Opus Road is on the path to success

A question often posed to bands and their members usually revolves around where and how they got started; for Opus Road it started right here at Brock University.

Back in 2002, a pair (Jeff Mahoney and J.P. Nadeau) of the now five-piece band, met in residence and began playing for friends before nights out on the town, in coffee houses and various talent shows.

Before long, Opus Road increased their shows, their exposure, their size (adding singer Rob Brown) and eventually, their ability to help pay their way through school.

"We got in the routine of paying our way though university by performing as many as five nights a week in St. Catharines' bars and pubs including London Arms, Isaac's, Rockfords, etc.," said Mahoney. "It wasn't a usual path to take for a college student, but the three of us understood that we were lucky to be in the position we were in [.] which essentially involved getting paid to play our songs to our friends."

But, as is the case with most bands, Opus Road went through a plethora of changes, in name and personnel.

With Mahoney and Nadeau starting as The Aviators, Brown and Amy Cunningham joined the duo and opted to run with the name, The Happy Hour.

After parting with Cunningham, the trio continued to perform and their current band name spawned from a recording session in Mahoney's basement apartment.

"On the eve of recording our first Demo CD, called Cellar Door Sessions from my basement apartment, we improvised a song and ended up calling it 'OPUS' on a temporary basis," said Mahoney. "That song ran its course to eventually be called 'Understand', and we enjoyed 'OPUS' so much we added a road and kept it as our name - to us it means honest and true rock music."

Mahoney, Nadeau and Brown picked up their gig and headed to Toronto, in search of taking that elusive next step in making music their entire lives. In doing so, they knew that if their sound was to expand, so too, would the number of musicians in the group.

"Upon making our way to Toronto, the three of us understood that we wanted to do more than play acoustic covers," said Mahoney. "So we searched high and low for the most talented musicians we could find. Enter Ryan English on drums, and Jay Cianfrini on the bass guitar."

As Opus Roads continues to evolve, their hard work and efforts have been rewarded in the form of their first EP, set to be released Dec. 13.

"The success of [moving to Toronto] led us to recording our first professional EP debut release with an up and coming producer, Erik Paul [drummer of the band Thornley]," said Mahoney. "An enormous amount of effort and time has been given, but the CD sounds fucking awesome, we're real happy with it."

If you haven't heard Opus Road, you're missing out, as Mahoney describes their sound as, "a type of rock band combines catchy rock riffs with strong vocals".

Ultimately tough, Opus Road wants more than just one EP.

"Our goal is to make as much music as possible," said Mahoney. "Honestly, making this EP was such an amazing experience, the outcome only urges us to write more and blend more of our ideas together.

"I can see Opus Road taking that next step toward a larger Canadian or International tour, and hopefully making more records for people to rock out to."

Opus Road's CD Release Party is on Dec. 13 at The Hideout in Toronto.