War Baby

Two years after its release, War Baby’s debut LP Jesus Horse is still revered amongst local music fans. The Vancouver power trio’s grubby, agitated brand of noise rock, unique approach to band merch and disorientingly loud live sets have won them an enduring fanbase. To say that their sophomore release has arrived on a wave of anticipation would be an understatement. Luckily, Death Sweats is unlikely to disappoint fans.


A fundamental sense of unease pervades throughout Death Sweats, with the band themselves describing the album as being “the audio equivalent of a chemical imbalance in the brain” and “equal parts fear of the dark and disgust for the morning light.” From the outset the unsettling nature of War Baby’s music is established, with album opener, “Master Blaster” combining nervous punk rock energy with the band’s fondness for darkly surreal lyricism. The track is a refinement of the claustrophobic grunge that characterised Jesus Horse. And running at just two minutes and thirty nine seconds, the track leaves you absolutely exhausted.

Having demonstrated the mastering of their established sound, War Baby throw us a couple of curveballs with “Spell” and “No Generation.” Both tracks are roomier sounding than most of War Baby’s output, sounding like long lost ‘90s alt-rock anthems. With a length at almost double most of the band’s output, “Belly Ache” is another example of the more spacious songs on the record. Its loose, jangly main riff allows drummer, Kirby Fisher to demonstrate his vitality before the band transitions into the tangled heavy metal of “In Light of” and “Swamp Kunt.” The album’s highlight, however, is found in the nihilistic doom metal of “God is Dead.” Perhaps the album’s most immediate track, it manages to perfectly balance the frenzied grunge, bizarre lyrics and monstrous riffs that make War Baby such a compelling band.

Although War Baby never go full pop rock on Death Sweats, the record’s flirtations with pop sensibilities embedded within intense noise rock indicates a refinement of their sound, further establishing them as one of the more exciting and original bands to emerge from the recent grunge revival. - Discorder Magazine

War Baby drummer Kirby J. Fisher is the first to admit that his band has "anxiety issues." In fact, he says, that's one of the reasons he and singer/ guitarist Jon Redditt became friends.

“Jon has this real obsession with insignificance, to the point of where, if he stares up at the sky for too long, it overwhelms him,” Fisher says. “I do it a little bit, but he gets really obsessive. It's almost to the point where he's having psychedelics, but he's totally not, trying to figure out everything. His themes are constantly dark – but by juxtaposition, he's the loveliest, nicest guy in the world."

Fisher is meeting Westender at the Cobalt, where he and Redditt played their first gig, as a two-piece, in late 2008. Fisher had only just arrived from Australia earlier that year, meeting Redditt at one of his first jobs in town, when the two were working as pickers for vintage clothing company F as in Frank.

"Long story short, we started hanging out and realized that we had the same taste in comedy. And decided to start a band, which seems really weird..."

War Baby's third release, Death Sweats, is due out just in time for Halloween. The title, according to Fisher, evokes the experience of "standing on the railroad track and you can hear the train but you can’t see it. You think you're going to get hit by it, but you're not sure. And that's kind of what the band is like, period. I think we're okay, but this could implode at any moment!"

The smouldering, menacing jams on the album – think Bleach-era Nirvana coupled with noisier riffage of local avant-rock heroes Shearing Pinx – bring War Baby's darkness to the fore, compared to 2013's Jesus Horse.

"It’s a little more evident on Death Sweats, maybe because we now have this dark and drony bass tone that helps shape things,” courtesy of newest addition, Brock Allen. But this feeling of human insignificance has "always been the theme for us – this sense that this all means nothing, to someone like Jon or myself."

This existential anxiety is nowhere more overt than on "God Is Dead." The song approaches stoner/ doom territory in its opening riff and chorus, which obsessively reiterates that God is dead, man is dead, and that, in fact, "death is dead". ("Which is pretty ridiculous," Fisher quips, smiling.)

"The way Jon writes, he likes to create the illusion that it's all in good fun,” Fisher says. “But then just under the surface, it's very honest, it's not as sarcastic or as ironic as what he's presenting. Like, when he's screaming 'God is dead,' he actually believes that, he's not just saying it to get a reaction."

But Fisher and Redditt's dark sense of humour is still evident – in song titles like "Swamp Kunt," say, but also in the board game on Death Sweats' back cover.

“Not everyone knows what we based it on," Fisher tells Westender. "Do you remember Nightmare? Nightmare was a VHS video board game, and it was set in a graveyard. You put the tape in, and it was like Death – this Grim Reaper/Gatekeeper character – who would instruct you through this maze. We used to think it was hilarious, we would get stoned and watch it on Youtube all the time.”

The Death Sweats game is a “death maze," the board design of which is "essentially a spin on Snakes and Ladders. It’s hard to design a game when you’re three drunk musos,” Fisher admits. There is, however, an online component, which, Fisher promises, "is hilarious."

"It's all three of us as different characters, and we instruct you through the maze. And we reward and we punish you throughout it,” he says. “There's an egg timer – you have 30 minutes to complete it. I don't want to give too much away, but the theme of death is very much prevalent." - Westender Magazine

VANCOUVER — War Baby’s commanding and undeniably rock solid debut album Jesus Horse finally has a sequel. Death Sweats, the follow up to the sludge rock power trio’s debut, which made it on to BeatRoute’s annual list for best local releases in 2013, does its successor proud. This is thanks in part to the addition of Brock Allen on bass guitar, joining mainstays Jon Redditt on lead vocals and guitar, and Kirby Fisher on drums. Crafting Death Sweats was a familiar yet also fresh experience for War Baby.

“It was the same in the sense that we did it with Jordan Koop at the Noise Floor. We have a different bass player now and he brought songs to the table,” Redditt reports.

Redditt and Allen had a history playing in Big Nothing and three of Allen’s songs from the end of that band’s recording session (“Spin Forever”, “Throw Them In the Fire,” and “Shrinking Violet”) wound up on what would become War Baby’s sophomore release. Redditt highlights that not only did Allen have a hand in writing, but he also traded off lead vocal work with Redditt, which is a new development in the band’s evolving sound.

Death Sweats has had a long gestation period, Redditt explains. “We’ve been in the process of making this record ever since Jesus Horse came out,” he says “I’m so used to it that it feels like the record’s already been out in a way. We’ve been working on it for a couple years. It’s been a long process getting this thing out.” Death Sweats will at last be unleashed upon the unsuspecting masses, fittingly, on Halloween.



