Second Hand High kept busy

If you had been around Olds High School this year, there's a good chance you caught a bit of Second Hand High.

But not from any substances – at least not from any of your own – but the band of five teenage boys bopping along to songs by Modest Mouse, Franz Ferdinand and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

The band's made up of lead singer Russel Rabchak, lead guitarist Mateo Becker, rhythm guitarist Riley Christopherson, bassist Brandon Carpenter and drummer Dawson Matchullis. The name of the band was lead singer Russell Rabchak's idea.

Rabchak was inspired by a story told to him by now-former drummer Dawson Matchullis, who recalled being in the mosh pit during a concert and felt like he got a "second-hand high."

Matchullis said he opposed the name, believing it sent a bad image. He did not play with the other boys in the Fort McMurray fundraiser concert and has since left the band.

They've had an active year together, playing not just at their school talent show, but also at the Spartan rugby team's halftime show and at the Fort McMurray benefit concert hosted by local hardcore band Tattered.

Rabchak, 16, explains it was their common interest in playing music that led to them jamming together.

"A lot of it came from the game Rock Band. We all played that as a kid and really had fun with that. So we were like hey, why don't we try real rock band," he says.

A few of the boys have taken band class together. Rabchak himself is a saxophone player. As for singing, he doesn't have any formal training, but says he has "hummed in the shower since I was about five."

Becker has played the guitar for about seven years now and was the last to join Second Hand High. In Grade 9, he completed a project on guitar hardware for the school's Excite class, which aims to get students planning for their future careers early. As part of his demonstration to the class, he played Led Zeppelin's Black Dog. That's when he got invited.

To this point, they've only been playing covers but Becker says they're working on writing original songs.

Becker brings the classic rock influence while a few others are into heavier genres. When deciding what to perform, they aim to be crowd-pleasers, deciding to play what audiences want to hear.

"We're trying to cater to everyone's music tastes because a lot of our band members are really into heavy metal, like Metallica. There's some of us into lighter stuff," Becker says.

As for the name, Rabchak says it came from Matchullis.

"He was telling me about this concert he was at and he was down in the mosh pit and he was telling me he felt kind of woozy and thought he got a second-hand high from it. It was right around the time we were looking for a name so I'm like, 'oh my gosh, that's perfect,'" he says.

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