Q&A: The Boojums are Fully and Freely Representing Themselves on Self-Titled Debut Album
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY IZZY PETRAGLIA ☆
WITHIN THEIR DESIRE TO ESCAPE FROM THE UPBRINGINGS OF A SMALL TOWN, Sara Johnston, Willie Stratton and Patrick Murphy find self-acceptance as The Boojums. Hailing from Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia, the three-piece have developed a unique cult following for their 70s-garage rock sound. On their namesake debut album, the band explores freedom and self-reflection in a nostalgic yet forward-thinking manner–inspired by a newfound appreciation for the town they grew up in.
Feeling naturally drawn to executing raw, unfiltered sounds and visuals, the trio piqued the interest of a number of Reddit users after uploading their live VHS tapes to the platform. The unique edge from The Boojums is one that is not forced, but comes from doing what is true to their collective creative vision. Between live sets and their new album, the band’s continued emergence is actively strengthening the alternative rock scene in Nova Scotia and garnering attention from it to the world around them.
Johnston and Stratton discuss the come up of The Boojums further with Luna.
LUNA: You gained a strong following by uploading live VHS tapes to Reddit, where people have become enamoured by the feeling of an almost “modern-nostalgia” from your sound. Was that an intentional feeling you wanted to capture?
THE BOOJUMS: Yeah I think we just wanted it to appear and sound very raw and analogue, more imperfect and human. In this age of AI and endless computer plug-ins to fix things perfection has never been easier to attain, and we want to get away from that.
LUNA: What drew you to using VHS tapes in the first place? Furthermore, what prompted you to upload to Reddit rather than take the more ”traditional” social media platform route with Instagram or TikTok?
THE BOOJUMS: We didn’t really have a plan going in. We like the look and process of VHS tapes and the limits they give you. We like Reddit because it has more of a community feel, and felt like that was the best way to connect with like-minded people, rather than trying to get something trending on Instagram or TikTok which has never really been our goal.
LUNA: How do you find that the rising interest in owning/using tangible media like VHS tapes, film, vinyl, etc contributed to what drew people into the uploaded tapes on Reddit in the first place? In what other ways would you like to explore that rising interest in tangible media as you roll out your debut album?
THE BOOJUMS: People are craving tangible media! Streaming seemed like a revolution when it first started coming out for music and movies, but now that it has taken over a lot of people no longer have collections of records they love and favourite movies. Streaming has the convenience but there’s nothing like owning a copy of something from a band or artist you really like. I think a lot of people miss that. There’s also the feeling that it lasts - I don’t feel like our Apple Music playlists will be passed down to the next generation like our record collections might be!
LUNA: When working on the album, what were some unexpected sources of inspiration?
THE BOOJUMS: Living in a small town definitely had an impact, Port Hawkesbury is a pretty quiet town with a slower pace, and that’s a nice environment to create in. Being by (and in) the ocean is essential for Nova Scotians’ brains.
LUNA: The idea of small-town escapism is a prevalent theme within the album. What are some notable lessons you can recall when you reflect on your childhood to adulthood in Cape Breton? How do they relate or inform your debut record?
THE BOOJUMS: When you grow up in a small town the main objective is to get out as soon as you can. But it’s when you finally move away and learn more about the world that you start to really appreciate the quirkiness and weirdness about where you came from, and you come to embrace it. Falling in love with where we came from again is a part of self-acceptance, and I think that process shaped the album a lot.
LUNA: Furthermore, how has the music scene in Cape Breton influenced your artistic career?
THE BOOJUMS: There’s a great scene for rock and roll in Sydney these days. Before starting the band, going to shows with bands like Conductor and 10-Slip was really inspiring. Seeing people making a scene happen with more alternative music away from the big city is pretty cool, and to see that people come out and support it is really encouraging. A lot of bigger bands don’t come out this way, so people need to make their own fun. Even if you don’t live in a big city, people still want to see good shows, and from what we’ve seen Cape Breton has been doing a really good job of that.
LUNA: Each of you cited your parents as your introduction to music, but what did it look like for you to begin discovering music on your own, in a way that informed your personal taste and now your band’s sound?
JOHNSTON: Finding records like Beck’s Mellow Gold, the White Stripes’ Elephant, and Franz Ferdinand’s debut album showed me that scrappy, distorted and lo-fi sounds really helped portray the rawness and DIY spirit that I was attracted to before I quite knew what it was that made those artists different from the usual stuff. As I got older that led to discovering other great artists like Chad Vangaalen, Death From Above 1979 and The Courtneys.
STRATTON: Getting whatever weird CDs I could find that were different from the ones my friends had was always exciting because it felt like I was the keeper of some secret ancient texts or something. One that really got me was a MOJO Magazine compilation CD called Heavy Nuggets that had these awesome heavy psych/proto-metal rarities that really inspired me because there was some really weird stuff in there that I would not have found on my own. I think that led me to find more experimental music like Animal Collective later on when I was in high school, they’ve always been a big inspiration.
MURPHY: For me, it was more discovering different drummers who had a unique sound, drummers like Benny Greb or Richard Spaven are two that come to mind, where I heard them play with a bunch of different bands or artists, and I could tell that it was them playing because they had such a distinct sound. I found it very inspiring that these drummers had their own voice and used that as a method of communication across whatever genre they were playing, and it really inspired me to speak through the music and say what I want to say within the context of the music I’m playing.
LUNA: Another overarching theme on the album is freedom. How do you define freedom, and how has it correlated to your upbringing and personal reflection?
THE BOOJUMS: I think carving your own path is something that is scary to do but can be very rewarding. We’ve all seen what it's like to go with the grain and we’ve all decided to live differently. I think that’s our idea of freedom
LUNA: Finally, in what ways has your debut album allowed you to feel a sense of freedom–both personally and in your musical career?
THE BOOJUMS: Just doing things the way we want is really great, we recorded it ourselves at home and that gave us time to get the kinds of sounds we wanted without anyone interfering with the process. It really represents us musically and as people. We also had the chance to work with other great people on this album like our label We Are Busy Bodies and our mixing engineer Darren Lawson who really helped us bring our vision to light.
