Having met in grade 7 and gotten noticed in Grade 8 at the school talent show,
Turbulence saw their first fan base grow out of school performances. In high school, the name
Turbulence was officially adopted by the original members, and they took their talent to the Supernova stage.
In early grade 10, after their first big show with Supernova
at Playdium, the band won 8 hours of recording time with Epik Productions and decided to polish their sound. Joe joined the band as a new drummer, (“it turned out that he wasn’t half bad for his first time playing!” says Myke) so they kept him.
They also did a little internal shuffling, found a new singer, and having just 3 months of practice they recorded at
Epik Productions on April 3rd, 2010. “It was the best thing that we had ever experienced,” says Myke, “and the 3 songs that we recorded are the ones we promote on our Supernova page.”
Returning to the stage in late April, the band claimed first prize in Supernova’s
Band on the Run. As one of the fan favourites of the evening,
Turbulence has seen a lot of attention coming from their Supernova performances… including this exclusive interview!
Just who are these young Supernova champs?
Turbulence is:
Brandon Stadnyk (Lead Vocals/Rhythm Guitar)
Myke Penney (Lead Guitar/Backing Vocals)
Liam Varga (Bass Guitar)
Joe Bandhu (Drums)
So how did the band get its name, and what got the band to where you stand today?
In Grade 7, we all went to the same school. Myke was the first to pick up the electric guitar, but Liam had already been playing the classical guitar for quite some time. Joe didn’t even know how to drum; in fact, he didn’t even pick up a drum stick until we asked him if he ever thought about drumming later on! Brandon then started to play guitar because Myke played, as him and another friend hung out usually.
Myke came up with the name
Turbulence because he felt that it had a cool ring to it, and it was just a powerful name for a hard rock band.
How would you describe your band’s sound?
Our band’s sound is just what today's music industry needs: a band that actually has some talent! (…at least we like to think so). We play hard rock, a bit heavier than today’s hard rock bands such as
Nickelback and
Theory of a Deadman. You could put it as mixing
Guns N' Roses with
Nickelback, and adding its own originality to it.
What is the most rewarding thing about being in a band?
Definitely all of the friendship that we get out of it! We always hang out together, we all know everything about one another, and we always have a great time when we are practicing, playing a show, or even just hangin’ out.
Was there any particular moment or event that made you realize you wanted to pursue music full time?
It was more of a series of moments… every time we played a gig or a school concert, we'd hear from random strangers that they thought that we were awesome. That kind of pushed us to want to be in the music business full time. Also all of the great times that we have, as we've already mentioned.
What is the biggest challenge facing ‘new’ artists, in your opinion?
We're sort of confused by this question, there really is no "challenge". As an artist, judging other artists shows lack of sportsmanship, so we try our very best to not judge. Basically, if someone is making millions, they must be doing something right!
The only real problem that we have is how some bands use computers live… we can understand adding a backing track to make it sound that much better, but when it’s just some computerized show, what’s the point? Couldn’t everyone just stay at home and listen to it on their iPod?
Heh, maybe. How has your band found the experience with Supernova.com?
We think that
Supernova is a great company for bands that want to start up a career in music, or if they just wanna get their music played for people. We always tell other bands about
Supernova.com, and how it gives great opportunities for younger bands like us.
What would be your band’s ‘motto’ or ‘recipe’ for putting on a good show?
Give respect to everyone around you, try not to give off negative energy, and just have a great time - which we always do!
What other artists do you look up to?
Each one of us has a love for different genres. Brandon loves modern rock such as
Daughtry,
Nickelback,
Theory of a Deadman, and
Shinedown. While Myke loves heavy metal from the 80's and 90's such as
Guns N' Roses,
Metallica,
AC/DC, and
Megadeth.
Liam loves his grunge and hardcore metal such as
Nirvana or
Bullet For My Valentine, and Joe loves classic rock, hard rock, and punk rock such as
Aerosmith or
Greenday. We believe that since all of us have slightly different tastes in rock, it makes our sound that much more unique.
There is one band that we do share as a band that all of us just can’t get enough of:
Avenged Sevenfold. We just can’t get enough of their awesome riffs and sick drumming and vocals!
So is there such a thing as ‘bad’ music?
Not bad music, more like fake music. If an "artist" goes up on stage and lipsyncs, then that’s a "bad" or "fake" artist. As we already said, adding a backing track is ok; but the whole damn show?! That’s just horrible!
Is there anything else that makes your band unique that new listeners should know?
The fact that our rock is appealing to the ears of today, and also brings actual talent into our music. We are not fake and we love what we do!
Check out the new tracks recorded this Spring at Epik Productions on Turbulence's profile!
