Everyone got better when they played with Wayne Gretzky.
So it’s no wonder that the boys from Neverest would pick up a thing or two about performing from New Kids on the Block and the Backstreet Boys.
Neverest opened for the veterans of pop music on their summer tour of Canada.
“It’s truly inspiring to be with them,” said Neverest bassist Paul Loduca. “We watched their show every night.
The tour offered the Canadian quartet the opportunity to play for thousands of new fans every night – and get a taste of super stardom.
In London, Ont., as the band crossed the stage to the sound booth to watch the headliners, they heard the crowd begin to roar.
“These girls started to stand up and scream,” Loduca said. “We thought they could see New Kids or Backstreet Boys backstage.”
Rather, the cheers were for Neverest.
Everything about New Kids and Backstreet Boys taught them something, from how they looked, spoke to fans and interacted with each other.
“Our ultimate goal is to have a career with longevity,” Loduca said.
He was the last member to be added to the band, which formed in Toronto around 2007. Loduca was recording guitar tracks for another project when he heard Neverest’s song Blame Me. He insisted their producer add him to the lineup.
“I was immediately captured,” Loduca said. “The chemistry was instant.”
Loduca, who was a self-taught guitarist, quickly taught himself bass to join guitarist and lead singer Spee Chalkiotis, lead guitarist Mike Klose and drummer Brendan Colameco.
“If you play guitar, you can play bass,” Loduca said. “I love something challenging like that.”
He was surrounded by music growing up, being a big fan of Michael Jackson, and went with his older cousins to his first concert – New Kids on the Block. He loved performing and considered acting before musical opportunities presented.
“Being up on stage, there’s nothing like that,” Loduca said.
The band released an EP of their music in 2010 and will release material regularly to radio and Internet. In today’s music industry, the old model of record, release an album and tour is almost gone, replaced with a series of singles to help bands stay relevant.
Neverest tours with Alyssa Reid, including a stop at the Port Theatre on Oct. 24. Doors open 6 p.m. Joining the Nanaimo show is father-son trio Braeden Marshal.
Reid is like any other Canadian teenager.
She recently graduated from her Brampton, Ont., high school where she was a dedicated player on the girl’s rugby team and until recently she poured coffee part-time at a local Tim Hortons to scrape together enough cash to buy her first car.
Since signing with a record label and receiving increasing interest in her song, the Edmonton, Alta., native’s life has been anything but conventional.
In the fall of 2009, in a somewhat ironic twist of fate, Reid was discovered by her record label through a YouTube performance that she posted of her own interpretation of the Justin Bieber hit One Less Lonely Girl, written from a girl’s perspective and re-titled One More Lonely Boy. This cleverly reworked song had already attracted more than 200,000 YouTube hits and resulted in her signing with Wax Records.
Her song Alone Again hit the top of the Canadian charts and the second single from her album, The Game, is also climbing.
Reid performs with Neverest at the Port Theatre Oct. 24 at 6 p.m. Tickets $27. Please call 250-754-8550 or visit www.porttheatre.com.
arts@nanaimobulletin.com