Winnipeg-based band Moonfield might have formed two years ago, but they’re finally able to share their first EP, Televox. With music slightly reminiscent of U2 and Radiohead, Santiago Ardila (drums), Andrew Friesen (guitar, bass), Danial Peirson (guitar, bass and synth) and Hayden Major (lead singer, guitar) are excited for people to listen to them from all over the world.

“We are going to be heard in other places, and I have friends in Colombia that have heard our music and like it. Our songs can really go anywhere,” Ardila says.

Although Friesen and Peirson were already playing tunes together during the band’s early stages, Ardila was about to sell his drum kit on Kijiji before connecting with Moonfield.

“I never thought about using Kijiji for music. As soon as I came in, I saw this ad and contacted the guys, and they told me to play with them and see how it felt. I joined the band, and it was instant chemistry,” Ardila says.

In a similar way, Major wanted to give music a second shot through online surfing. When he prepared to audition as a lead vocalist, he came in with the previously non-existent lyrics to what became the first track of the EP.

“I met up with the guys, and the first thing we played was “Don’t Go,” and it basically sounds exactly the same way you hear it on the EP,” Major says.

Although Televox came out this year, Moonfield’s previous single, “Singularity,” didn’t make the cut. However, it did set the tone for the experimental (even spatial) sound the band was able to channel in some of their other songs.

“It has a dance vision musically. We practiced it a lot, and every time we played it, it gained its own colour,” Ardila says.

From tumultuous relationships featured in the captivating ballad “Bad Days” to a parallel between the Bauhaus movement and the Winnipeg General Strike in the song “1919,” each track hits home for a particular band member. For Major, it was “Lay My Crown.”

“I thought it was really cool but too boneheaded and simplistically catchy, so I was this close to throwing it away. My roommate Matt heard it and told me to try to bring it to Moonfield ... I thought it was the best thing we had ever done up to that point, and it became, in my eyes, our big rock song,” Major says.

After carefully structuring the song order, it was time for the band to perform the EP for a live audience. After playing the new tunes at the release concert at the Royal Albert Arms, Moonfield will join the Love Letter Writers and The Haileys at The Park Theatre on Nov. 19. This will also be the last show with Friesen and Peirson as part of the group.

Televox is available on streaming platforms, and tickets to The Park Theatre concert are available through eventbrite.ca.

Published in Volume 76, Number 10 of The Uniter (November 18, 2021)