Yellowknife punk rock musician to host EP release party

Yellowknife punk rock musician Brenden MacIntosh is holding an album release party for his EP at the Top Knight bar on September 23.

Coffee Break, released in May, was inspired by MacIntosh’s time spent in quarantine during the pandemic. “I picked up drums and I just got obsessed. I was playing six-hour nights,” he said.

“That was kind-of the missing puzzle piece for me as a musician.”

The album last week won Best Debut Release at the inaugural NWT Music Awards, something MacIntosh says he never imagined while writing it.

“Just being nominated is good enough because, when you play punk rock, you don’t get a lot of mainstream attention. So it was very nice to have that recognition,” he said of the award.

“In my head I was like, ‘It’s OK, you’re here.’ And then they said my name and my body lifted me up and walked me to the award.”

MacIntosh began playing punk rock 10 years ago after finding a Blink-182 song on his friend’s iPod in gym class. He hopes Coffee Break will be the first of many releases, with a 10-song album on the horizon.

The release party will also feature Johnny Vu, a Yellowknife pop and R&B artist who performed at this year’s Folk on the Rocks. Attendees can expect a 17-song set from MacIntosh and a “real party atmosphere,” he said.

“The great thing about rock’n’roll is, at bars, the later it gets, the more fun it gets,” he said.

The show starts at 7pm on Friday, September 23 at Top Knight. Tickets can be purchased on Eventbrite.