To the surprise of no one in our office, Noah Hornik’s “It Gets Indie” just got funded. San Mateo’s own barely-even-a-teen Hornik raised over $7,000 to put on a rock concert which will highlight the work of The Trevor Project and It Gets Better, two LGBT youth suicide-prevention organizations Hornik became inspired to support after attending several Prop 8 protests in his hometown. While taking a progressive stance in support of a divisive issue may not be wholly unheard of among kids today — especially not amongst the San Fran’ set — raising a significant chunk of change to produce a straight up rock show in support of it is, as those Bay Area-ians love to say, hella impressive. With a Strokes-ian hair cut, a credible indie rock blog, and a curated Myspace page, Hornik’s certainly got the vibe of of a young man with vision (…and some notably squeezable cheeks). We caught up with Noah on the eve of his success to see how he was holding up.

Have you ever organized an event like this before?

This is my first time putting together an event such as this one and I am, to a certain extent, flying solo, though my dad is helping out a bit. He puts together a conference every year so he is sort of mentoring me through the process. Although I like to think that I can do it all on my own.

Great American Music Hall, the venue Hornik booked for It Gets Indie

How’d you choose the bands that are playing?

Rabbit! played at my dad’s conference back in October, 2010 so I’ve known them for a while now and they’re both amazing live as well as really cool people. Handshakes is just a band I found on Filter Magazine’s website and loved. I’m hoping to get another band between now and April, possibly someone a bit bigger to headline, but only time will tell!

Handshakes

Rabbit!

How do you get your news?

As a MySpace curator, I have an extensive list of indie music blogs such as Pitchfork and Consequence of Sound from which I receive pretty much all of my music news. As far as general and world news goes though, Yahoo is my main source. You know how on the main page there are those headline stories with the big images? That’s how I roll.

Hornik’s blog

Why did you get involved in the Prop 8 vigils? 

On election day my family and I stood on a very active street corner with “No on 8” signs, but besides that I didn’t do much to campaign beforehand. That one experience, along with all the vigils that we attended as a family after the proposition passed is what really got me into standing up for gay rights. But originally it was definitely my parents that introduced me to the whole thing.

How did you get involved with It Gets Better and The Trevor Project?

I wish I was involved in the founding of It Gets Better, but unfortunately I was not. How exactly I was introduced to It Gets Better, I’m not exactly sure, but I’ve watched too many of their videos to count and think it is just an amazing organization. If I remember correctly, I actually found out about The Trevor Project through It Gets Better and their affiliation with each other. 

What do you think has attributed to your opinion on homosexuality? 

I think that growing up, everything that surrounds you effects your view on things. So growing up in a liberal area such as San Francisco has definitely impacted my opinion on homosexuality. My family and friends are all also very accepting people, and living in a community like that can only make you an accepting person as well. 

The inevitable (sorry, had to!): what do you want to be when you grow up?

I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur when I’m older and start my own company. My plan has always been to move back to Silicon Valley after graduate school and work in the business around here. However, a dream of mine these days is also to start my own indie label and work with that. A lot of time and money goes into that though, so it’s sort of far-fetched. A kid can dream though, cant he?

Well…

It Gets Indie will be held on Sunday, April 24th at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco. Keep up with event details through Hornik’s Kickstarter project updates here