Within the past year, War Baby have had the opportunity to garner further exposure thanks to some coveted opening slots for bass and drum metal duo Big Business, punk legends SNFU, and stoner rock renegades Eagles of Death Metal. For the latter show, Redditt admits that it was somewhat hard to gauge the crowd’s reaction at the time due to the harsh lighting in the Commodore Ballroom, but he adds “Eagles were complimentary to us which was encouraging so I think we did alright.” For Redditt though, opening for SNFU was a real highlight in his tenure with War Baby. “[SNFU] was the first show I ever saw so I was pretty stoked on that. My inner fourteen year old was just losing it,” Redditt says.

Once the festivities of All Hallow’s Eve have come and passed, War Baby have set their eyes beyond the Atlantic with plans to tour Europe. Redditt emphasizes the band’s plans to play some shows in Germany thanks to connections with a local label that pressed their debut record.

Look out world, War Baby are on the attack.

War Baby host their album release party at the Hindenburg on October 23. - BeatRoute Magazine

War Baby, a simultaneously noisy and melodic trio from Vancouver, delivers an enveloping, catchy sophomore album with Death Sweats. Featuring big, warm guitars, vocals that can be gently cloaked in reverb or bare and screamed, and low, distorted bass, the 90s alt-rock influence comes across as prominently as some of the band's heavier touchstones. Death Sweats is due out October 30.

“Lyrically, Death Sweats comes from a pretty dark place," wrote singer/guitarist Jon Redditt. "All three of us agree that, generally speaking, it's an album about anxiety. More specifically, I think it touches on personal experiences, like poverty — both Brock [Allen, bass/vocals] and I work in social housing in the Downtown East side of Vancouver and are exposed to a lot of emotionally taxing things. - allmusic.com

“Being in a band in general is just constantly about survival… For me, the biggest achievement was that the whole thing didn’t cave in on itself.” It wouldn’t be hard to blow off Kirby Fisher’s statement as melodrama, an exercise meant to conjure up images of ’The Starving Artist’ slaving away for his love of music. With a band like War Baby, however, a group that’s so visibly ecstatic to have survived its own challenges, the only word Fisher’s sentiment evokes is ‘genuine.’

Ever since the release of Jesus Horse in 2013, War Baby’s presence in Vancouver has been nigh inescapable. “For an independent band that had no help — not a scrap of help, no one was interested — we did quite well,” Fisher explains, without any sense of exaggeration. From winning CiTR’s Shindig 2013, to headlining the inaugural SnailFest, and even opening for the legendary Eagles of Death Metal at a sold out Commodore performance, the past two years have seen Fisher and his cohorts Brock Allen and Jon Redditt thrust to local notoriety. It’s why War Baby’s prerogative to simply survive is so poignant— their sound may seem ubiquitous now (a healthy blend of grunge, punk, and hardcore) but when they started they weren’t an easy band to bill. Amidst a sea of other acts, the trio was frequently considered too tough for some audiences, and not tough enough for others. Having worked their way up as an “underdog band,” as Redditt puts it, is something they’re immensely proud of. - Discorder Magazine

’Twas the night before Halloween, and a menacing crowd arrived at the Copper Owl to unleash their dark sides and headbang. No headlining band could be more fitting for the occasion than War Baby, heavy grime rockers with enough years of experience to lace their intense on-stage presence with a perfected live sound. The audience of sweaty ghouls immediately crowded around the band’s powerful energy.

War Baby is a melting pot, a mashup of eerie lyrics and melodic grunge, incorporating noise distortion that somehow both rattles the bones and elicits emotion. Despite their metalhead image, War Baby is comprised of three well-humoured and relaxed friends, but the band admits they enjoy placing a cryptic veil between themselves and their fans. In reality, Brock Allens (bass), Jon Redditt (guitar, vocals), and Kirby Fischer (drums) are actually guys who would be seriously fun to spend a weekend with, drinking beer and listening to Jon Bon Jovi. Nevertheless, their band website is riddled with disturbing imagery, including a photo of their heads wrapped in plastic. “Everything is about confusing people,” laughed Fischer.

War Baby likes to warp perceptions, but their talent was nothing but tangible at the live show. Redditt’s raw vocals showed a range that extended beyond the usual Nirvana comparisons, while Allens’s basslines stirred the crowd into a sea of rhythmic head bobbing. Unlike most bands, the drummer demanded a serious amount of on-stage attention: Fischer’s energy was palpable; his arms flailed widely in focused movement, yet he sounded pristine.

The Copper Owl show on Oct. 30 was also a release party for the band’s newest album, Death Sweats. Fischer said, “[Death Sweats] feels a bit more mature” than their previous album, Jesus Horse, which earned a spot on the Huffington Post’s top ten indie albums of 2013. Allens joined the group since the making of Jesus Horse, and the inclusion of his bass and songwriting has contributed a more comprehensive, thrashIer sound to the band. They say that it’s reasonable they’re often grouped in with ‘90s grunge bands, because they grew up listening to them. However, when War Baby began, they didn’t set out to sound like anyone else.

The band is currently based in Vancouver, and Redditt admitted they had a rough start breaking into the city’s established and sometimes cliquey music scene. “There’s always like these little branches, and we really didn’t have a branch to stand on,” he said. The band eventually created their own genre platform and gained a fan following that complimented their talent. Redditt explained that every band struggles differently, while Allens added, “Don’t take anyone else’s advice.”

War Baby has toured Western Canada, appearing at festivals like Sled Island in Calgary and Canadian Music Week in Toronto. They also played at Qingdao’s Intercity Music Festival in China. Surprisingly, the band reveals that they aren’t constantly checking sites like Pitchfork to track their competition. Redditt said, “I’m not a music nerd at all.” Fischer added, “It doesn’t need to be complicated, you just keep going.”

Death Sweats is currently available for online purchase and includes access to a virtual game created by the band. More info is available at warbabymusic.com and warbaby.bandcamp.com. - The Martlet

The coastal resort town of Tofino is the least likely of places you would expect to find a couple of Vancouver’s grunge kings. Yet this is precisely where I reach Jon Redditt, guitarist and vocalist of doom-pop-grunge trio War Baby, as he and bandmate Brock Allen take a quick break before what is turning out to be a very busy year.

“I think we may go get wet suits and walk into the freezing ocean or something dumb,” says Redditt in his typical dark-humour fashion.

I first met Redditt in 2007 when he was a part of Al Di TV, a Youtube channel featuring eccentric video interviews with touring musicians. It was hosted by Al Di, a mutual friend from China, and backed by Redditt and Colin Askey on camera duties. Redditt “held a microphone and wore some funny glasses”, and Allen, War Baby’s bassist since 2012, composed the intro music.

