article by Hannah Olson | photos by Jill Nauman

“When you’re up on stage with the entire band playing the music you’ve

been working on all week, it’s a really different experience.”

 -14-YEAR-OLD GUITARIST REAGAN AUER

It was Keith Richards who said, “There’s something beautifully friendly and elevating about a bunch of guys playing music together.” The musicians behind Amp Camp didn’t just nod along to that idea; they built something around it. What started as a shared belief in the power of playing music together became a place where young musicians plug in, turn up, and discover what happens when collaboration replaces competition and creativity becomes communal.

For many kids, learning music happens in quiet rooms and rigid structures; practice alone, lessons alone, progress measured in scales and sheet music. Amp Camp flips that script. Here, music is loud, collective, and alive. Kids learn by listening, experimenting, and standing shoulder to shoulder in a band, figuring it out together. Music stops being something you study and starts becoming something you live.

Founded in Billings in 2014 by working musicians and educators Parker Brown, Matt Devitt, and Alex Nauman, Amp Camp was built on a simple but powerful idea: teach kids how music actually works in the real world. Over the last decade, it has grown into a multi-day immersive experience that blends instruction, band rehearsal, music theory, electives, and live performance, while quietly doing something even more important. It’s building a community.

“What we’re trying to do is have a holistic approach,” says Devitt. “Take all the things we’ve learned over the years and cram them into an experience that lasts with students through the year, and that they can build on year after year.”

MUSIC BEYOND THE CLASSROOM

Amp Camp intentionally exists outside traditional academic or conservatory models. While students do learn theory and technique, the emphasis is on practical musicianship; how to listen, collaborate, rehearse, and perform as part of a band. The goal isn’t perfection. It’s fluency. Confidence. Connection.

“It’s a musical path that’s far less academic and a lot more practical,” Brown explains. “This is how you put it together. These are the places it happens. This is what it looks like.”

Campers are grouped into bands early in the week and encouraged to discuss song choices, negotiate roles, and learn to work with diverse personalities and skill levels. They rehearse daily, attend local shows at night, and interact with instructors who aren’t just teachers; they’re working musicians actively shaping the Billings music scene. That experience, real, imperfect, exhilarating, is the point.

A PLACE TO BELONG

For Reagan Auer, who has attended Amp Camp for the past two summers with no plans to stop, the experience goes far beyond learning guitar. She played piano for years before switching to electric guitar and says that while music has always been central to her life, she doesn’t always feel like she fits in elsewhere.

“I like that there are so many more people with the same interests as me that I can meet at Amp Camp, which I can’t really do at school,” she says. “It’s really different than my school, where no one really has the same interests as me.”

At Amp Camp, that isolation fades. Shared interests become an instant bridge. Conversations start easily. Belonging feels natural. “It made me more confident because I was able to talk to people,” Reagan says. “I could just go up to people and talk to them because we’re all connected by music.” That sense of connection is one of the most consistent themes instructors hear, from students and parents alike.

“Parents were crying, saying their kid finally found their tribe,” Devitt says.

CONFIDENCE THAT CARRIES FORWARD

Campers often arrive nervous, unsure, or intimidated by the level of talent around them. For some, it’s their first time playing in a band. For others, it’s their first time performing live in front of an audience. But something shifts as the week unfolds.

“It’s a little intimidating at first because there are so many people and they’re all so good,” Reagan admits. “But I definitely like it a lot more now that I’m more experienced and more used to everything.” By the final performance, that uncertainty has often transformed into pride.

“I get teary-eyed at least once each night of a performance,” Devitt says. “Sometimes you get the right group, and it’s just magic.” That magic doesn’t end when camp does. Instructors say they see students taking music more seriously, sticking with it longer, and carrying themselves differently, both on and off the stage.

“You see kids take it more seriously and really focus on being a musician,” Brown says. “And that changes everything.”

BUILDING A MUSIC COMMUNITY

Amp Camp’s impact extends far beyond individual students. Over the years, it has helped cultivate a broader music ecosystem in Billings, connecting young musicians to venues, instructors, and peers, and reinforcing the idea that music is something worth investing in.

“Creating this undercurrent of confidence and drive to make music, when you see that happen, it’s like, holy smokes,” Devitt says.

Tony Hammond, a longtime educator and Amp Camp faculty member, has watched the program grow from a small experiment into a recognizable institution. “Now I hear people say, ‘Oh, I’ve heard of that. My kid’s friend did it,” he says.

The ripple effects are real. Students start attending shows. Families become supporters of local venues. Music becomes something woven into daily life, not confined to a classroom or recital hall.

MAKING IT ACCESSIBLE

One of Amp Camp’s ongoing goals is accessibility. The camp, a registered nonprofit, is supported by donors and sponsors who provide scholarships, ensuring that cost isn’t a barrier for students who want to attend. “Our goal is to get enough support that the cost of the camp could go down for everybody,” Devitt says. Scholarship support doesn’t just fund lessons, it creates access to confidence, community, and possibility.

“It makes me feel better and more confident about going into music and sticking with it,” Reagan says. “It helps you feel like you’re not alone.”

For local businesses, individuals, and arts supporters, sponsoring Amp Camp scholarships is a direct investment in Billings’ creative future: one student, one band, one week at a time.

As Brown puts it, “People trust that this isn’t just random dudes in bands putting together a camp; it’s trained teachers who also do it.”

STILL PLUGGING IN

At its core, Amp Camp is about more than music. It’s about belonging. About learning how to show up for one another. About discovering that creativity thrives best in community. For the kids who attend, it’s something simple and powerful: a place where music is shared, creativity is encouraged, and they finally feel like they belong. And once that feeling clicks, it’s hard to turn the volume back down.

Originally printed in the March 2026 issue of Simply Local Magazine

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