This week, we’re talking with Katie Morey—musician, DIY veteran, and co-owner of Submarine School of Music—about what it takes to build something real in Rochester’s music scene. From booking basement shows to touring with Pleistocene, Katie’s been in it for the long haul. Now, she’s helping shape the next wave of musicians, creating a space where learning music feels as natural as making it. We get into her journey, the evolution of Rochester’s DIY scene, and what it means to keep pushing forward.

Mentions

thesubmarineschool.com (@submarineschoolofmusic)

katiemorey.bandcamp.com (@katiemoreymusic)

thesoundrochester.com (@thesoundroc)

lunchador.org (@lunchadorpodcasts)

Mentioned in this episode:

Joe Bean Roasters

Use promo code Lunchador for 15% off your order! https://shop.joebeanroasters.com

Hello and welcome to Nights and Weekends.

I'm Kate Rogers.

I run the soundrochester.com.

i'm here with Virginia Wood.

And today, today we are here with Katie Mori.

She's a local musician and she's also the owner of Submarine School of Sounds.

We're so happy to have you here today with us.

Thank you.

Glad to be here.

Yeah.

So, as you know, the show is talking to change makers in the community and we really wanted to have you on because you are doing such an amazing job by, you know, curating the.

The future of music here and also adding all of your amazing art and music to the scene.

And I think before we, you know, dive into, you know, conversations about the school and where you.

How, why you have it and why you wanted to get that started, want to learn a little bit more about you and your roots in Rochester.

So were you born and raised here?

Yeah, I was born in brockport, so about 30 minutes from here.

So I've been in Rochester for 15 years now.

That's a long time.

Seen a lot, done a lot.

Love it.

It's been great.

To me, the first, I would say five years, I was just really, really active in the DIY community, booking shows, playing out all the time, doing tours with my band.

I was in a band called Pleistocene when I first started in Rochester and that went for about.

About eight years, maybe close to that.

But yeah, I moved here with some friends after college.

I went to Fredonia.

I was in a band in college.

Really?

That's the biggest thing I got out of college is I was in a.

It was called the Girl Band, but now you just call it a band.

I thought that was the name of the band for this for a second.

That'd be a great name, especially for the time.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Well, when I was a kid, I was in a band called Girl Band and we just had one song and the only words were Girl Band.

It's a start, though.

You know, it's a good.

It was a good song.

It was a good song.

Yeah.

I was in this band in college called Paul's Grandfather.

And it was.

There are three of us, one of.

One of my close friends, Kara Teague.

I met her through that band.

She plays in Fuzz Rod now.

And yeah, we.

And my friend Becca Raskalc, who moved to Vermont but is in a band called Bethlehem Steel, who's amazing.

And at the time we were just figuring it all out on our own.

No one was telling us how to do it.

And in fact, actually, there were a lot of people telling us how to do it, and they were men.

Y.

Sorry.

It's okay.

It's okay.

They're not all bad.

Yeah.

And we didn't want that.

We wanted to figure it out on our own.

It was a really harrowing experience, trying to make it, you know, and we had big dreams, and, you know, when you're young, you.

You want to go as far as you can go.

And I can't say that I have the same kind of mindset now, but when I was a kid, that was what kept me involved in the scene, kept me motivated.

And after college, we kind of dismantled and did our own things.

I formed a punk band, and Kara did kind of metal stuff, and Becca did kind of, like, alternative stuff, and we all went our separate ways.

And when I moved to Rochester, I just found this amazing DIY community.

And that's kind of what set me on my path for the first.

Yeah.

Several years here.

It was thriving.

When I moved here, it was so exciting.

Everybody kind of knew each other, which is still kind of the case.

It's a small city, which.

I love you.

You could have any number of shows to pick from every night.

There were lots of DIY spaces.

There were house venues.

A lot of those got shut down later on.

And it was good music too, you know, and it still is, but I just remember feeling so excited for.

For what was happening here.

And one of the things that I really thought was cool or interesting or amazing is that we had a reputation.

People from indie bands and.

And kind of, you know, more underground bands that were really good were coming here and.

And playing.

Playing shows in our houses.

And, you know, I'm trying to think of examples like Waxahachie played in my husband's basement at the time.

We weren't married or together at that point, but.

And, you know, Japanese Breakfast and all these bands that I love now and loved then were coming here because they knew that Rochester had this great music scene.