Redditt went on to form War Baby one year later, after being introduced to the immensely talented Aussie drummer Kirby Fisher by a mutual friend. There was to be no more Al Di TV, but War Baby was just beginning.

After sifting through band names such as Bonkerz “which was thankfully laughed right out” and Melting Witch, Redditt and Fisher chose War Baby, and convinced local punk booking queen Wendy 13 to let them play The Cobalt in 2008. They recorded their debut EP Permanent Frown with Jordan Koop at Fader Master Studios in 2009 and returned to him at Noise Floor in Ladysmith for Jesus Horse, the LP that would solidify their place as Vancouver’s grunge-pop heavy weights. Their live shows have become notoriously explosive, combining a cathartic edge with their sharp sense of self-deprecating humour.

April marks the European release for War Baby’s debut LP Jesus Horse, two years after its original release date in Canada. The album is an avalanche of fuzzed out guitars, a pummelling rhythm section and melodies so catchy that it comes as no surprise that they are often compared to Nirvana. Grunge may be the sound-du-jour in 2015, but in the beginning, War Baby were not exactly trend-setters.

“I think when you’re starting out it’s important to have or develop a vision of what you are trying to do,” says Reddit. “In the very early writing stages of the songs I was thinking [that] I wanted to do something with the heaviness of Sabbath, the rawness of Lightning Bolt and the catchiness of Nirvana. That could sound pretty calculated or trendy now, but trust me, it couldn’t have been further from the truth seven or eight years ago.”

It is admirable to see a band so unaffected by their surroundings. Their absolute disregard for taking themselves seriously, yet being incredibly serious about their music has led to winning CiTR’s Shindig music competition in 2014, touring across Canada alongside local punks The Invasives and even a trip to China, where they played the Qingdao Inter City Music Festival, brought over by, who else, Al Di of Al Di TV.

“It was a completely insane culture shock. If all we had to do is that over and over again, I would probably do it,” he says of the experience, which had them play alongside fellow Vancouverites Fake Shark Real Zombie.

Next up, the band will play a handful of local shows and will release their much anticipated sophomore album sometime later this summer, recorded again with Koop at Noise Floor.

“Our next album is in line at the press plant and we plan to release it in the latter half of summer,” says Redditt. “We’re super stoked with it, and there’s some insane plans that go along with it, but that’s all I can say for now.”

The Tofino waves are calling, and it is time to wrap up our interview. Before I let him go, I ask him the question so many bands are afraid to answer. From winning Shindig, relentless touring and even playing a show in China, does War Baby consider themselves an ambitious band?

“I think we’ve always been ambitious, we just always have to do stuff our own way, and also we really don’t know what the fuck we’re doing. But I think we’re getting better in our old age.”

There you have it, from the (Jesus) Horse’s mouth. - Westender Magazine

Any listener will give this record an obligatory Bleach comparison, and that's fair but with EDM ruling the airwaves as well as the live industry, it's a healthy reminder to re-discover your spastic guitar roots. With frontman Jon Red's House-Of-Guitars-style of absurdist humour in their videos and social media, and a live show that makes them sell out of merchandise nightly, expect big things from this rising act in the next two years.

Standout track: Horseless Headman - Huffington Post

Among the countless tree-studded islands in the Georgia Straight is Gabriola Island, B.C., a 57.6-kilometre swath of green inhabited by roughly 5,000 people. Sleepy and unassuming as it may seem, though, the island’s becoming known as the place where Canada’s best bands go to record—and that’s largely thanks to the Noise Floor, a recording studio built by manager Terry Stewart and engineer Jordan Koop.

Vancouver-based War Baby, to us, are best-known as one of the country’s best post-grunge acts. Featuring Cobain-esque vocals and post-hardcore grooves—think the Jesus Lizard, or even post-NYHC acts like Orange 9mm and Handsome—their hard-hitting Jesus Horse LP was recorded and mixed at the Noise Floor. But the studio’s owners know the band for something other than their music.

“War Baby are always super fun and funny,” says Stewart. “Last time they were here they found my machete outside and proceeded to make a series of Instagram movies about [a character named] Machete Man. We had a brief power outage with them one night so Machete Man turned into a half-hour song around the wood stove.” - Aux TV

Interview: War Baby
by Zak Vescera • April 28, 2014

When I contact Jon Redditt of Vancouver grunge trio War Baby for an interview, he only has one condition for me: “No questions about sharks or whorehouses”. It’s the exact type of dark, off-beat humour that I learn to expect from the Vancouver doom rock trio.

War Baby’s brand of distorted, grinding grunge suggests a group that takes almost a cathartic approach to music, pounding their instruments with unbelievable timing and intensity. Yet, amidst that there’s a trend of humour; their sophomore album was entitled JESUS HORSE, after all, and after Redditt’s email it’s clear they aren’t going to be tough-as-nails metal heads.

The band, as it would turn out, is a pretty normal bunch of guys. Jon is cracking open a few beers, drummer Kirby Fisher is enjoying a couple of cigarettes, andbassist Brock Allen is relaxing on a long, leather couch while they debate and joke about everything from local bands to Fisher’s upbringing in Australia. Without me there, this would look like any other group of friends shooting the shit on a Saturday afternoon. As the interview progresses, I almost feel like I’m just facilitating a chat between friends. With the help of a few beers, the band tells me about their first show, their musical upbringing, and their grudge against the Zeitgeist. The band despises hipster’s, music nerds, and generally anyone who tries to tell them what they can and can’t do.
“We’ve always been more about being good people than cool kids”, Redditt explains.



What’s going on with War Baby right now?

K: Well we’ve just mixed and recorded about 99% of our new album. The next phase is to send it off to mastering and then getting it pressed! We’re about to go to Toronto to play Canadian music week.

J: And we also just found out that we are playing Sled Island! Looking really forward to that.

How’s the new album looking compared to JESUS HORSE?

J: It’s going to destroy Jesus Horse. It’s going to destroy your ears.

Do you see it going in more of a grunge direction, or a lighter sound?

J: We’re gonna be going in both directions, I think. What do you think, Kirbs?

K: The guy who produced it, Jordan Koop, who also did Jesus Horse, because, well, he’s the man-

J: Actually Brock, what do you think?

B: It doesn’t matter what I think because this is all scripted. [laughter]

K: I’ve actually got Google Glass on right now. But yeah, he [Koop] had a lot of great stuff to say about the album.

J: His number one criticism for us was that we were writing better songs. On a whole nother level from Jesus Horse.

