Anyone with their ear to the ground for Canadian punk and rock ‘n’ roll music knows that the Atlantic provinces have been fertile ground for some of the country’s most distilled, no-frills, and hard-hitting newcomers.

The latest to make waves at home and abroad are Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia’s the Boojums. The Maritime outfit (lead singer-guitarist Willie Stratton, bassist Sara Johnston, and drummer Pat Murphy) formed in late 2024, but they’re already set to release their debut LP on October 31 via Toronto imprint Having Fun Records, an offshoot of venerated underground label We Are Busy Bodies who’ve championed artists like Rich Aucoin, Limblifter, Odonis Odonis, DD/MM/YYYY, Cuff the Duke, and Doldrums. Earlier this month, the Boojums also wrapped up a mini-jaunt over to the U.K. and Germany, including a sold-out show in London and a private event for Mick Jones of the Clash.

The Boojums’ full-length debut is a spirited, full-throttle blast of gritty, garage-y power pop bound to please fans of Terry Malts and Sam Coffey & the Iron Lungs. Recorded live off the floor, the 12-song collection channels the energy of the band’s raucous live shows. The Boojums is an album for dream-chasers, brimming with fantasies of escape, anything to disrupt their small-town idleness. Most poignantly, though, The Boojums is an album about embracing one’s hometown roots, or at least acknowledging that everyone carries a piece of their hometown with them wherever they go. And sometimes, the very place you’re from is the ultimate destination. Whether looking back on life or dreaming of the future, the Boojums are raw, real, heartfelt.

Northern Transmissions caught up with the Boojums via Zoom the day after the band made its U.K. debut. From the other side of the Atlantic, the trio talked Maritime music, their love of power pop and garage rock, working with Having Fun Records, the joys and advantages of living in a small town, and more.

Northern Transmissions: What are you guys spending the week doing?

Willie Stratton: We played a little private function at the art pavilion for Mick Jones of the Clash. We weren’t overthinking it at all! Mostly just stressing out. [Laughs]

NT: One of my first questions was going to be, “Does this all feel very sudden?” I feel like that might make it feel pretty sudden!

WS: Yeah, that’s kind of the vibe.

Sara Johnston: It’s really cool though!

NT: Sara, I know you play in Skunk Motel, right?

SJ: Yeah!

NT: Willie and Pat, have you played in a lot of other bands as well or are involved in other bands right now?

WS: Not at the moment. Pat Murphy: I play drums for probably like nine bands right now. [Laughs] Back in Halifax, just local people in the scene.

NT: I was at Havoc Festival back in July, so I saw Skunk Motel at Gus’s [Pub]. For context, I’m extra excited to talk to you because I’m actually from Antigonish.

WS: No way!

NT: I just saw your video for “Burnin Up.” That’s really nostalgic besides just the VHS effects; seeing you guys rip around the beaches of Cape Breton and everything is really cool. I know that the band is known for really high-energy and loud shows. Even in the short time the band’s been together, are there any particularly memorable, unhinged Boojums shows you’ve played?

SJ: They’re all pretty fun. The one last night was a private function at the art pavilion where it’s Mick Jones’s personal collection of memorabilia since he was a kid.

WS: So no one’s like, jumping around with priceless stuff on the walls. But more often than not, we try to pack as much energy in as possible. Most of the shows are pretty high energy. We only really play shows if we know they’re going to be sick. The Montreal show was crazy.

PM: Yeah, we played a show in Montreal at a place called P’tit Ours. It was super tight-knit. I’d almost compare it to a house show.

WS: Yeah, it was awesome. It was a super-fun show.

NT: I’ve kept up with East Coast music after moving to Vancouver 15 years ago. I’m pretty curious about Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton, music because I’m more familiar with my hometown and Halifax, obviously. I remember the first time a big artist that I would see on MuchMusic and hear on the radio come through Nova Scotia was Sam Roberts, when his first album came out. The fact that a “famous” person came through was a big deal. Do you have a similar memory of when a “big star” came through Nova Scotia and were like, “Wow, people are coming here?”

WS: When I was a kid, seeing Tragically Hip, and then seeing Joel Plaskett open for them, was big. It was like, “This guy’s amazing!” And then it was like, “This guy’s from here!? What!?” Then I’d say going to [Halifax] Pop Explosion, because they would bring in bands that would never come.

