Social media has been screaming their names.
It’s all because of a short video on TikTok — and the band’s rocking out.
Here’s how it went down.
Screaming Metal Deathtrap — a quartet of 10- to-12-year-olds — was taking part in the Bach To Rock Battle of the Bands on June 11 at The Orpheum — a concert venue off Nebraska Avenue. The band, based at Bach To Rock Lutz, won its division with their original song, ‘This is not a drill.’
Screaming Metal Deathtrap is made up of Parker Schmidt (bassist, lead singer), Matas Meskys (guitarist), Axton Binkley (guitarist) and Carlos Santos (drummer).
They formed a band because of their talents and their love for “heavier” rock music.
Matas’ dad is big on filming the band and posting it on social media. He did nothing different than before — filmed and posted the band’s award-winning performance, but he also posted another short video.
“I found out about this video like everyone else and it had already generated 60,000 views by the time I saw it,” said Rick Schmidt, Parker’s dad and owner of B2R. “Someone sent it to me and was like, ‘What’s going on?’ I don’t know!”
The video is only a minute and a half long and it’s only an intro of the band playing the cover to ‘Down with the sickness’ by head-banging rock band, Disturbed.
Its distinct sound was played perfectly by the youngsters — and then blew up with hundreds of thousands of views in just hours.
“We weren’t expecting to blow up like that and (it be) the most popular of the Tik Toks (we have),” Parker said. “Even before this one blew up, maybe we had 4,000 views and then all of them had so many views, but even then it wasn’t like the (Disturbed) one.
“Suddenly, it was like, ‘Oh, it has 2.5 million views — whoa.’”
“It’s crazy, but I always tried to do YouTube and I was never successful,” Axton added. “It’s definitely crazy that, like out of nowhere, the band just blew up.
“It’s been pretty and exciting, especially checking it and seeing that it has so many views and then checking it again not even after a while and it has even more views.”
It had 2.5 million views in less than a week.
Since Screaming Metal Deathtrap won the Battle of the Bands on June 11, they qualified to play in the nationwide B2R Battle of the Bands, which was held, virtually, on July 2.
Screaming Metal Deathtrap took home the top prize in the Elementary School Division — and that viral Tik Tok had more than 4 million views just a couple days before.
“It was so surprising, but it was really cool, too,” Carlos said. “Really, we had just been showing it to friends, so for it to have that many views was just crazy.
“I think we were just all trying to play like we do and never expected it to be so popular on Tik Tok.”
Matas was stunned.
“Like, holy crap, look how many views it has!” he exclaimed. “Then, we’d check it again and be like, ‘Whoa, so many more views!’ We really couldn’t believe it every time we looked at it on Tik Tok!”
Neither could Rick Schmidt, who also used to promote bands such as Creed and Sister Hazel and even worked for local radio station, 98 Rock.
“You used to hit up stations (or use) word of mouth (to get a band’s music out there), but it is a lot of social media now,” Rick said. “It can generate a lot of views and get a lot of people excited about the band or musicians.
“And for them, it was just the intro — not even the whole song, but people are on there and like, ‘Oh my God — these kids rock!’ because Tik Tok is the new word of mouth.
“And they do rock! Parker just wanted a band to play heavier rock, but Axton is great, Matas is great, Carlos is a great drummer — we had to get them together!”
Parker says he hopes to write more songs, but for now they have their single, as well as playing covers of the likes of Rage Against The Machine and Metallic.
The latter band even commented on a Tik Tok video of them covering a popular Metallica song.
That made the band members scream even louder.
“I’ve had a really good time playing with these guys, and it was very interesting at first because we didn’t really know each other,” Parker said. “We all liked playing and all liked the same songs, but we weren’t together very long — but then we clicked and now we just like rocking.”
“I love playing and rocking with these guys,” Axton added. “It’s a lot of fun.”
“Now we’re kind of famous,” Matas chimed in with a laugh.
“Just from playing a song,” concluded Carlos. “That’s pretty rock.”
Screaming Metal Deathtrap
Comprised of Parker Schmidt, lead singer and bassist; Carlos Santos, drummer; Axton Binkley, guitarist; and, Matas Meskys guitarist, Screaming Metal Deathtrap is a Lutz-based rock band that was formed and practices out of Bach To Rock, a music school in Lutz. The band has recently gained viral popularity thanks to Tik Tok videos that show band members shredding and performing covers of popular rock songs, such as classic hits from Metallica and Disturbed. One video, in particular, has more than 4 millions views, while another event garnered a comment and like from the band Metallic itself.
To view videos of the band, visit www.tiktok.com/@bearmusic529. To see their Battle of the Bands Performance in Ybor City, visit YouTube.com/watch?v=Un46grMIDqw.
For more information about Bach To Rock Lutz, visit BachToRock.com/lutz.
Published July 19, 2023
Updated July 19, 2023