K: It’s kinda got a bit of a dual direction going on, which is sort of a theme for us but has never been intentional. It’s just because we all have such different tastes in music. It’s sort of a beautiful melting pot of sound.

Back to the early days of the band now; what can you guys tell me about Wendy Thirteen?

J: Well, she gave us our first show, so we’re super grateful to her for that. We haven’t had much contact with Wendy since the first show…what happened was, we were supposed to play a show with my old band, which I played with in Calgary, but they bailed out because of a snow block.

K: We found out the day of the show. It was supposed to be at the Media Club, and when it was cancelled it was honestly just devastating. You know, It was supposed to be our first show, I had just gotten over here from Australia to begin a new chapter, we had been telling all of our friends about it for so long. So when it got canned, I was just sort of like “fuck that”, and I thought that the person who was most likely to give us a show would be Wendy Thirteen.

J: This is kinda embarrassing, but we went around to different venues that night, and we were like “We’re going to get a show.” We were gonna Oasis it and just force our way into a show. And nothing. We went to all the venues that were available, and then we went to the Cobalt- which is still my favourite place to play- and we saw a number outside. I didn’t really have the balls but Kirby just went ahead and called that number. It didn’t say anything either. It was just the number.

K: It literally just said “Wendy” and then the number. Of course I knew it was the infamous Wendy Thirteen. So I just called and was basically planning to beg my way on, and she was just like “Yep, that’s fine.”

J: I think she kinda hated us. [laughter]

K: We may have lied and said that we were way more punk than we actually were. But yeah, that was our first show.

Do you guys support Wendy in her political campaigns?

J: I didn’t even know.

K: To be honest, I’m so removed I had no idea.

She runs for mayor just about every election.

K: If I could vote- I can’t, because I’m not a citizen- then knowing that, I most definitely would vote for her.

J: I support her in spirit.

Brock, you came to the band in 2012. What was it like coming into the chemistry between these two?

B: Oh jeez man, where’s my script? [laughter] You guys know how quiet I usually am. I dunno. It felt kinda natural, because I had already played with Jon before in other bands.

What are your guys’ craziest touring stories?

K: I kinda feel like everytime we go out of town, we feel like we’re in the boy scouts or something and we’re going to go light fires in the bush.

J: That’s good. Nice anecdote right there.

K: Oh, shut up [laughter]. It almost feels like it’s sometimes way too much fun, because part of the reason we do this is to escape our shit lives. So as soon as we are in the van, everything is so novel. It’s just three goofs in a van.

J: Dude. Terry.

K: Oh, yes! [takes a card from Jon]. Where were we? Oh right, it was Cranbrook. We were playing Cranbrook with another band to like, nobody—it was our first time there. And then we met Terry, who was just….

J: So drunk.

K: I think the drunkest person I have ever met in my life. He was singing and…oh god. I wouldn’t go so far as to say this is a crazy story, more just a crazy person. [to Jon] There was that one time you killed that guy. [laughter]

J: Terry was just magic, man.

K: I have a story for something that happened here. We were playing a show with Black Wizard around Halloween, and so we went walking around dressed as 1990s Las Vegas grandmas. Perfect theme, right?

Perfect.

K: So we were walking around with pearl necklaces, high heels, really bad makeup. So we played the show, had a really good time, and then went down to- what was that club called?

J: Goodie, or maybe it was still the Emergency Room back then.

K: And we were walking and there was this guy dressed as a dead Steve Irwin. And keep in mind I was a bit wasted. I wasn’t offended by it because I was Australian—funny is funny. But I thought the joke was so dated. I mean, if you want it to be funny you have to hit that “too soon” factor and do it like the day after. I felt like the joke had died. So after some shenanigan talking…
J: In the meantime, this dude had this rubber stingray stinger sticking out of his chest and I was doing this [hits his chest] to him…

K: And then he sucker punched me, and then Jon started throwing punches, and then his two friends joined in and it just became an all out brawl.

J: I think Glen from Beatroute was in there too.

Classic. Jon, a big influence you talk about is Nirvana. What’s your favourite Nirvana record?

J: Nevermind, all the way. A lot of people we talk to say that Bleach was their best record, which you probably wouldn’t expect, cause that’s bullshit. Bleach didn’t have Dave Grohl. Nevermind is absolutely the best record.

K: I think it’s like when something gets so massive out-of-control big, the cool kids revolt against that.

J: We hate the cool kids.

K: If there’s one ethos we have as a band, it’s that we hate the cool kids.

J: We’re down with the losers, the nerds…

K: We like blue-collar everyday people. Anyways, I think it’s clear there’s a reason Bleach sold this much [puts his hand low] and Nevermind sold this much [holds hand in the air].

J: And I love all of their records. Bleach is a great hidden gem. But seriously, Nevermind is the best record.

K: Me and Jon have had this discussion so many times before. And it gets so heated everytime!

J: Brock?

B: I like Nevermind too, that was the first record for me.

J: Is that on your script too? [laughter]

K: Nirvana came out at just the right time for me, back in Australia. I was around 13, maybe like 15. We definitely didn’t hear about Bleach.

And you’ve said that in Australia, basically your only source of music was Triple J, right? So that’s where you got your music from.

K: I would say about 80% was from Triple J and then another 20% — the good 20%– from this other show. There was Triple J, which in my opinion is the best big radio station in the world, but then there was also this thing called Rage. which went up every Saturday night, and it was basically our version of MTV back when they still played music videos. It started at 12 at night and went to 6 in the morning. “

J: And if you google up any 90s band, you’ll see the Rage insignia at the bottom of the page- not MTV. It’s so weird.

K: So basically, from midnight to four in the morning, they would play like, anything. Like if we made a music video right now of us smashing plates together and then spliced it up, there is a very good chance they would play it. So you would just see, like, Built to Spill on there, and they’re now one of my favourite bands ever.

J: I had a similar thing called City Limits. It was an hour and a half I think, and you’d get stuff like Mudhoney on there.

K: What people don’t realize is that pre-internet, you’d have to dig really fucking hard to find good music. So you’d be sitting there in your armchair, mum’s asleep, and you’d be sitting there watching with some popcorn and some hot chocolate.

J: That was my Friday night man. I would tape it every time, just so I had it on record.

K: I would sit there with pen and paper in hand and just write down all the cool shit that came on.

J: It was so amazing.

Jon, when I first contacted you about this interview, you said “no questions about sharks or whorehouses.” So, what are your personal thoughts on sharks?

J: [laugher] The reason I added the thing about sharks is because my greatest fear is different stuff, which I think is very real.

K: Your greatest fear is different stuff? What the hell is that?

