Distance Between Stars

Thursday, September 16, is going to be a big day for Fanshawe’s music industry arts students as First Step Productions presents Fanshawe Rocks Elite, a night of music at Club Elite at 183 King St., downtown London.

First Step Productions is a music production company founded in April 2010 by four MIA students — Ethan Henderson, Scott Hitchon, Adam Gomori and Wes Grove — all going into their second year of study.

Evan Miles“We offer recording and management, and a lot of business aspects to musicians and artists around southwestern Ontario,” said Grove, who reached out to us at Interrobang to spread the word about the show, which is going to feature only Fanshawe-grown talent.

“We’re all going into second year MIA, so we just wanted to get all our old friends back together again, and get these new first-year MIA students out,” Grove continued. “It’s a Fanshawe-wide event, so we’re hoping to get a lot of people excited.”

The roster of MIA student/artists is set to descend on two stages at Club Elite, the former Salt Lounge, on September 16. According to Grove, this is the largest event yet as First Step Productions continues to grow. The lineup for Fanshawe Rocks Elite is:

8:30–9:00, front stage, Mark Kulmala (myspace.com/markkulmala)

9:00–9:30, main stage, Yellow Umbrella (myspace.com/yellowumbrellab and)

9:30–9:45, front stage, Lauren Campbell (myspace.com/laurencampbellmusic)

9:45–10:15, main stage, Tam Duong (myspace.com/tamduongmusic)

10:15–10:30, front stage, Evan Miles (myspace.com/evanandrewmiles)

10:30–11:00, main stage, Arkham Dispatch (myspace.com/arkhamdispatch)

11:00–11:15, front stage, TBA

11:15–12:00, main stage, Distance Between Stars (myspace.com/distancebetweenstars)

The show has been arranged to alternate smoothly between stages at Club Elite to allow for the best exposure for the artists, but it also does us the service of keeping music and entertainment flowing without lengthy breaks through the event.

Now that Grove, Henderson, Hitchon and Gomori have begun to carve their way in the industry with First Step Productions, they’re expressing a clear desire to aide other MIA students as well.

“We want to promote these artists, essentially,” Grove said of the student lineup. “All of these artists that we have playing are hoping to pursue a career as an artist or a musician, so we’re trying to help them out, giving them a show, giving them some publicity that way.
“I’ve learned so much from the program, it’s great. The main thing that I’ve learned is that I can actually have a career in the industry — before MIA, it was just ... how do you get a job doing music? It seemed like only superstars get these types of jobs.”

For more information on First Step Productions or Fanshawe Rocks Elite, search for “First Step Productions” on Facebook or visit myspace.com/firststepproduction. Come on out and support your MIA artists, Fanshawe! - Bobby Foley

In order to measure the distance between stars, it is essential to triangulate the distance with geometry. One must identify the space between two points in a triangle, then the angle between that and the third point. Being how the nearest start to Earth is 25 million miles and 8.5 years away, the Distance Between Stars is actually right here in the midst of Hamilton's bursting music scene.

Distance Between Stars consists of Dondrea Erauw, the female power pipes alongside Thomas Brow on guitar, Mike Mitchell on drums, and Mike Wilson on bass. When a band describes themselves as the musical equivalent to nachos, you know it's going to be good.

"I'd say we're just a rock band, or pop punk band with a female vocalist. We're not anything extreme by any means, but we're also not bubble gum pop. People hear the words 'pop punk' and 'girl vocalist' and assume we either sound like Paramore, or Avril Lavigne, but we really don't," says Mike Mitchell. "We're doing our own thing."

Doing their own thing wasn't always an easy process after one major line-up change. The local pop punk posse had to regroup after original vocalist Gabi Bielenik left the group leading them to Dondrea "Dawn" Erauw.

"Honestly, going from Gabi to Dawn has been like going from riding the bus to driving a Porsche convertable. The bus does the basic job; gets you from point A to point B. But the Porsche is something you wanted the whole time you were on the bus. It does the job with a different style, an attitude, and it turns heads while doing it," says Mitchell who states the difference in the band since the addition of Dawn has been like night and day. Maybe in the bands case it's been of cosmic proportions.

Since their 2007 debut Distance Between Stars have shared the stage with the likes of Ill Scarlett, The Reason, The Salads, and Bayside in a multitude of various cities, but there's no place like home.

