band is competing to see who can raise the most money – not who can make the best music.

Bands are all working toward the ultimate prize, which this year is a professionally recorded mix and master of a song that they create during the six-week period. Not only that, but the winning band will also get the full rock star experience by starring in their very own music video. 

If helping the local youth wasn’t motivating enough, the grand prizes seem to be pretty inspiring. 

“When I did Rock Roulette, the prize was a T-shirt-making workshop where we got to make our own merch,” said Bullock. “We sort of ebb and flow and change the prizes around every year. We’ve really upped the ante a lot recently.”

Owens, who now serves as the outreach chair for YRC, won the Rock Roulette competition with her band last year, raising over $2,000 for the organization.

“I went in last year to the kickoff meeting not knowing 90% of the people that were in that room,” said Owens. “It was really nerve-racking – even for me as a confident person. Meeting up for the first time and just trying to make new friends, you feel like a kid again, kind of out on your own in the world.”

Owens, like Bullock, had never before played bass. Now, she plays all the time and has lifelong friends to do it with.

“It’s a year later and I’m still playing the bass,” said Owens. “And now me and my band book shows, so it’s really cool, and it’s cool to not only have them as a band, but as friends too. We hang out even if we aren’t making music, and we have a good time. I know that we’re probably going to be friends indefinitely.”

Owens and her Rock Roulette band, previously called BurnBand, are still together and performing around southern Illinois. 

They now go by the Daisy Ladies, and are performing at PK’s on March 16. 

The ladies just cashed in their grand prize from last year, having recently filmed their music video at the historic Liberty Theater in Murphysboro.

“We raised the most money, and that’s why we won the prize,” said Owens. “The grand prize was shooting a music video with a group around here called Cinemaclique, led by Charlie Queen, who’s a filmmaker in the area.”

YRC will be showing that video at this year’s Rock Roulette showcase on March 29 at Slabz Skate Park in Carbondale. 

“It was so fun,” said Owens. “It was really cool to feel like an actual rock star getting filmed. They had a whole team of people helping us with hair, costumes, the set, the video – everything. It was a great time.”

This year, the song mastering and video production for the winning band will be done in house by members of the YRC board. 

“It was really cool, and it kind of brought everything full circle to shoot the music video, and I’m just excited to give that experience to other participants as well,” said Owens. “The cause is supporting the organization, which supports kids’ music all year round. We do open mic nights, we do merch making workshops and just other fun things like that. We have a festival every year where some of the kids that participated in the summer camp come to perform.”

The summer camp is staffed by volunteers, who are musicians, academics and artists from the Carbondale community. They help campers experience small group instrument instruction, band practice sessions, art workshops, community empowerment and self esteem boosting – all while being fed locally-sourced, homegrown breakfast and lunch throughout the week. 

Camp is five days long, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and takes place at the Eurma Hayes Center each day. 

“I believe we had almost 40 campers this past year, and it’s sort of similar conceptually to Rock Roulette,” said Bullock. 

The YRC board sorts all of the campers into bands just as they do with their fundraising competition. Campers then get to pick an instrument which they will learn to play throughout the week through structured lessons and workshops.

Simultaneously throughout that week, the bands are tasked with writing a song that they get to perform on the camp’s final day, where everything comes together for a grand finale. 

In the meantime, campers stay busy with the myriad workshops, like DIY magazine making, songwriting, patch making and anything that can get those creative juices flowing.

“Last year we had Art For All collaborate with us, and they did record painting, where the kids got to decorate their own record sleeves – it was really sweet,” said Bullock. 

This year the camp will run from July 7 through 11. Sign ups should be open by the time of the Rock Roulette showcase and are typically cut off at least a week prior to the camp’s commencement.

On par with the rest of the YRC programming, the summer camp is all about inclusivity and accessibility – no matter economic status. 

“It’s accessible for all incomes. If a kid wants to play music, they can be there and they don’t have to worry about paying for anything,” said Bullock. 

According to Bullock, nearly 95% of the campers attend at a reduced cost.

“We love to mention the camp’s sliding scale,” said Bullock. “A lot of campers attend at no cost. Tuition fees for camp only pay for maybe 30 to 40% of what it actually costs. So a lot of that Rock Roulette fundraising is filling in the camp budget. All of our volunteers are paid stipends for being there for the week, so that takes up a lot of the funds.”

“And fundraising supports the rent all year round,” added Owens. “It’s not just the camp. We’re trying to do more programming, and the more money we get, the more programming we can do.”

To help fundraise, volunteer, donate equipment or support a local camper, visit the Y’all Rock website or one of their social media pages. Donations are accepted through PayPal, and further information about donating is available online.

Rock Roulette bands are currently in the process of fundraising and making music for the showcase on March 29, which will look a little different this year than in years past. 

“Usually we start Rock Roulette in January, but we weren’t able to start it until February this year because we had to secure a different location, because we’ve always held it at Hangar 9,” said Owens, referring to the iconic music venue and bar that shut down in Carbondale on the first of this year.

“I feel like this year is more DIY in a way. And I’m really hoping that the bands can focus on fundraising, because that’s mostly what it’s about,” said Owens. “But also, I think there’s a mix of some pretty interesting people. I mean, we have a wide age range and that’s always a good thing. We have a mix of genders as well, which is also always a good thing, because hopefully these people can come together and learn from their shared experiences, either through life or through music.”

Owens added that, while inclusivity is a recurring theme for all YRC programming, this year the organization is also emphasizing comfortability. 

“This year we have a designated practice space available for the bands. So I think that’ll maybe make people more comfortable,” said Owens. “Having a space that they can all come into, which is our Y’all Rock studio space, should be more comfortable for everybody and maybe the bands can practice more.”

Just as gender expression is encouraged, so is genre, so the bands are free to practice whenever, however and whatever they want. 

“We’re not trying to limit anyone’s creative expression. They can play whatever – really,” said Bullock. 

The program, coupled with Carbondales’ radical history, punk scene and do it yourself culture, serves as an allegory for its marginalized participants and the rock star volunteers that so soundly orchestrate it all.

For Owens, having this year’s showcase at a skate shop is the perfect way to mirror that Carbondale culture and to serve the community through the very things that it embodies. 

“You can make a stage anywhere,” said Owens. “It doesn’t have to have the best sound system. It doesn’t have to have the biggest, widest spot open for all your instruments to fit. As long as you can make some noise, you can make some music, and you can have a show. So I’m excited. It’s all about organizations in the community working together to make something cool happen. And it doesn’t have to be large and perfect for it to be fun and memorable.”

It’s clear that YRC isn’t just about the music – it’s about creating a world where gender, experience and resources aren’t barriers to creativity, but catalysts for something louder, bolder and radically inclusive.

Staff reporter Jackson Brandhorst can be reached at jbrandhorst@dailyegyptian.com.  To stay up to date on all your southern Illinois news, be sure to follow The Daily Egyptian on Facebook.

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