J: You know, like space and death and all that. But my friends said that sharks are their greatest fear, which I just thought was so funny. And that bit I mentioned to you about Whorehouses, well….uhmm…well we don’t go to whorehouses, just to start.

[laughter]

You guys are War Baby, but are you aware there used to be a band in Seattle called War Babies in the 90s?

J: Of course I’m aware! Don’t even finish your sentence! Didn’t those guys have something to do with Ted Nugent?

I think so, yep.

J: Well fuck them! I can’t even sell my Ted Nugent T-shirt on Ebay, let me put it to you that way. They were a horrible band and I’m glad we’re stealing their thunder! [laughter] They weren’t even really a grunge group. They were a hair band.

If you really don’t like them, were you worried about comparisons?

J: Not at all, they don’t sound anything like us.

K: To chime in as the most sober person here, we didn’t even know that band existed until two months in when a friend of mine sent me a Youtube video. But hey, even if we were called the War Babies I wouldn’t do anything unless someone contacted us.

J: We have a friend in a band called Cowards, and if you look on the internet there are like 50 bands called Cowards, but until they get an email it’s all good.

K: I was in a band in Australia called Rawkus, which was also the name of a record label that Eminem- that’s all I can remember. We got an email like right away saying “cease and desist”.

J: We managed to find a name that was barely used and barely similar to anything, and it kicks ass and we love it. So if War Babies wants to come and try and change our name, I’m going to slit their throats.

[laughter]

Oh my god. A lot of bands have a lot of really bad names before they settle on a final one. What was the worst band name you ever played under?

J: Oh, that’s a good one.

K: Let’s go around and answer that. I was in a band with not only the worst name ever, but it may have been the worst band that’s ever existed in the history of mankind with three really terrible people.

J: What if those people read this?

K: I don’t care! The band was called “Snow in Africa”. I was not there when the name was chosen. It was in L.A. That was my first mistake.

B: Probably either Pale Blue, or Dark Sun.

J: Dark Sun? That doesn’t make any…

B: Because the sun doesn’t get dark, damnit! laughter]

J: My worst one was kinda an unfortunate homonym: Jooul. It’s a good name, but you have to see it, right? Otherwise you think of that other singer. Although I’ve been texting with the lead singer and we might even do a throwback piece because we were in a band for 10 years.

What’s next?

J: I just have to say this is the interview we’ve done, easy. Anyways, what’s next? We’re gonna do an album for starters….Kirby?

B: Can you put some input into this put?

K: We’re gonna employ the guerilla ethos of the Black Panther party.

J: Some Black Flag shit.

K: But seriously, there’s a lot of anger that fuels this band that we find a positive use for. I think we’re kinda campaigning against cool kids.

J: We’ve always wanted to be more about being good people than cool kids.

—

War Baby will be playing in Toronto on May 4th at the Smiling Buddha and another show just two days later at the Bovine Sex Club. Their next shows in Vancouver are on May 17th at the Railway Club followed by May 29th at the Fox Cabaret. - Lotus Land

... if you find yourself waxing nostalgic for the glory years of Sub Pop and the "grunge sound" ... then you can't do much better than this one.
Highly recommended. - [shiny grey monotone]

This might be one of those rare instances when a band can immediately invoke comparisons to Nirvana and not totally suck. In fact, the parallels are almost a disservice. War Baby lay down grungy jams on Jesus Horse that would make mainstream ’90s commercial radio throwback stations a thousand times more tolerable. Listening to this record on repeat will make your hair grow long and greasy at an alarming rate. This Vancouver-based trifecta of power invoke undeniable levels of thrash. Jon Reddit’s guitar and vocals are hypnotic summonings from a dark cave. Aaron Weiss’ bass lines patch into your spinal cord and induce uncontrollable nods of appreciation. Kirby Fisher caps the sonic assault by smashing the songs into your eardrums. All of this was somehow harnessed at The Noise Floor, home to some of the west coast’s best recordings of the last few years, among which Jesus Horse definitely belongs. - Weird Canada

The real punchline here is the follow-up band, garage/grunge/hardcore band War Baby. Drummer Kirby Fisher chuckles as he admits, “We were so confused with Cowpuncher wanting to play with us so bad.” Later on, Ryan Kelly, baritone guitar for Cowpuncher, shed some light on the situation: “We saw them at a flood relief show at Commonwealth and we just really like good music… They blew us away.” Cowpuncher shortlisted War Baby as a band they just wanted to play with, digging their music and paying no mind to genre, and subsequently setting up this gig.

Aside from being extremely nice dudes, War Baby shifted the evening’s gears into something different entirely. These mid-range bangers balanced some weighty chords with intelligent lyrics in a blender of post-Nirvana grunge. Being a sucker for a high-armed theatrical drummers, I was hot all over watching these boys. All that was missing from this show was a handful of bangers, a keg and dad’s garage – I was crushing like a teenager. Best I not pretend to be a metal connoisseur, but I’ll say this – now I understand why Cowpuncher was man-crushing. They had me at War Baby. - Vancouver Weekly

Written by Jackson Crosswalk Daniels.

Hey everyone, it’s War Baby!

This album’s been floating around Vancouver for about a year now, since roughly about the time I saw them play a set at The Astoria. At this show, a friend of mine invested in one of War Baby’s shirts, as well a vinyl copy of their LP Jesus Horse. In the wee hours of the following morning, we got back to the house and threw the record on. I was equally impressed by both the fact that their record featured captivating performances and production value, as well as the fact that my friend’s piss-yellow-coloured War Baby shirt featured a big, brown smear stained down the back of it.

Turns out War Baby prints most, if not all, of their band’s t-shirts on miscellaneous blank t’s harvested by donation, from thrift stores and dumpsters, and stolen off the bodies of people passed out at parties. I am well aware that most of their products are not soiled by mysterious fluids, but, hey, buyer beware, right? Conversely, you too could be going home in your very own, uniquely soiled War Baby t-shirt in all sorts of fun new styles for this season! Go see these guys live and buy their stuff and tell them it’s because they rock and not because some dickhead on the internet told you to.

So anyway…as faded as my recollection may be, this drunken listening session by early morning twilight served to confirm my earliest suspicions that War Baby rocks and does not suck at all.

Live on stage, these guys perform as a three-piece combo and thus rely heavily on punishing decibel levels and looking really upset to impress upon the audience the utter hugeness of their sound. On Jesus Horse, there’s plenty of dubbing of complementary guitar takes with wildly different tonalities, allowing great ranges of depth and intensity to be crammed into each of War Baby’s appropriately abrupt songs. I must warn you, Dear Reader, that the cavernous low-end that opens up about thirty seconds into “Black Swan”–played at the appropriate listening volume and with a proper subwoofer–may cause temporary blindness and/or a sudden and abysmal sense of impending mortality in pregnant women, small animals, and people prone to being high as balls. I know, because I know a guy who smoked a lot of weed at a War Baby show and pissed in my favourite pants.