"It's awesome knowing that when we play Hamilton, we're going to see a ton of familiar faces and it's actually always a party here. At the June and July CD release show, The Casbah actually ran out of beer in the fridge. It was awesome," Mike continues, "I think the show we've got coming up with Lights is going to be a memorable one, too. We're big fans of hers, and we're pretty stoked to be on that bill."

Before they hit the sage, there is one thing they will all be doing.

"Right before we start our set, we all huddle around the drums and putour hands in the middle, and Tom says, 'tonight we play like...' and one of us fills in the blank. We've played like surgeons, house cats, bottlenose dolphins, eagles, and whatever ridiculous thing we can come up with that we can apply to music, we'll do," says Mitchell.


-Felicia Mancini, View Magazine, Week of November 20-26 2008 - VIEW Magazine

We decided to stick around with out front row seats to catch Distance Between Stars, another band I have never heard of. And I am glad we did.

While setting up, the band members admitted to being totally stoked to be playing Scene. Which made their set that much more sincere, and that much more enjoyable. The female fronted band got the crowds moving and screaming, both inside and out. Certainly impressive for a group I haven't heard of around here. But what was more impressive, were the chants for an encore from a crowd that refused to allow the band to leave the stage before hearing one more song.

-Krystina
Soundline Magazine - Soundline Magazine

Canadian quartet Distance Between Stars are everything that a pop-punk quartet should be. With their high energy onstage and off, it’s easy to see where they get their loyal following in the local Hamilton scene. Their catchy lyrics are sure to get stuck in your head, with music that reminds one of fellow Canadian music darlings Tegan and Sara and Tennessee rockers Paramore.



But there’s also something very distinct in Distance Between Stars. After their original singer parted ways in 2008, DBS have finally secured their lineup with Dondrea Erauw (vocals), Thomas Brow (guitar), Mike Mitchell (drums), and Mike Wilson (bass). Dondrea’s vocals flow easily over solid guitar chords, providing any listener with a breath of fresh air.



Distance Between Stars have shared the stage with the likes of Lights, Bayside, ill Scarlet, Hostage Like, The Reaspm. The Junction, Arise and Ruin, The Salads, Sydney, and many others. The band has also won awards on garageband.com, including Track of the Day for June 30th, 2007, and Best Female Vocals in Pop Punk for the week of July 2nd, 2007. With their previous musical achievements and an upcoming tour for their newly released EO, it won't be long before Distance Between Stars take centre stage.

Listen to:
Where We Should Be
Edge of My Beginning
On the band's myspace.

http://www.buzznet.com/groups/dailymusicdose/journal/66553241/ - Buzznet

After hearing more about the Hope For The Sold show, I looked into the other bands playing and was definitely impressed by the line up. I knew I had to talk to the other bands playing, and one of those other bands was Distance Between Stars. After checking out their MySpace, and loving the two songs they have up there, I sent them a message, knowing that I definitely wanted to talk to them as well. They agreed, and, well, here it is!

"I think we are a band that needs to be seen live."
- Dawn, Distance Between Stars

For our readers who don't know who you are, roll call. Who are you and what do you do for the band?

Mike Mitchell - Drums

Dondrea Erauw - Vocals

Thomas Brow - Guitar

Mike Wilson-Bass


How did Distance Between Stars come to be?

Mike: Myself, Thomas, and Mikey were in a band together that fell apart in 2005, and we started writing some stuff in late 2006. We had a different singer before Dawn, named Gabi. We played a bunch of great shows with Gabi, but she left the band in February 2008 right before we were scheduled to start recording our EP. We decided to record the instruments anyway and search for a singer afterwards. We asked some friends in bands if they knew anybody, and Dawn was recommended to us. We auditioned her and the rest is history! Our first show with Dawn was in July of 2008.


You've recently finished recording an EP, what can we look forward to hearing, and when can we look forward to it being released?

Mike: The 4 songs that are on the EP that we recorded were some of the first songs we'd written as a band. They've got a pop-punk vibe to them. I think we've progressed more with the newer songs we've written since we wrote and recorded the ones from the EP, but the ones on the EP are a really good representation of our overall vibe as a band. Hopefully we'll have this thing released by mid February.