That's awesome.

It's a special place.

I remember that's that when I moved from Pittsburgh to New York and I visited here because of that, and I got to know bands from Rochester in the city, and there was just, like this.

This scene here that everybody kept talking about, and it was.

It's just.

I don't know.

I'm always, like, excited to Hear about, you know, what was actually happening, and it's.

It's awesome that that type of talent was coming through.

And what do you think that looks like now?

Like, do you think that's changed a lot?

Do you think that's still here?

Like, what are your thoughts there?

I think we had to rebuild after the Pandemic.

There are lots of factors.

I feel like, yeah, people's lives changed during that time.

A lot of bands that I know kind of disbanded.

My life changed.

So I know from a personal perspective that coming back after the Pandemic, it was different.

But I will say that I feel like we are at this point in our city where it's getting exciting.

I feel like we are coming back and I see all these young bands and I.

All these new names coming out, playing at, you know, DIY places and also places like the Bug Jar and Bar band editing.

And I see the.

The hype, you know, the excitement.

I can.

I can feel it, that people are.

Are going out again.

And it took a while.

It was slow here, at least from my perspective.

You know, everyone has a different rate of getting back into things.

It's been five years now, but I will.

I'm excited for this new crop of musicians and bands.

Yeah, I think, like.

And that's probably where you're.

I don't know, I think about being young and I think about playing music, and it felt different.

And I don't know if that's because I was young or if that's because things are actually different with social media and people not going out to shows as much and people consuming content, you know, through TikTok and YouTube and seeing, you know, bands they love play in that platform instead of literally just going out, like you said, to.

To someone's basement.

And that's how it was growing up.

Yeah.

So do you think that's.

That's what's happening again?

Yeah, and I do think it's more so the latter.

It's just different times.

I think that social media has ruined a lot of things.

Not completely.

I hope that we can figure it out as a society, how to, you know, bounce back and be more community oriented, get ourselves out there.

It's so easy to stay home, and it's scary out there.

People.

People want to be comfortable, and I don't like that.

I want to have a community.

I want people to go to shows.

I want to go to shows.

Even though my life has changed, even though I'm older, I'm on the older side of the scene now, which is fine.

And I remember being a kid, early 20s, and playing out all the time and feeling that excitement, that.

That youthfulness and.

And also seeing the older generation coming to the shows like the.

The past, previous, you know, generation of bands.

I'm trying to think of examples, like.

We called them the old Punks.

The Old punks?

Yeah.

Like, Nod was one of them.

Yeah.

But they.

Yeah, they.

They came to the shows, and I was inspired by that.

I was like, I'm gonna do this forever, too.

Hopefully I'll wear earplugs.

Yeah.

I do find it very interesting.

We actually had a similar conversation.

I don't know if it'll be out when this episode comes out, but we had a conversation on Dialed In Coffee podcast on the network, and we were talking about the early days of specialty coffee in Rochester and how the community does feel different.

And, you know, I was around a lot at that point, and it's something that I think we're all kind of reckoning with a little bit is kind of what I came to in that conversation was like, when we were getting into it, Specialty coffee was exciting.

Right.

It was new.

And now all the, you know, people who are in their early 20s, it was always around.

It's just normal.

It's part of the everyday.

And that infinite access to everything, like, it's completely different.

Like, when they were five, they had access to every song that ever existed.

Because that was only 15 years ago.

Yeah, yeah, right.

They had access to everything.

And it's.

It's a very.

It's a different.

It's a whole different thought pattern.

And it's.

I'm still trying to figure it out in my head because we're the crossover generation where we had both.

Yeah, Yeah, I totally agree.

I feel.

I feel like things have just changed, and we have to embrace that, and we have to support anybody who's younger and trying.

Trying to do this.

Trying to be in a band and tour or.

Or just play music because you're not gonna make money.

You.

You could.

You could easily, like, you know, do all right.

Especially if you're playing a lot and.

And putting.

Making merch and all that, which, you know.

But you're doing it for something else.

And when you see a young band doing that, it's especially exciting because they're.

They're doing something.

You know, they're doing something that they love.

And especially now with the information that we have about how artists get treated and how.

How Spotify is taking the soul out of everything.

They all know that, but they're doing it anyways.

And I think we really have to support them and get excited about that.

