Varga - Biography
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1989-
Biography
When you're born and bred in a city that's nicknamed "The Hammer", it goes without saying that you will be raised on a healthy dose of metal music. For [band]Black Sabbath[/bnad], it was Birmingham, UK. For VARGA, that place is called Hamilton, Ontario. Canada.
Formed in 1989, the ties between Joe Varga (bass and vocals) and Dan Fila (drums) are as far reaching as grade school. But it was in their teens when they would begin receiving local recognition as a fearsome rhythm section. After adding Adam Alex (guitar) and later, Sean Williamson (guitar), the once Glendale-based outfit did what all aspiring young bands do. They bought an old beat up van and hit the road playing covers on the local Ontario bar scene. It was during this dues paying time when the four realized they could make a sound all of their own. So armed with a couple of cassette releases, VARGA caught the attention of the A&R department at BMG Canada and left home to tour the continent.
"It was a hybrid - we had progressive influences from Rush and heavy influences from Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and the classics Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and fused it into a progressive metal sound," recalls Joe Varga. "It was a great experience and the songs were written well. We got to tour a lot through Canada and the States with White Zombie, we opened up for Metallica and got a lot of roadwork. When we got to the major label, we were a little more streamlined and straight forward metal but they were good songs and we enjoyed doing it. The 90's were a crazy time for heavy metal - it was kind of clashing with the whole grunge thing so we just did what we wanted to do at the time and started incorporating a little more of an industrial sound to it."
Getting signed to the major labels and becoming regulars on MuchMusic and MTV - including a thumbs up feature from the Mike Judge animated icons "Beavis and Butthead" - seemed to secure the band's place in the Canadian hard rock music canon but after their 1993 Prototype and 1996 Oxygen CDs, the band simply faded out of the spotlight.
The band never officially broke up; we just focused on different things and still remained good friends over the years. Fila and Williamson would help form Hypodust (with Julius Butty, Terry D'Andrea, and Marko Lubarda). The members of VARGA even maintained their collective talents, offering awe-inspiring album recreations (with Julius Butty on vocals) from Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. "When I witnessed their version of Maiden, the question only was with this kind of talent, why hadn't VARGA continued making music?" said now renowned Metal Producer, Butty.
"We just parted ways for a while and that while turned into 13 years. It's always been on my mind to get the guys back together and go back to square one and almost re-record some of our earlier stuff - the more technical, thrashy, progressive metal. That's where we're at right now" explains Varga.
Recorded at both Six Nations' Jukasa Studio, and Silo Studios with Julius Butty producing, two new CD's titled Enter The Metal and Return Of The Metal will be released from VARGA in October of 2013 and May of 2014.
Formed in 1989, the ties between Joe Varga (bass and vocals) and Dan Fila (drums) are as far reaching as grade school. But it was in their teens when they would begin receiving local recognition as a fearsome rhythm section. After adding Adam Alex (guitar) and later, Sean Williamson (guitar), the once Glendale-based outfit did what all aspiring young bands do. They bought an old beat up van and hit the road playing covers on the local Ontario bar scene. It was during this dues paying time when the four realized they could make a sound all of their own. So armed with a couple of cassette releases, VARGA caught the attention of the A&R department at BMG Canada and left home to tour the continent.
"It was a hybrid - we had progressive influences from Rush and heavy influences from Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer and the classics Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden and fused it into a progressive metal sound," recalls Joe Varga. "It was a great experience and the songs were written well. We got to tour a lot through Canada and the States with White Zombie, we opened up for Metallica and got a lot of roadwork. When we got to the major label, we were a little more streamlined and straight forward metal but they were good songs and we enjoyed doing it. The 90's were a crazy time for heavy metal - it was kind of clashing with the whole grunge thing so we just did what we wanted to do at the time and started incorporating a little more of an industrial sound to it."
Getting signed to the major labels and becoming regulars on MuchMusic and MTV - including a thumbs up feature from the Mike Judge animated icons "Beavis and Butthead" - seemed to secure the band's place in the Canadian hard rock music canon but after their 1993 Prototype and 1996 Oxygen CDs, the band simply faded out of the spotlight.
The band never officially broke up; we just focused on different things and still remained good friends over the years. Fila and Williamson would help form Hypodust (with Julius Butty, Terry D'Andrea, and Marko Lubarda). The members of VARGA even maintained their collective talents, offering awe-inspiring album recreations (with Julius Butty on vocals) from Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. "When I witnessed their version of Maiden, the question only was with this kind of talent, why hadn't VARGA continued making music?" said now renowned Metal Producer, Butty.
"We just parted ways for a while and that while turned into 13 years. It's always been on my mind to get the guys back together and go back to square one and almost re-record some of our earlier stuff - the more technical, thrashy, progressive metal. That's where we're at right now" explains Varga.
Recorded at both Six Nations' Jukasa Studio, and Silo Studios with Julius Butty producing, two new CD's titled Enter The Metal and Return Of The Metal will be released from VARGA in October of 2013 and May of 2014.