EILEEN MOWREY
Assistant Reverb Editor
Last October, The A-Tracks featured a story on ARIA, a female-fronted rock/alternative band from Buffalo, NY. Since then the band has been busy, and now they have new stories to tell. When we last talked to ARIA, they were preparing to take on the country. One year and a new album later, the four members of ARIA have new plans and ambitions.
A year ago, ARIA was looking forward to kicking off their first headlining tour around the U.S. However, due to miscommunication with their booking agent, the trip fell through. With high hopes that a national tour would open up new doors for them, bandmates Bianca Dyrland (vocals), Anthony Todorov (guitar), Ryan Ankenbauer (bass) and John Runkle (drums) were not discouraged.
The musicians made good use of the unexpected free time. They acquired visas that allow the Canadian members of the band to live and work in the states — a technicality that previously caused the band a fair amount of pain. They began performing in the Buffalo area and preparing for a January tour that would take them as far west as California.
Unfortunately, ARIA’s tour plans were thwarted again when their van broke down, making travel impossible. Where many musicians might have despaired, ARIA’s members took the misfortune in stride and instead began working on a new album.
Dyrland said that the band, who already had two EPs, two music videos and a handful of Youtube videos under its belt, “looked at it as an opportunity to focus on writing.”
“We had just been looking for the right time to tour,” she said.
Since the right time had yet to present itself, they turned their attention to other endeavors. They used that time to improve their financial situation, sign with Leakmob Records and create their newest five-song album, Abandon, which was released digitally on their bandcamp website on Oct. 1, and released on itunes, Spotify, Amazon and Zune on Oct. 15.
ARIA wrote 30 new songs in preparation for the album. The band narrowed the selection down to five of those songs but, at the last moment, decided to cut two of them. They wanted to be sure that the EP was strong, so they wrote two entirely new tracks they thought would eliminate any of the album’s weaknesses. Those tracks are “Black Hole” and “Something’s Gotta Give,” and respectively they open and close the album.
Finally, in April, ARIA was able to hit the road for their first lengthy tour. The east coast tour took them all the way to Florida, and Dyrland said it went off without a hitch. However, the band’s recent 20-day tour to promote Abandon had to be cut short in Providence, Rhode Island when their van broke down again.
Despite the misfortune, Dyrland was still able to mention a few highlights, one of which was playing an outdoor concert at a tattoo parlor in Houston, Texas. A few of the band members even stayed up until 4 a.m. to get tattooed. Dyrland and Runkle got tour vans while Ankenbauer and two of the band’s traveling members received deer with antlers and glasses, all in honor of the tour van that they referred to as “Buck.”
ARIA has proven that there is no stopping them. The band is ready to handle whatever curveballs life throws and has shown great flexibility in the past year by adapting repeatedly to the situation at hand. They are resilient musicians who are determined to show the world that female-fronted bands can have equal power and impact in a male-dominated genre. As for the future, ARIA will continue playing shows to promote Abandon, a January tour is currently being discussed and there is even the possibility of a new music video.
ARIA will be playing in Buffalo on Nov. 1 at Waiting Room with Tonight Alive, The Downtown Fiction, For the Foxes and Echosmith.