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, Horseback Jesus is the New Music Monday highlight!
Horseback Jesus is a Victoria-based art-rock and noise band that recently released their first four-song EP, The Cart.
The band is comprised of Amancio LeRoux on lead vocals and guitar, Emmett Roiko on drums, Luvy Vishek on bass and Eric Killian on guitar.
LeRoux says this project first began in 2022 when he was living in Vancouver.
“I actually did not have a band yet and a friend of mine had this awesome band from Montreal called Piss for Pumpkin and wanted to play in Vancouver, but wasn’t able to book a gig space, but knew I was plugged into the scene,” LeRoux told Victoria Buzz.
“I ended up hooking them up with a friend’s backyard on the condition that my band could open for them, but I just sort of left out that I did not yet have a band,” they laughed.
LeRoux quickly put together a band and played the show alongside Roiko’s main project, the Victoria-based punk band Dastard.
After this show, LeRoux moved back to Victoria where they were born and raised, and began jamming with Roiko in 2024.
Eventually Killian would join as well, initially on electric cello, but soon thereafter he was playing guitar and Vishek would be the last to join on bass.
“That’s how Horseback Jesus came to be,” said LeRoux.
The band says that their debut EP, The Cart, began as a collection of a lot of songs that they had been working on for a while.
Horseback Jesus takes a really collaborative approach to writing their music, often letting the music take the lead over them, as many jam bands do.
Each member brings a myriad of diverse musical influences to the table that amalgamates and creates a truly unique sound, lying on the cusp of many sub-genres.
Vishek is inspired largely by punk sounds, Killian referenced Black Country New Road as a driving influence and all members said that they often hear people compare their music to post-rock band Slint.
“For the most part, I have a riff, or a collection of riffs, maybe a vague idea for a vocal melody and a few lyrics, and I try to cobble those together as best as I can and present them to the band,” explained LeRoux.
“We will just fill it out from there, and I think we have a really good idea of what we’re each looking for or trying to reach towards with what we’re playing, and we’re really good at building upon each other.”
He added that this writing approach often leads to longer tracks, but they choose to embrace this rather than editing their songs back.
As a feature song off The Cart, Horseback Jesus wanted to highlight “Horse” for New Music Monday this week.
This song features spoken-word lyrics, delivered as a sort-of monologue by LeRoux that is meant to be free-form.
“That one is all about being a young person. They’re all about that, you know, write what you know,” said LeRoux.
“‘Horse’ specifically is about addiction and the want to be wanted. It’s about the addiction to the want to be wanted, it’s about substance abuse, it’s about seeking connection, it’s about trying to tame something that you’re not able to get a hold on.”
They added that the feeling of disempowerment that comes with these themes was what they wanted to convey through their spoken-word lyrics and through the music.
The over 12-minute song was actually pared down by the band from an initial 16-minute recording.
One cool thing about this track that LeRoux noted is that his vocals can be heard in a backing track that was recorded live off the floor, before he was able to record his dub over the beds.
This results in an unintentional vocal effect which for the band, makes the song so much more interesting.
Listen to “Horse” from Horseback Jesus’ debut EP, The Cart, below:
To listen to the rest of The Cart, check out Horseback Jesus on Bandcamp, Tidal or Spotify.
Coming up soon, Horseback Jesus will be playing their first Vancouver show at KW Studios on December 6th.
Their next Victoria gig is scheduled for New Year’s Eve, where they will be ringing in the new year at Little Fernwood alongside EAT!, Fan Girl and Krystal Divination.
The Little Fernwood show will also mark Roiko’s last show with the band.
Aside from playing shows, Horseback Jesus is always working on new music and are already planning their next release.
“Big things coming soon,” LeRoux laughed. “As local bands always say, huge things coming soon.”
To stay up to date with Horseback Jesus and all they are up to, follow them on Instagram.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Pony Gold surrenders to feeling on debut full length album
- New Music Monday: Drama Queen releases debut album on themes of romanticizing life
- New Music Monday: Gabe Elias taps into subconscious on debut album ‘Many Long Goodbyes’
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.
“Charting in any way on a radio station is just so cool, such a cool feeling. I like how it’s even an option for smaller bands to be able to do that,” said Vishek.
“CFUV is awesome,” Killian added. “There are so many cool shows that are organized by CFUV or with their help.”
“Everything that I’ve released in Victoria has gotten a lot of help from CFUV…If you’re in the music scene, you can see their work everywhere.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Horseback Jesus in the comments below!
