Buddie
Forever the songwriting outlet of Philadelphian Dan Forrest, Buddie is a 4-piece band now based in Vancouver, BC, Canada that writes fuzzy, poppy, rock songs about environmental and social justice and simply trying to be a good person.
After the success of LP1 Diving (2020), which featured critical nods from Spotify, Apple Music, Bandcamp, WXPN and many others, the band returned to the studio to record all of the music that had been brewing since recording their first album. The next batch of songs, nearly 20 in total, was recorded with a sense of urgency in mid-2021 as Dan Forrest moved to Vancouver shortly after to begin a graduate degree in sustainability.
Since the move, Dan has reassembled the band, performed at festivals Music Waste and Sled Island (opening for Built to Spill), and even did a live session at radio station CiTR 101.9 FM. Buddie also shared the 4-song EP Transplant in December 2022 to formally introduce themselves to the Vancouver scene. They celebrated its release by sharing a bill with Dead Soft (Arts & Crafts) and were even recognized on “The Eh! List,” curated by Exclaim!
Buddie will be released LP2 Agitator in April 2023. Central themes on the album revolve around healthy communication, living in the moment, feeling a sense of place, finding joy in resistance, dystopia, classism, and mutual aid, among other things. Al Menne of Great Grandpa provided harmonizing vocals on a handful of tracks including lead single “We’ll Never Break,” a heartwarming track about trust and reassurance in relationships. Other singles “Worried” and “Class Warfare” are rooted more in pandemic anxiety and modern classism as the world around us continues to change rapidly. Needless to say, Buddie is back doing Buddie things, and Agitator is packed full of earworm choruses, “loud-quiet-loud,” bubblegrunge, and 90s influenced indie rock.
After releasing Agitator the band charted #1 on their local radio station CiTR and went on to perform at festivals NXNE in Toronto and then again at Music Waste in Vancouver. Buddie also received praise from the likes of Bandcamp, Atwood Magazine, Under the Radar Magazine, Austin Town Hall, and Exclaim!. The band is now recording more music in Vancouver and is planning to take those songs on tour in 2024.
