The guitar amp squeaked as Cole Perkins, 10, plugged in his Fender Squier Stratocaster, a shiny black-and-white electric guitar. The air throughout the makeshift practice room fit with Sublime and Dave Matthews Band posters vibrated as the fifth-grader strummed the wiry strings.
On the other end of the practice room adorned with string instruments and drum sticks, Hayes Browder, 11, climbed into his massive drum set equipped with cymbals, a tambourine, and a sizable bass drum.
Passersby walking down East College Street in Granville on Thursday afternoon wouldn’t know it, but inside Hayes’ practice room is an electrifying punk rock concert that may blow a fuse on occasion, engulfing the space in darkness.
Cole and Hayes, both students at Granville Intermediate School, may be one of the youngest bands Granville has seen. Most of the music they play may have been released decades before either of the two band members were born, but that doesn’t stop them from rocking out to classic hits from rock and roll icons Metallica, Green Day and The Offspring.
The duo is preparing for their next live performance in the village. On Friday, July 18, Cole and Hayes will make their third-ever appearance at the Granville Center for the Arts for a free outdoor concert from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 119 W. Broadway.
Their band started with a grassy green field and soccer cleats.
“We both met playing soccer,” Hayes said. “I learned about (Cole’s) love for guitar, and he learned about my love for drums, and we kind of connected and started playing.”
It was a musically magnificent match made in rock and roll heaven.
Cole, the lead guitarist and vocals of the band, originally got his start with music on the drums. Music is in Cole’s blood according to his father Mike Perkins, who is also a musician.
Before his first big show with Hayes at The Lot Beer Co. in November, Cole had really only been playing for five months. All of Cole’s guitar skills are self-taught. If he wants to learn a song, he launches YouTube, and searches for a tutorial for a new rock hit.
Hayes’ parents had a little bit of a different strategy getting him hooked on music, according to the sixth-grader.
“(My dad) basically laid instruments around the house, and we kind of just picked them up,” Hayes said.
Hayes’ grandpa made the executive decision that Hayes would be a drummer, resulting in a beginner drum set gifted to Hayes as a birthday present.
“I banged around on it for a minute, and then it just sat there for a while,” Hayes remarked.
That is, until something brought him back to it. The rhythm and responsibility that come with being a drummer appealed greatly to Hayes.
“There’s just something kind of cool about holding down the rhythm for a band and then also having your moments where you can solo,” Hayes said.
The current drum set in Hayes’ possession came from Facebook marketplace, according to Hayes’ dad, James Browder.
“(The seller) was in his 70s, and it was his dream drum set. And he’s like, ‘(with) my arthritis, I just can’t play it anymore,’” Browder said. “He was so excited that Hayes was getting it and it was going to go live a life somewhere.”
On top of performing live in Granville and playing the cello in the fifth-grade orchestra last year, Hayes’ performs regularly for 944 subscribers on his YouTube channel, Harrison Hayes. In the channel he began two years ago, Hayes has produced 300 videos and garnered upwards of 200,000 views across his videos.
“Most of (the videos) are covers of famous songs. I usually record two songs a week, and then I turn it into a long video, with the whole song, and then just a section of it as a short,” Hayes said.
Despite their youth, Cole and Hayes say they’ve always liked rock music from the ’80s and ’90s. A typical set for the two is about 10 songs, featuring the greatest hits from bands like Blink-182, The White Stripes and Blur. They also include their favorite song to play, from the great minds of Tre Cool, Mike Dirnt and Billie Joe Armstrong: Green Day’s Basket Case.
Their second-ever gig took place during the 2025 Granville’s Got Talent show during the Fourth of July celebration. The duo emerged triumphant, and took home the first-place prize: a check for $100. They split it evenly between the two of them.
Cole plans to save up. Hayes, on the other hand, will invest it.
Maddie Luebkert writes for TheReportingProject.org, the nonprofit news organization of Denison University’s Journalism program, which is supported by generous donations from readers. Sign up for The Reporting Project newsletter here.