Dace Anderson is taking the music to Redmond.

Anderson, founder and president of Dace’s Rock ‘N’ More, is preparing for the opening of a second location in Redmond.

“In the beginning, I don’t think that I thought about having multiple locations,” Anderson said. “That started probably three or four years ago… at the time we were looking at all of our options of expanding the business and reaching out to the community.”

Anderson and Arielle Young, who serves as a teacher and treasurer for the non-profit music school, were discussing the idea of creating a “mega Rock ‘N’ More” a few years ago that would feature a venue for performances and a coffee shop.

“We had been trying to expand the school in Maple Valley and we came to the realization that it is as big as it wants to be and that’s OK,” Young said.

Instead, it made sense to look for a second location, Anderson said.

“The formula we’re doing right now is simple and successful,” he said. “And it’s something I think helps the community with the free and reduced rate tuition. If we can just take that simple thing that we do that is successful and we take that to all sorts of other communities — and I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch it can work there as well.”

The location in Redmond is near Education Hill and Rose Hill, where there are schools and families, with many Lake Washington School District campuses within five miles.

“It was really a lot of research, it was exploring a thousand different options for what to do,” Anderson said. “We tried to do all sorts of things here in Maple Valley with varying degrees of success. It’s been very recently, in the past few months, where I’ve been able to look back and say, ‘The thing we’ve been doing for the past six years, it’s been very successful.’”

As soon as he realized that, Anderson said, the rest just fell into place quickly.

The new location is ideal, he explained.

“It’s perfect for what we need,” Anderson said. “The aesthetic that we’re going for, that we’ve been going for since we opened the first Rock ‘n’ More, is to have all the things on the wall that teenagers but aren’t allowed to have with the posters and all the crazy colors. That, historically, has gotten us a lot of customers.”

Anderson explained that they’ve interviewed a number of teenagers about what Rock ‘N’ More offers that appeals to them relative to other places they can take music lessons.

“What I’ve gotten is (other schools are) not cool because they try to be cool,” he said. “We are cool because we don’t try to be cool, we just are cool. I think a lot of teenagers like us because we’re not just for teenagers, we’re for adults, too, we’re for everyone. A lot of places for teens treat like they’re suspects and we don’t do that and as a result we haven’t had a problem with teens ever for any reason.”

Young is excited to set up shop at the new location.

“It’s absolutely perfect,” she said. “The bands will be able to practice in a garage with a roll up door. The waiting room is huge and there’s no post in the middle. When kids walk into our space, they feel like it’s made for them, they feel like it’s a space where they can express themselves and feel comfortable doing so.”

In addition, Young stated, there seems to be a great culture in Redmond.

“One of the other things I’ve noticed since we started doing this in Redmond is that the business owners are really nice,” she said. “They’re really supportive.”

Young and Anderson will split time between the two locations, with the one in Redmond set to open Feb. 1, with interns picking up some of the work in Maple Valley.

Anderson encouraged anyone interested in signing up for lessons at the Redmond location to do so at www.rocknmore.org or by calling 425-413-2165.