Stereos: Life After Disband

Although it may seem that the band Stereos has had an easy ride to stardom, there is so much more than meets the eye. Composed of Pat Kordyback, Dan Johnson, Robby Chalifoux, Miles Holmwood and Aaron Verdonk, the band was able to make it all the way to the end of MuchMusic’s TV reality show Disband and walked out with a record deal with Universal Music Canada. Their exposure on Disband and their hit song Summer Girl helped give this hardworking troupe their big break. I got the chance to sit down with lead singer Pat to chat about his experience on the show, the band’s new album and to get some insight into the lives of these Edmonton up-and-comers.

YT: So how did you guys end up on the MuchMusic TV show “Disband?”
PK: Well, when we started writing songs, we were sending out our demos to basically anybody in the Canadian industry we could get to listen to [them]. And one of the first people to actually like our songs was Greig Nori [Treble Charger], who’s on the TV show.

YT: There was an episode where the band was critiqued by Gene Simmons. What was it like to perform for such a legend?
PK: To be honest, I didn’t care. I’ve never been a fan of KISS and I’ve never been a huge Gene Simmons fan either, so it didn’t faze me at all. I think it was great to be able to get that opportunity, don’t get me wrong, the guy is obviously a genius and so any feedback he gives is something you should listen to.

YT: What do you think set your band apart from the others in the competition?
PK: We’ve worked so hard at this, to the extent that we’ve always known what we wanted to sound like and look like, and I think it came across that this band had its stuff together. I’ve been working on writing songs since I was 15 years old, so once we put the package together and put it towards people, I guess they made the decisions for themselves.

YT: So you guys are from Edmonton. How has your hometown influenced your sound or your band?
PK: I think it’s influenced our band immensely in the fact that Edmonton is so isolated and so far from everything else. In Edmonton, it’s so much harder to just get out and play shows, while in somewhere like Toronto, bands can play 15 different towns so close to where they live. So it influences our work ethic and having to work that much harder.

YT: So what was the recording process like for your debut album?
PK: It was intense. It was a blessing and a curse that the one single took off so well because when one song gets you that much exposure... like we were able to play all these festivals, fly across the country and fly overseas, which is great, obviously a dream come true, but at the same time we needed to put an album together and we had to record it. You get one day off or two days off and you’re spending 14 hours in the studio on those days off, so it was really, really tiring. But would I rather be working at Winners like I was? No.

YT: I see that you guys have a lot of tattoos going on. Are there any in particular that are your favourites?
PK: Yes. I just got a Notorious B.I.G tattoo; it says, “Mo money mo problems” and that’s my favourite because it’s the newest one. It’s kind of hilarious. And I have a mom tattoo on my leg as well that I really like. I’d say I probably have about 50 different pieces that now look like two big tattoos.