Costa alumnus Robert Hecker rocks out and teaches middle school at Hermosa Valley

By Claire Gunning

Opinion Editor

Mira Costa Alumnus and Hermosa Valley middle school science teacher Robert Hecker rocks out in front of thousands of fans and still teaches middle school students on Monday morning.

Hecker has played in a multitude of bands ever since starting high school in 1979. Hecker left his first band, Redd Kross, in 1991 but eventually rejoined in 2005 until he left again in 2012. Hecker now plays for It’s OK!, which he and two others started in 1992.

“There was a really interesting undercurrent during this time, it was a totally new wave era,” Hecker said. “We got a lot of slack, we were misfits, it was beautiful you know, the teachers at Costa were so supportive towards us.”

Photos: Robert Hecker plays for current band It’s OK!

Hecker’s first bandmates all grew up together and met at Hermosa Valley School when Hecker was a student, and started officially playing gigs when they were high school students. Hecker and his bandmates practiced in the lead singer’s room, until eventually playing at small parties until moving up to touring with the Go-Go’s and other famous musicians.

“My first band was spelled Redd Kross, not because we are illiterate, but because the band spelled the correct way, Red Cross, already had a following and the benevolent, blood collecting society called our sophomore bassist out of class and gave him a cease-and-desist order in the principal’s office.” Hecker said.

Hecker’s first band, Redd Kross, who he played with from 1984 to 1991, ended up playing in 46 states and commendable collection of countries as well. Redd Kross, who had a significant following in the United States, had peculiarly large following in Spain, where the band played in front of over 12,000 people during one of their shows in the 2000’s, Hecker said.

“During my second round with Redd Kross, we found out that we had become legends in Spain, none of us really knew why, but we were pretty stoked about it and [when we played there] all of these Spanish people sung back every single word of all of our songs to us,” Hecker said.

Hecker says that the biggest influence on his music career was when he was a seventh grader at HVS, and a live band played at their middle school dance. The band, The Alley Cats, had just formed in the South Bay. After Hecker and his bandmates started Redd Kross, they ended up opening for The Alley Cats for a few shows, which created a full circle, Hecker said.

“[The Alley Cats] were the South Bay gods, so ferocious, so pummel and they were just absurdly loud and it was just this noise that I can’t even describe, amazing stuff that I only dreamed of ever playing.” Hecker said.

Along with touring internationally and playing music in front of thousands of people, Hecker, who was a Costa hurdler and held a hurdling record at Costa for 23 years, was also an avid runner during his high school and later careers. Hecker competed in men’s Masters hurdling until he was 41, and still runs almost everyday.

“[At Costa] we had a dirt track and I didn’t have a private coach, but my first coach was amazing, because he had been a hurdler, like me,” Hecker said. “I might still hold the school record there if we had a synthetic track, but the facilities were not as good as they are now.”

Hecker hopes to play in as many states as possible, and says that his only goal for his future band is to fill their map of where they have played, and to play as much as possible.

“My first show [that I ever played] was for 800 people at a benefit for Keith Moore, who had fallen off stage and broken his neck, and we opened for X, and then my second show was the next night, opening for Black Flag, so it was very rad,” Hecker said. “It was a considerable change from the small gigs I was used to.”