And they are often the ones that, like, weren't rich and were not like, doing anything but making music.

And they were so respected.

And musicians have always had, like, this.

This, you know, magnet to success, society.

And there's no glamour to it.

Right.

Like.

Like you said, Katie, like, you don't get paid, I don't.

I sink money into my bands, but I can't stop doing it because it's where your heart is.

And I, you know, it's.

It's good to see that that continues on.

And that leads me to my question about, you know, what, you know, your school and what you're doing there and why you started it.

And that's a lot of questions in one.

But could you give us a little.

Little scoop there?

Sure.

Where to start?

So, yeah, I would say, and maybe.

Maybe about five years into being in Rochester, playing in bands, working a lot of odd jobs, just being broke.

And that was great.

That was fine.

Looking back, it was a great time.

Just really struggling and making art and doing that pretty much full time on top of working full time.

And at that point, I was playing in a band with my now husband, Ben Mori, and we weren't together, we were just in a ban together.

And we.

We started talking about making a living doing what we love.

And I couldn't even imagine making a living doing what I love.

That was just not even something I had considered.

I was working at an eye doctor at the time, and I was like, I'm gonna maybe be an optician.

I don't know.

I couldn't even fathom shout out to.

People, letting me see.

I appreciate them.

Yeah, well, for sure.

Yeah.

I just.

I just went the other day.

It was great.

I've got new contacts.

Okay.

So, yeah, we were talking about just the idea of having a school one day where we could hire all of our friends and anyone who is a musician in Rochester would maybe want to come work here.

It would be a community and.

And we would take on the next generation and show kids what it's like to be in a band and all that stuff.

And it was just a pipe dream at that point.

I would say it took about five years to make the dream a reality.

We fell in love, started dating pretty quickly.

We were engaged, got married, and then at that point were seriously teaching lessons full time and out of our apartment, both of us.

This was like, right before the pandemic, we were, I don't know, working a lot, and it was awesome.

It was exhausting.

But at that point, we kind of knew that we needed to expand.

We were in over our heads with lessons, and each of us had, like, 60 students a week.

Wow, that's a lot.

It's like, how many hours is that?

60?

It's like, yeah, it's over 40.

I think it was like, 50, 60, maybe.

Yeah, it was all word of mouth.

We were.

I loved it.

I love kids.

I've worked with kids my whole life, you know, since I was in high school and babysitting and all that.

And it made sense.

It was great.

It finally clicked for me.

But the idea of opening a business seemed so daunting.

But when you have somebody like Ben, a partner who is in the same boat and has the same vision and has some ideas, it makes it way easier to fathom doing it.

We went for it, we bought it, and it's the best thing that we.

I had ever done at that point, because we converted it into a music school, and we started kind of living our.

Our dream that we had had for.

For several years at this point.

And I, um.

Yeah, you know what happened next?

Oh, I was like, what?

We're gonna take a quick here.

Oh, sorry.

Yeah, yeah.

Did you know, I actually did block it, so it's fine.

We're gonna take a quick break, and we'll be right back with more.

I had no idea I'd only been around for like a year.

But it's like, as an adult who never studied music, who's, like, you know, intimidated, it's like, it's intimidating to be like, I want to learn guitar, banjo, whatever, and I'm an adult.

Like, I've.

I'd gone to other schools, and I was like, I feel like I'm being treated like a child or they just don't take me seriously.

It's like, I don't need to be serious.

Taken seriously.

But it was like night and day, seeing Submarine.

Like, the environment is so fun for adults and kids.

There's guitars and instruments everywhere.

Each room is themed differently.

There's like a piano covered in glitter, which is so fun.

It just like invokes the environment that you walk into and how friendly and welcoming everyone is.

Thank you.

Yeah, like, I just, I'm so thankful for Submarine.

We're so lucky in Rochester to have you guys as a resource here for continued learning and then also for the next generation.

Like our kids, like our generation's children coming in to like learn music.

I keep thinking about how cool Rochester's gonna be in like five, 10 years because of all the bands coming from Submarine.

Oh yeah.

I think about that a lot and I think that's a big inspiration for what we do.

And I love that adults feel just as comfortable coming to our school.

It's a real multi generational community and everybody kind of looks out for each other when you're there.

And I just love that people learn each other's names and talk in the waiting room and it's.

