"We ridin' on 24s, red carpet everyshow!"

The latest talent to emerge from Edmonton, Alberta is Stereos; a band that was given the chance to go on Greig Nori’s reality series ‘disBAND’. On the show, the guys found incredible success after being told to pursue their career because the judges believed they had what it took to make it in the music industry.

Their appearance on the show led to the group being signed to Universal Music and releasing their first single, “Summer Girl”. The song was an instant hit across the country and is currently being played on many local radio stations.

Lead singer Pat Kordyback and bassist Daniel Johnson took some time out of their schedule to sit with CONFRONT when they came to Montreal with Virgin Festival on June 17th. They were both incredibly down-to-earth guys who were still completely staggered by their instant success. As we sat in their V-Fest RV, I learned a little bit more about where this band came from, and where they see their music career go from here.

CONFRONT: So how are you guys doing?!

PAT: Good! And how are you?

CONFRONT: Very good… So what’s this like for you guys, this first huge festival? DAN: It is UN-real. We even got a camper and everything, it’s crazy!

CONFRONT: Oh yeah? They supplied it for you guys?

DAN & PAT: Yeah!

DAN: This is all insane…

PAT: It’s crazy. It’s like… yeah… We never thought, even 3 weeks ago…

CONFRONT: Is this your first really big festival?

PAT: Yeah, definitely DAN: Yeah, this is a big step for us! It’s out first big BIG festival

CONFRONT: That’s awesome! Have you guys played anything similar? What’s the next big thing that you guys did?

PAT: It’s never been on this level

DAN: Yeah, never on this scale

PAT: The biggest show yet would probably be opening for Ill Scarlett in Toronto. That’s probably the biggest show we’ve ever played. We’ve got Katy Perry coming up at the Molson Amphitheatre as well

CONFRONT: Oh, I’m going to that show! PAT: Really? I can’t wait! It’s gonna be huge!

CONFRONT: I’m really excited!

PAT: Yeah! But this is it, the biggest show of our career…

DAN: As of yet! PAT: Yeah!

CONFRONT: Cool… What’s your favorite place to play so far?

DAN: You know what? I’m gonna say Edmonton. We just played on Monday, we played our hometown and it was crazy. They showed a lot of love. Plus it’s our hometown so it was a good feeling!

CONFRONT: Yeah for sure! So just going a little bit back, how did you guys originally meet and get together as a band?

DAN: We all kind of circulated in other bands, we all played in bands around the city and I quit the band that I was in, he *points to Pat* was in another band too… It’s weird but that band kind of fell apart and it kind of all just happened!

PAT: Long story short it was kind of us knowing each other from other bands and stuff but we realized that us two specifically and Robb as well, the three of us knew what we wanted to do musically, so we just wrote instead of putting a band together at first and then we put the band together around the songs that we wrote so it was kind of a long process

CONFRONT: Alright, cool! And what was your experience like on DisBand? Was it stressful? Was it fun?

DAN: You know what, it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had. We worked really hard in Edmonton for the band and everything. We made goals and challenges for ourselves so when actual industry people were like “these are your challenges, this is what you have to do” it meant more. It was a lot of fun. We were ready for it. It felt like we were getting legit! *laughs*

CONFRONT: *laughs* for sure! How did it actually happen though, how did you guys get on the show, how did you find out that you did?

DAN: Wanna take this one Pat?!

PAT: Yeah! Basically there was a point before that where I was finding anybody in the music industry to send demos to and just harass basically to listen to my stuff… *laughs* and one of those people was Greig Nori… I knew he was a good producer and so I started sending him demos before the show even came up and he was gonna maybe have us out to work with him. Then one day he was like “hey, I have this new idea about how to get you guys out here and finally start working together” and it was the show! They’d only shot the pilot at that point too so it was all pretty new.

CONFRONT: That’s awesome!

PAT: Yeah, it was really cool.

CONFRONT: And you were just talking about Greig Nori, how was working with him?

DAN: It was great! Amazing… the guy is awesome

CONFRONT: Yeah?

DAN: He’s a really funny guy, we love him!

CONFRONT: That’s awesome! What did he do for you guys, on the show? How did he help you guys get better?

DAN: Even the fact that he just got us on the show was a huge thing

CONFRONT: Oh, for sure

DAN: It was basically the diving board before we jumped off. He gave us a big break, basically. He just lent us all this knowledge, set us in the right direction.

PAT: He was the first person at his level that believed in us

DAN: Exactly!

PAT: There’s always this first guy who will record your demos for free because he likes the music. The first fan and stuff, and he was the first guy who was at that level in the industry who believed in us

DAN: Yeah that was pretty big

CONFRONT: For sure… and how was the season finale for you guys? Winning… did you guys expect that at all?

DAN: You know what? My heart actually sank, when Sarah Taylor did the whole speech thing… She kind of left us hanging and was like “Okay time to go to a commercial!” so we had to wait that whole time… Then it came back, introduce the whole thing… and then 5 minutes later we’re all still waiting to find out what the verdict is

CONFRONT: That must have been so crazy!

