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.
To date, there have been 69 New Music Monday features published through this collaboration.
This week, Braxton Glass is the New Music Monday highlight!
Braxton Glass has played in several popular Victoria-based projects, including Saltwater Cowboy, Juniper Smile and Bong Witch—all of which possess a unique sound from one another.
He doesn’t just play a key part as a bandmate in these projects though, recently Glass branched out and began a solo instrumental guitar project.
In April, Glass released a four-track EP called Cascades, inspired by a solo backpacking trip to Ruby Mountain in Washington State.
Following the release of Cascades, Glass hit the ground running and began recording his most recent release, a seven-track record called Ballad of the Great Horned One.
These compositions were meant to build upon what he accomplished on his first EP, incorporating some additional influences ranging from progressive rock, post-rock and black metal.
“I wanted to create something that was a bit more melody-driven, stronger and commanding,” Glass told Victoria Buzz. “Something with a bit more meat to dig into.”
He added that he feels where on Cascades, he got to create nice, pretty sounding compositions, on Ballad of the Great Horned One he got to lean into darker, more dissonant themes.
Where Cascades was a concept album about one specific place in time, this album was inspired by the Pacific Northwest, the deserts of Utah and the works of Cormac McCarthy and Haruki Murakami.
“‘At the Bottom of a Well’ was a really textural song I wrote with three acts to it, and it’s based off of the Murakami novel, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle,” he explained.
“Its about this character who goes to a different dimension, so the first act is this chord progression, then there’s this transition piece and the third act is actually the same chord progression as the first part—just played in reverse order, with reverse delay.”
Highlight song – “Ballad of the Great Horned One”
The title track of his new album is a song with special meaning to Glass.
“Ballad of the Great Horned One” was written while Glass was making weekly trips up to Nanaimo for work.
His day job required him to make the trek up island every week for two days, which allowed Glass to have a lot of free time on his hands as he opted to camp out near town for those days as a way to connect with nature.
“It’s an homage to the time I spent in Nanaimo, when I used to camp out there and there were a ton of great horned owls that would keep me up at night,” said Glass.
“It’s weird, juxtaposed with being away from home for work can be lame—unless you’re into living out of your car—but you’re surrounded by beauty.”
He added that often, he would get off of work and just play guitar in nature, taking notice of how surroundings change through the seasons.
“It’s soul nourishing in a lot of ways, being close to stuff like that,” he explained.
“In the winter there are a ton of owls and in different seasons there can be a ton of frogs and they all keep you up at all hours, but that song is an homage to that time.”
“The first time you hear an owl is crazy, and then there’s a whole chorus of them, it’s great, but then it goes until 2 a.m. and it’s not so cool anymore,” he laughed.
It was there, camping in Nanaimo with his guitar and a stool to sit on that Glass wrote most of this newly-released record.
Listen to Ballad of the “Great Horned One” below:
<iframe style=”border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;” src=”https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3131029734/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=3614865435/transparent=true/” seamless><a href=”https://braxtonglass.bandcamp.com/album/ballad-of-the-great-horned-one”>Ballad of the Great Horned One by Braxton Glass</a></iframe>
To listen to the full album online. It can be found on all major streaming platforms: Bandcamp, Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify.
Now, Glass’ job has come to an end and he will no longer be travelling to and from Nanaimo every week.
He says he will be taking the time off to continue writing music for this project and for his band Bong Witch.
As of this publication, Glass is travelling to Peru on a vacation, but says that when he gets back, he will be looking to book some shows in April and May.
Glass is also eyeing a few music festivals on Vancouver Island and beyond for when he gets back.
Follow Braxton Glass and Bong Witch on Instagram to stay up-to-date with any shows or releases that are coming down the line.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Braxton Glass records instrumental EP reflecting on life-changing hike
- New Music Monday: MIINA teases upcoming album release with new music video
- New Music Monday: Dana Sipos releases ‘Golden Molten’ ahead of nation-wide tour
- New Music Monday: CORRODE releases split EP with hockey-themed hardcore band Slewfoot
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.
“Troy [Lemberg] does such a great job curating the tunes, and all the DJs too,” said Glass.
“Frankly, they are a pillar of the music community, with the Eventide music series. I would say they do more than any other radio station in town to support local music and arts.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Braxton Glass in the comments below!
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