Seventh Rain Against Bullying

On Monday Nov. 9, Centennial High School in Calgary hosted a Seventh Rain show as part of the band’s anti-bullying campaign. The band has been able to play with Canadian acts that include Faber Drive, Hedley and Ten Second Epic and have played numerous times on the Coca Cola Stage at the Calgary Stampede. They've recently released their follow-up album to Byda titled The Ghost In Me. In their anti-bullying campaigns they focus on their personal experiences with bullying, presenting at high schools around Alberta.

Drummer Phil Grossi and bassist Lucas Sheppard were severely bullied during their school years. In school, Ryan Williams and Rich MacFarlane, the lead singer and the guitarist, were friends with the ones doing the bullying, but eventually realized that something as simple as saying to those people, “Hey, what are you doing?” can really have an effect on someone’s life. As a band that has a quickly growing fan base, they saw their experiences as a way to spread awareness to a wide group of people by offering to play in schools across the province.

To start the night off, the band shared these stories about bullying with the audience. Sheppard, who couldn’t find anywhere to fit in at his new school in a small town where children didn’t accept him, and Grossi, who was constantly teased and went through severe emotional suffering due to his weight problem, told especially moving stories.

Sheppard shared his past with the audience and the affects it had on him. “We moved out to this new school and I was instantly thrown into this group of kids that had grown up together their whole life... It didn’t take long before it was decided that I was gonna be the guy to bully.” Sheppard also said being picked last in gym class, being called names, and being embarrassed were some of what he experienced early on.

“The only thing you really feel the whole time is just fear, and you’re lonely. I had horrible self esteem, and you start to believe what they have to say, “Is there something wrong with me?”

“It all changed eventually when I finally had a friend. That’s all it took, somebody just finally stood up for me and I befriended them, all of a sudden the bullies backed right off. They were just gone, not interested anymore. And it changed my life forever. All of a sudden I started feeling a lot better about myself.” He stressed the need for people to stand up and say something if they see bullying being done, because something as easy as standing up, truly changed his life.

Grossi also told his story, which had started as early as grade 3. “I had a problem...carrying all that weight, there is nowhere to hide. You get made fun of everywhere and that’s something that I had to go through most of my life.” He said kids as well as adults used to make fun of him wherever he went. He thanks Williams for giving him a chance and giving him some hope for the future. “The littlest things can make a difference.”

Grossi also explained one of the bands early career milestones and addressed their appreciation to the fans in helping them hear themselves on the radio, which the band was grateful for.

“We ended up winning the Vibe 98.5 100,000 search contest about 4 or 5 years ago, and it was such an amazing experience... Not only were we able to further our careers in music, we got to be played on radio, and a lot of that is attested to you guys...I wanna say, and I know the rest of the guys wanna say, thank you very much.”

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The atmosphere quickly changed when the bands hit the stage. The Love Cats, who were given the opportunity to play after winning the school’s battle of the bands, opened the show to a round of applause. After they played some original tunes and a couple of covers, Seventh Rain took the stage.

As is commonplace at a Seventh Rain concert, the band gave a powerful performance which was only emphasized by the messages they delivered earlier that night. Opening with One To Fall, the first track off their new album, the band started to get the crowd pumped. The excitement grew throughout the show, leading to an encore consisting of one of the band’s own songs and a cover of The Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling, to which the entire crowd was enthusiastically jumping and singing along.

All the images by fourfourbeat. For more information on Seventh Rain Against Bullying, and on the band and their music, visit myspace.com/7thrain or http://www.seventhrain.com/