Making it work: Michigan band Get Stoked works on new EP

From Warped Tour to the studio, band talks progress

Last summer, Get Stoked landed a spot to perform at the Michigan stop of the Vans Warped Tour.

Rhythm guitarist Ryan Turek said the band had an awkward stage presence when they first got started, something that has changed, especially considering that they had to win a battle of the bands competition to play Warped.

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The band came in third in the BOTB and played in Auburn Hills on July 22.

According to Turek, they performed during the same time slot as Sum 41, but that didn’t stop them from having “an amazing crowd.”

Now, the guys are working on new music that will be coming soon. A few songs for an upcoming EP were recently recorded with Nik Bruzzese of Man Overboard and Ace Enders of The Early November, and the band is planning to release a new song within the next few months.

The new music is going to be more focused, according to Turek, and the band has matured since the release of 2016’s full-length album “Stepping Off The Porch.”

“I think that we took the parts of that album that we really liked and went in that direction,” Turek said.

Despite that direction, the band doesn’t focus on writing for a specific genre. Instead, they write “music that sounds good and is fun to play,” Turek said.

Members have drawn inspiration from the hardcore bands they played in before Get Stoked, more upbeat pop-punk bands like Four Year Strong and each other.

“We all inspire each other,” Turek said. “We all build on each other’s ideas, and we’ve learned that we aren’t bound to one genre.”

While there is a better focus in comparison to their previous work, Turek described the band’s music-making process as “organized chaos,” with songs taking anywhere from a few weeks to a few months to write. He added that when guitarist Tristan Cadmus joined Get Stoked, the band got more of a rhythm going.

Learning the songs is a quicker process than writing.

Turek noted that once the band learned four or five songs in a month, but sometimes it can take weeks for one song to be learned. Additionally, the guys can practice together only once a week, as they don’t live close to one another. Still, they make it work.

Before Get Stoked, Turek said the guys went to a million shows. Doing that allowed them to connect with people in the industry and create a sense of realness that allows them to connect with people in general.

“We are a very 'DIY' band,” Turek said. “We have put everything we have into this band and we couldn’t be more proud of how far we’ve come.”

Turek feels those aspects, as well as singer Cameron Wheeler’s voice, set Get Stoked apart from other bands.

Catch Get Stoked Tuesday at The Ritz Detroit. The band will be joined by Make Your Move, Bad Case, Abandoned By Bears, Carousel Kings and Mileroad Boundaries.