Local Band Wins Big in Battle of the Bands Competition

A Plainfield band is making a name for itself after winning the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands, a competition made up of thousands of bands.

Marina City is made up of Ryan Argast (lead vocals), Matt Gaudiano (vocals, pianist), Brian Johnson (guitar, vocals) Eric Somers-Urrea (drums, percussion), Aaron Heiy (bass) and Todor Birindjiev (lead guitar).

Argast, Gaudiano and Johnson hail from Plainfield, while Somers-Urrea is from Naperville. Heiy is from Shorewood and Birindjiev is originally from Bulgaria but went to school at Prospect High.

Marina City has been around since 2012 and has been gathering a following ever since. For the battle of the bands competition, Marina City put up a bio and music on a page created for the competition.

“The way to win this is you have to have fans keep coming to your page,” Argast said. “The more fans you have coming to your page, the more hits you get and the higher you rank out of your city. The top 100 bands of your city get judged by Kevin Lyman, who owns Warped Tour, the higher-ups at Ernie Ball and (music producer) John Feldmann.”

After more picking and choosing, one band is announced as the winner of the battle of the bands competition. This year it’s Marina City.

Feldmann described the band as being a cross between Fall Out Boy and Avenged Sevenfold.

So now the band will not only play two weeks of Vans Warped Tour, the band will record a new EP with Feldmann, who has produced music for 5 Seconds of Summer, Panic! At The Disco and The Used, and they received a $15,000 credit at Guitar Center.

Up next for the band is a tour in December that hasn’t been announced yet and another tour in January. After that, they should be recording their new album with Feldmann.

“From here on out, we’re just going to keep touring and doing the same thing,” Brian Johnson said.

To learn more about Marina City, visit its website.