Last week I was in Traverse City, Michigan while the Traverse City Film Festival was happening. While I was in town I was able to catch one of the many films playing and I decided to see one called Breaking a Monster. The movie is directed by Luke Meyer and was released this past March. It follows the story of a Brooklyn based, heavy metal band called Unlocking the Truth as they are introduced into the music industry and begin their rise to fame.
The band is formed of 3 fourteen year old boys: Malcom Brickhouse (guitar and lead vocals) , Jarad Dawkins (drums) and Alec Atkins (bass). The band was formed when Malcolm and Jarad met at a birthday party in 2005 and realized that they both shared an interest in metal music, unlike the other kids who liked hip hop and rap. Malcolm and Jarad realized that they needed a bassist and that is when Alec joined the group. The began performing on street corners in New York City and people fell in love. They began popping up on youtube and social media and were soon noticed by Alan Sacks; a producer who was interested in becoming their manager.
The film highlights their excitement when they land a record deal with Sony and when they perform at Coachella, becoming the youngest band to play at the festival. The film also showed their frustration as they waited to finally start recording their first album.
It was so interesting and even heartbreaking to see the way the music industry manipulated these young boys. To the record label it was all about the money, but to the boys its about making music and doing what they love. It was kind of tough to see these kids have to give up their childhood to pursue their dreams.
Over all I really enjoyed the film and I would recommend it to anyone! After the movie was over the band came out to answer questions from the audience and do a live performance! It was a super cool experience and it was so cool to see their immense talent!
This is an awesome clip from their song “I am the Monster” and you can see how fast Malcom’s fingers are moving while he is playing that killer guitar solo. To say the least I was and still am very impressed. I feel like I need to take guitar lessons from this kid! I’m serious!
After their set I was able to talk with the band for a while and get a photo with them and I think that it is absolutely hilarious that I am four years older than these boys, but they are all taller than me! I’m so short!
I really enjoyed writing this blogpost and I truly do recommend the film to everybody. It was so interesting to watch. I also recommend Unlocking the Truth to everybody because they are just so cool, I mean really. 3 fourteen year old boys playing heavy metal music? What could be better?
While you’re here and I’ve got your attention you should check out my cover of Riptide by Vance Joy! It is such a beautiful song and I adore singing it!
-Swaggie Maggie