One question I’ve been wanting to ask Bad Buzz, a Toronto-based punk rock band, is whether or not they still get nervous after playing at big venues. Finally, I got my answer.
“We definitely get a rush from it,” they tell me. “We all have a lot of experience now in front of crowds of different sizes, and we always practice our asses off to ensure we have our set down tight for each show. So we’re all quite comfortable on stage.”
Playing in a variety of spaces, including Canadian Music Week and the Smiling Buddha, isn’t so intimidating anymore for the punk-rock band that may remind you of a spunkier Fall Out Boy or Green Day. Troy Fullerton, Andrew Laurie, Tristan Loria, and Ross Carvelli are the four band mates that make up Bad Buzz. The band wasn’t always keen on sticking to the punk-rock sound initially.
“Our initial goal was to be a skate punk/garage punk band with fast, energetic rhythms and catchy guitar lines. Throughout the years, we’ve expanded our sound and now draw from our influences in the alt/hard rock and pop punk scene when writing new material.”
The band’s debut album Far From Home boasts some tunes that take pride in musical realness. The authentic vibes that spur out of the record come with an attitude, one that claims punk rock music is back to dominate.
Carvelli, Laurie, and Loria first formed Bad Buzz together in 2014, and later added Fullerton on when they needed a second guitarist to allow their music to reach its full potential. Their musical background isn’t too shabby—the band claims that they’ve dabbled with music production before and have even been in other bands before coming together four years ago.
Although Far From Home released recently in September, they’re introducing new singles at some upcoming shows. Since drummer Tristan spent some time away near the end of 2017, the band mates used their time to collaborate on new material in time for his return: “Since he’s gotten back, we’ve been able to flesh them out and develop them to a point where we’re all really happy.”
Pressing on details about the origins of their band name, they give me the inside scoop on how band naming isn’t as complex as some people might be under the impression of. In fact, they only settled on “Bad Buzz” after the last member of their group joined in: “It took us a while to settle on a name we all like. It was nothing specific, just us goofing around with ideas and that’s the one that stuck. We decided on Bad Buzz just before Troy joined.”
Their most memorable show was at the aforementioned Smiling Buddha, a music venue in downtown Toronto catering to live metal punk and comedy shows.
“We set a date for the show and worked backwards to figure out deadlines for each of the major milestones in creating the record. It takes a long time to get vinyl pressed, and we wanted to ensure we’d have them in time for the show. We ended up getting them the week of. The show was a blast and the place was packed. A lot of our friends and family came out to support us, which meant a lot.”
On Far From Home, you can expect music coming from places in the heart, to downright love ballads. A memorable one for me was Wait for Me, where they cue typical over the top melodrama belting out: “You lead me to believe you’d wait for me.”
