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, Bufflehead is the New Music Monday highlight!
Bufflehead is a grunge-revival band from Victoria that was initially started by Robbie Shirriff and Tyler Ennis.
Today, on October 7th, Bufflehead is releasing their first single “Felt Better” off their upcoming full-length self-titled album.
Initially, Shirriff says that after touring solo and playing in a country/folk band called Old Towns, he and Ennis were bored of that project.
“We kind of abandoned that entirely because by the time it took us to write and demo these country songs, I had started writing new music with the idea that it was going to be kind of like punk and grunge,” Shirriff told Victoria Buzz.
“We realized that was just the inception of a new band, a new project.”
The band is now comprised of Shirriff and Jeff Kalesnikoff, who also plays in the local band Acres of Lions with Ennis.
“Jeff had heard our demos and was interested in joining Bufflehead,” Shirriff said.
“What he brought, creatively, to this project was integral to fully realizing Bufflehead as a band.”
Shirriff says that Ennis is soon moving to Edmonton and will no longer be able to be the band’s main drummer, but he will always be a member of the band and he is the one who played drums on the band’s forthcoming album.
They added that Lauren Giorgio who currently plays in the band Neighbourly wrote many of the bass parts that were recorded by Shirriff on the record.
Another honorary member of the band is Layton Kraymer, according to Shirriff. He produced the record and helped it come to life over the course of a year.
The first single off this album is titled “Felt Better”.
Shirriff says this song is about experiencing despair and anxiety, but sitting with them in order to move through these negative emotions and grow.
“Things happen, and then you know, they are not happening,” they said.
“Nothing is permanent and everything is moving through you or you’re moving through it, however you want to look at it.”
Shirriff added that Kraymer pushed the band to really put themselves into this song and used tape and other recording techniques to get the notion of what the song is about through to the listener.
“So you hear a lot of fun stuff, ear candy and weird stuff that I think adds to the general atmosphere of the song.”
Initially, the words to “Felt Better” were written when Shirriff was solely playing as Old Towns but it never found life within that project.
Shirriff says once he started considering songs for Bufflehead that had already been written, this one was a stand-out in the way that the lyrics and the sound lined up more congruently.
Preview “Felt Better” off Bufflehead’s forthcoming, self-titled record below:
To listen to the song in full visit Bufflehead’s Spotify page and check out their Bandcamp for more.
Currently, Shirriff says they are looking to find a new rhythm section for the band, a bassist and a drummer.
Once they have found their new members, Bufflehead hopes to play some shows on the island and on the mainland, however Shirriff did note that this project has always been about the process and not about the results for them.
Follow Bufflehead on Instagram to keep up with shows they are playing and when their full album will be released.
Related:
- New Music Monday: Julian Marrs processes loss through creating art on self-titled album
- New Music Monday: liquidjane pulls songs from subconscious on ‘Light Matter’ EP
- New Music Monday: Prince Shima creates ‘Half Earth Socialism’ as soundtrack for video game
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.
“Stations like CFUV and the people that run it, or the people that take an active role in running it, its integral to the community and its integral to the arts,” said Shirriff.
“While some albums get released and get lost in the sauce, so to speak, CFUV is still curating music and songs for you to listen to based on their own taste and other criterias which is just amazing in this digital age when people are just listening to algorithms and robots telling them what to like and listen to.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of Bufflehead in the comments below.
