*This story was co-written by Samantha Goldblum and Jason Leavy.
US History and AP Human Geography teacher Devin Schaller is a passionate teacher by day and a gifted band member by night. He rocks out to his jams for fun, but he is also an up-and-coming musician.
As a freshman at Florida Atlantic University, Schaller had never played an instrument before in his life. After seeing one of his roommates playing the electric guitar, he picked it up and decided to give it a try. Schaller’s music career has continued to grow ever since.
“I was in a dorm room with three other people,” Schaller said. “One of the guys played the electric guitar terribly and so, I just picked it up and said, ‘Hey I kinda like this.’ And that’s how I started.”
Schaller plays many different instruments. Along with the electric guitar, he also plays the keyboard, drumset, bass guitar and other handheld instruments.
His band, “Tame the Lyons,” started in 2013, originally under the name “Brothers C.” Schaller met his bandmates through a network of friends, and have been playing together for over half a decade.
“Tame the Lyons” plays a “jam” style of music, and some of its influences are bands such as The Beatles, Meters and Rolling Stones.
“We call it jam music because it’s a mixture of funk and rock, blues and jazz, and all the genres of music altogether,” Schaller said. “It’s really undefinable.”
While the band usually plays at bars and breweries, they have played at some major events. The two biggest venues that “Tame the Lyons” has ever performed at were the Oktoberfest in Lake Worth and at a music festival on Miami Beach.
If anyone from Stoneman Douglas would like to find Schaller’s personal music or some of the tunes by “Tame the Lyons,” they can search the name of his band on Spotify, Soundcloud, Instagram and iTunes and search them up to join the Lyon’s Pride.
