ThunderRider rolls out its debut

By John Benson

In musician Mike Ilich’s mind, he’s seen the mountaintop.

As a member of local extreme heavy-metal act Robinson, he toured the country and enjoyed an underground following. Now he feels as though it’s time to leave the safe confines of base camp and attempt to traverse stardom with his new band, ThunderRider.

“It’s rock ’n’ roll and heavy metal, with a nice mixture between the two and some southern rock also,” said Ilich, a 1999 Boardman High School graduate. “I’d say we’re in between Clutch and Pantera. So it’s got a harder side. We started about 10 months ago, and things are moving very quickly. We’re not pushing to be the biggest thing on the planet, but we are working hard and if it happens, it happens. Other than that, we’re just looking to write good music right now and play some good shows in the area.”

ThunderRider recently released its self-titled debut, which was recorded in a friend’s basement studio. The Austintown resident said the material is hard, but with a mainstream edge. Among his favorite tracks are the epic “Beard Mountain” and the mellow “Yuma.” Ilich said it’s the latter song that specifically has caught the ear of the local bar crowd.

“It’s one of our more popular songs,” Ilich said. “It’s basically just a good, old drinking song, with a more laid-back feel than some of our harder stuff. It’s very southern, very bluesy in some parts, but still a couple of really hard-hitting parts. We usually use it as our closing song for the night.”

Youngstown music fans will get to see ThunderRider in action Saturday at Cedars Lounge. Considering he’s a veteran who has tasted success, albeit of the underground variety, does Ilich feel ThunderRider can make it outside of the gravitational pull that is the Youngstown music scene?

“I’d say it just takes longevity,” Ilich said. “The longer a band is together, the more people can hear them and can pick them out. So it’s just definitely Internet and radio promotion. WNCD 93.3 does a lot for us. So, basically, it’s just getting out there and writing solid music and playing shows and branching out into other areas like Cleveland and Pittsburgh. It just takes time.”

He added, “And I actually believe it has more of a possibility to happen with ThunderRider because it is more of a mainstream type of music, and it’s definitely more graspable than something we’ve done in the past. It’s just a matter of writing that one song that everybody seems to like and that gets picked up and tossed around the country. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all about timing.”