SJ: I feel like these days there are bigger acts coming. Not that I’m going to all them, but it’s cool to see.

PM: The Killers just came to Halifax, which was crazy.

NT: And it seems like there are a lot more festivals popping up, too, like Nowadays Festival. And then Big Turnip is putting on shows. My buddy runs Floatchella in Antigonish.

PM: Oh, yeah, yeah, Dave!

NT: Dave Archibald, yeah!

PM: I’ve played with Dave. I recorded Dave’s EP.

NT: The Daveband EP?

PM: Yeah, I’m on like three of the Daveband songs.

NT: Right on! So, it sounds like garage-y poppy punk rock is really in all your DNA. Was there anything specific that you came up listening to or are big fans of now that’s newer? Where do the musical influences for the Boojums?

SJ: It’s a wide range. Most modern influences for me – [there’s] this band the Pill. We’re playing at the same festival in Hamburg in a few days. They’re just really cool, same kind of DIY energy. It’s two girls and a guy who’s a drummer. I love that.

WS: The power pop really comes from what we were immersed in in Halifax. It’s a little before our time, but the ‘90s power pop stuff was what I looked up to. It’s like, “Oh, all these bands are from here, like the Super Friendz and Sloan and Jale and Plumtree and Thrush Hermit. I remember when I was 18 or 19, or I was still in high school, I found a torrent of every Thrush
Hermit thing ever, every little cassette they ever made, and just dug into. There’s so much to dig into, and a lot of people from outside of Atlantic Canada or Canada haven’t heard that much of that stuff. It’s pretty fresh to a lot of ears.

SJ: Yeah, I definitely grew up on that, too. My uncle was in Halifax in college when all of that was happening. He had all the CDs and would just let me burn them all when I was 12 or 13.

PM: We take a lot of inspiration from bands like the Hives and the White Stripes. Their shows are just uncompromising energy.

NT: What can you tell me about Having Fun Records? Between you and Absolute Losers and idialedyournumber, they seem pretty tapped into East Coast music despite not being an East Coast label.

WS: When we first met [label founder] Eric [Warner], we talked a lot about the bands that I just talked about. He saw them all touring through when he was coming of age and going to shows. So it was cool to have that understanding. He gets where we’re coming from.

SJ: He’s worked with Rich Aucoin for years, and that whole label’s really cool, just really focused on the creative side of things. We’re really lucky to have met them.

PM: Yeah, they’re super supportive of whatever you want to do and really help you grow your creativity.

WS: We just went and made the album, and he’s like, “All right, just let me know when it’s done.” It wasn’t like, “I need to hear this and tell you what’s wrong with it.” The faith he had in us was just so nice.

NT: Looking at that roster, I can tell that he’s actually into the stuff that he’s putting on the label. It’s very specific. It’s not like “Oh, here’s one artist who has a sound that is popular, and then I’m gonna get four of them.” Speaking of making your album, where did you record your album?

WS: We just recorded it at home. I definitely tried hard not to rush anything, but coming up as a child of the 2000s and being super into the White Stripes, I always loved that Elephant was recorded in like five days. I don’t try to be like, “You gotta do it in five days!” but I like the idea of not dwelling on things. I find I dwell on the demos. I got all the time in the world to figure it out, but there’s something really nice about the immediacy of what we’re trying to do, the garage-y, more in-your-face, fast energy kind of thing, just trying to capture those moments.

PM: It came together during takes where we would hit record and play through it a couple of times. Then you start to feel or hear something in a certain way and be like, “Oh, let’s try it like this,” and then we started going that direction, and it just really fits, and things just start to click the more you play them. You get a handful of good takes, and it’s like, “Great, that’s awesome. What more do you want? That sounds perfect to us. What else are you gonna do? Let’s move on.”

SJ: Because it’s our space doing it at home, it gives us more time to do a few takes.

PM: Take breaks, go get ice cream. Fuelled by ice cream, that record.

NT: Speaking to how it came off, I love that there are three versions of “Out of My Head” online now, and I love them all. But yeah, the album version – the songs on the album in general – I was blown away by how much more they were ratcheted up. I was like, “It couldn’t get more rocking than this,” and then the sound is so robust.

WS: Thank you!

NT: How long have these songs been around?

WS: Some of the songs are brand new for the band. “Wings of Fire,” I finished that as we were recording. I had the idea a couple of months before. But then there were other songs that I wrote for other bands but never got around to recording. We took them apart and rebuilt them, like a Lego, like, “Okay, we don’t need these breaks” or whatever.

