Uncle Strut Finds Their Sound With Home At Last
With duets, found sounds, and a fearless collaborative process, the Vancouver band’s debut album delivers surprises at every turn.
By Molly Labenski
- Published on
The band is made up of singer-guitarist Tyson McNamara, bassist Simon Tejani, drummer Quincy Flowers, and newest addition Jasper Matthias on lead guitar. Matthias was added to the lineup after what the band jokingly refers to as “Strut Initiation,” which included learning 18 cover songs at once, performing in a clown costume, and growing a moustache to match the band’s aesthetic. “We all had to step up and be better musicians because Jasper is so good,” says McNamara. “It brought up our professionalism.”
Though each member brings something different to the songwriting process, they agree that collaboration is key. McNamara explains, “Someone will write the bones of the song with the chord progression and basic lyrics, and then everyone will chime in and have their input and ideas.”
That input can sometimes push a song in surprising directions. Tejani originally envisioned their latest single “Natalie” as a finger-style folk tune. “The boys said ‘fuck that’ though,” he says laughing about the track that is now a shimmering indie pop song. Tejani admits, “I’ve gotten caught up in that a couple times—bringing in an idea and being very set on how it should sound. It’s part of the process to give the song away to everyone, and when you let it go, it turns into something you could never have imagined.”
The band doesn’t work with clearly defined creative roles, either. “Something is only finished when we all like it,” Tejani says. That openness sometimes leads to unexpected collaborators, too. For their single “7:30,” the band had their sound engineer Eva Lucia temporarily fill in as a placeholder on vocals. Her voice ended up being a perfect fit, and the finished track became an emotionally fraught duet between two partners in a dissolving relationship.
Home At Last also incorporates snippets of dialogue and ambient sound throughout to give the record an added narrative quality—something that wouldn’t have worked in a playlist-style string of singles. Making a full-length album allowed Uncle Strut to experiment with cohesion and dynamics across an extended runtime. The bands they find most appealing themselves all rose to fame on full albums, and Uncle Strut wanted to offer fans the same immersive experience. While releasing singles might have been the safer bet, the band felt that taking the longer, more involved route allowed them to grow.
Following the release of Home At Last, Uncle Strut is setting their sights on more touring, more songwriting, and a growing presence on the Canadian music scene. Fans can catch their album release party at the Hollywood Theatre in Vancouver on May 31, and a set at the Phillips Backyard Festival in Victoria later this summer. Expect funky basslines, face-melting guitar solos, bubble machines, hair flips, and a full dose of moustache-clad mayhem. If Uncle Strut is any indication, coming home never sounded so good.
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