Stereos
: Unstoppable and Uncontrollable on Their Rise to Fame

“There’s a good moustache. You thinks it’s for Movember or you think he rocks it too well?” asks Pat Kordyback, lead vocalist for the pop band, Stereos. He’s referring to the waiter who just walked by, but I barely hear him over the rowdy Roughriders fans cheering in the background.


It’s Grey Cup week in Edmonton and having just performed in their hometown for the football festivities, Kordyback and guitarist Robb Chalifoux are wrapped up in the excitement of it all. They are eager to sit down to talk about their new album, Uncontrollable, even amongst all the distractions.

Stereos formed in Edmonton in 2005 before rising to fame on the MuchMusic TV show, DisBand, in 2008. Since then, the guys have become major players in the Canadian music scene, most notably with their hit song, Summer Girl, and were recently recognized with two Juno Award nominations, one for Best Pop Album and one for Best New Artist.


Now living in Toronto, Stereos have just released their sophomore album. And although the guys come off as fun-loving, there’s no doubt that a lot of planning, hard work and voice-memo recording (that’s how Kordyback jots down lyrical ideas) went into their much-anticipated second album, self-described as more “real” than their debut.


“I feel like our second album is our chance to really prove that we’re here to stay and that we’re not just some band that happened to stumble across a TV show and got the success from that,” says Chalifoux. “I think this album represents a lot of where we are, you know what I’m saying? Like it’s a lot more of our personalities reflected on this album than the first one, and um, we’re pretty uncontrollable guys!” (laughs)


From ditching the jewel design in their logo to discovering this more real sound, the band has come a long way in the last year… but Kordyback wouldn’t go as far as calling Uncontrollable more mature.


“I don’t like to use ‘mature,’ because we’re not mature people in any way… it’s just smarter,” he says. “I think it’s got more substance than most pop albums, and it’s definitely got more substance than the first album. The last album took us like years to make, so you change a lot over a few years. But this one we wrote after everything’s changed over the last year, so it’s exactly what we wanted to put out at this point.”


In comparison to the sound of their debut album, Uncontrollable incorporates more of a club/dance vibe into Stereos’ usual brand of punk-pop. So why take the music in this direction?


“I’m a huge Euro-dance fan and I love DJ stuff,” says Chalifoux. “I kinda drive these guys crazy playing it in the van, in the bus, all the time… it’s the kind of music I wanna hear. We like upbeat stuff. To me, it’s just what sounds good.”


“Robb is the most dance-influenced,” adds Kordyback. “But I think all of us appreciate what clubs do to music because clubs rely so much on music and we love the vibe, so it influenced the writing for sure.”


Besides the club influence, Stereos’ experience of growing up in Edmonton has also been a major factor in shaping the guys into the musicians they are today.


“[Edmonton] is one hundred per cent responsible for us,” says Chalifoux. “We met in the local Edmonton scene, the local St. Albert scene, growing up in different kinda like emo-scene bands. And the bands that were ahead of us, local Edmonton bands, we thought were absolute rock stars.”


Adds Kordyback, “Yeah, it was definitely inspiring to see the local bands; it made you wanna be in your own band for sure.”


Speaking of the local music scene, the guys get a bit distracted while flipping through a holiday issue of Youthink that’s been sitting on the table in front of us. Browsing an article outlining the highlights of 2010, Chalifoux notices the reader’s choice picks for the best local musicians.


“Side note. Top five local musicians… let’s just read it here… um, Stereos, No. 1!”


Adored by fans across the country, Stereos will once again hit the road for what they call “the biggest payoff” of their job.


“Being able to play live… go play on tour, that’s what we looking forward to.” says Kordyback. “And hopefully, I mean we love Canada, but we’d like to ideally, bring [our music] to the rest of the world as well: United States, Europe, everywhere!”


In the meantime, the guys have become big stars at home and it’s nice to know that they pay homage to one of Edmonton’s greatest before their shows.


“Before every show, [it’s] ‘1-2-3 Gretzky’ to channel the original Edmonton star,” says Kordyback. “We wanna be the next Wayne Gretzky!”


“Our mission is to make this the city of champions again,” adds Chalifoux.


Whether or not they actually go through with their plans of tattooing the number 99 “jersey size” on their backs, Stereos’ plans to follow in the footsteps of one of Edmonton’s greatest will keep them right on track as they further solidify their champion status in the Canadian music scene.