That's exactly what we wanted when we created it.

And it's become a thing of its own too.

It's not all, it's not all Ben and I, it's our teachers and it's the students and the families.

Yeah, for sure.

And so whenever someone give us like insight into the process.

So someone wants to take lessons.

I want to learn trombone.

Can you help me?

Yeah, we can help you.

We actually, we hired a teacher over the summer.

His name is Devonte Cora.

He's in Georgie and a few other bands and he teaches trombone, which I couldn't have said that before, but now I can.

But yeah, so if you want to come learn an instrument, make it work, you know, we have, we have.

Most of us teach multi instrument.

So, you know, I teach piano, guitar, voice bass, ukulele.

That's about it for me actually.

Accordion.

And all of our teachers are so talented.

We, we purposefully try to hire people who are, you know, multi instrumentalists and also just have a wide range of knowledge, not just, you know, one genre or one style.

So yeah, you could, you could just come sign up and we will teach you.

That's what we'll do.

I really, I like to hear that that sounds like very simple and very easy to get started.

And I also list a lot of the.

The you do.

I don't know what the word is.

Like the roundups, the show offs, like the.

Yeah.

Showcase.

The showcase.

That's the word.

Yeah.

I love events.

Yeah, I love planning things much to Ben's chagrin.

We do all sorts of concerts and events and we try to, we just try to get out there.

I just, I, we are a small building.

We are probably one of the smallest schools in the city.

And so it's important that we, we get out there and, and get, get in, you know, different, different venues and reach out to different, yeah, reach out to different, like demographics and.

Yeah.

Lilac Festival crazy.

That's definitely giving the kids false sense of reality.

Playing in front of thousands of people with an excellent sound system.

Will you book me on Lala?

So how's that process getting them prepped for doing something in that kind of venue?

Because, you know, they're practicing, they're doing all this stuff.

How does that mental prep?

Because I know, you know, from when I was younger, you know, you're practicing, you're doing this, you're doing that, but when you get in front of the big audience at the big stage, you change is how you think sometimes.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah.

Well, the kids, they, they practice every week together, which is really nice.

That's something that I wish that I had as a kid.

Just a, a place to go when you're, you know, going through childhood or adolescence.

It's so, it's so much.

And they come once a week.

They get to play music together.

We play games, we, you know, talk about music.

They share songs that they're into.

So we really try to focus on building a bond with their, with their bandmates and making them feel safe.

And I think that really goes a long way when they're going on stage in front of thousands of people because we give them pep talks.

We say, if you're feeling nervous, just look at your bandmates.

Don't look out.

Just focus on having fun and remember that you're here because you love, you love it.

And nobody's going to notice if you make a mistake mistake.

Which isn't always true.

But you know, we, we, it's true.

It's true enough.

Yeah.

Knowing that in your head as a performer.

So I, I, I'll tell you, the Lilac Fest reminded me of a funny story.

But like when I was growing up, I played the trumpet and my at our local community days in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, they were like taking auditions for people to perform on the stage in front of the Community Days Festival.

And I think they probably wanted like, you know, people like dancers or magicians.

But my dad said, hey Kate, you should audition.

You can play can you feel the love tonight by Elton John on your trumpet.

No backing track So I went down to the TV station, recorded it on vhs, and obviously I didn't win.

But, like, having that reinforcement as a kid and knowing that, like, you know, there I.

A lot of my peers, and I'm sure you see this too, are like, I.

I love music, but I am so scared to go on stage and instilling that as a.

As a young person and knowing that, like, you can make mistakes.

Everybody makes this.

I saw Phoenix on stage.

They messed up and started their song again at Radio City Music Hall.

Like, everybody does it.

It's true.

I've seen so many professional bands mess up, and it's endearing.

It's nice to know that they're human.

And I.

I think that the more that we can just reassure each other in general and reassure kids that we're all human, that's.

That's.

That's kind of the best thing we can do for.

Especially for them.

They're.

They.

They got handed a raw.

It's just a.

They got a.

They got a bad deal.

You know, that's next generation, and just want to make it a little better for them.

Yeah, you definitely are.

Yeah.

Well, we ask everybody these last two questions.

So what do you think could change in Rochester for the better in our music scene?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of things that I feel like we could work on and, And.

And grow with.

And I think.

I think one of the things that would really be great is if we, you know, If.

