FLEMINGTON, NEW JERSEY 08822
ROCK AT THE FARM 2025
​For the first time in our history, we've decided to tie together our love of teaching with the facility we've built. Welcome to Rock Camp: 2025!
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Looking for a unique, local camp that piques your young musician's interest? This camp will combine performance and recording technology, teaching and reinforcing a range of important skills both musical and technical. Students will learn some of the hands-on skills needed to succeed as a contemporary musician in the pop and rock industry. Many of the techniques they learn, they can take with them when producing music in their own homes.
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Dates offered (subject to availability, as spaces are limited):
July 28–August 1
August 4–8
August 11–15
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Each day runs from 9:00AM–4:00PM. Drop-off time is anywhere between 8:00AM and 9:00AM. Parents are welcome and encouraged to stay. There is a lounge/kitchenette area where parents can hang out and relax, spend time with the animals outside, etc.
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The total cost is $700 per student, per week. This price includes the above services and amenities. For families enrolling multiple students, a $100 discount per student is applied, i.e., $1200 for two students.
Small breakfast pastries are provided for students on a first come, first served basis. We take a thirty minute lunch at 12:30PM. Students are encouraged to pack lunches; it is not provided. There is a microwave, fridge, hot plate, and convection oven on the premises. A pizza party is provided for all students on the last day, and friends and family are encouraged to attend the “listening party,” on Friday afternoon. Snacks and water are provided on the premises for attendees, including but not limited to: chips, cookies, nuts, fruit, cheese, and ice cream. Dietary restrictions must be clearly communicated and noted on the registration form prior to the first day of camp.
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Maximum 12 students per week. Students must submit audition materials, and predetermined slots are available only on a first come, first serve basis. This program is offered for students grade 8 and higher.
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Students will be broken up into "bands"—two bands per session—consisting of:
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Drummer (1 spot)
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Bass Guitar (1 spot)
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Keyboard (1 spot, optional)
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Electric Guitar (2 spots)
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Vocalist (1 spot, optional)
Instruments and amplifiers are provided, but guitarists and bassists are encouraged to bring their own if they prefer.
Students will decide on a popular song to record. Student-led choices are preferred, provided that the song choices are at a comparable skill level at which the students can perform. We have two days' time allotted to learning the songs, and making adjustments specific to the recording process, adjusting the arrangement to our tastes and making any formal changes to the music (what we call "pre-production"). The three days that follow are allotted to record, edit the tracks, mix, and master the recordings, as well as film a music video in the live room. On the last day, we will throw a pizza party for all students and families, and close friends that may wish to attend!
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At the end of the week, students will leave with:
* Multitrack sessions provided as raw, unmixed stems (for their own independent mixing)
* Multitrack processed stems (so that they can hear how it sounded in the session—right out of the box!)
* A final mixed and mastered .WAV file of their song
* A final .MP4 video of their live room performance, sync’ed to their recording (delivered digitally to families within 2 weeks of the conclusion of the session)
* A ton of free resources, and the skills and confidence to continue mixing
* A super cool Rock Camp 2025 tee shirt
* A group of friends both new and old
* Memories that will last a lifetime
* A complimentary 4-hour block at the studio, to mix a future project, record vocals, record an instrument, prepare a college/university demo tape, etc.
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All digital files will be provided on a complimentary USB thumb drive, as well as provided as a password-protected, compressed .ZIP file to families, available for download.
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Interested in signing up? This is the most hands-on, engaging rock camp of the year—nay, the decade—double nay, the history of mankind!
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Please send us an email: theanimalfarmnj@gmail.com, with any questions about our program.​​​
ABOUT JOHN FORRESTAL
With over ten years of teaching experience in public schools in both Massachusetts and New Jersey, John Forrestal has both the experience of working with school-aged students in a music classroom, and the hands-on experience as an audio engineer and videographer.
An accomplished multi-instrumentalist, John has performed around the world from basements in New Brunswick, NJ, to Lincoln Center and beyond. He holds two Bachelor's degrees in Composition and Audio Engineering from the Berklee College of Music, in addition to a Master's Degree in Musicology from Boston University, from which he is finishing his Ph.D. He has presented and lectured on music of Southeast Asia, avant-garde music of the 1960s, and convergences of popular music and new-age subcultures of the 1960s at the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Council on Thai Studies, and the American Musicological Society.
John is the founder and owner of The Animal Farm, in Flemington, New Jersey. The studio has a roster of major and indie-label clientele from the U.S. and abroad, as far reaching as Australia, Italy, Germany, Canada, Colombia, France, and Oklahoma.
In his free time, he is an avid reader of world history, and is often spending time with his two kids and wife, or fixing fences that the cows broke.
COME ROCK OUT AT THE FARM
