In the ever-growing music scene of Waterloo, a new band has joined the ranks of others such as Death Party Playground, Sundriver and Mumbolayo. Burnaby – we’ll call them local out of loyalty to their KW roots – has just released their first cassingle.
I know, cassette release? What year is this? It’s niche, and uniquely KW I like to believe.
Dylan Bravener, whom you may recognize as the bass player for DPP, is also the man behind the cassettes with his company 3 Nines Compact Cassettes.
“We played a show in January at Night School with Death Party Playground. It was a really great night, it was there we just talked to Dylan and just really connected with him,” Jeff Ringwald, guitarist and vocalist of Burnaby, explained.
“Dylan was great, he liked our stuff and said he wanted to release it on cassette. As a band we’ve been around for three or four years now, but we haven’t really released much.”
Ringwald went on to explain how such an opportunity could be attributed to the attitude found within Waterloo’s music scene.
“That’s what I really like about this community, they’re very involved with local stuff … everyone is just so understanding of everyone else, where they’re coming from, their feelings and what they stand for. There’s no judgment here, that’s my favourite part of the scene.”
Burnaby consists of four members, Ringwald, TJ Bruyea on bass, Conor Gray on drums and vocals and the newest member Luke King on guitar.
“I get joy out of hanging out with my friends and making music, if other people like it that’s cool. I’d love to make more of a life out of this, to make it more than what it is but it’s a hard industry.”
“We were always a three-piece until about six months ago when we decided to add an extra member just to fill up the sound. We want to start gigging out more, so we want a better live sound; more energy. When you’re recording you can layer a bunch of sounds over top but when you’re live you want to nail it.”
Ringwald discussed the importance of playing live.
“I find the biggest way to make an impact on someone is by having a sweet live set. To me, personally, that’s the way I’ve been hit by bands … you don’t really appreciate them until you listen to them live, and you get that feel for the band,” Ringwald said.
“You can invest in the band members as people, and get behind the message of the band. That’s the approach I want to take with it.”
For the most part, the musicians grew up together, meeting in school and performing together from there.
“To be honest, we’re just a bunch of really good friends playing together. We’re not necessarily the best musicians but I would rather play and hang out. At this point in our lives we’re part-time musicians,” Ringwald said.
Part-time musicians: they titled themselves this while explaining living in separate cities and having day jobs could restrict them but would never stop them.
“I get joy out of hanging out with my friends and making music, if other people like it that’s cool. I’d love to make more of a life out of this, to make it more than what it is but it’s a hard industry,” Ringwald said.
Burnaby’s cassingle will be released online on Bandcamp on March 16. The release consists of two songs “Sugar Brain” and “Laughing Losers”.
You can also check out their stop-motion music video “James Cameron The Song” on YouTube, which artfully features The Dude. To see Burnaby live make sure you go to Harmony Lunch on March 22.
Note: Editor-in-Chief Kurtis Rideout assisted 3 Nines Compact Cassettes with some of the design aspects of Burnaby’s cassingle.