Meet the members of south Florida alternative rock band, Pandarama
(From left to right) Robert Fiallos(bass), Christian "Panda" Benabe(vocals), William Snyder(drums) and Steven Quintanilla (guitar) perform at the Doppler Music Festival at Florida International University during winter break.
The percentage “37.5%” is actually the summation of ‘how gay the band is.’
Former bassist, Ryan Clarkin, is openly bisexual, singer Christian “Panda” Benabe is openly gay as well, with Steven Quintanilla and William Snyder being the only straight members.
“[Quintanilla] came up with this equation and he went through percentages of who was what percent gay/straight and divided it between the four of us. Then he came up with the percentage 37.5% and I was like, that’s it! That’s the name of the EP!” said Benabe.
37.5% is just the beginning of for the band Pandarama. 2018 is set to be a busy year for the band, as they plan on releasing their second EP sometime in February.
Beginning in 2014, Pandarama began as a pair between Benabe and guitarist Quintanilla. Benabe at the time sang covers of his favorite songs, but was frustrated that did not have any other musical talent other than singing/songwriting.
One day Benabe overheard Quintanilla mention how he wanted to work with someone who could sing and write lyrics, and before they knew it, the two were connecting over their passion for songwriting thus creating a duo.
“[Panda] came up to me and was like, Oh, I can sing,” said Quintanilla, a senior majoring in Marketing, “and I was like, okay, let’s try it out.”
Pandarama posted flyers at Miami-Dade College campuses in search for more members. The advertisement intrigued student William Snyder, who’s fascination led to his position as the drummer for Pandarama.
“I told them, hey, I want to audition.” Snyder said when he first met the band. “I was super polite and super not myself the first practice. From then on, I stayed because it worked out.”
Originally, the group was introduced to Clarkin, who was the band’s first bassist. Ryan dreams led elsewhere and he enlisted in the Navy right after the release of their first EP. Finding a bassist was the biggest obstacle the group had gone through since their birth, according to the band.
Pandarama consists of students from both FIU and Miami Dade College
Robert Fiallos was founded by Benabe through the website BandMakes, a website that connects prospective players to bands. At the time, Fiallos was in Nicaragua for personal reasons, but was also looking to join a band.
“We started talking and they began interviewing me because they thought I was a killer or something,” Fiallos said. “After that, I came back to Miami. They had three other bassists, and I was the best one because I’m the best.”
The name Pandarama was not solidified until the band’s first gig. Quintanilla poked at Benabe for having a text signature back in 2009 with the word “Pandarama” in it. Yet, they did not settle on the name until the host of their first gig needed to introduce the band.
“The host was like ‘oh, what should I call you guys?” sad Benabe. “I was like, Oh, I’m going to mix our names together. [Quintanilla]’s instagram handle was ‘og_flacko’ so I was like Panda OG Flacko. Steven goes ‘What! No! Pandarama! Just call it Pandarama!’”
From then on, the band continued to pursue their dreams in anyway they could. The group hopes to tour other cities in Florida such as Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and branch out to places such as Nashville.
"[Quintanilla] came up with this equation and he went through percentages of who was what percent gay/straight and divided it between the four of us. Then he came up with the percentage 37.5% and I was like, that’s it! That’s the name of the EP!” said Benabe.
Back in Miami, Pandarama’s success has led the band to their first award nominations for Best Acoustic Act and Best Music Video at the 2016 Oski Awards. The award show was named after a Miami music promoter named Oski Gonzalez, who wanted to create a award show to honor the best local underground musicians.
The alternative-rock band was nominated following the release of the release of “37.5%,” however due to scheduling conflicts, the band was unable to attend the award show.
“Twice we weren’t able to go, but we’re hoping we’re able to go next year and hopefully be nominated again,” said Benabe “it was great to be nominated for something, for two things actually. And we hope we can do that again and actually experience the awards next year.”