Purveyors of: Noisy 90s revivalism, bratty harmonies, fuzzed-out basement rock.
File next to: The Breeders, Swirlies, Alvvays, Bad Waitress.
Appearing: Ribbon Skirt + Status/Non Status + Mad Iris: Wavelength Music Festival + Conference on March 20, 2026 — Wavelength @ St. Anne’s Parish (651 Dufferin Street)
Newcomers Mad Iris are blooming in Toronto’s music scene with the look and feel of a mid-90s garage band. Somewhere between noise rock and shoegaze, the group channels fuzz, distortion, and analogue imperfection into something that feels both nostalgic and distinctly their own. Their latest single “Employee of the Month” builds from a high-tension bassline into a wall of sound, pairing lo-fi acoustic moments with gritty guitars and lyrics inspired by the less-than-glamorous realities of teenage part-time jobs.
As the band prepares to release their debut album on legendary US indie label Ba Da Bing Records, Wavelength’s Kyle Sikorski spoke with them about the track’s origins, their collaborative songwriting process, and the 90s influences shaping their sound and visuals.
What was the starting point for “Employee of the Month”? Did it begin with a sound, a lyric, or a specific idea?
Our single, “Check!”, from fall 2024 is one of our favourite original songs, and we wanted to write another track with the same overdriven, fuzzed-out sound. “Employee of the Month” started as a high-tension bassline and we built everything else around it. The lyrics kind of sprang from all the shitty part-time jobs Kaiya worked in high school. It’s a commentary on corporate culture.
How did the idea for the lo fi acoustic intro and outro come about, and what do those moments add to the song for you?
When Kaiya and Patrick were demoing the song at home, which is something we like to do before hitting the studio, we tried messing around with that analogue, Sonic Youth-esque wall-of-noise sound in the intro. The outro is soft and pretty in comparison to the song’s dissonance and aggression. Ximuna, our producer and mixer, plays a big part in what the final product sounds like. He bulks up the song, and the album for that matter, in such an intentionally cohesive way.
Building on that, what does your songwriting process usually look like as a group? Do songs tend to grow out of jams, demos, or individual ideas?
Usually, Kaiya or Ela write lyrics and chords, bring them into band practice, and we create the rest all together. That’s the best part of playing in a band – someone in the group always has a cool idea to fill the empty spaces in a song. Sometimes we’ll make demos at home, like we did with “Employee of the Month”, which gives us space to build noises and sounds that we can’t always replicate in our live sets.
The grit of the visuals matches the grit of the music. Is that connection something you’re consciously shaping?
There’s something so cool about fuzz, dirt, distortion, and analogue imperfection in music and art. I think when art is too clean, the human aspect of it gets a bit lost. I like when you can hear the room in music, and you can see in our songs and videos that we’re four friends making something kind of raw together. I don’t think it’s consciously shaping, rather it comes naturally in everything we create.
There’s a strong 90s undercurrent in both the sound and the video. Are you consciously channeling that era, or does it just naturally seep into what you make?
We love bands like the Breeders, Sonic Youth, Le Tigre, etc. There was such a cool wave in the 90s of women leading innovative rock bands, and I think a lot of people are nostalgic for a time before everything became digital. I think Mad Iris is a bit escapist in that way. We love creating physical art, DIYing posters and album covers. I think, naturally, this translates to what was created in the 90s.
Don’t miss Mad Iris for this late-night show on Night Two of the Wavelength Music Festival + Conference:
Friday March 20
Wavelength @ St. Anne’s (Downstairs)
651 Dufferin Street – Toronto
Doors 9:30pm
All Ages