Stereos
December 30th, 2009 - Written by Lili
Interview and Article by: Lili-Anh Le Minh
Having risen to fame after their one-hour life-changing appearance on MuchMusic’s disBAND, Edmonton-based Stereos toured with many great acts this past summer and recorded their debut album that came out during the fall. They then went on a cross-Canadian headlining tour with The Midway State, The Artist Life, The Envy and many sold-out dates. When the tour stopped in Montreal this past November, I had the chance to sit down with singer Pat Kordyback, bassist Daniel Johnson and drummer Aaron Verdonk, who joined in after a little while, for a chat where many things were discussed, including their tour and their influences. I also took that opportunity to ask a few questions fans were eager to ask.
As we got comfortable in the stairs next to their dressing room where the other guys were having an interview of their own, I noticed how Pat had taken off his “I’m on voice rest” button that he had pinned to his shirt during the meet and greet with fans. He explained that he was a little sick and that Dan would probably be answering more than him. This is what happens when you’re on tour and you have to sing almost every single night.
We started off by talking about how this was their third Montreal show since their first appearance as an act on the Virgin Festival Tour back in June. Back then, their name wasn’t quite out there as much yet and not many people knew who they were; many of those who did only knew “Summer Girl”. When you see the crowd singing to the songs now, you can definitely see that they’ve come a long way since then.
When I asked Dan about our city, this is what he had to say: “You know what, we’ve had a great, great reception every time we come here so we love it and it’s only getting bigger and bigger so we love Montreal.” He and Pat then added that the girls here are “just beautiful”.
When asked about how the tour was going so far, Dan said: “It’s been amazing! Every single show has been selling out so it’s been very, very busy and we have tons of fun every single night! We get to meet our fans in every single city so it’s been great.”
I then asked them something that had me intrigued. “How does co-headlining with The Midway State work?” I thought they would switch the headlining band from night to night or something along those lines. They went on to explain that actually, they were the ones headlining but that since The Midway State are also quite popular and do draw in fans, they were put up there with Stereos on the flyers.
Talk about touring led to their first international show this past summer. On Canada Day 2009, instead of celebrating at home, Stereos were asked by a production company to play a show at Trafalgar Square in London, England as part of a Canada Day festival over there. According to Pat, “it was just packed with people and it was awesome!”
That brought on the next subject: traveling. When you think of a band, you’ll generally think about touring and with touring, of course, comes traveling. I asked them if they had any time at all to visit the cities they play in and they said they’re always too busy to really see anything. Pat did however say they enjoy doing press and signings even more because they can sight-see a little bit when they drive around.
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