New alt-rock band climbing Ottawa’s live music ladder

Ottawa-based alt-rock band, Broken By Friday, is making a name for themselves in the live music scene and can hardly wait to release their first single, Empty Little Jars.

Broken By Friday formed in the beginning of 2025, with lead singer Beau Santana joining over the summer. The group’s music combines elements of punk, prog rock, classic rock and thrash metal.

Balancing a band while in school with a side job leaves very little room for deep, intensive recording sessions. Most of the band’s time gets put towards practising for gigs. Still, they try to make sure they bring new originals and covers to their shows.

“We are the pioneers of our generation, of our stage,” said Santana, an Algonquin College radio broadcasting alumni.

Santana works in construction during the day, and at night, he brings electric energy to live venues across the city. At every show, he rocks a bold makeup look with a gothic, clown-inspired flair that makes him impossible to ignore.

“I don’t think I’ve had a night where it hasn’t been sweated off completely,” Santana said. “I’m not one for the fancy pants products. I’d rather let the makeup tell a story of what happened, like a footprint can tell you where it’s been.”

Kuba Kaczorek, Broken By Friday’s former drummer and current bassist, writes solo music and practises game development. He has spent the last two months recovering from a leg injury he sustained at a Korn and Gojira concert, an accident that now has him walking with a cane.

“I was in the mosh pit during Gojira, and someone pushed me,” he said. “I tried to land on my leg and ‘snap.’ Next thing I know, two good Samaritans were dragging me over to the security.”

“I got to watch the rest of Gojira from the back of the venue as we tried to figure out the paramedic situation,” Kaczorek said. “I didn’t even see a single song from Korn.”

Sami Zeng, the band’s lead guitarist and writer of Empty Little Jars, has been surfing the job market since graduating from Carleton University this year with a bachelor of arts in psychology and a minor in design.

“I was working at Tim Hortons over the summer, but that, plus the biweekly shows we were doing, killed my body,” Zeng said.

Zeng also pursues photography recreationally and enjoys attending concerts.

The band has recently resumed practice after taking a short break following their last gig in late October. They have a show coming up at the Rainbow Bistro with Four Eyed Muscle Man and Juventud on Dec. 20, and a New Year’s show on Jan. 2 at LIVE! on Elgin with Shirley and The Burningtree, if your wallet isn’t broken by Christmas.

Broken By Friday thrives on the rush of performing live, treating every gig like a party while helping turn Ottawa into a band city. Each member brings a different musical background to the group. With several ideas in the works and some still on the back burner, the band loves writing together. When they find a break between shows, Broken By Friday plans on returning to the studio to bring some unfinished ideas to life and build on their release of Empty Little Jars.