Carrot River band Shockwave is performing at Telemiracle. So far, the band has already collected $13,000 in donations.
Bobby Derksen, Andrew Derksen, Jeff Doerksen and Ashley Huff are on a roll. After forming a band in May 2016, they auditioned for Telemiracle in November and held a successful fundraiser Feb. 11.
The event, Sweethearts' Dance, was organized by the band. With help from a silent auction and raffle, $13,000 was raised – so far.
Telemiracle is a cause close to the band’s heart.
“Bobby and Andrew’s sister Loretta is special needs and Telemiracle has helped their family a lot, so this is really, really huge for them. Bobby and Andrew were the ones that wanted to really get going on this,” said Huff during an interview Feb. 13.
The band auditioned in November with Magic, a song by Canadian band Walk off the Earth, mixing in music from Adele and Rihanna.
“The audition went really good. We talked to them after and we had really good vibes, with the questions and answers, everything went really smooth,” said Andrew.
Shockwave got the 4:28 a.m. slot on March 5. The bandmates aren’t sure if they’ll stay awake or get up early – but they promise to bring adrenaline to their performance.
“It’s a pretty huge opportunity for us and we’ve never been televised, so we’re very excited for that and the exposure. But mostly giving back to Telemiracle is a pretty huge deal,” said Bobby.
“It’s just something we’ve always wanted to do,” said Andrew.
The band hasn’t quite defined a style yet, though they sing some rock and country and have one original song so far.
“We don’t really know yet because we’re trying to please everybody that we play for. We kind of do a little bit of everything right now,” said Andrew.
“We are a fresh group, but we have performed for different venues – one was the Five Acre Shaker,” said Bobby. “We’ve come a long ways in a very short time. We opened up for the Northern Pikes this past year. It’s been amazing and it just kind of snowballed from there.”
Andrew and Bobby are brothers, Jeff is their cousin and Ashley is the self-described “odd girl out.” All four are Carrot River residents.
