Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
This week, Juniper Smile is the New Music Monday highlight!
Juniper Smile is a four-piece alt-rock/pop band from right here in Victoria that has recently released their debut EP, Letters To My Lovers.
Juniper Smile recorded Letters To My Lovers with Nastasha Streiling on vocals, James Harrison and Braxton Glass on guitar, Griffin Pickel on drums and Chris Compton on bass—with Harrison, Glass and Compton having all played with each other previously in another prominent Victoria band, Saltwater Cowboy.
Following Saltwater Cowboy’s near-sold out show at the Capital Ballroom in April 2023, their singer and drummer both moved away, leaving the remaining band members to begin looking to the future.
Streiling says that she was approached by Glass, who asked if she would be interested in taking over on vocals for the band and they began jamming together.
Together, they quickly realized that this wouldn’t be Saltwater Cowboy 2.0, instead it was a brand new project with a different approach to songwriting.
“We kind of realized that having my vocals and also, with me being a songwriter, it became a new project,” Streiling told Victoria Buzz.
“Now, everyone else is a lot more involved in songwriting which is cool because it became this very collaborative thing, but it definitely took a while to find a new sound.”
Through practice, jamming and writing together, Juniper Smile found their sound and began writing and playing shows throughout the city.
Streiling says that hers and Harrison’s writing style is very similar, as they have many similar influences.
“It just kind of evolved from there, and I think it’s still evolving, we’re just always figuring out our sound,” she said.
Since recording the EP, Glass has left Juniper Smile in order to focus on a new project, Bong Witch, but Streiling says they could not have found the same sound for Letters To Your Lovers without his efforts.
On their debut EP, Streiling says that one of the highlight tracks for her is “His New Girlfriend.”
She brought the lyrics and a skeleton of a song to the guys and they intuitively were able to help her flesh it out.
“It’s a song that I wrote about an experience that I had just before I moved to the island,” explained Streiling.
“I was at this party and I was dating someone and they weren’t at the party because I was visiting friends. This girl I didn’t know came up to me and basically told me that the guy I was with was a really bad dude because she had dated him in the past, and it was this really bizarre moment.”
She said her immediate reaction in that moment was to dismiss both the comment and the person who made it, but in hindsight, she realized there was truth to what she was told.
“You realize this very wonderful woman was trying to warn me and help me out, and I realized that by the end of it,” said Streiling.
“[The song] is very inspired by these more modern pop hits where it’s more about aligning with other women and being on each other’s side.”
Streiling added that what makes the song for her is the call-and-response parts with her and Harrison on backing vocals.
“I feel like having the ability to add in these extra vocals, especially having a male vocal counterpart, can really give a song that has a story more colour.”
Preview Letters To Your Lovers and “His New Girlfriend” below:
To listen to the EP in its entirety, Letters To Your Lovers can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music or Bandcamp.
Though the EP was released on December 3rd, Juniper Smile will be playing their official release show at Wheelies on Saturday, January 4th, alongside blush. and Luna Land.
To keep up with Juniper Smile and know about future shows, follow them on Instagram.
Streiling says that after their release show, the band will be focussing on writing and preparing for their next chance to get in the studio. They recently received a grant, which they will use to fund making their first full length album next year.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Oily James embraces the weird on ‘Head Phone Music’ EP
- New Music Monday: Best Man explores grief through ‘gut-wrenching harmonies’ on debut EP
- New Music Monday: Poncho brings freestyle Afrobeats sound to Victoria from Ghana
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“I know all of us have been on CFUV in various forms, in various projects and they’ve always supported local music, they’ve always given people opportunities and they really champion local music,” Streiling said.
“They are so integral to the local scene.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Juniper Smile in the comments below.