Through a rigorous schedule of rocking local venues, War Baby has built themselves enough of a reputation that a few people have told me all about this band and their “sound.” Some painfully obvious comparisons have proven too much for some people, myself included, to resist drawing parallels between War Baby and certain bands who will remain both ageless and nameless. Because I’d been hearing so much of the above-mentioned crap and not enough of War Baby’s actual music, I agreed to review their album in pursuit of the same novelty that compels people to attend NASCAR races and SeaWorld performances. That novelty being, of course, the morbid lust for witnessing a horrible car crash, or seeing some jackass in a wetsuit get their skeletal structure rearranged by a psychologically-tormented Orca. That’s why people go to these events, right? While I expected this album to be awesome, I was also in terrible anticipation of hearing music that I wouldn’t be able to describe without naming some names like the talentless hack that I am.

Well, my skepticism was denied by arrangements more akin to the post-metal fallout of the last ten years than they are to thirty-year-old, over-expired punk rock. Some notable departures from vicious, unrelenting rock & roll include the downright math-y intro to “Eternal Life Insurance,” as well as the atmospheric, pretty breakdown in “Bat A Lash.” Worry not, True Believer, as the vast majority of Jesus Horse will inspire you to live dangerously and bang your head back and forth with violent enthusiasm. Sonically, this album offers up a healthy spread of both mouth-wateringly savory and gut-wrenchingly sour guitar and bass tones melted over spacious, natural drum sounds. As an entire product, Jesus Horse delivers the sort of satisfaction you’ve come to expect from today’s fast-paced rock & roll band.

Records sound better than bandcamp.com, so go see War Baby play a show and buy their album, Jesus Horse, or else bad things will continue to happen to you forever. - Red On Black Music

(Translated by Google)
If in summer 2013, was asked the answer is now the most active in the North American alternative rock music and trash rockers have those when we can give is still Alice In Chains, Jane's hobby and bands like Stone Temple Pilots, it shows that the people themselves have long been concerned about the West Coast GRUNGE laps, because the current one GRUNGE bands in North America is the most active WARBABY.
The past two years with the return of alternative rock music, WARBABY implement alternative rock as a new generation of innovative doctrine revolutionary vanguard organization, strengthening the revitalization of this share music trend of strong shake forces.
WARBABY Although a new generation of rock & alternative rock band Garbage, but in fact, the band's two masterminds BROCK JOHNNY and is North America's independent music scene has been the backbone for many years, while the other one JOHNNY orchestra SEA OF IS also used to be Chinese version "Rolling Stone" magazine introduced.
Although the music WARBABY band in North America has achieved a proud achievement worth, but they said to be ambitious in the new year to conquer the Asian market. In this regard they said, "This is our first time in Asia is about to perform, I am very excited, because in the Western world we know is not enough for China, the Chinese know we are all Chinese in ancient times of modern China we are really not familiar with, but we all know that in the past few years, China's economic development is very fast, but Western countries and exchanges have sprung up, as a musician, This is why I wish I could, and Chinese music fans, to share my music and exchange ideas reasons. We are very pleased to have some of China's young people are interested in our music. " - Intercity Music Festival (Pilot Records)

“Big Daddy Cumbuckets … I have no fuckin’ idea who they were,” Kirby Fisher of Vancouver doom pop trio War Baby says, explaining his favourite band shirt. Considering both he and guitarist Jon Redditt pick vintage clothes for a living, this was the last thing I expected him to say. The band’s latest recordings were even commissioned off a pair of vintage jeans that Fisher sold. Yet I still hesitate to believe this shirt even exists. This was just one of the possible half-truths War Baby tell me while cracking jokes and drinking beer under the dim light of Pat’s Pub to discuss their debut full-length album, Jesus Horse, Aussie radio, and gay pride.

It’s been just over four years since the core duo of Jon Redditt (guitar/vocals) and Kirby Fisher (drums/vocals) first convinced Wendy 13 to let them play the Cobalt in 2008. The following year their Permanent Frown EP was recorded under the guidance of Jordan Koop at FaderMaster Studios. The EP garnered local attention, but immigration troubles stifled War Baby’s progression as Fisher was forced home to Australia twice to renew his Canadian visa.

Not much for his listless hometown and determined not to lose the momentum of Permanent Frown, War Baby made plans for a full-length recording and enlisted bassist and tugboat captain Aaron Weiss to round out their riffs. Koop was again enlisted to record Jesus Horse, although this time at Noise Floor Studios in Ladysmith, B.C., giving War Baby the perfect excuse to visit an old friend.

“[Koop] is just the greatest guy and it’s just a cheeky bonus that he’s really good at what he does,” Fisher says endearingly.

Available April 5 via Bummer Records, the debut full-length conjures the notoriously indiscernible and haphazard lyrics of ‘90s grunge bands like Mudhoney or Silverchair to confront themes of alienation and, what Fisher simply describes as pure rage. The dark/light dichotomy found on both “Cave” and “Bat A Lash” illustrates their grunge influences, with Redditt’s vocals eerily reminiscent to Mark Arm’s heroin-induced drawl and indiscernible screams championed by the Seattle sound in the early ‘90s.

The influence on Redditt’s forlorn aggression comes as no surprise as he admits the MuchMusic program he grew up on, City Limits, still influences his songwriting.

“Friday night from 10 to 12. It was two or three hours of good music videos and I always checked that out.”

War Baby | | photo by Victoria Johnson

Echoing this, Fisher jokes, “I was lucky to live in a place that was fucking terrible, but I had an amazing group of friends that also thought it was terrible, so we just stuck together and we made it entertaining.” Turning to crate-digging friends and the best, but only, Australian station available in his hometown, Triple J Radio, Fisher found an instant affinity to Dave Grohl’s frenetic drumming. “Nirvana!” he exclaims. “It was all of a sudden so huge for me, but it was more from a Dave Grohl standpoint than their songs … It was like the first thing I ever understood. Ever.”

“When confusion resolves to something that makes sense, it’s really powerful,” Redditt adds.

Nevertheless, grunge may not be entirely responsible for their sound, “I listen to Phil Collins way more than Nirvana though,” Fisher proudly admits.

