Posted November 12, 2014
If the stereotypical rock star has long hair, loves AC/DC, and has an electric guitar glued to their hand, Walker Masuda fits the bill. But the stereotypical rock star likely isn’t also rocking out his high school homework in the midst of performances, studio practice, and music composing. That’s where 17-year-old Masuda shows his uniqueness and the depth of his talent, balancing high school with his work in the music industry.
Masuda got the itch to play music at an early age where he said, “I picked up the guitar in 7th grade and was like, Hey this is really cool!” With no family with a musical background, Masuda paved the way for himself by obtaining four years of classical and jazz instruction as a guitar major at Denver School of the Arts (DSA). He then started at School of Rock, a program that he says helps introduce kids to the music scene. At School of Rock, he started as a band member of a seasonal themed show and has progressed to getting selected as a House Band player where he’s played at local venues like Red Rocks, The Hard Rock Cafe, the Rocky Mountain Music Festival, and Vail Rocks. But his talent was really proven after he was chosen for the School of Rock All-Stars Program. Masuda was first nominated by his local Denver School of Rock program and then auditioned through a video performance. “People from every school across the nation audition,” he said. While roughly 200 students were nominated to try out nationwide, only 60 were chosen. Masuda played with the prestigious AllStars last year at the Lollapalooza in Chicago, crediting the healthy competition between School of Rock members as accelerating his talent. He expressed, “This is a community where people are always getting better,” a place that continually inspires him to practice with fervor.
The high school junior also performs with his own band, Steam Train, where they write and perform original compositions. “Music is an art form and that’s how one publicly expresses their art,” he said as his favorite reason for playing. While he admits that he is not a singer-songwriter on his own, he claims the band’s pieces come together through a process that takes all band members. “The end product is definitely all of us having a say in it,” with the singer and drummer typically writing the lyrics while he helps provide the music and riffs behind them. He said for him, it’s all about working with the right people, saying, “If you surround yourself with good people in your band, you can really feed off each other.”
While Masuda bled his passion through nationwide performance tours, the typical high school classroom setting left him feeling tied down to a schedule unconducive to his growing music calendar. While he praised DSA for being a great school, he said, “Regular school was from seven to three and that was a big chunk of my day that was gone…I didn’t like to sit there and wait for people…I felt like a lot of wasted time was happening. I felt a little stuck.” Trying to find a schooling option that afforded him the flexibility to pursue his passion while finishing high school, he discovered Denver Online. He started the online program by taking a summer school course and then transitioned into a full-time student at Denver Online this quarter.
When asked what the most challenging thing was about his new online school, he said, “This really isn’t tough for me. It’s not hard, because it’s everything I wanted in a day.” He continued, “Instead of lining up to a teacher’s expectations, it’s really more about getting things done to graduate. It’s a no-frills thing. It’s a no-nonsense approach.”
Masuda said he now works solid on his online homework for about four hours a day with the rest of the day to pursue his music career. He said, “It’s a freedom really, ya know?” Denver Online High School’s robust concurrent enrollment program will also allow him to graduate with multiple tuition-free college credits. He said he already has three college classes set up for next semester and plans to graduate with three years of college completed through the of Denver Online’s concurrent enrollment program and link to the College First Program. He said this will help him tremendously in his pursuit to one day graduate from University of Colorado Denver in its Audio and Engineering Program, with his ultimate dream of pursuing the music scene with a band or becoming a session musician, hired to record guitar for music tracks.
There are plenty of people who can jam on a guitar or bang some drums. But there are few that really encapsulate the depth of the Rock Star title. Masuda shows it takes more than lengthy locks and a sweet AC/DC shirt; it takes an ambition to create a life that empowers passion to continuously grow. His jam? A combination of high school beats, college riffs, and an ever-growing music career to flesh out the melody. Now that’s something to rock n’ roll to.