Motorists

Comprising friends from childhood who have sustained a lengthy creative partnership, Motorists fuse raw punk drive with the nostalgic chime of eighties college rock, yielding melodic material that bursts with contagious liveliness. Their 2021 debut album Surrounded showcases elaborate, multi-tracked guitar lines, crisp and propulsive drumming, plus touches of Krautrock-style repetition and post-punk tension, whereas the 2024 follow-up Touched by the Stuff tilts further toward power pop and the more broadcast-friendly side of nineties alternative rock.

The group originated in Toronto during 2018 when Craig Fahner, Matt Learoyd, and Jesse Locke formed the initial lineup. All three had known each other since their teenage years in Calgary and had already joined forces on several earlier projects before establishing Motorists. A handful of tracks appeared in 2019, followed by the cassette From the Wreckage in 2020 as the band continued developing a full-length record. That effort, Surrounded, surfaced the next year. Jesse Locke exited sometime afterward, at which point Nick MicKinlay stepped in on drums.

The reconstituted Motorists assembled their next album in sporadic sessions, completing the bulk of the writing across 2022 before introducing fresh material shortly ahead of a rapid recording process. The newly added songs carried a more pronounced power-pop character along with elements drawn from the mainstream wing of nineties alternative rock. Touched by the Stuff reached the public in May 2024.