They may still be "Unlocking the Truth," but this heavy metal-playing trio of Brooklyn, N.Y. 8th graders seems to have already found the key to success. Guitarist Malcolm Brickhouse, 13, bassist Alec Atkins, 13, and drummer Jarad Dawkins, 12, have signed a Sony record deal for up to $1.7 million.
The boys, who together create the band Unlocking the Truth, locked in the deal with Sony over the weekend, the New York Daily News reports.
“It’s so exciting. We’re jumping over the moon,” Jarad’s mother, Tabatha Dawkins, told the NYDN. “What started out as playdates went to Times Square and now this. It’s been one great thing after another.”
The Flatbush, Brooklyn natives have performed at several Nets basketball games and even rocked out at this year’s Coachella Music Festival in April.
Sony has committed to producing two albums with the group, with an option for up to four more records. If the label sticks with the trio for all six albums, they could be seeing a $1.7 million payday.
As seasoned street performers, Dawkins, Brickhouse, and Atkins were discovered by Eric Clapton’s drummer Steve Jordan in downtown Manhattan’s Washington Square Park in 2012, and have since gone on to A-List gigs at the Apollo Theater and Webster Hall.
They have already appeared in commercials for Verizon Wireless, Cole Haan, and alongside Pharrell Williams in the Beats by Dr. Dre and Pharrell “Happy” commercial.
“Us being black and having a heavy metal band is really tough, but fun,” Dawkins told CNN in 2013.
Though they’re strictly instrumental right now, the group does have plans for incorporating their own lyrics … that is, once puberty sets in.
“We sound like little kids. It don’t sound right,” Atkins told CNN.
