Adam Pomerantz and his nine-year-old son, Tyler, live in the Philadelphia region and spend their afternoons playing Hard Rock covers of bands like Clutch, King Buffalo, and All Them Witches.
With Adam on the kit and Tyler on guitar duties, the father-son duo is a sight to behold, especially since Tyler is so young—and so capable on the guitar.
While young, Tyler plays the electric guitar like an old pro, churning out riff after riff while his dad slams away on the drums. They regularly post their material on social media, and you can catch many of their performances through their Twitter account, Delco Detention (@clutch2210).
Adam and Tyler recently grabbed headlines thanks in part for their love of Clutch. After churning out a few Clutch songs, frontman Neil Fallon reached out and offered to lend his vocals to one of their Clutch covers.
Adam replied saying that they appreciated the offer, but Tyler had some original material they’d love to get Fallon’s voice on.
According to Fallon, he initially hesitated, wondering what he’d gotten himself into, but he obliged and asked to hear what the young man had written. To his surprise, Tyler writes a mean riff.
Together, they created “The Joy of Homeschooling”:
A Conversation With Adam and Tyler Pomerantz
We recently caught up with Adam and Tyler to hear more about their music and playing with Neil Fallon.
On Tyler’s Background
Monster Riff: How long have you two played together?
Adam: It’s been about two years playing together as a duo. However, Tyler started playing at an early age. Drums at four years old. Well, it was Bobby Brady-style drum solos, but he got really good and I knew he had skills. Eventually, at the age of seven, he discovered Primus, and Les was the reason he picked up the bass guitar. Then, at eight, while seeing his first-ever live Clutch show, we were up on the rail on the left side of the stage in front of Tim Sult, and Tyler was mesmerized. When we got home, he told me he wanted to play guitar and asked for a wah-wah pedal right away. Once he started cranking out riffs on command, I decided to start jamming with him. The chemistry was instant.
Monster Riff: So, Tyler, you’ve only been playing the guitar for the last year then?
Tyler: Yeah.
Monster Riff: I have to say I’m genuinely impressed. Because you do, as Neil said, write a mean riff. What do your friends at school think of your new song? Have they heard it yet?
Tyler: They haven’t heard it yet.
Monster Riff: Is this the first song you’ve written?
Tyler: Yeah.
Monster Riff: Are you writing more? I believe I saw you’re working on another one.
Tyler: Yeah, we are.
Monster Riff: Is there an album in the works?
Adam: We’re taking it one song at a time. That’s the professional answer [laughs], but I’m confident that we will have enough songs to start making albums soon enough. The kid has endless riffs.
Monster Riff: It’s really cool to see a father-son duo listening to and playing music together. I was looking through some of your older videos and trying to pick up on all of the memorabilia and the shirts. Obviously, I noticed a lot of Clutch, but I also saw All Them Witches, King Buffalo, and Brant Bjork, and today you’re both wearing Primus. Who are some of your favorite bands to listen to these days?
Adam: All the bands you mentioned and many more. There have been so many cool bands putting out killer music in 2020 and Tyler and I get excited rocking them out in my car. That’s where we listen to most new music. It’s hard to name them all but we also love Hippie Death Cult, The Heavy Eyes, Earthless, Mississippi Bones. He also has recently taken a liking to punk rock—Dead Kennedys, old Suicidal Tendencies, and he loves Pepsi! Just one Pepsi or Coke will work too! [Laughs]
On Connecting With Neil Fallon
Monster Riff: You were covering Clutch songs for a while, and then Neil Fallon reached out. What was that like? What was your initial reaction?
Adam: Well, the first reaction was on Twitter when he saw one of Tyler’s videos and retweeted it. And he said, “This makes me smile.” And that was months and months and months ago. And that was the start of it.
Then he messaged me a day later to tell me how cool Tyler was and how flattered he was that Tyler was playing their songs. Then he suggested singing one with us just for fun. I said, “How about we do an original song?” We had a bunch of emails back and forth and also had a really cool Zoom session where Neil broke down the song with us. The whole process from beginning to end was amazing!
Monster Riff: What’s great about Neil Fallon is he has such a history of contributing his voice to other bands. And I was really pleased to see that his delivery on “The Joy of Homeschooling” is just as good as anything for Clutch. What were you expecting when he agreed to do some lyrics for you? Did you guys talk about lyrics beforehand?
Adam: Neil sent lyrics first after we sent him the rough draft of the music from the basement. He saw a video with us jamming the song. Then, a week later, he sent a very rough mix of his vocals over our music. As rough as it sounded, we were blown away. That would have been good enough for us, but we then worked together and turned it into a final product.
Monster Riff: Another thing I loved about the song was its quality. The final product had the same sound and texture of a real Clutch song. Who mixed everything together for you?
Adam: My good friends Dave and John, who live here in Delco. If you look at the videos in the beginning of Tyler on YouTube, the videos you see of him playing at the open mic jams, the two guys that are in that house band helped us do it. They did it for free. And we did think about going in the studio and trying to make it more professional. But I think for what we did and how we did it, I think that’s how we’re sticking to it. I can’t thank them enough for the amazing job they did for us!
Monster Riff: Any chance we’ll see Tyler featured on an upcoming Clutch song?
Adam: We would love to do another song with Neil and even joked about doing an entire album as he was due for another side project. [Laughs] However, Neil has already gone way beyond the call of duty and we will never forget this experience. This song will last a lifetime for us and I’m so happy and proud of Tyler!
On Collaborating With Other Singers
Monster Riff: You mentioned in one of our earlier conversations that you’re talking to some other singers as well. Anyone you can mention?
Adam: We have been talking to a lot of really cool bands and we will mention them one at a time. We are finishing up the next two songs and already have the final vocals in our hands. Tyler and I will lay down our tracks sometime this week, hopefully. I can tell you about the next song coming out. We have Jared Collins of Mississippi Bones!
Monster Riff: He has a really cool delivery as well.
Adam: Tyler and I love Jared’s delivery and his melody and all the vocal tracks he did. Not to mention the lyrics are amazing! We discussed a few things about Tyler before he wrote his lyrics and he learned that the kid loves horror movies and monsters. Jared sent me back the lyrics and it’s honestly the first book I’ve read in a long time! The song is gonna melt your face!
On Playing Together
Monster: You’re a father-son duo, and I’m sure that’s pretty special. And there have been some big publications that have picked you up and put your song out there. What’s it like for both of you? Tyler, what’s it like playing with your dad? Adam, what’s it like playing with your son? It must be such a cool experience getting recognition for that.
Tyler: I think it’s pretty cool since not a lot of people do it. Because bands usually form with their friends and people they meet at school, not usually their dads.
Adam: It’s a 40-year age difference. I’m going to be 50 soon, he’s going to be 10 in May. Pretty crazy, right?
I was in bands when I was younger, but the chemistry I have with Tyler is better than anything I’ve ever had. And it was instant. Just instant. We go down there and jam. And if you look at “The Joy of Homeschooling,” that came from an improv jam in our basement. I record everything on my phone, and we break down the cool stuff and put them together as songs. That’s all we’re doing. It’s just all improv jams that he came up with.
We’re not stopping. We’ve already got three songs done. And we’ve got about eight other singers that I’m talking to. Possibly, the dream for Tyler would be Les Claypool.
Monster Riff: Maybe he could play some bass for you too.
Adam: It could happen. We feel like we can do anything now.
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