DAN: We thought we did pretty well on the show and whatever, still the way she left us hanging was… it was cruel basically *laughs*

CONFRONT: I read that you guys went through a couple band names before you chose “Stereos”. How did that go? How did you end up choosing Stereos; where did that come from?

DAN: Choosing a band name is the most ridiculous thing

CONFRONT: Must be, there’s so many before you…

DAN: And there are just so many names that come up. I don’t even remember- I think you said it *turns to Pat*?

PAT: The reason why, I think it came up a couple times and it was never used… The way it worked out is that we had to name our band leaving from Edmonton and coming to Toronto to play the showcase to get signed. So we had this 3 day drive to come up with the name… and then ‘Stereo’ came up in that Operation Ivy song, with Rancid-just the word- and I was like ‘What about Stereos?’ And we were all kind of like ‘Meh, I dunno…’ and then we were listening to Ice Cube and his first crew was the ‘Stereo Crew’… so basically the word was in all these different genres, which is also what we do… So it just kind of fit

CONFRONT: So your first single, ‘Summer Girl’, where did the inspiration for that song come from?

PAT: It’s our two favorite things in the world, summer and girls! So they must go well together, so basically that’s what it’s about! I mean, there’s a little bit of truth in it, but yeah, it’s really about summer and girls!

CONFRONT: Did you ever see it getting as big as it did? I mean it’s huge right now! It’s playing all the time

PAT: That’s a good question! I mean the funny thing is, not to sound in any way arrogant, I think it’s just confident, I remember listening to the radio and being like “Summer Girl, it could be on the radio. It’s just as good as that other stuff. It should be on the radio”.

CONFRONT: Yeah, it really plays all the time, it’s crazy!

PAT: Yeah! I remember thinking that when we were at a lower level. But at the same time, no, you’d never know it was going to be that big. It’s amazing to see it blow up

CONFRONT: Yeah definitely! And where do you see yourselves going from here? Where do you see your career going?

DAN: up and up and up!

CONFRONT: Yeah?!

DAN: Yeah, we’re never gonna stop. We have big goals. We just want to be #1 and that’s it *laughs*

PAT: Yeah, the single did so well, now we’re going to put out an album. I think that’s when it’s going to get even more exciting because I’m our hardest critic and I think we have a lot of songs that are even better than Summer Girl

CONFRONT: Well that’s good!

PAT: Yeah!

CONFRONT: So do you guys have any plans for the summer?

DAN: Just shows like this!

PAT: A lot of festivals, writing, recording so that hopefully the album is out by the fall

CONFRONT: Oh okay so you guys have a plan for the album

PAT: Yeah, we want to try and put it out by the fall C

ONFRONT: Okay, well that’s cool. And what about in 5, 10 years from now? Are you guys thinking that far ahead?

DAN: Oh definitely!

PAT: Always! We were from day 1. We called everything, actually

DAN: It’s actually down to the schedule, basically *laughs* PAT: We definitely want longevity- I know we’re all confident as musicians and definitely as writers. Summer Girl was a song that was written at home, on my day off, and it’s a hit- so I think we have enough capability to write songs ourselves. We can do it.

CONFRONT: Definitely. So far, from what you guys have experienced- what’s the hardest part of being in the industry?

PAT: I think separating business from friendships

DAN: Yeah, we’re pretty trustworthy guys and we get attached to people

PAT: We learn very quickly though- You have to go with your gut feeling. We’ve always done that… and there’s been some bigger scale decisions that we’ve had to make just based on a gut feeling. I think we’ve very lucky because it seems that all those decisions have been the right ones… But it’s tough when you have to treat people in a business way because it might not be the right working dynamic

CONFRONT: Yeah, you’re still getting used to it

PAT: Exactly

CONFRONT: And if you guys weren’t musicians what would you be doing right now?

DAN: I don’t even know!

PAT: Realistically… I dropped out of college. I was going to be a teacher

CONFRONT: Oh wow, very opposite!

PAT: VERY opposite, I can’t even imagine myself as a teacher. But that’s probably what I would have done

CONFRONT: I guess you would have seen if you would have been there

PAT: Yeah! I guess so. I’m glad things are going a different way though *laughs*

CONFRONT: Yeah definitely! My last question for you guys… What’s been the biggest change in your lives with all this success?

DAN: There’s a lot actually. The biggest one- just the fact that we’re doing the band full time

PAT: Yeah! That’s it. That we get up every morning… We’re used to getting up at 8am, even 6am… working all day and THEN coming home and working on the band. And now we have all that time to focus on the band. That’s just a dream come true in itself, to be honest with you- we always thought that the day we’re full-time, the day we quit our jobs it’s going to be a dream come true

DAN: Yeah, it’s going to be a good day!

PAT: Yeah, it’s just insane!

CONFRONT: Yeah, for sure… Well thanks guys! Thanks for your time, I appreciate it! PAT: No thank you!

DAN: Thanks!

With so much deserved success to-date, Stereos has just begun what will definitely be a long career in the music industry. They put on an amazing set at Virgin Festival; each one brought their personality to the stage which was really nice to see. I definitely suggest that you check them out in a city near you very soon and see for yourselves what talented musicians they are!