Artist Spotlight: Breakpoint

How psychedelics sent three high school friends into music

For Jaeden Engelland, Jacob Winter-Gray, and Noah Fletcher, the name Breakpoint represents a fundamental shift in how we perceive the world around us. In Winter-Gray and Fletcher’s case, that shift came after a psychedelic trip that changed their lives and eventually led to the creation of their band, inspiring the duo to mould a socially critical project around their music.

“I think acid and shrooms just really promote free thinking,” says Fletcher. “That kind of mindset influenced where we are musically, being experimental now.”

“Pretty much all of our songs are written about that,” adds Winter-Grey. “There’s this quote by a lecturer called Terence McKenna, and he’s like, ‘Psychedelics are illegal not because the government is concerned you’re going to jump out of your third-story window. They’re illegal because they remove opinion structures and culturally laid-down beliefs.’ They open up the possibility that everything you know is wrong about society.”

“That’s something I found recently and I think it makes a lot of sense. We’re actually going to put that quote into one of our songs on the album coming up,” says Winter-Gray.

Some of Breakpoint’s most critical musical influences are Metallica, Green Day, Revocation, and NOFX, all of which can be easily picked out of their unreleased tracks. On a first listen, the band sounds like a straightforward punk-metal hybrid, but closer attention reveals drone, alternative, and pop elements, especially with Winter-Gray’s catchy riffs rising above Fletcher’s and Engelland’s racing drum and bass.

“One of the first songs I ever learned on drums was “Basket Case” by Green Day, which I played a lot with Evan. That was one of the first songs I was proud of learning, so that’s definitely influenced my drumming,” says Engelland.

The three of them met in high school and jammed together for years, practicing Metallica and Green day covers until the day they decided to start writing their own material. Since then, the band has become stylistically complex, plucking innovative aspects across genres into an all-around punk sound.

Their next record—a self-titled, 12-track LP that the band is hopeful will be their big break—is set to come out before the end of January, introducing a twist on what’s currently out under their name. After about a year of working on their songwriting, the band is determined to make the album, Breakpoint, more polished, exploratory, and structurally unique than their four-track Numb EP, “Cigarette Song” single, or two-track Fingers Crossed collection. “Psychoactive”, their self-deemed “first good instrumental song,” will also be making its debut on Breakpoint, which they predict will be a standout on the album.

As soon as the record is ready for audience ears, they’re hoping to throw a big release show in Vancouver, but no shows are planned until then. Since two of the three members are enrolled in school full-time, touring will be tricky over the next few years, but Breakpoint does hope to hit the road sometime in the future.

If their crowd takes anything from Breakpoint’s first LP, they hopes it’s learning to be forward-thinking.

“There’s a big stigma around psychedelics, and that’s a lot of what we’re based on, so maybe it’ll open their minds,” says Winter-Gray.