I never suspected this confession, given the precarious journey into personal darkness driven by a rhythm section that could easily be mistaken for the crumbling riffs of Master of Reality-era Iommi sludge on “Coalmine Canary.” Likewise on “Melting Witch,” as it opens with a furious 16-bar snare roll before galloping into unnerving scenes overrun with silverfish and black cradle graves. The raucous “Black Swan,” whose D.I.Y. music video includes wildlife pop-up books and flip book comics depicting the evolution of imagined entities, is the quintessential illustration for the band’s playful relationship with dark fantasy.

War Baby | | photo by Victoria Johnson

Amidst technical and thematic playfulness that resonates on the same frequencies as local metal pioneers 3 Inches of Blood, War Baby still feel alone in their persistent adolescence.

Maybe that’s because starting a band was never about the rock’n’roll image for Fisher and Redditt. In true Generation X fashion, it was instead a way to cope with boredom.

“It was like a boxing bag,” Fisher says with a grin. And I have no choice but to believe him. The calculated abruptness of their tempo changes and waves of distortion that act as fills, exemplify the riotous approach the band takes to songwriting, their instruments, and life in general. Well past their teenage years, War Baby admit there is still a lingering feeling of alienation as they struggle to find a place within the Vancouver scene.

This could change, however, with their recent lineup shuffle. As War Baby realized they were becoming more serious, Redditt invited bassist Brock Allen to fill in for Weiss at their - Discorder Magazine

War Baby is equal parts grizzled monster, black swan and pure fuzzed-out rock frenzy. Originally the brainchild of Jon Redditt and Kirby Fisher, who came together due as much to taste as coincidence, the group has unabashedly played what they wanted with the tone and intensity of men on fire. With the recent addition of Aaron Weiss’ (Battle Snakes) massive bass, the duo-cum-trio have now solidified their astute sense of heaviness. “People weren’t telling us, ‘you need a bass player,’ but sometimes at the core, some things run their course and the second we jammed (with Aaron) we knew it was the right move,” Fisher tells me.

It was an easy choice, with Weiss’ thunderous bass backing Redditt’s incendiary presence and Fisher’s relentlessly intense drumming, War Baby has managed to marry unrelenting energy with great songwriting and incredibly dynamic performances. It’s almost unfair. “It’s changed the sound for sure, but it definitely hasn’t changed how Jon writes songs,” Fisher notes.

War Baby’s music is dark and brooding, even fiendish at times, with themes of inner turmoil and restlessness playing off inner antipathies, reminding you that there are two sides to the human coin. At times it can be surprisingly delicate, almost spooky, but a generally unabating heaviness prevails throughout, defined not so much by the tone or volume, but by intensity. Between the three of them, they seem to be able to do nothing but melt brains, and something about it grabs hold of your most basic instincts and vibrates you to your bones.

The guys tell me that the hardest thing about joining a band is finding someone with similar musical passions, and Fisher explains, “I’m from the Gold Coast in Australia and people’s taste in music is Sublime and Sublime.” Redditt adds, “A sense of humour is 80 per cent of it; 20 per cent is music taste.” It seems like they’re all on the same page. “You find weird things like a T-shirt with a distorted grandma’s face on it, and if Jon didn’t laugh we wouldn’t be in a band,” Fisher says. Undoubtedly the guys have found good company.
- Jordan Ardanaz - BeatRoute magazine

"...three piece War Baby who sufficiently pummeled the crowd with a terse and punchy ten song set. Kirby Fischer is a monster on the kit, his technique the perfect combination of stunning precision and bone-crunching power. Jon Redditt bore a nasty snarl for most of the set, spitting out words over the churning racket with overflowing vitriol. Their set closer “Belly Ache” was frightening to behold as Redditt’s slithering guitar work combined with a whiplash inducing stop/start rhythm sounded like southern rock on acid." - Discorder Magazine

War Baby revitalizes everything that was great about rock and roll in the ‘90s. Heavy, crushing riffs that can black out a room full of joy and leave an audience feeling like they’ve just spent a week in a dark cave questioning their place in the world - only able to come to baffled, disjointed conclusions that make no sense in the presence of such extreme talent. Don’t miss this.

-Sled Island Bio
- Sled Island

War Baby is a Vancouver-based trio that smells faintly similar to teen spirit. Don’t worry, they’re the first to admit that the Seattle sounds of yesteryear top their list of musical influences – but so does the musical genius of Phil Collins. Australian drummer Kirby Fischer left the Gold Coast and landed in Canada on a pilgrimage to find bandmates with similar style, taste and senses of humour and was rewarded in his efforts by making the acquaintance of Jon Redditt. The twosome recruited a bassist to fill out what low gauge strings, distortion and double-kick drumming could not and thus were joined by sea captain Aaron Weiss.

The band is poised to release a new album in the upcoming months, including a re-release of the stand out track “Black Swan,” originally from their debut EP Permanent Frown. Their Cobain-esque vocals, simple bass riffs, eruptions of guitar and machine-gun precise drumming are a refreshing throwback. Discorder sat down with the band to discuss how they to got together and how comedy factors into their music.

Discorder: So, War Baby started out as a two-piece?
Kirby Fischer: Yeah, it started in late 2008. When I was in Australia my friend Blake was here and told me about Jon. It was really hard to meet anybody like that back home; everybody either liked Sublime or… Sublime. Long story short I finally got here and got introduced to him and had a jam. What made us rush it is that we stupidly booked a show when we had been a band for two months.

D: How was the first show?

Jon Redditt: We were supposed to open for a band I used to be in from Calgary at the Media Club, but it snowed and they got stuck and the show was canceled.

KF: But we still wanted to play a show, so we rang Wendy 13 from the Cobalt and basically lied that we were some crazy punk band. We played the show, it was fine, you know, first show jitters, over-and-done, but she fucking hated us!

D: When did you decide you needed a bass player?

KF: The very very first jam we ever had was with a buddy of ours on bass but he was too busy to do it. We could never find anybody that had the same sense of humour, because that’s the most important, or find someone who was cool because there’s just so many fucking asshole musicians! It was never a conscious, White Stripes-gimmicky duo thing.

JR: It was just [a matter of] finding the right person.

D: How did you come up with the name War Baby and what does it mean?

JR: It’s kind of a cross-section of things. Its a generational term. At our first jam, I threw out three names; one of them was Bonkers, the other was Melting Witch, which became a song title, and the other one was War Baby, which was by far the best.

KF: We were playing all these shows and 90 per cent of the time we never felt like we had anywhere, there was no place for us. It was like, “you sound like Arcade Fire” or [you sound like] “Black Sabbath”. We couldn’t find the middle ground. So we were like, yeah, we declare war. We’ll make our own spot. We’re far from it, but we’re trying our hardest!

