Grojband

Did You Know?

• The Newmans are named after the character Newman from Seinfeld.
• Kin and Kon's last name comes from Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla.

Characters

Corey Jaron Riffin, voiced by Lyon Smith, is the 13-year-old frontman of Grojband, handling vocals and guitar. He is confident, easygoing, and a bit quirky, always hunting for new shows. To get gigs, he often provokes his older sister Trina into writing in her diary, then steals her angry words for lyrics since he cannot come up with his own. His name honors the late Canadian musician Corey Crewe. Laney Penn, voiced by Bryn McAuley, plays bass, sings, and calls herself the band’s manager. She is a short, sarcastic, and driven redhead, the only girl in the group—a fact the others ignore. Though the most level-headed member, she usually goes along with Corey’s plans because she has a secret crush on him, which he never notices. Her name is a nod to the Beatles song “Penny Lane.” Kin Kujira, voiced by Sergio Di Zio, is the Japanese keyboardist and the smaller, glasses-wearing older twin of Kon. He is highly intelligent and builds odd gadgets to assist the band. Kon Kujira, voiced by Tim Beresford, is the Japanese drummer and the larger, heavier younger twin. He is a bit slow but strong, good-hearted, and cheerful. Their first names come from King Kong, and their last name from Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla. The Newmans are a gender-swapped mirror band and Grojband’s rivals, with the same voice actors. Carrie Beff is Corey’s opposite: a snobby, superficial girl who leads The Newmans on guitar and vocals, and is Mina’s younger sister. Corey and Carrie are fierce foes but can cooperate when needed.

Production

Co-creator Todd Kauffman had long wanted to make a series about a garage band and believed using the lead character's sister's diary for lyrics would make the premise more interesting. He pitched the idea to Fresh TV and its president Tom McGillis, after which Teletoon, FremantleMedia, and Cartoon Network joined production and distribution. The series is animated in Adobe Flash; co-creator Mark Thornton noted that using the software eliminated the need to outsource animation outside Canada. The creators paid homage to a wide range of influences, including the works of Craig McCracken, Maxwell Atoms, and Genndy Tartakovsky, as well as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and the works of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. They explored many music genres, such as country, heavy metal, yodeling, sea shanties, and elevator music. Several concepts changed during development: Grojband was originally pitched as a 22-minute series with a 60-second intro, but episodes became 11 minutes with a 20-second intro. This led to the removal of plot elements like the presence of the characters' parents and the requirement to return Trina's diary unnoticed each episode. Additionally, Corey and Trina's shared last name was originally "Trippin" instead of "Riffin".

Home media

Fans could visit the show's official site starting December 10, 2013, and episode singles hit the iTunes Store earlier that year. In Australia, Shock Entertainment put out the complete series on DVD on June 4, 2014, splitting it into two sets: Rock On (the first 13 episodes) and Hear Us Rock! (the last 13). All 26 episodes landed on Netflix in the US on December 1, 2015, but were pulled two years later. The whole series then became available on Tubi on December 30, 2025.