Local band needs you to get them Discovered

Advertisement

Advertise with us

A local pop-rock band needs your votes to win a spot on a MuchMusic reality program.

Read this article for free:


or

Already have an account? Log in here »

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Subscribe and receive a limited-edition Free Press branded hat or tote.

Digital Subscription

One year of digital access for only $205*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles

*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.

To continue reading, please subscribe:

Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional

$1 for the first 4 weeks*

  • Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
  • Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
  • Access News Break, our award-winning app
  • Play interactive puzzles
Start now

*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/10/2010 (5810 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A local pop-rock band needs your votes to win a spot on a MuchMusic reality program.

Take Me To The Pilot is one of six bands from across the country trying to secure enough on-line votes to get them onto Much’s new show, Discovered, which promises to offer the winning band a national audience and a lot more.

“If we win this vote, then we get on an episode of the show,” Mike Bilenki, founder of TMTTP, who plays guitar and sings and writes the songs, said of Much’s Envy Pick contest.

take me to the pilot / myspace
Take Me To The Pilot is hoping to get enough votes to land the band on MuchMusic's new show.
take me to the pilot / myspace Take Me To The Pilot is hoping to get enough votes to land the band on MuchMusic's new show.

“You travel to T.O., get hooked up with a quote-unquote industry guru… It’s definitely a legitimate forum to get your music out there, which is why we’re working so hard to get our votes in.”

Bilenki is only 20 but he’s been playing in bands since he was 14. He formed TMTTP back in February of 2009 as a solo act. The name came from an Elton John song.

“I’m a huge Elton John fan. It was so random, it was just one day, we were goofing around and out came the words Take Me To The Pilot. I liked the way it sounded and it just sort of stuck and the rest is history.”

The band as a four-piece unit — with Adam Brown on bass, Richard Eliuk on drums, Eric Grabowecky on guitar and vocals — has been together since May of this year and they released a self-titled, five-song EP in June and toured southern Ontario in September.

“We played our first show (locally) at Skate 4 Cancer on May 29, so we’re still pretty fresh,” Bilenki said. “We’ve already toured and stuff. I’d like to think that we’re tighter than you might expect from a band whose been together for such a short amount of time.”

But the band is already going through some changes. Drummer Eliuk has decided to return to school and they’re in the process of picking his replacement.

Bilenki describes TMTTP’s sound as a cross between pop/punk rock and pure pop. His writing was influenced by the songs of such non-mainstream bands like Making April, My Favorite Highway and The Dangerous Summer as well as bands from another generation — Elton John, Queen, U2 and Van Halen.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Show remains a work in progress

Mike Bilenki and his bandmates with Take Me To The Pilot are busy honing their sound but a lot of work remains to be done with the MuchMusic's Discovered, which even their own publicists say remains a work in progress.

Much spokeswoman Amy Doary said Discovered replaces disBAND, which aired for two seasons but the format of Discovered is being re-worked.

Doary said Discovered was originally planned to air in November but that's been pushed back to allow the show's production team to rework the concept of the program.

"They're looking at changing some of the elements of the show," Doary said. "They don't know what elements those will be, that's why we don't have much on what the end format will be."

Doary said that even though there is so much about the show that is unknown, including the number of bands, she is certain that one of the six bands in the contest will eventually appear in the show.

"When every one's in pre-production, some things aren't decided. Originally, during the summer, we thought the show would air in the fall, so Novemberish, but it's since been pushed, which is something that's just been really recent.

"So now, they have obviously more time to film and story produce and pick more bands and of course, this contest as well, which will be a part of the series."

Report Error Submit a Tip

More Stories

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Federal Court awards OCN $27M, 62 years after construction of hydro dam

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 12:02 PM CDT

The Federal Court has ordered Ottawa pay Opaskwayak Cree Nation $27 million over damages suffered due to the construction of the Grand Rapids hydro dam in the 1960s.

