Not everyone can say they are a band member and full-time university student while maintaining a balanced social life. Benjamin Jardeleza, second-year Carleton University computer systems engineering student, is playing it all by ear.
Born and raised in Mississauga, Ont., Jardeleza’s passion for guitar began in Grade 9 after hearing Steven Vai’s “Tender Surrender.” He began teaching himself guitar through YouTube and eventually became involved in his high school’s extra-curricular music program, where he met friend and musician Cameron Carolan.
In September 2020, Carolan rounded together his university friends Churchill Reid, Martin Nash, Robert Lee and Jardeleza to form their band, CONNIE.
Described by audiences as punk, energetic and aggressive, CONNIE crosses funk and garage rock music genres.
CONNIE played their first live show in September 2022 and has since been opening venues and networking within Toronto’s music scene. Jardeleza said he views CONNIE’s musical process as a collaboration.
“Cameron and Church, our two lead singers, make lyrics, song structures, and everyone else just throws paint at it,” Jardeleza said. “I’ll experiment and get a little creative with ideas on my own, see what they think of it and usually we integrate it into the song.”
Reid, CONNIE’s lead singer and co-producer, said Jardeleza’s textural lead on guitar adds depth to the band’s songs and performances.
“He always brings his full effort and knows how to bolster the song,” Reid said. “[He] is hungry on stage. He looks like he’s got something to prove and wants to show it to people.”
Jardeleza’s friend and second-year computer science student Simon Pocsai said he admires the way Jardeleza balances school and music.
“[He] is driven to do music,” Pocsai said. “He’s also not unfamiliar with hard work, so he knows what he needs to get done.”
The most time-consuming element for Jardeleza is commuting between school in Ottawa, and Toronto, where CONNIE is based.
“When I have work and school to do, I start to value the time I do have for music more,” he said. “It separates the artistic part of my life from engineering.”
Most recently, the band played at Lee’s Palace on Feb. 17, a venue previously frequented by rock alumni Nirvana and Oasis.
“We got the gig from a recommendation of one of our friends … who knows the organizer of the show,” Carolan said. “The organizer checked out our band, liked us and thought we’d fit for the event.”
All proceeds from this performance and profits from CONNIE’s newest merchandise will go to the Lambda Foundation—a scholarship organization that supports racialized and LGBT+ postsecondary student researchers.
Carolan said the foundation is something the band can connect to. Four of five members of the band are racialized and one is non-binary.
“Giving back to a foundation like Lambda foundation really strikes a chord for us,” Carolan said. “I’d love to see more BIPOC and queer people given the same chances that have been so historically stripped from us by systematic racism and bigotry within the education system.”
Jardeleza said his biggest artistic inspiration is the identity he finds within his music. He described live performances as a “liberating experience” that delivers a “sense of validation.”
“You can see the audience’s reaction live when they’re loving the moment as you’re playing,” he said. “It’s a very euphoric experience.”
Jackson Murphy, a freelance musician who lived next door to Jardeleza in residence at Carleton their first year, fondly remembers Jardeleza playing guitar.
“[Jardeleza] being self-taught shows a passion you don’t see in many people. He’s not doing it for any other reason than enjoying it, so it gives him room to put in a lot of his own style,” Murphy said.
Jardeleza hopes to offer CONNIE fans a sense of wonder when listening to the band’s music.
“It’s something hard to express, but I want to recapture it every single time, and I try to achieve that when I go play in my band—this beauty that is not explainable [in] words, but everybody can feel it.”
Featured image provided by Benjamin Jardeleza.