If bands were first of all treated well and, you know, people went and supported them more.

But also, if we just.

If we had more venues, we had more resources.

I think, like, DIY needs to be more of a thing, and having more of those spaces would be really great for.

For these.

All these bands that we.

All this great music that we have, we just need.

We need more venues.

I think that's a.

That's a big thing and just more.

More support from.

From the people of the city just going out, going out to shows and checking it out and seeing what's going on, because there's great stuff.

That's our goal is to get to the gig.

Everybody goes to the show.

Yeah.

And I totally.

I can't judge anyone for not going.

It's.

I get it.

You know, like, I.

We.

We're foster parents.

We.

We have a lot going on.

And I always feel bad when I can't go out and that it happens, but, you know, it does.

These late February nights don't make you necessarily want to get out and drive at 10pm but yeah, you know, it's like you do the best you can and also like just contributing how much you're just infusing the community with greatness and positivity.

It's.

It's.

You're doing incredible work.

So thank you.

Thank you.

And then Virginia will ask you your last question of the show.

All right, so I think I prepped you a little bit, but who are you listening to currently in Rochester?

Yeah, that's a great question.

There's a lot of new bands and I have a lot of friends whose music I love.

You know, all of my.

A lot of my close friends are musicians, but I.

There's a tried and true.

For me, there's a band that I've been listening to since I was.

Since I moved here.

And I feel really fortunate because I'm listening to them all the time live right now.

They're actually at my house, currently recording in Submarine Sound Studio, which is my husband Ben's recording studio.

And that is Attica Basement.

I love.

I love, love, love Mike's songwriting.

I think that he's a brilliant songwriter and I just love the ensemble when they play together.

One of my current bandmates, Emily Monaco, is now playing keys with them.

And yeah, they're working on a full length right now and the songs are amazing.

I'm really excited for the new stuff.

That's exciting.

They haven't released anything in a while, right?

It's been a little bit, yeah.

But he does play.

They're not on social media, so you just kind of have to know.

They play out pretty, pretty often.

I love diy.

Yeah, Very diy.

Like, not social media, like, just in the know.

I'm working toward that myself.

Yeah, Love it.

That's a whole other conversation I would love to have.

I could talk about that for another half hour.

Why don't you tout any music projects you're working on or anything that you want to express to the world?

So this is your moment to promote yourself.

Oh, okay.

Well, yeah, I mean, I'm working on an album.

I'm trying to get it out before summer.

That's the goal.

I've got lots of musicians playing on it.

Anyone, you know, all of my friends are on it and.

Yeah.

And I started a new band right before we became foster parents.

I was like, I need to make sure that I'm doing something for myself and still playing in a band.

So we put together this group with.

It's Scar, M4, Emily Monaco, Alex Mockbee, and Kamiyanaharo.

And I think we're called sibling and we're working on a set right now for some show someday.

That's a super group.

Yeah, that's a lot of pressure, though.

I'm selfishly very excited to hear that.

I've heard whisperings of this project.

So very excited.

It's fun.

We're having a blast.

First album called Eldest Child.

Perfect.

So if we're.

If we're ready to close out.

Just going to plug Lunchador.

So Lunchador podcast network.

Go to lunchadore.org to check out all of the shows on the Lunchadore Podcast network.

Excited for everybody to check out the audiobooks we're producing for in this moment.

Really excited about those.

By the time you listen to this, I think we'll have three of them out.

So really excited about that process.

Check them out.

Any social media plugs website where people can find the school?

Oh, yes.

Submarineschool.com thesubmarineschool.com we also have social media.

I laughed because I'm getting rid of my personal social media.

But you can find the Submarine school on Facebook and Instagram.

There you go.

And Kate, where can people find what you're doing right now?

We are he sound rock on Instagram.

We're on Blue sky now.

I'm posting on Reddit every week and you can visit thesoundrochester.com for a full scope of music resources.

Awesome.

You got anything?

I'm also trying to drop social, so.

Perfect.

Don't find Victoria anywhere.

You cannot find her.

You will not find her.

So, everybody, thank you so much for listening.

We'll be back next time with more on the nights and the weekends.

This has been a presentation of the Lunchador Podcast Network.

There was a light blue as a welder's torch it used to shine over the fields and all the wise men, strong men were drawn for miles followed a star to Bethlehem steel.