Artist Spotlight: The Basement Sweets
Four youngsters talk about the importance of musical diversity
On the night of The Basement Sweet’s first show with new guitarist Ben Kjernsted, they gathered around a table to discuss their music over Vietnamese food. In a few hours, the four-piece will be on stage to play an eclectic set of blues, jazz, and psychedelic rock music at Studio Records on Granville—but right now, they’re relaxing. Steaming bowls of pho and plates of bean sprouts arrive in front of them as the members reflect on the style of their band, collectively agreeing that they generally don’t have one.
Instead, The Basement Sweets are a musical mashup of radically different influences, ranging from folky acts such as Dallas Green and neo-psychedelia icons like Kevin Parker to “all the greats”—Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Ginger Baker, and John Paul Jones, for example. On stage, the four-piece might start with an experimental rock song before launching into jazzy chord progressions or blues-inspired vocal melodies. Off stage, their music is just as diverse, but not yet available for listening.
Once, they had a self-titled EP on their Bandcamp page, but it’s now long gone. The lack of official music released by The Basement Sweets can be explained by the “poor production quality” of their first EP; like most young bands, their first recording was done in a basement—fitting for the name of the group, but not their goals—so they got rid of it.
That doesn’t mean they don’t have music to play. As a matter of fact, guitarist, vocalist, and writer Noah Poirier has so much material prepared that the band has their next five records planned out, and two are already in the process of being recorded.
“We’ll be releasing two EPs. Then we have a psych rock blues album, we have an acoustic album set up, and I’m halfway through writing a groovy, jazzy album,” says Poirier. “The difference between the [self-titled] EP that we had and where we are now, how we play, and how we’ve grown as a band with our live performances is a massive leap.”
That leap marks a progression in Poirier’s songwriting, the group’s chemistry, and their ability as musicians.
Their first official releases will be titled Acts of Self-Sabotage: Part I and Part II, with the first part being “more upbeat,” than the blues and jazz-driven second. As predicted by the band, the pair of EPs will be available within the next year.
Until then, the Basement Sweets will continue to play shows around Vancouver. Branching out to tour other cities and countries isn’t in their immediate future, since drummer Kylar Scott and Poirier haven’t even graduated high school yet, but it is an eventual goal for the band.
And because they’re so young, having fun is still a top priority for Scott, Poirier, and the remaining two members: bassist, vocalist, and pianist Mason Tuffin and guitarist Ben Kjernsted.
“We just love what we do so much,” says Tuffin. “We’re serious about it, of course. It’s our lives, but you have to have a good time. If you’re not, why even play anyway?”
Kjernsted nods, adding that the interpersonal relationship between each band member plays a huge role in what makes their music work.
Maybe they get along so well because they share the same mentality, described by Tuffin when he points out that, musically, “You don’t know if something works until you do it.” That’s certainly why their sound differs so much from track-to-track; The Basement Sweets refuse to “sit on one style forever.”
“I think what defines a good musician is how many things you can play. Like, if we’re playing acoustic and we’re playing psych and blues rock, that’s just going to make us better in different respects, and that’s what we want,” says Poirier. “We just want to be better. That’s what we strive to do.”
