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 88 New Music Monday features published through this collaboration.
This week, puddler is the New Music Monday highlight!
puddler is a three-piece band of seasoned musicians from Victoria who came together to try a different sound that was more intentional.
The band is comprised of Anton Wilson on guitar and vocals, Will Jagger on bass and Collin Rennie on drums.
All three members have been active in the music scene for some time now, having played in projects such as Blush., Homestand, Peanut Butter Telephone, gre divorce and Moms Talk.
Wilson had been thinking about starting a new project and recalled seeing Jagger and Rennie playing in their past bands when considering who to recruit.
“I started thinking about creating a project that was a little different than what I’m used to playing and I wanted to explore something more energetic and louder,” Wilson told Victoria Buzz.
“I knew of Will and of Collin, because none of us really hung out before this project started. When I reached out to Will, I remembered playing a show with him around a year ago and he was ripping synth and playing some crazy samples and stuff—that kind of energy is something I was looking for.”
As for Rennie, Wilson said he had seen him play before and knew he could also bring the right amount of energy to the project.
The three of them only needed one jam to see if they meshed well together.
“From there things just kind of blasted off—it was the most productive first jam session I’ve ever had,” explained Wilson.
Rennie said he was sent demos of the songs Wilson had written that were ready to flesh out and that he couldn’t wait to get in a room together and explore where the songs could go.
“I wanted to midi map drums, just sitting on my couch wanting to play with those guys, like immediately engaged,” said Rennie.
“I feel like we all brought crazy energy right off the top which was nice—it was welcome but not expected. You can’t really expect that’s how it’s going to start, but when it does, it’s like, oh baby, let’s go.”
Jagger added that their ability to mesh so well came from their past experiences in bands that have very different sounds to puddler, and their willingness to dive into something new.
Though they all played in bands with markedly different sounds before, they came together with a DIY ethos that led their decisions in how to approach this project.
“I wanted to do something that felt very authentic, but also something we could have fun with,” said Wilson.
He pointed to a forthcoming music video the band shot over the past couple weeks, and how all planning, shooting and production work was taken on with a DIY mentality.
Wilson noted that he was inspired by several Philadelphia bands and other west coast projects when forming puddler.
Jagger said he has been really inspired by some energetic bands in Vancouver and the madness they bring to shows.
Some examples of these influences include They Are Gutting a Body of Water, Hotline TNT, Title Fight, Happy Diving, Toner, Piss and Concrete Vehicles.
Rennie, on the other hand, says that he feels his approach is unique because the sound puddler has embraced is not one he generally listens to on his own time.
When all of these influences and inspirations come together and mix, what puddler produces is a “hyper-grunge” sound that blends elements of grunge, hyper-pop and shoegaze.
On Friday, October 30th, puddler released their debut single, “melt,” which will be one of many songs on a forthcoming album titled Learning to Dive, which the band plans on releasing in early spring 2027.
Highlight track – “melt”
Wilson said that “melt” was chosen as the band’s first single because it came together really naturally. It also happened to be the last song written before puddler went into the studio and it was the first song they recorded for the album.
He also noted it felt like an accessible first glimpse into what puddler has to offer.
As for the lyrical content, Wilson says this is a song he wanted to be introspective and subjective to meaning.
At the time he wrote the lyrics to “melt,” the song was loosely based on experiences of dissociation and avoidance.
“Kind of an internal unravelling,” Wilson said of the song’s meaning.
He also noted that the song feels unique because since he wrote the lyrics, he feels like the meaning has already changed slightly for himself.
“How you feel about a song and what the lyrics mean to you kind of change over time and a lot of the style of writing I do, is like, meanings shift,” Wilson explained.
“I’m sure what it means to me now will mean something different in three or four months and I think that’s the beauty of its vague introspective writing style.”
Rennie told Victoria Buzz his favourite part of this song, and the process of writing it, comes with an “explosion of sound” featured prominently in the mix.
He explained that the explosion came from him mapping out what his beat was going to be in the song through a digital audio workspace. He made a few attempts and accidentally plugged them into the demo track too aggressively, but it ended up working out for the better.
“That’s the song, that one moment, for me, when the music kicks back in,” said Rennie.
Jagger said he often feels like he is second guessing himself after recording a piece of music, but that this song’s creation felt different.
“We didn’t even give ourselves time to let those kinds of thoughts come to be with this song,” he said.
“We all feel really stoked with it—I know it’s good and I’m super excited with it.”
Check out “melt” by puddler below:
puddler’s music is also available via Bandcamp, Tidal, Apple Music and Spotify.
Now that their first single is released, puddler has been working on releasing the music video they made for “melt.”
In addition to that, they have a show coming up that has yet to be announced. It will take place on Friday, November 13th. More details have yet to be released.
More details on that show and their music video will be announced soon.
Keep an eye on puddler’s Instagram to stay up to date on shows and future releases.
Related:
- New Music Monday: PINDN explores addiction and recovery on debut album ‘Spirits Back’
- New Music Monday: JP Meldrum creates cartoonish experimental electronic record
- New Music Monday: Amnesiak speaks to trans experience on latest album
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.
“CFUV is at the centre of it all out here,” said Jagger.
“They’re so willing to help everyone, no matter what and it’s really sweet to have an institution like that in the community.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of puddler in the comments below!
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