The Woovs of Baerberton
By Anthony Cirincione
The garage filled with Mom and Dad’s boxes of old knick knacks surround the band practicing, waiting until they get that chance to come out with their own CD. Childhood friends now trying to make cohesive music together to form an original sound is what is on the table. This is where Barberton’s The Woovs got their start and they have never looked back.
The band actually started in peculiar way. Adam Lengyel, the lead singer, used to sing to keyboardist Bryan Delauder’s beats he used to make while at parties. Delauder said it all started “One night, drunk, we came home from the bar and made a song.” It all started there.
Kevin Hamric, lead guitarist, came back from college and joined the band, really adding a nice piece to the then duo. “Kevin was more advanced. He helped teach us; me and Adam,” Delauder explains. “He was in bands in Columbus.” With the experience and the addition of a bass and drummer the band finally started doing open mic nights up to three times a week.
“Our first CD was written in Kevin’s mom’s garage or Adam’s mom’s deck” says Delauder. They started like every other band, but these guys have recently pushed and gotten a little bit of national coverage. They recently were featured online with High Times Magazine as one of the unsigned band’s to watch.
When asked if it was an honor for the band, Delauder says “Yeah, it’s a big deal. People read that all over. A kid from Korea voted for us.” The international exposure will hopefully help get the word out about this treasure hidden right here in our backyard.
Their hometown paper, The Barberton Herald, refused an interview with them. I brought it up in while talking with Delauder and he gave me a straight forward answer. “A member of the band used to work there. It was like they were holding a personal vendetta. All I wanted was a little write up from our newspaper.” Now everything is fine between the paper and the band; the Herald did finally cover The Woovs.
The Woovs have recently released their second album since forming in 2006, No Entertaining in the City, and really put their all into making this album better and crisper than the first. “I didn’t have the opportunity to put my full effort into the production (of the first album),” Delauder explains. On the new album “we put in 10 hour days on that. It was our job.
“Matt Curry (Engineer at Ante Up Audio in Cleveland) worked with us and put me at ease.” Delauder says that Curry helped with the fine tuning and helped cut down on minor errors.
While Barberton may be a town only known to some from freeway signs off of I-76, for local residents Whitehouse Chicken is a staple food. This had to be brought up in my conversation with The Woovs. “Whitehouse Chicken actually asked Adam to do a jingle for them,” and, when asked if they sponsor the band, Delauder says with a laugh, “We’d like them to.”
While the band plays local shows all the time, including a recent raucous affair with The Magpies at The Tangier, as Delauder puts it, “we don’t limit ourselves to local.” They shouldn’t because everyone needs to hear that howl of The Woovs’ music.
The woovs are the top of the line when it comes to bands and people, what most people dont know is they have done food drives for our community and played at the walk for a cure in Akron. If their is one band that deserves to “make it” it is these guys. If you have’nt heard them play live yet GO CHECK THEM OUT!!!!