SJ: I’d say that the majority are completely new.

NT: As for the themes of the album, I think it really came through in the video for “Burnin Up”: escapism and freedom. When you were growing up in small-town Nova Scotia, what were you all doing to seek escape? What felt like the most freeing thing for you?

PM: Playing drums. I would just go out to my garage and sit down behind the kit and go nuts for hours and hours. I’m an only child, so I’m used to being alone a lot, so it was fun having my own little universe where I could sit down and rage. And when I wasn’t doing that, I was playing video games.

WS: He’s really good at video games. [Laughs] I don’t like playing video games.

SJ: What’s funny for me is that growing up in Port Hawkesbury, it’s one of those towns where everyone’s like, “I’m gonna get out of here as soon as I can. This is too small.” So I did. I went away and did other things, and now I’m back. I never thought I’d be back, but you just find your way back. It’s pretty cool.

NT: Have you been back for a while?

SJ: It’s been like two, three years now.

NT: Enough to feel settled back in, I imagine?

SJ: Yeah.

WS: I grew up in Bedford, which is a suburb of Halifax. Not exactly small town, but it’s nice having moved to Port Hawkesbury because it’s so relaxed. It’s by the ocean. All the people around are chill.

PM: Nobody’s talking at you.

WS Yeah. There’s no hustle and bustle. And I cut hair, too, so I spend my time yacking with old dudes from the town. It’s a much more mellow vibe than working in Halifax. I find that’s been a big impact on the band. Sometimes little towns like that can be escapism from the world.

PM: Also, it’s so easy for us to record and be loud because you’re in a small town where no one cares. In Halifax, the cops would be there in like fifteen minutes.

NT: Or you’re crammed in an apartment next to a bunch of people.

WS: Yeah. In Port Hawesbury, every aspect is chill. And then we just walk down the wharf if we need to blow off steam or something. And it’s cheaper to live.

NT: The tour you’re on now, is there anything specific you’re looking forward to the most? Hanging out with the other bands? Specific places you want to go? Do you have down time between the dates?

PM: We have a lot of down time. That’s my favourite part. [Laughs]

SJ: When we first planned it, we were just doing the two shows. Then Mick Jones and his crew reached out to us and added on this show. It just extended our trip, so that’s why we’ve had some more down time. We were really looking forward to this show last night. That was a dream show. We made so many friends who are going to come to the next.

NT: At least within Canada, the profile of music from Atlantic Canada is starting to get a bit bigger, like the hardcore and punk scenes in Charlottetown and Halifax. Do you think there are any misconceptions about East Coast music today? What’s one thing you would like people to know about East Coast music?

PM: It’s such a passionate, tight-knit scene. That’s what gives the East Coast its advantage when it comes to music. I lived in Montreal for three-and-a-half years roughly and played in a lot of bands when I was living there, and I found it super difficult to bring people out to shows because every night, you’re competing with the Weeknd, or there’s some amazing free festival downtown.

NT: Or the Canadiens.

WS: Like Pat said, because there aren’t major bands touring through all the time, you gotta make your own fun. I think that’s always been the reason why there’s such a strong scene there. There’s a lot of other similar places in the world where it’s like, “Oh, this scene blew up in this random town. Why is that?” Well, there’s nothing else going on, so they make something.

SJ: There’s always the singer songwriter stuff, which is awesome, but right now is such a rock ‘n’ roll scene.

WS: [The town of] Sydney’s been popping off. Conductor and 10 Slip are sweet, and many others.

SJ: And they’re just putting together really cool shows at legions.

WS: And people come out.

SJ: There are a lot of all-ages shows there, too, and just all-ages bands.

NT: Radstorm is 100% all-ages, right?

WS: Yeah, Radstorm’s sweet.

SJ: I think especially in the East Coast, there’s so much music around, especially the traditional stuff, and we all know that. Not that that’s coming out in the music, but it’s in your bones. You tell someone you’re in a band, and they’re excited. You go some other place sometimes-

WS: And it’s kind of like, “You’re in a band? Yikes!” But the average person in our town is like, “Whoa, you play music? Sick!”

NT: People don’t take it for granted.

WS: Yeah, it’s valued.

pre-order The Boojums by The Boojums HERE