Like Violence is a Pop-Punk genre based band comprised of five members from Spencerport. All knowing each other since middle school, they include: lead vocalist, Brittni DiFiore; drummer, Beau Bilinski; lead guitarist, and vocalist Don Rivaldo; guitarist, Joey Vetromile, and bassist and backup vocalist, Dan Belkin.
Deriving from the musical influences of similar genre groups such as Blink-182, The Wonder Years, Brand New, Metallica, Counter Parts and The Story So Far, Like Violence describes themselves as falling into their own musical category, separate from Pop-Punk, that they refer to as, “melodic paracore.”
The band began in the fall of 2013 when Brittni and Don first started playing together. The initial phase was never all that serious; Brittni made arbitrary appearances to Don’s house where the two of them would spend time covering songs acoustically. “I feel like I was playing with Brit for about a year and decided, ‘let’s get serious about this,’ ” Don explained. When Beau saw Brittni and Don “jamming out” together he decided, “I want in on that.” From there, the two other members soon joined.
In pursuit to complete the group, the band used social media to bring in a bassist and an additional guitarist. Lucky for them, the newest members already happened to be long-time friends also from the Spencerport area. “I saw something on Facebook and jumped on it real quick,” guitarist Joey mentioned. Shortly thereafter, Dan tagged along on the bass and finalized the band’s formation.
Once all of the members had come together, they started working on their first two studio singles, “Voices” and “Cameron,” which were released in the spring of 2015. After that, the band released its first EP, “Raised by Wolves.” Since then, Like Violence has appeared in seven stage performances including: three shows at Water Street Music Hall in Rochester; two shows at The Bug Jar in Rochester; one house show and one show in Buffalo.
Customary to most artists, the group’s passion for music didn’t just begin with the formation of the band. Several of the band members had been involved in previous musical projects all throughout high school and years after. High school bands included, Suit ‘Em Up, Aunt Ancy and the Bird House and SEGA. Later down the road Beau and Don went on to play in the band Setbacks with other Spencerport natives. “It (Like Violence) is essentially a super group of all of our bands,” Joey explained. Yet before any one of them decided to pick up and learn an instrument, music served as an essential part of their individual lives since the very beginning.
Like Violence continues their pursuit to grow as a band in hopes that they could one day obtain strong recognition within the music industry. “I just want to make music that people like,” expressed Beau, “Something that people listen to … when they listen, they think, ‘these guys get me.’ ” “I want to make different music too, instead of all the same old stuff,” Don added.
If given the opportunity, the band would love to focus all of their time and energy in music – writing it, playing it and performing it, wherever it takes them. “I want to do this band for some sort of period of time and not have to work any other job,” said Don. As for now, each member continues to work separate jobs in order to support their musical endeavors.
Although the instant that would allow the group to fully support all of their desired ambitions may eventually come, in the meantime, Like Violence will continue to write and produce more music, perform shows and eventually conduct small tours on the weekends. The band is currently in the process of writing a second album as well as projecting the idea for a future music video.
Like Violence plans to continue playing shows in Rochester and surrounding cities in support of its new EP and hopes to begin touring in early 2016. The band is currently scheduled to perform their next event on Friday, November 27 at the Space Bar in Canandaigua, followed by a holiday show on Monday, December 7 at the Bug Jar in Rochester.
Like Violence expresses enormous gratitude towards the Spencerport area for bringing all of its members together. The group also acknowledges all of the parties that have provided their assistance, including: Mike Filipek; Kevin Murphee; Taylor Rambo; Meg Ameden; Beau’s grandmother and former Mayor of Spencerport, the late Joyce Lobene and of course, the fans that support their music.
To listen to and purchase Like Violence’s EP, “Raised by Wolves,” visit likeviolenceofficial.bandcamp.com. To keep up to date on news, shows and events, check out the group’s Facebook page at facebook.com/LikeViolenceOfficial.