You've shared the stage artists like Lights, Ill Scarlett, Hostage Life and Bayside. Is there anything that you've taken from those experiences? And anything that these bands have taught you that will help you on future tours?

Mike: We love playing and love having as much fun as possible while doing it, but playing with big names like that is a totally different experience. To see the business side of music, and how much goes into even small club shows for bands like Bayside and Lights, it's been really eye opening. It's great to see how bands like that function so professionally in even small venues is a real inspiration, and really helps us out with keeping our focus on what we want to do.


What is it that inspires your lyrics, and is there one particular lyrics that means the most to you?

Dawn: Like most artists, our lyrics come from experience. Sometimes its experiences i've been through or it's an experience that someone close to me goes through. Its easier to express things when you've been through them, that way the words mean more. As to particular lyrics that mean the most to me, none specifically mean more than others, they are all really important. Some of our songs are more fun and others are more serious but I think our song "Who Are You" means a great deal. It's a song about people who go through life pretending who they are and constantly trying to impress people, rather then just being themselves. Everyone has a person like that in their life, where you look at them and you ask yourself, "why are you acting like this!?"


For those readers who haven't seen you play live, can you describe your live show? What gets the best reaction from the crowd?

Dawn: I think we are a band that needs to be seen live. Personally I think thats where we shine a little. Some bands are great on an album and not so great live, and others are amazing live and you just can't capture that in a CD. Our live show is purely based on energy. We love it.


What is your favorite part of being on stage?

Dawn: The energy. I love seeing people actually digging our sound. Its different so watching people dance and bop their head to our music makes me feel awesome.


You're performing at the "Hope For The Sold" benefit, can you tell us a little more about that, and what is it that got you interested in the cause?

Mike: We actually kind of just stumbled into the Hope For The Sold stuff. We were looking for a Toronto show and got in touch with Aberdeen, who were working with HFTS. Once we were confirmed for the show and found out about the benefit, we started looking into it and the more we found out about what they were doing, the more we got into their cause. Human trafficking is such a huge thing, that not a ton of people are aware of, and we're more than happy to help out something that brings awareness to such a big problem.


What is it that fuels your passion for what you do?

Mike: Connecting with people, and the people that come see us. Even if they're not there to see us, I love going up on stage for 30 minutes and playing my ass off, and watching 3 other people in the band do the same thing, knowing that we'll get through to at least one person. Dawn: Music can truly change people. Music isn't just a melody and lyrics, it makes people feel accepted, and makes people feel like they can escape. It saves people and it means more then just a 3 minute song. Kids who go to shows to support bands who have faith in them more than anyone is what fuels us. The energy of playing a live show, the feeling you get is a huge rush it's amazing.


What has been the biggest moment for the band? What has been the biggest challenge?

Mike: We've played some pretty great shows so far, but the biggest one has either been opening for Ill Scarlett when they were number 1 on the MuchMusic countdown, or opening for Lights in November. We're huge fans of both Ill Scarlett and Lights, so those were pretty awesome. The biggest challenge so far has been trying to go from where we are, playing almost every weekend, to doing full out tours. We've all got other things going on; school, work, but it's completely worth balancing out all of those things to do what we love so much.


Here at the Sound Faction we are five of the most random people you will ever meet, so we like to end our interviews on a less serious note with five random questions.

If you could have lunch with any fictional character, who would it be and why?

Dawn: Ariel but I'd have to wear a scuba suit or something and that could get complicating, haha.

Mike: Michael Scott from the Office. I don't think I'd be able to eat I'd be laughing so hard.


If you could be the champion of anything, what would it be? (and if you say The World, I might have to die of laughter!)

Mike: Stanley Cup Champion man! For the Detroit Red Wings. If there's anything I love as much as music, it's hockey.


Name one guilty pleasure anything!

Dawn: I'm addicted to sour patch kids, haha.

Mike: That band the bloodhound gang...


And here's your shameless self-promo spot: anything you'd like to add about yourselves, the music, or anything else?


Mike: Like Dawn said earlier, our live show is where people will get the most out of our music. We'll be doing dates all around Ontario this spring, so if we're in a city near you, come out and say hey.

written by Manda of www.thesoundfaction.com

www.thesoundfaction.com/distancebetweenstars.html - thesoundfaction.com