By Bridget Griffin
August 2014. Hayden Rabinovitch gets invited to play at a Beatles-themed show. The only problem? He doesn’t have a band.
“So he invited the rest of us,” says bassist Devan Meisner, “We did some rehearsals and we did the show and it went really well. It was only two songs but it was actually quite good.”
It was so good, in fact, that the group didn’t stop there. They kept playing shows until they eventually became The Record Breakers.
“And we’ve been breaking records ever since,” jokes Dawson student and keyboardist Michael Vallinakis.
Six years later, after playing around with different music genres, the band has gravitated towards country. “In 2016, we didn’t know what we were. It was blues one song, then pop the other one, then a rock song, a folk song...” Devan explains, “Now we’ve really settled on this pop-country type sound.”
The Record Breakers is made up of five members. First is Hayden, the leader. “When we’re recording stuff he’s always sort of the main guy who’s on top of that,” says Devan, “he’s working with the engineer to mix it. He takes care of all of that stuff.”
Hayden heads up the band alongside Bella Galasso, with whom he splits the singing and songwriting duties.
“I feel like I’m the girl,” Bella jokes about her role in the band, “I don’t know, I do my part. I’m one of the main songwriters for the band and I really pride myself in that role.”
Next is Michael, the keyboardist. “I’m gonna be an obnoxious douchebag and say stage presence,” he says when asked about his role in the band, a position with which Bella full-heartedly agrees. “I always find that there would be something lacking with the band if there wasn’t Michael doing whatever the hell it is he does on stage,” she says, “People remember the keyboardist. It makes a huge difference.”
Devan, the bassist, takes care of the business side of things. “I deal with the money and stuff, which can be a pain sometimes,” he explains, “And I’m also involved in the writing process. When Hayden has stuff he needs help with I’ll usually be the guy who will help him.”
That leaves only the drummer, Julian Galasso, who Michael describes as being the “graphic designer” of the band. “Posters and logos and t-shirt designs,” Devan adds, “Julian’s good with stuff like that.”
And of course, the entire band is involved with the songwriting process.
“I’ll bring [a song] to the band and they start to actually arrange it together and find what sounds good and what might not,” Bella explains, “I love hearing one of my songs come to life with the band.”
Together, The Record Breakers have accomplished a lot. In 2018, they won a contest to open for Bon Jovi, an experience which Bella describes as being “literally insane.”
They entered the competition “with a very ‘oh why not’ attitude,” explains Michael.
And then they won.
“It was weird, super weird to be playing in the Bell Centre,” Bella says.
Recently, Evenko reached out to the band to offer them a gig opening for Tennessee country artist Manny Blu. “That feels even better than the Bon Jovi thing,” says Bella, since they came to them. “That’s a huge accomplishment that we’re even on Evenko’s radar at all. It was really cool.”
After a brief pause, Devan pipes in. “But obviously Bon Jovi is still our biggest accomplishment,” he adds. The band laughs.
“Yeah, it’s all downhill after that,” Michael says.
The Record Breakers will open for Manny Blu alongside Brittany Kennel on March 15th, 2020. Look out for their new single, In My Car, when it’s released this April 17th.
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