Music runs in the family with the Romanchuks

Print

 Music is a shared passion for the Romanchuk family.The Romanchuk family share their passion for music. Photo by Richard Amery
 Dylan Romanchuk, the 14-year-old son of popular country/ folk  singer Karen Romanchuk and her drummer husband Darwin Romanchuk, is starting to make some noise on his own with his band Shocked Standards.


“We‘ve tried not to push him, but we’re there if he needs anything,” said Karen Romanchuk.


Though the members attended different junior high schools, Dylan was interested in forming a classic metal/ hard rock band which played the music of people like Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Joan Jett and newer material like Evanescence and Coheed and Cambria.


 The band includes lead singer Payton Hansen, lead guitarist Mason Holdren, drummer Rowan Eveleigh and bassist  Ian Spitzke, who got together last January after Dylan sent Hansen a Facebook message after hearing her sing at a G.S. Lakie school concert.

Since then they have learned a couple originals, placed second in the Lethbridge Has Talent competition and played a numerous community festivals including Canada Day and The Dragon Boats.


 They will also be playing the Word On the Street Festival in September, one of several opportunities they have had to share a stage with Karen Romanchuk’s band.
They practice a lot.
“He’ll be watching a really good movie and go away to practice, and before he knows it, it will have been three hours and the movie is over,” Karen Romanchuk said.


“It’s my addiction, my good addiction,” Dylan Romanchuk said.
 One of the biggest problems for bands is finding a place to practice. Shocked Standards are blessed because they have two families who are really into music. So they practice in the Romanchuk basement and Eveleigh basement as Rowan Eveleigh’s dad is in the Bamboo Guppies.

 It helps that  two of the band members have parents who are musicians and already have fully equipped jam spaces. The Romanchuk basement is dominated by two drum sets and surrounded by Les Paul guitars and  Rowan Eveleigh’s dad is a member of the Bamboo Guppies.

“So they practice here and at the Eveleigh’s place,” she continued.
“We don’t stand over them and say ‘you should do this’ or ‘you should do that.’ All this band needs is a box of Oreos and some ice tea and they’re good to go,” said Darwin Romanchuk.


“I‘ve been watching them play since I was young and decided I wanted to do that,” Dylan Romanchuk said.
 They are each other’s biggest fans. Dylan is in the front row of every one of Karen and Darwin’s shows he can get into, age permitting. And the proud parents go to all of their son’s gigs.


“I never really listened to metal before he started this band, but there is a lot to it. The lyrics of ‘Crazy Train’ are actually quite positive,” Karen Romanchuk said.
It helps when they can share stages. Both Karen Romanchuk and Shocked Standards played a special STARS fundraising festival on the weekend (Aug. 13-14) outside of Lundbreck, which was headlined by country star Patricia Conroy on Aug. 13.

A version of this story appears in the Aug. 17, 2011 edition of the Lethbridge Sun Times

 

— by Richard Amery, L.A. Beat Editor
{jcomments on} 
Share
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 17 August 2011 12:33 )