RACHAEL Scoble started listening to heavy metal and punk records growing up in Lower Templestowe.
“My boyfriend at the time was listening to metal and punk, and I think that’s how I started listening to it,” she says. “I had some trauma in my childhood, and I think I identified with this kind of music. It is very cathartic.”
Two decades later, Scoble is still listening to metal but is now using the music as a way to reach out to disaffected teens.
The 39-year-old Eltham high school teacher is behind a new non-profit mentoring program called Battalion, which aims to connect fatherless teenagers with adult male mentors through a shared passion for metal and punk.
Funded through non-profit training organisation E-Focus and the Banyule City Council, Battalion aims to offer 50 young people without father figures weekly jamming sessions, drum and guitar lessons with positive male role models.
The idea for Battalion stemmed from Scoble’s own situation. As a single mother, Scoble feared her three-year-old son, Finley, would miss out on male influence.
“My son’s father isn’t in his life at all. I don’t have a father, and his father’s family aren’t involved. He’s got no uncles. He has no men in his life. I started looking at what recourse he had for male role models,” she says.
She soon realised that beyond sport, there were few avenues for boys to find role models.
“There is so much emphasis on sport. The arts get left out a bit,” she says.
As a teacher, Scoble says she would often connect with kids through metal and punk.
“I realised a lot of disengaged young boys were often drawn to heavy metal and punk. And that’s where my passion lies.”
Scoble also noticed kids who were experimenting with drugs and alcohol, or were at risk of dropping out, often didn’t have strong male role models.
“I thought it would be good to have a safe space to explore this type of music, which they would be attracted to anyway.”
Initially, she went to Jets – a council-funded music studio and arts facility for young people – which got behind the program.
She was also lucky to recruit two mentors, guitarist Jason De Ron and drummer Lachlan Inglis. Both are alcohol and drug-free.
“We want to be modelling positive choices for young people,” Scoble says.
While many parents might worry that heavy metal and punk are a bad influence, Scoble says: “What we’re tapping in to is, you can rebel but this is a safe environment to do it.”
For kids interested in pursuing careers in the music industry, both mentors also have years of performing and industry experience, she says.
With Battalion up and running, Scoble is looking for more mentors and young people interested in joining the program.
She has approached international acts for support and as, the chapter head of Melbourne’s Metallica fan club, she managed to get Metallica to donate merchandise.
“Metal is my passion so it has assisted me to push forward to get it up and running. But if it proves to be successful, I’d like to expand it to other genres like hip hop or even things like photography. The activity is really just the scaffolding for the relationship,” she says. For more information, visit facebook.com/melbournebattalion, email battalion@e-focus.org.au or call 0404 283 306.
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