Nova Scotia trio The Boojums released their self-titled album on Toronto-based label Having Fun Records last October, and it ROCKS! The band consists of Willie Stratton on guitar/vocals, Sara Johnston on bass/vocals, and Patrick Murphy on drums/vocals. Recorded live off the floor, the album packs a punch, with momentary elements from different genres, ranging from indie to psychedelic to garage rock.
Right out the gate, the punchy "Outta My Head" kicks off the album, and "feeling alright, feeling alright" was stuck in my head. There is a nostalgic, raw guitar garage rock feel, but also a forward-looking freshness. The lead singles "Burnin' Up" and "Wings of Fire" are both frantic. "Wings of Fire" is almost 'psycho-billy' in a way; it has that same energy.
The other tracks on the album are sharp, short, full of raw, abrasive guitar sounds, psychedelic guitar riffs, and prominent heavy bass lines. Tracks like "Meet in the Middle" have all the influence touch points of the Ramones, the Osees sound, and even a bit of White Stripes/Strokes.
I spoke with Will and Sara from the band, whose name derives from the Lewis Carroll poem "The Hunting of the Snark," not the Boojum burrito bar chain we have here in Ireland.
"That's true. But we do like burritos," joked Willie.
Congratulations on the debut record!
"We're pretty happy with how it came together. We did it in the comfort of our own home, on our own time, which is nice. We set time parameters; we were trying not to beat it to death."
Trying not to overcook it?
"Exactly!"
Sara is originally from Port Hastings, the next port town from Port Hawkesbury, while Willy grew up around Bedford, in the suburbs of Halifax. Willie had a long career as a solo artist, and Sara also plays in the band Skunk Motel, while drummer Pat Murphy plays in ~100 bands, living the "Halifax life," as Willie calls it jokingly, as the couple happily chill out in the country.
For a European, can you explain Eastern Canada and the Atlantic provinces—are all those provinces underrated?
"Yes. That's the cool part of Canada, in our opinion. Don't tell anyone," Willie said, laughing. "I think Canada is kind of hard to understand, maybe even to Americans or Europeans; everything is super far apart. Because of that, the culture really varies across the country. I just find that with the East Coast, too, we've got all these older provinces that are quite small, all clumped together. Then, as you go west, everything gets a lot bigger and farther apart. It's relatively easy to tour the East Coast because everything is still relatively close. I think there's a lot of East Coast bands popping off right now. I don't know why exactly, but it seems to be going through another little boom."
I've been wondering about those booms, because I've interviewed and played a lot of Canadian bands on my college radio show, as I'm partial to it since early Broken Social Scene. There are lots of different bands and sounds, especially from places as far apart as Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, Sudbury, and London, Ontario. One of the things, as in other countries, I think, is that there's been an explosion of music since we came out of the pandemic. I think anyone who's missed live music, or who's half-thought about being in a band, started a band, or picked up a band again. We've got these pockets of activity popping up all over the globe in multiple genres. It's great for music fans, and hopefully it continues!
"Yeah. I find the post-COVID scene is way more active than the pre-COVID scene. Immediately after COVID, people would kind of judge things based on how pre-COVID they seemed. But now, when someone says this feels very pre-COVID or something, pre-COVID sucks. There weren't that many shows going on—I mean, not where we were living. I remember many weekends when we'd check Facebook for events, looking for anything, and there wasn't much going on. There were a few metal shows. But since COVID-19, I find so many genres have exploded. There's this massive emo scene now all through the East Coast, and there are cool garage bands. There are also good dance and DJ nights. Now every time we go to Halifax, we're overwhelmed by too many options. It's cool!"
I know how DIY you are, making your own T-shirts, videos, music, and booking your own shows. What does it mean for a band like yourselves when Canadian publications such as Exclaim! add you to their ‘New Faves’—does that help give you a boost?
"We're very thankful for any attention we get. But I think, on the other hand, we try not to put value only in that stuff. For us, the biggest thing is having fun making music. If no one cared about it, we'd still probably make it, but we might not feel we should make as much. So, the attention's nice and anything in Exclaim! magazine is good encouragement, but I think we try not to bank too much on that, relying on that kind of attention." Sara chimes in: "We love it, though!"
The one thing that jumps across from the album is that it must be great fun to play live.
"Oh, yeah! That's been the driving force for us. We've played a lot live with this band or other bands, and that's the fun part. I like making records; that's fun in its own way. But I think more than anything, when we're writing songs and even recording them, we're considering what it's going to be like doing it live."
One of the tracks from the album, "Football," has folk storytelling with an almost Heartland rock vibe.
"I think that's a side of Nova Scotia music that, I'm going to sound cheesy here, but it's sort of steeped into the culture. You know what I mean? There's a big folk-song sort of tradition, with lots of trad and Celtic music around here. I think that is just sort of your baseline that you grow up with listening to as a kid; it's always there. I think that song is one where that comes out a bit."
I read somewhere that the album was recorded in a week, but I imagine these songs probably took a lifetime to percolate through.
"Pretty much. Some of them were written for this album; some were ones I wrote with a friend of mine for my solo stuff a while back, but we never put them out, and then reworked them quite a bit for this band. All the songs have different journeys, I guess, the way they've come to be."
Willie, you're married to Sara, but from a music relationship perspective, going from being a solo act to a more collaborative three-piece—was that a significant change for you?
"Part of the reason for starting this band is that Sara had already been playing with me for years, and Pat played in that band as well, when I was doing solo stuff. It's like I still had a band, and then I was kind of getting sick of my solo stuff. It was just kind of a natural next step, I think." Sara commented, "It's nice to start fresh, too, and have more of a collaborative way."
And Sara, are your vocals on "Dan's Transmission"?
"Oh, yes, that's me. I had a fear of singing for a long time, so I just didn't. I might have done a couple of 'screamy' things on Skunk Motel songs, or 'ooos' and that kind of thing. But then this was the first song we worked on together, and it just made sense for me to be from a female perspective. So, I gave it a go, and this is the first real recording of me ever singing."
What are your plans after this? Is there going to be another tour, or is it back to the studio recording and into that cycle again?
"I would say touring first. We want to start the next album soon. I think it's fun just to keep the momentum going and try to hit the ground running with it. But we also want to get back to Europe before we start making another album, get out to Ireland, all kinds of places really. We want to go everywhere."
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