Triples is the musical project of Toronto-based songwriter and actor Eva Link. Eva initially started the band as a duo with her sister Madeline, but when the success of Madeline’s own project – the Fire Talk signees PACKS – began demanding more of her time, Eva reimagined Triples as her own endeavor. Triples make big screen guitar pop with a slacker charm and a disarming sweetness, channelling a patchwork of influences that includes Liz Phair, Guided By Voices, Avril Lavigne and Sebadoh, into make music that communicates the irresistible, high gloss energy of the end credits song in a ‘late 90s teen movie in an endearingly homespun package.
Their latest EP Every Good Story is their first release on the new Toronto label Bleak Enterprise and will be released on the label on January 30th. Written in the wake of a family tragedy as a way to reorient herself after a devastating loss, the songs on on Every Good Story engage with the tribulations of young adulthood and finding your place in the world from a reflective distance, as though trying to calibrate the weight of the small feelings against the bigger ones.
“These songs aren’t directly about the grief I was experiencing at the time, but they’re recordings that were made when I was living in that feeling,” says Link. “When you’re in the thick of it, you don’t necessarily feel ready to write directly about it, and life keeps going on after it’s all happened – you still have relationship stuff going on, you still have doubts about your future – these songs were made while I was getting back to a place, mentally, that I remembered being before.”
Lead single “Be Around” introduces Triples at their buoyant best, recalling bands like Best Coast and Beach Bunny, where “Gonna Be Good” captures their capacity for poignant power pop, reflecting on self-doubt on a track that sounds like an Exile In Guyville single as produced by Fountains of Wayne. “Happy” recasts a gentler song by enveloping its acoustic core in waves of distortion, and “Old Routine” lands in a sweet spot between the streamlined punch of late 90s pop punk and the looser charms of early 90s indie (eg: Sebadoh, Beat Happening).
On the whole, the EP serves as an introduction to a band with a striking clarity of vision. It captures a remarkably fully formed sound that feels instantly familiar, while always coming across a little bit bigger and brighter than the things it recalls. It’s an exciting first step for a project with immense promise.
