Hobart High School alumni, Angelo Guarnero, Jacob Zanolla and Dylan Zanolla alongside Tony Varella formed the band Leave it to Chance last year.
Leave it to Chance has been releasing their own songs, as well as covers, through their Soundcloud account: m.soundcloud.com//leaveittochance. Their sound gives off a very pop punk vibe, with a unique spin a lot of other pop punk bands don’t possess, making for a very difficult pin-point of a singular uniformed genre.
Lead singer, Angelo Guarnero explained “I really feel like we're a kind of pop punk/emo band. I don't think we're a factory made "pop punk" band that might come to mind when you hear people throw about the genre, but we do emulate a lot of aspects that you might expect in a pop punk band (upbeat songs about girls, sad lyrics, pizza). I just feel like we have a lot more raw emotion and dynamic in the songs we write (at least we try to). I don't wanna say we're pop punk because it's a very over used and general term, but we definitely fall under a more dissonant side of the genre.”
Musical influences have a lot to do with the inspiration behind Leave it to Chance, although the guys focus on creating their own defined sound that doesn’t strongly emulate another band.
“Well, I know that we're all big Knuckle Puck, Real Friends, [and] Modern Baseball fans but I feel like the way we write and our songs don't really emulate any of them. I really think that all of our songs are unique but personally I know I'm influenced by Ryan from Knuckle Puck and Kelen from The Story So Far just because I love their music. I think most of the bass lines that I wrote for our songs are heavily influenced by their style. I don't know about the other guys but that's just me!” said bassist, Jacob Zanolla.
Guarnero added “I just really love Knuckle Puck, Real Friends, Modern Baseball, and Citizen. I just love the kinda stuff that makes you wanna bob your head or sing your heart out.”
Music has been a big part of each of these guys’ lives, but forming a band was not always a plan. The idea came along once three of the four members got together to jam in their free time, until they met a drummer to form Leave it to Chance.
Guitarist, Dylan Zanolla stated “Jake, Angelo, and I started playing together a few years ago basically because we all enjoyed playing music and it was something fun we could do in our spare time. We never really treated it too seriously until I met Tony at a bonfire last summer and asked him to play with us. We immediately meshed really well together and have been writing music and playing shows ever since. I'd say our music is inspired mostly by the Chicago (local) pop punk scene, but we always tried to keep diversity in our music, especially in our debut EP, so we didn't have to be confined to one specific style of punk music in general. That way we can keep expanding with what styles of music we enjoy regardless of our previous music.”
The idea for the name of the band came from drummer, Tony Varella, way before meeting Jacob, Angelo, and Dylan.
Drummer, Tony Varella stated “The name Leave it to Chance wasn't really inspired by anything. About 5 years ago I was jamming with some Brandon Stasi from Caving, Austen Backe from Hollyweed and this guy Nicholas. We started to blend together and actually sat down to figure out a name. We came up with some really really dumb ones. I can't even remember what they were. But we had these three incredibly stupid names and we couldn't settle on one. And I remember my step dad was in the kitchen at my house as we sat in the living room and asked, ‘how about you guys put up a poll for people to vote for the name?’ Then I think it was Brandon who said "Yeah but I don't want to leave it to chance" After he said that there was like this long pause. So we all ended up drifting apart and for the years that I wasn't in a band, I knew I would hold that name close to me.”
Varella continued “So, when Dylan, Jake, Angelo and I started jamming I finally got to bring that name back. It doesn't mean much in the name itself other than I feel like it was all chance that I met Dylan at that bonfire and now the four of us have gotten to grow this music that we've always wanted to do.”
Leave it to Chance begins recording their Debut EP July 18 and will be releasing it before the end of the summer. Stay tuned with their music and show updates on their twitter, @litcNWI.
Photo credit: @spookyneve on twitter