Senior Cameron Weir’s reality looks different compared to the average student’s; he spends long, oftentimes erratic hours after the average school day in rehearsal and balances staying social with his homework load and time constraints.

From the High School Rock Off to a tour of various cities across the country, Weir works to be the best guitarist he can be with his band, Subliners. He balances his rehearsal schedule with his classes, all while keeping up with his seasonal job at Boston Mills/Brandywine.

Weir has been playing guitar since he was old enough to figure out how the instrument worked. At nine years old, he began with his first instrument and has not looked back since. 

“I took lessons at a place called School of Rock in Cleveland,” Weir said. 

The School of Rock has provided him many opportunities since, including a position in their house band Headliners, consisting of their singer and guitarist Ty Jacobs, drummer John Finely, key player/singer Ethan Ventresca, bassist Luca Belaze and Weir on the guitar. 

However, despite the opportunities this new band afforded him, Headliners still was managed by someone outside of the group. 

“Since [Headliners] is not like an individual band, it’s managed by someone and there’s a director [so] we made our own band,” Weir said. 

Thus began the story of Subliners, an extra band with the same members plus an added perk of some more freedom. Weir is also a member of four other groups on top of Headliners and Subliners, including Cassoulte, a Frank Zappa cover band, Jor (who recently performed at the RHS Variety Show), and his teaching of the beginner classes at School of Rock. 

“I’ve been teaching [at the School of Rock] as well for the past five years,” Weir said. 

He enjoys the time he allots for every band, but Headliners/Subliners is an auditioned group of some of the best musicians in the greater Cleveland area.

The extra group even went on tour last year to the east coast, doing more than asked of them simply because they loved to perform. Elizabeth Long is his guidance counselor at Revere High School, and she has been following his journey as a musician, student, and athlete for the past four years.

“Cameron is such a dedicated student. He is always looking for ways to challenge himself,” Long said. 

For example, he may have started and nurtured his journey in guitar but has branched out since. In addition to the guitar, he has also picked up a few other instruments in the past few years. 

“I taught myself how to play piano … obviously, I can play bass because it’s the same as guitar basically,” Weir said.

Especially when adding new instruments to the mix, finding balance between a heavy academic workload and lengthy rehearsals can be tricky, but Weir does his best to make it work. 

“He … really shows how to balance, school, extracurriculars, music talents … all of that together and so many times it’s so hard to find that balance, and I think he’s been able to do that,” Long said. 

Weir is taking four AP classes at Revere this semester alone. 

“It’s great to see somebody take the offerings here, maximize that potential, and then possibly apply that then to whatever he decides to do next,” Long said.

But AP courses aren’t the only high-level classes Weir takes during his school day; he has also spent the past four years following the STEM pathway at RHS.

“What he has accomplished here through that program and some of the other courses he’s taken … I just see that is the foundation for his future success in that field,” Long said. 

Additionally, Weir also runs in track and cross country every year.

“I used to be like [the] varsity track/cross country guy back in sophomore year, and then I upped my music intake so that kind of dropped off,” Weir said.

Music is a demanding hobby, and that makes time management all the more difficult for students as involved as Weir. 

“It’s hard to attend all the practices and then make it to the meets as well because I usually have like conflicting practices with music,” Weir said. 

Such a full schedule in the hours after school can also make Weir getting his homework done a difficult task, but he does his best to fit every event, worksheet and show in. 

“I’ve got a pretty good schedule going where I have a study hall at the beginning of the day, and that’s what I use to mostly grind out everything before my classes start,” Weir said. 

He makes everything work together through a separation of his time in the day. School stays at school, and music stays at rehearsal.

“It’s kinda hard to do a lot of the school stuff at home, but I can find time here and there to study… I usually tend to leave studying at school right before the test,” Weir said.

Weir finds time to learn the ins and outs of multiple instruments, despite the fact that he can’t read sheet music, which can make learning pieces more difficult. He spends his time memorizing his movement instead of reading it off a page.

“I don’t see it as a very anxiety-inducing thing, but it can be stressful to make sure you know everything,” Weir said. 

Performing itself can become anxiety-inducing, especially when Weir plays shows with a large audience. 

Sophia Salmons, Weir’s former bandmate, also performed at the recent High School Rock Off in another band.

“You don’t know how it’s going to go until you start playing,” Salmons said.

Despite feeling fear on the stage, Weir still enjoys his performances as much as his audiences do. 

“I love the music, but the performing aspect of it is very fulfilling to me,” Weir said.

Although his future in music is unclear, his passion for performing it isn’t. In the future, Weir plans on majoring in mechanical engineering and minoring in business at a yet-to-be-determined university. However, no matter where his career may lead him, he will always have not just the experience, but the more invaluable love for the music he performed as he moves wherever his future takes him. 

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