About Us - The Element YMC Tour

The Element Youth Movement CoOp Tour is a collaborative venture between music, skate, art, environmental, and cultural organizations. The goal of the YMC Tour is to create awareness as it relates to youth health, cultural, social and environmental issues. Proceeds from the event and the Beck(y) "big." art show will go to benefit The Collective Sound after school programs (TCS Creative Labs) and Adaptive Action Sport.

The Collective Sound (TCS) Music Academy’s Summer Music Camp, running from July 8 - 28th, will give youth between 12 and 18 years of age, a chance to perform their own original rock, pop and electronic music as part of Element Skateboard’s Youth Movement Coop Tour (YMC Tour). Kids from the non-profit TCS program hit the stage in San Francisco, July 24th at Embarcadero & Market, Ocean Beach Skate Park in San Diego, July 26th, and The Camp in Costa Mesa, July 27th. Along for the tour will be Volcom Entertainments Totimoshi, Venus Infers, The Shimmies, Aubrey Debauchery, and other musical guests. Skate demos by Adaptive Action Sports team of Amped riders and professional skaters will help round out the stops. Also on hand will be the "Big" art project and sponsor booths, with positive youth messages.

Proceeds from this collaborative youth cultural and action sports event will support TCS’s new after school music programs, set to start in Spring 2008, as well as Adaptive Action Sports.

The tour is the final leg in TCS’s intensive, three-week ‘life in a band’ simulation, where youth write, record, perform, and shoot music videos under mentors from bands and the music industry (2007 guests include various bands and representatives from facets of the music industry; Capitol Records, MTV, Anticon, ASCAP, etc.)

“The Tour gives students a chance to take what they’ve learned to audiences and venues. It’s also a great opportunity for them to participate in events like the Element YMC Tour that bring awareness to social, cultural, and environmental issues for youth today,” says TCS Camp Founder, Zac Smith.

Although the touring component sets TCS’s program apart from other music camps, Smith says that the focus of the summer music academy is less on performance and primarily on the creative process of making music.

“Most of what’s taught in school music programs today is repetition of pre-selected traditional music, with little emphasis on the collaborative creative process that is so important to aspiring musicians” says Smith. “In today‘s scene, creativity is key and the use of technology like turntables, electric guitar or computer is as valid as a trumpet. We are excited to give our students the opportunity to perform at such a positive event. It has been really exciting work with beck(y), and Element Skateboards on this event, their support for this grass roots movement. To have the inspirational Amped Riders out from AAS is an honor and look forward to their skate demos."

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