D: It’s kind of a juxtaposition for a heavy band to say they have a sense of humour, but it seems to work for you guys.

Aaron Weiss: Are we a heavy band? I don’t really see us as a heavy band.

KF: It depends. Back home the scenes blend, whereas here everything seems a bit cliquey. We’re definitely heavy, but at the same time Jon and I are obsessed with pop music. Phil Collins is my hero! I’m obsessed. When you’re a band in the city, playing in the scene, having an emphasis on pop and melody is not cool.

D: It’s easy to see the humour and artistic sense in your YouTube videos too. Who made those?

JR: We did, all except for one.

KF: I think the reason the humour works is because it’s like when you meet a girl and if she’s not laughing at your jokes, you can’t date her. It’s not going to go anywhere.

AW: You’re just going to be the goof forever!

KF: I think “Goof Forever” is a good name for this album by the way!

JR: Rat goofs!

KF: If you have the same sense of humour you’re more than likely going to have the same taste in music and you’re going to at least hate the same things. That’s more important than if you love the same things.

D: I’ve heard you guys have some interesting day jobs?

AW: I’m ahh…

JR: Aaron, you should be proud standing next to us.

AW: The technical name for my job is “Tug Master,” or you could call me a seaman; I run tug boats.

KF: I run a vintage clothing company and wholesale online.

JR: I pick vintage and do part-time pest control for the Portland Hotel Society.

D: How’s the vintage business?

KF: Certain vintage pieces are worth a bit of money. I found a really old pair of jeans and got enough to pay for the recording. If I find another pair we’ll get the record out really soon.

D: Well, we’re looking forward to it very much! - Discorder Magazine

"...I have to tell you, any band you’ve never heard boo about who can convince you in a matter of songs to head to the merch table and purchase their album has done their job. This is what all band’s should be able to do. I was convinced, I am listening to my $5 album right now and it’s worth every penny. They sound a little Nirvana (those vocals, wow), a little 70s heavy metal and truly winning me over is the fact they’re a two piece." - Like found Like

The Vancouver-based Noise Punk Group Funded Their First Album With A Pair Of Vintage Jeans

What do digging through piles of vintage clothing and punk rock have in common? Well, they are both favourite pastimes of the members of the band War Baby. In fact, it was a pair of vintage jeans that funded the band’s first full-length album.

“We were so bloody poor, we couldn’t afford to record or anything,” guitarist Jon Redditt says. “It saved our butts, because I don’t think we would have even been able to afford the whole process without some supplementing of vintage gems.”

Vintage picking was also what brought the original two members of the band together. Redditt had a friend who was into vintage picking as well and this friend kept mentioning a drummer from Australia named Kirby Fisher that might be interested in starting a band. A couple years later, Fisher came to Canada and him and Redditt began jamming. Soon after, War Baby was born.

War Baby is a Vancouver-based noise-rock band with a grungy sound reminiscent of Bleach-era Nirvana. Despite the heavy nature of their music, however, War Baby still manages to keep a groovy and poppy sound.

“We wanted to do something that was heavy,” Redditt says. “But we all like really well put together pop. I like some heart and I like some melody, but it’s just so fun to do it heavy.”

So far, the band has released two full-length albums, Jesus Horse (which was funded by the pair of jeans) and Death Sweats, which included a board game on the back of the case. The game is a parody of Nightmare, a horror VHS/board game from the early 1990s. The band ended up shooting a 30-minute accompaniment video for the game that instructs the players on how to play and throws some twists in along the way. All of the members of the band play characters in the video.

“[Death Sweats was] so serious and we wanted to have a dimension of our sense of humour, which is so integral to us as a band,” Redditt says.

Seriousness and existential dread is a theme that runs throughout many of War Baby’s songs, be it through screeching and eerie guitar riffs or lyrics like “God is dead, man is dead, death is dead.”

“It’s something that everyone has to face, and it’s something that, in my writing anyways, I’ve dealt with since a really young age,” Redditt says. “It’s a great way to air those feelings and explore those feelings. It’s a lot of the reason I do this, I think. It’s something that’s constantly on the back of my mind and it’s therapeutic to write that way.”

War Baby is currently in the process of recording a new album that will hopefully be released this fall, but there are still plenty of things up in the air. The band entered the studio with just skeletons of songs, and did much of the writing as they went.

“Every time something worked out or clicked, it just made it really exciting,” he says. “It was a very fluid experience.”

Thu., Jul. 26 (8 pm)

Warbaby w/ The Allovers, and The Tee-Tahs

The Buckingham - Vue Weekly

CALGARY - The only thing Vancouver-based noise punkers War Baby wants is for you to have a good time, but they’d never throw an armed tantrum if you don’t. Oh, no. When it comes to live shows, guitarist and vocalist Jon Redditt thinks the room needs to go with the flow.

“Havin’ so much fun — that’s exactly what it is. It’s fun,” Redditt says about bringing their febrile rattle to a crowd. “It’s energy and it’s generally good, but in a way it’s not good or bad. It’s just whatever you’re feeling at the moment.”

The enigmatic Redditt is joined by longtime collaborator Brock Allen on bass/vocals and the Australian back-up vocalist/cymbal-styler Kirby Fisher on drums. Not ones to take a time out, the trio has a new full-length album slated for a September release hot on the heels of a killer three-track EP, Coma Kid, which the band self-released in 2017.

“We have a full record totally recorded and almost completely mixed, we’re just waiting on a few tweaks, you know, and like mastering and whatever,” reports an enthusiastic Redditt. “We don’t really have a specific date set, because the nature of getting vinyl made — you want that in your hands.”

Youngbloods with old souls, War Baby possesses an overall nonchalance that’s reflected in their take-it-as-it-comes attitude and ripped-jean sonics. While these enfant terribles shy away from being tagged with genre-labels, Redditt admits they do like to let the feedback speak for itself.

“We’re eclectic in our own tastes, but usually noise rock and grunge and to some extent power-pop comes up, and those are all things we’re super into so that’s fine. I think I usually just go with noise rock or noise pop. Just because on one hand, there’s nobody that really cringes at that word, whereas when you say there’s a ‘grunge’ influence some people don’t register with that, you know?”

Call them what you will, War Baby is wide awake and ready to take on the world with a bevy of kick ass tracks that are unabashedly grunge to the core! So, strap on your army boots and keep the flannel at the ready, because as long as War Baby is crawling through the scene, grunge is here to stay. - Beatroute