Cactus Vella Music

It’s been 15 years since Rubber Factory Records released the Leatherface Tribute compilation. And to celebrate this milestone, the compilation was officially released digitally (on YouTube). As well, 4 of us were asked to contribute new covers for a companion piece to the comp titled Local Chaps. You can check out my cover of “Springtime” on Bandcamp, or YouTube. I can remember 15 years ago being part of the production line of friends that assembled the gatefold double CD’s of this comp. I’m also proud to say I play on 3 different tracks on the Tribute. In addition to my solo track, I also appear with Sinkin’ Ships, and 2-Pump Louie. 

Last month I put together a new acoustic band, and this past weekend we played our first gig right here in Toronto at Rod, Gun & Barbers. The venue is a barbershop by day, and a bar by night. Very rad place to play and I highly recumbent checking it out when in Toronto. The new band is currently called Cactus & Co. but that could change. On bass is my long time friend Rob Fiasco. Rob and I actually went to high school together. On drums is one of the most creative musicians I know, Andrew Howlin Heule. There’s plans to record this spring. Potentially as easy as April or May.

Hey hey! Last week I officially release LET ME GO: AN ACOUSTIC-PUNK TRIBUTE TO RANCID. Featuring 20 Canadian bands and artists all doing acoustic covers of Rancid songs. The line up features The Matchup, Chuck Coles, Emily Bones, Cactus Vella, Ty Trumbull, Andrew Yeo, Stacey & Phil, Mudie, Cindy Caron, Calhoun, Hackles, Jon Creeden, Dragon City Radio, John Di Marco, Valerie Knox, Cud Eastbound, The Little Deaths, Boxcar Sh’onn, Mikey And His Uke, and Chris Veinot. The comp is a free download available on bandcamp at this link. The good people at That’s Good Enough For Me recently did a track-by-track review of the comp. It;s a long, but fun read, and can be found right here.

I was recently a guest on the Backstage with K3NN3DY show for a second time. Check it out here. As well, I was also a guest on Planet Lizzdom. We talked for an hour about all sorts of stuff. You can watch it at this link.

Hey everyone. I am stoked to let you all know that my new 2-song EP “Yonge” was released last week by Little Rocket Records. We had a great first week! Thank you to everyone who’s checked it out. It’s available on all of your streaming platforms like Spotify, and YouTube. It’s also available to download on iTunes and Bandcamp.

Equally exciting is the release of my new music video for the track “Ship Wreck”. The video was directed by Dominique Girouard (who also directed my video for “Touch The Ground”), and was shot in my tool shed. We shot during the peak of COVID-19 and locations weren’t an option. Neither was having a crew. Dom handled all of the production duties himself. The video was a lot of fun to film and I think it shows in the final edit. Our friends at Punknews.org premiered the video last Friday on their site.

I was recently interviewed on the Apologue Podcast hosted by my old friend Simon Head. It was a great interview as Simon and I have some history together. I was one of the first artists to record in Simon’s studio back in 1997. We talk about that and many other things. The podcast is available everywhere you would fins all of your favorites at. Or click here to check it out.