HOWZAT - BAND BIOGRAPHY
HOWZAT is a five piece high energy rock act out of the Forest City (London Ontario) Canada. The band released their debut single and video “STORM” in Sept 2015 and haven’t slowed since. “STORM” received rave reviews across Ontario and extensive air play on college radio throughout Canada ,United States and the U.K., all setting up their debut EP release in 2016 entitled“ROUGH CUTZ”. The EP garnered rave reviews as did their amazing energetic live show.
The band released their 2nd video “HOUSE OF LOVE” in April of 2016, happily gathering more fans across the world.
In 2017, HOWZAT released the politically charged “LUV DUST”, recorded and co-produced by Juno award winner Siegfried Meier at Beach Road Studios. Charting at #1 on Banks Radio Australia for 2 weeks, hitting #7 on the nationally renowned Spider Web Radio in the United States and #1 on The 365 Radio network in the U.S. HOWZAT has recently started to gain some commercial FM radio spins in Canada along with numerous CBC and Sirius XM stations. Their 2016 single “STORM” was also picked up by the syndicated TSN show Highways to Fairways on Canadian TV.
Throughout 2017 HOWZAT were regional finalists for the 2017 CBC Searchlight and nominated for a JRLMA ( Jack Richardson London Music Awards).
Touring and constantly writing new material, HOWZAT has shared the stage with incredible acts including The Killer Dwarfs, Honeymoon Suite, Sloan and played numerous outdoor festivals. In 2018 HOWZAT set up and recorded 8 brand new songs at Jukasa Studios, where acts such as Three Days Grace, Adam Lambert, July Talk and many other international recording artists have worked their magic. Also in the spring of 2018 HOWZAT won $7500 in studio time from local radio 98.1 Free FM which took the guys to EMAC Studios in London. At EMAC, the band cut 2 brand new songs “Tell Me” and “Taking Flight” both part of the Made in London Compilation CD along with a brand new video for Tell Me. This was the start of more major opening slots in 2018 with legendary artists Uriah Heep, Nazareth and ANVIL. In 2019 HOWZAT was part of the Canadian music award celebrations by opening for 2019 Juno award winners VOIVOD!
On the outset of the pandemic, the band was firing on all cylinders with all new material including a five and a half minute rock tour de force single “BURN” featuring a mysterious and deep themed music video which is a literal bonfire.
Fast forward to 2025 and HOWZAT has just globally released a 6 track EP “REVOLUTION” that kicks off with an intense instrumental and contains no filler material throughout the album. The album is an adrenaline packed, no holds barred release that is already receiving critical acclaim.
Classic Rock Magazine says “HOWZAT’s Revolution encroaches on Ghost territory with it’s spooky keyboards, celestial backing vocals and church-based video. But there’s a nice urgency to the song and the guitar solo rips!”
2 new music videos have also been released off this album for the singles “FIGHT” and “REVOLUTION”.
HOWZAT has also been picked up as opening support on several shows for rock legends “HELIX” in Ontario Canada.
Come experience HOWZAT live for something fresh, fun & memorable.
KEVIN RUDY - VOCALS
ERIC BROADBENT - GUITAR
JRAD STERLING - DRUMS
Kevin Rudy was born in St. Marys Ontario and is the vocalist and half the songwriting team for HOWZAT.
Kevin started out at 15 playing guitar and quickly realized he has a natural talent to sing. His early music career took him west to Vancouver B.C. where he attended Columbia Academy of Recording Artists studying recording engineering. He took vocal lessons from well known vocal coach Jan Cooper.
Kevin spent 10 years in BC playing with a few different original hard rock bands and released a couple independent albums and toured extensively. He is heavily influenced by Ian Gillan and David Byron.
Returning to Ontario in 1999 he started HOWZAT as an acoustic act. In 2013 he decided to go back to his roots and start rocking.
Eric brings years of professional live & studio experience as a guitarist to HOWZAT and is the other half of the songwriting team.
While majorly influenced by Eddie Van Halen, other great music from the likes of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dokken, AC/DC, DIO, Black Sabbath & more, helped shape his sound, technique & style.
While mainly performing in original rock acts, Eric has also worked in various cover bands and tribute acts over the years including the work of Van Halen.
Eric’s guitar tone is derived from using Line 6 Helix in conjunction with modern EVH tube amps, allowing for a consistent HOWZAT sound, night after night, stage to stage, sounding exactly like the band’s recordings.
Eric proudly endorses & uses Gibson & Epiphone guitars, Line 6 Helix, EVH Gear, Mission Engineering Pedals, D’Addario Strings & Cables, PedalSnake.
Jerad Sterling, AKA “J-RAD” Was born and raised in Chatham-Kent, Ontario. At age 7 J-Rad was given his first drum kit for Christmas.
When J-Rad was 10, his father took him to see Kiss live in Detroit. After that day he played his drums everyday determined to improve and learn more about creating music and being in a band.
After many years of drumming for cover, original and tribute acts all over Ontario, he settled in London, met up with, and brought the thunder to HOWZAT !
He plays Pearl drums, Paiste cymbals and uses Speed Cobra pedals, and is proudly endorsed by Sweet Spots,
Attack Drumheads Canada and Los Cabos Drumsticks, the best drumsticks around \m/
PETE MITCHELL - BASS
DAN RANSOM - KEYBOARDS
Born in Nova Scotia and raised in London Ontario, Pete started playing bass at the age of 13 and played in mostly metal and rock bands for years. Covering everything from Iron Maiden, Priest, Sabbath and DIO to more progressive bands like RUSH and YES, helped shape Pete’s tone & style giving a truly unique voice that fits seamlessly into HOWZAT.
Pete’s favourite bassists include, Jimmy Bain, Doug Pinnick, Chris Squire, Geddy Lee, & Bob Daisly.
He has performed in numerous original bands and in the early 90’s shared song writing duties with one band, which their first CD release gained interest form Atlantic Records, leading to a showcase show at the Gasworks in Toronto.
His gear mainly consists of Warwick and Spector bass guitars as well as Traynor and Hartke amps and cabs. This combination of basses and amplification sets the tone that is a pleasure to hear with HOWZAT.
AKA “Handsome Dan” studied the piano at The Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto.
After years of touring North America and Europe, Dan settled in London, Ontario and continued to polish his craft with numerous studio musicians.
In 2018 Handsome Dan became a permanent member of HOWZAT. His classic rock and classical training have brought an incredible sound to the band. Being a multi-instrumentalist, Dan possesses the know how to bring seamless musical elements into the band’s original compositions, without fighting any of the other instruments.