About: Jeff Stempka
Jeff Stempka is a songwriter and vocalist based in Nashville, Tennessee. Originally from the town of North East, Pennsylvania, Jeff has been performing as a solo musician and with various groups for the past 25 years.
In the early, isolating days of the pandemic, Jeff committed to dusting off and completing songs that had been on the shelf for years, in addition to crafting new material inspired by the perspective shift of growing older.
His debut EP "Songs from Pennsylvania," recorded at Milkboy Studios in Philadelphia, was his first exploration into studio recording as a solo artist. The “Broadwings" EP is the next step in this exploration, and it dives deeper into collaborative songwriting and recording processes.
Meet the Band
Pat Doyle
Pat Doyle is a musician based in Pittsburgh. He previously lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he met his wife and fellow Passin’ Thru, Abby Badach Doyle. He is a founding member of Gem City Revival, a folk trio active in the Erie scene from 2016-19. Pat and Abby relocated to Pittsburgh in 2020, where they eventually formed the Passin’ Thrus with longtime friends Jeff Stempka and Mark Omiatek. He provided bass, backing vocals and guitar on the band’s debut EP “Broadwings.” The album’s virtue, according to Pat, is its ability to conjure the ramshackle landscape in which its heart-stricken heroes chase a thing that seems always to elude them, whether it’s love, redemption or a passing railcar.
Abby Badach Doyle
Abby Badach Doyle is a Pittsburgh-based songwriter, vocalist and fiddle player. Originally from Erie, Pennsylvania, Abby got her start performing and recording with folk/jazz combo The Heliotropes. In 2016, she co-founded the Americana trio Gem City Revival, spending four years logging stage time at Western Pennsylvania venues and festivals and picking up a Rock Erie Music Award in 2017. After relocating to Pittsburgh in April 2020, Abby’s focus shifted to songwriting and recording. As a classically trained violinist, Abby lends precision to the Passin’ Thrus arrangements and harmonies – but she’s most creatively fed by the rebellious, unbridled joy of rock ‘n’ roll.
Mark Omiatek
Hailing from a corroded oil boomtown in the Western Pennsylvania wilderness, creative ethnologist and visual artist Mark Omiatek has pursued lifelong music as a tinkerer, soloist, drunken-teen-party reveler and oppressed jam-session understudy. He is the Passin’ Thrus’ foremost vintage guitar collector and gear-addiction 12-step survivor. As the only son of hopelessly dreaming 1970’s troubadours, his childhood homes were filled with hazy band photos, memorabilia, and instruments that exceeded the value of the homes themselves. A recently minted professional musician on the scene in York, Pennsylvania, Mark is a guitarist, steel player, and singer. Mark is a graduate of the expressionistic, hopelessly phallic school of The Lost Highway.
Bill Schill
Bill Schill hails from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and has been a visible figure in Pittsburgh's music scene for nearly two and a half decades. A multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, Bill is the lead singer of the band Locks & Dams, an accomplished Americana band in Pittsburgh. His primary instrumental expertise is percussion, which shines through on the Broadwings EP. The Passin’ Thrus pulled Bill into the EP fairly late in the project when they were looking to fill out the rhythm section of each of the tracks. (Fun fact: Jeff and Bill met several career changes ago at a steel company, when their offices were across from each other.) Bill’s ability to understand the sentiment of the songs and lend fitting percussive interpretations was an exciting experience to bring the EP to life.