As you walk into Green Room Music in Pacifica you get a glimpse into what Jay Michaelis’ teenage bedroom must have looked like. In fact, many of those same posters are still hanging on the wall here.

“We’re perpetually young,” Michaelis says with a laugh.

Michaelis’ music heroes were the perfect wall art when he founded Green Room Music five years ago with Co-Owner Mark Sessler.  The center is a music school with a lot going on. It offers two-week summer intensive “Rock Camps” for kids of all ages as well as Monday and Thursday rock camps during the school year. They offer private lessons for all instruments, hourly and monthly rehearsal space rentals, a burgeoning vintage retail store and they are in the process of creating an in-house recording studio.

Michaelis and Sessler are both Terra Nova High School graduates and Pacifica natives who started playing music around age 6. They say their inspiration to create Green Room Music came, in part, from a hole in their own childhood’s recreation options growing up in Pacifica.

“I would have killed as a young musician to have a place like this,” says Michaelis. “I remember just going to the bowling alley and blowing my allowance in 10 minutes.”

As longtime friends, Michaelis and Sessler say the name “Green Room” comes from their days playing together as the house band for a local surf hangout in Pacifica in the 1990s. Their band would hang out in a green-colored room in the house. In show business, “the green room” is known as a space that functions as a waiting room for performers.

“That’s where all the magic happens. It’s where all the best music happens and everybody’s just chillin’ and exchanging ideas,” says Michaelis.

Before founding Green Room Music, Michaelis and Sessler had both been longstanding music teachers in the community. Sessler taught the guitar students and Michaelis had the drummers. They were always saying how they should get their kids together to take it to the next level. 

“We had been teaching for so long. We had all these really talented kids with no outlet,” says Michaelis.

When the perfect space opened up in Crespi Shopping Center, they jumped on it. It has become a one-stop shop where parents can drop off their kids at the music school and head to the gym downstairs or the kids can head to the batting cages after music lessons.

Green Room Music’s three instructors, which include Michaelis, Sessler and Dave Cannaday, are all working musicians themselves. In fact, Michaelis currently plays drums and vocals for his band, “State Line Empire,” which produced a single with the rock guitarist Slash and has opened for big bands like Thin Lizzy. He also enjoys professional endorsements from five companies. He says instructors’ experience help them give their students a dose of reality when it comes to making a career in the music world and learning different ways to generate income to survive.

“We wanted to have a creative corner and somewhere for musicians to go. This is such an eclectic coast,” says Michaelis. “We are kind of an incubator for the next generation.”

They’ve had overwhelming success with their summer Rock Camp, a two-week intensive during which they help kids form a band. By the end of the two weeks that band performs in front of an audience.  During the camp, they also create a promotional photo and a CD single produced in a recording studio.

“For me, the most important thing is seeing kids transform during camp from being not sure at the beginning to being totally confident after a couple weeks,” says Sessler. “Its pretty cool to see them on stage in front of 200 people.”

“I think it’s a real positive healthy risk for kids in their development,” says Michaelis. “They’re having fun and they don’t even know that they’re learning compromise, cooperation and they’re also expressing themselves. That’s really important as a kid in the ‘burbs,” Michaelis says.

He makes a point to say that Green Room Music is not trying to push kids into rock stardom, but instead trying to nurture musical passions.

“A lot of people say this is a rock star university. This is not,” he said. “This is more of a music school and we’re trying to hand down the gift of music for kids. And obviously if they become rock stars that’s great.”

And more than a few kids to come out of Green Room Music have hit it big. The Helmets, a group of 10-year-olds that got together when they were 8, played at Lollapalooza this year and they’ll be playing at BottleRock Napa later this year. In addition to giving lessons to some of the band members and providing a rehearsal space, Michaelis has worked with The Helmets to help them write original songs.

“At the end of the day I don’t want them to play like me or anybody else. I want them to have their own voice,” says Michaelis.

Michaelis says he has also met some amazing musical families through Green Room. Tye Trujillo, who is the son of Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo, plays in The Helmets. And Getty Franco, the son of The Mother Trucker’s bassist Pete Franco, plays for another successful band, The Reckless and the Brave.

“Everything can be taught. A lot of people say, ‘I don’t have rhythm,’ but that’s not true. We all have a heartbeat. It’s our job to harness that,” says Michaelis.

He’s been able to see the growth first-hand throughout the years that many of the same kids keep coming back. He points to their wall of fame, lined with band posters from past rock camps.

“We have some kids that are totally super young and now they have mustaches,” laughs Michaelis.

“It matters who you make music with. To me, creating something out of nothing with another human being, that to me is what music is about and that’s what I’m trying to teach inadvertently,” says Michaelis.

Michaelis and Sessler say they get back as much as they give.

“Its very cyclical. They’ll re-spark my love for it. And it never really dies, but that’s kind of why I got this torch tattoo,” he says pointing to his arm. “It’s a sacred torch. They help me keep it lit, but also I might be passing it along to the kids.” 

Summer rock camp Session I begins July 5, Session II begins July 18 and Session III begins August 1. Visit www.greenroommusiccenter.com for more info.