Transistor

Please click on the link to review the Transistor - One Sheet. Packed with vital information on the band and it's releases. - Transistor

BARRIE – When Transistor set out to make a music video for their new single Glimpse, they never imagined they’d be gaining the attention of the conservation world.

The band’s video, which features whales taking revenge on a hunter, has got a fan in the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.
“When we created the video, our intentions were just to play on the old saying of, if you want to make hunting a sport, give the animals guns,” said singer Steve Wishart. “We thought it would be fun to do up a tongue in cheek version put to that storyline and fit it to the song. The two seemed like a perfect match.”

Recently the video has been spreading through the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society’s websites, including by founder Capt. Paul Watson. “We have a tweet from him saying ‘the video has a great message,’ which we thought was quite awesome to get feedback on,” Wishart said.

The four-piece band made up of Wishart, Chris Nunes, Joel Schonewille and Don Lindsay released their second album, Time in Between, in October and have been playing around town ever since.
“We’ve had some air play on college radio stations and were featured in the UK,” Wishart said. “But there’s been a lot of interest in the videos.”

The recording process was much the same for the second album. “We recorded pretty much the same way except we’d gained a lot more knowledge from doing it the first time around,” Wishart said. “We tried to go at it from a more fun perspective and have a more tongue in cheek. Try to get more into people’s heads and get the beat going to get them out of their seats.”

The new part for the band was getting used to being on camera. “We made one video for our first album but it was a one off live video we cut together. We have done two full-out production videos for this one,” Wishart said.

The album and videos are available through the band’s website.
For more information, visit www.transistortheband.com. - The Barrie Advance

It’s a Friday night at a downtown Barrie restaurant and the members of Transistor are busy setting up for their latest gig.

“Yes, we are our own roadies,” said singer and guitarist Steve Wishart as he moves an amp. “You’ve gotta’ start somewhere right.”

Transistor also features Chris Nunes on guitar, Joel Schonewille on drums and Don Lindsay on bass. The music-scene veterans knew they would be starting over when they formed Transistor less than a year ago.

“We had all be doing other things, working in other bands and projects, but we decided to come together and give it a go,” said Wishart. “We wrote like 25 songs in the past year. We work well as a band.”

The band has been keeping busy playing local shows, attracting fans and recording their debut album, These Four Walls.

Nunes said the one major factor that brought the members together to form Transistor was their desire to write and play their own songs.

“There is this attitude out there that you need to play cover songs out there to get noticed,” he said. “We are taking another approach and playing our own stuff and letting people become fans of the songs we’ve written.”

Schonewille agrees.
“We’ve played shows and people come up to us afterwards and ask whose songs they were, they are a little shocked when we tell them that it’s our own material,” he said. “To write your own material and get a response from it is one of the most rewarding things.”

Wishart admits it’s hard to compare their music to other bands. Transistor is definitely a rock band, combining hard-driving guitar riffs with hook-laden vocals, harmonies and solid rhythms.

“We all like different styles of music and it really shows on our CD and our shows,” he said. “We are influenced by everything from Green Day to Blue Rodeo, but that doesn’t mean we sound anything like them.”

Up next for Transistor is the Barrie New Music Festival, which runs Sept. 10 through 13 at various venues in the city.

“We are really stoked for the New Music Festival, I think it’s a really great event for the music scene in Barrie,” Wishart said. “It’s going to give a lot of bands like us some great exposure.”

For more information on Transistor, visit www.transistortheband.com. - Leigh Blenkhorn