In a decision dated Sept. 3, Federal Court Justice Sébastien Grammond says the federal government had a fiduciary duty to protect the community from the impacts of the dam.

“When the Crown exercises a discretionary power over an Indigenous interest, it has a fiduciary duty and it must exercise the discretion in the best interests of the Indigenous group,” the ruling said. “Canada breached its fiduciary duty to OCN because it approved the (project) without ensuring that the impacts of the Grand Rapids dam on OCN’s traditional way of life were mitigated or compensated.”

The First Nation took the federal government to court in February over impacts on the community after the dam, located about 145 kilometres southeast of Opaskwayak Cree Nation, was installed on the Saskatchewan River in 1964. The case was heard over 14 days in a judge-alone trial in Winnipeg.

Read
Updated: Yesterday at 12:02 PM CDT

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read Preview

Day 1 of Jets training camp in the books with pairings essentially cemented

Ken Wiebe 7 minute read 6:08 PM CDT

Nearly six minutes into his question-and-answer session, Scott Arniel took a welcome detour from the news of the day.

After exhausting the discussion around the goalie who wasn’t in training camp, the head coach of the Winnipeg Jets finally got a query about the line combinations and defensive pairings that were unveiled in training camp.

And unlike past years, when exhibition games were more frequent and the training camp wasn’t this condensed, Arniel conceded these groupings were intentional and were likely staying together for some time.

The expansion to an 84-game regular season brings with it a reduction to four pre-season games and a much shorter training camp, which could limit the amount of experimentation that Arniel can do during the next two weeks.

Read
6:08 PM CDT

What to watch as puck drops on Jets training camp

Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe 10 minute read Preview

What to watch as puck drops on Jets training camp

Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe 10 minute read Yesterday at 2:44 PM CDT

Welcome to a Winnipeg Jets training camp like no other — one where the on-ice storylines and battles threaten to be trumped by what’s happening away from the rink.

Yes, the dark cloud that is the Connor Hellebuyck situation looms over the organization as it prepares to try and turn the page on a terrible 2025-26 campaign which ended with a 26th-overall finish.

It’s not going to be easy, especially in a highly competitive Central Division and Western Conference and with such a major unresolved issue.

But the work starts now, and Free Press hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe get you set for what to expect ahead of the 84-game regular season, which begins Oct. 2.

Read
Yesterday at 2:44 PM CDT

Manitobans mostly optimistic about time change

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read Preview

Manitobans mostly optimistic about time change

Nicole Buffie 5 minute read 6:47 PM CDT

Turning the page on turning back the clocks in Manitoba was met with enthusiasm — and some hesitation — Thursday.

Calling the move “perfect,” the general manager of Larters at St. Andrews Golf & Country Club said a switch to permanent standard time would have hurt men’s and women’s golf leagues.

The course could have tried to open an hour earlier, but some after-work leagues may have been forced to cancel owing to not enough daylight.

“It would get dark too early and people can’t leave work early to go play an hour earlier,” said Geoff Kehler. “It would have been really bad for the business.”

Read
6:47 PM CDT

Lauded Manitoba author chronicled life in the Interlake

By Sheldon Birnie 5 minute read Preview

Lauded Manitoba author chronicled life in the Interlake

By Sheldon Birnie 5 minute read Yesterday at 6:11 PM CDT

Longtime Manitoba author, editor and professor David Arnason died on Monday at age 86.

Read
Yesterday at 6:11 PM CDT

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Preview

Today’s horoscope

Georgia Nicols 4 minute read Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT

MOON ALERT: Avoid shopping (except food and gas) or important decisions until noon today. After that, the moon moves from Scorpio into Sagittarius.

ARIES (March 21-April 19)

Your idealism is aroused, perhaps because you feel sympathy for the suffering of someone far away. Because you are proactive by nature, you might do something to help in any way you can. Pay attention to what you say and do. Expect detours.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20)

Read
Yesterday at 2:00 AM CDT