It looks like a joke. Or maybe a novelty act. A 13-year-old boy playing with a professional rock band?
"It just surprises so many people," said Bryce Kretz, a 7th grader from Margate who is the full-time drummer for the band Rough Shot.
Kretz's band-mates are old enough to be his father, but he doesn't mind...and neither do they.
"They treat me like one of the guys, they treat me like we're all the same age," said Kretz.
Maybe the most surprising part of Bryce's story, is that he learned to play the jobs by playing a video game. At age 10, he got the game Rock Band and instantly discovered that he had a natural talent on the drums. So four months later, his dad bought him a real drum set.
"The guy that set his drum set up looked at me and went, 'it must be the Rock Band,'" said Ron Kretz, Bryce's father. "When we bought it, we didn't even know he liked music."
A few months later, the Kretz's put up an ad on Craigslist with a link to a video on You Tube of Bryce playing the drums. They were just hoping to find a few kids for Bryce to jam with, but instead, received an email from a member of Rough Shot.
Local
"I saw this and I said that's really good!" said Paul Kasin, Rough Shot's bassist.
After a few tryouts, Bryce became Rough Shot's official drummer at age 12.
"There are guys who, to play at that level that Bryce was playing at the time, they've been playing for 20 years," said Kasin.
Being in a band hasn't affected Bryce's grades. He has straight A's.
"It's like having two lives," he said. "You have a life inside of school and you have a life in your gigs, but all I can say is that you have to act a lot more mature in the real world."
And this is just the beginning for Bryce.
"He could take it worldwide," said Kasin.
Just don't compare him to Justin Bieber.
"All the time I have people walk up to me and say, 'Hey, you have the Justin Bieber hair!' And I say, 'look, you just spoiled our friendship, you know what I'm saying?' "
