It’s been seven years since the band Highwind released new music, but the long-time veterans of Moose Jaw’s music scene have released a new extended play (EP) record with six catchy tracks.
“Final Words” is the first record the group has produced since 2016 when it released the full-length album “Cellar Door.” After that, the group took a four-year break — focusing on school and life — before reconnecting in 2020.
The members wrote the songs and recorded the EP in 2022 and released it this past February.
The new album sees the group — an alternative rock-emo-pop-punk quartet — explore topics of life and death. The theme that runs through the six-song, 18-minute EP is about losing a loved one, experiencing grief, and the sick person comforting the grieving lover.
The group is composed of Troy Waggoner (drummer), Chase Rysavy (vocals and guitar), Eric Taylor (bass) and new member Ehren Pfeifer (lead guitar).
Click here to listen to the songs.
“We’re really proud of (the new EP),” Taylor told the Express.
“Really excited, really proud (and really happy). Definitely the best thing we’ve ever made,” said Rysavy. “Probably the best thing I’ve ever been a part of. All of us are pretty jacked up on the whole thing.”
This is the best music they’ve ever produced because of the subject matter and how everything ties together, Rysavy continued. The group has been a trio since starting in 2014, but adding Toronto-based Pfeifer helped enhance their sound since he wrote some of the EP’s “coolest stuff.”
The six songs include “Weighing you down,” “At what cost,” “I’m making amends,” “I feel helpless,” “In hospice” and “These are my final words.” The final song is played acoustically and explains the story’s ending.
The group has released its music on several platforms, including Spotify. Taylor noted that that platform has an app to tell bands from where people are listening to their music. They have discovered that they have more listeners in the United Kingdom and the United States than Canada.
The band worked on many songs during the pandemic and plans to release those when they put out a full-length album, said Rysavy. The members focused on cleaning up these six songs after identifying them as the ones for the EP.
“There was one song on this EP that we wrote that I was ready to throw in the garbage because I could just not figure out the lyrics for,” he continued. “But it all worked out and it’s our most played song, which is kind of funny.”
Rysavy added, “I think we write stuff that’s pretty darn heckin’ good.”
Highwind has already released one music video for “Weighing you down.” Well-known Moose Jaw director Dustan Hlady filmed it, with most scenes shot at Bootleg Barbers and South Hill Bowling Centre.
Meanwhile, the group recently spent 15 hours filming back-to-back music videos, with a dancer from the Doris Sitter School of Dance participating in one video and the band members dressing up in “Lord of the Rings” costumes and having fun at the Comic Book Guy Pop Culture Shop.
The group has “lucked out” because it has caught the attention of Toronto music executive Eric Alper, who has a Sirius XM channel and has started working with the group, said Taylor.
“He’s a publicist, so he’s going to try and shop our name and get our sound out there. He’ll help us figure out how to take the next step in getting our name out there,” the bassist remarked.
“Gotta sell yourself a little bit. That’s why I started wearing lower-cut shirts,” laughed Rysavy. “(Have to show) a little ankle.”
