Have you ever tried to listen to Pink Floyd, MGMT, Tears for Fears and Supertramp at the same time? With four varying styles of music blaring in your ears, you may conclude that in this instance—and this instance only—there is such a thing as too much music.
But what if aspects from all of these bands and their respective catalogues were combined with a throughline of passion and purpose? Not just a rip-off of what’s come before, but a celebration of music from days gone by, calling back to the past while firmly cementing itself in the future?
These are the thoughts sparked by listening to Strange Plants, a Halifax-based psych rock band whose debut self-titled album drops on June 6. With four singles available on streaming services as of writing, they’ve already proven their ability to write compelling songs that are as instrumentally complex as the average prog-rock track while remaining as catchy and upbeat as a new wave song.
Sprouting seeds
Strange Plants consists of Matthew Brannon and Travis Flint, formerly of the Halifax alt-country band Hot Mondy. During their time in that band, the two had written enough non-country songs to fill an album, so they went to the studio and did just that.
“As soon as that project kind of went on hiatus… we were like, well, we’ve got these tunes, let’s do it,” says Brannon in an interview with The Coast. “So we’ve been working creatively for a long time and felt really good about the songs.”
They brought their songs to their friend Robbie Crowell down in Nashville and got to work. They had about 20 songs to choose from and ended up paring it down to 12 with help from Crowell and session guitarist Adam Meisterhans. They finished the record in October 2024 and have been releasing the occasional single since the start of 2025.
While they never had much time to explore the country music capital itself, as Brannon and Flint spent eight whole days in the studio perfecting their album, it was an experience they will cherish for a lifetime.
“Next time we go down, we’ll actually make some time to go downtown,” Brannon says.
Their latest single, “Lifeline”, is perhaps one of their greatest throwbacks. It’s heavy on synths, with layered vocals and a frantic chorus that picks up from the mellow verses, but the keys are interrupted by a shrieking guitar solo before the climactic final chorus. It’s a homage to the ’80s while being entirely its own.
When asked how they manage to deliver on such a clever mix of sounds while still keeping their identity, Brannon referred to his and Flint’s partnership.
“We’re a really good match songwriting-wise,” says Brannon. “We care about all the same things, but we don’t overlap in a lot of places.”
Tastes coming together
Their individual music tastes differ despite liking all the same bands, says Brannon. He brings his love for Tears for Fears and The Beatles while Flint spins The Black Keys and Jack White. It informs the band’s sense of melodic progression while adding a dash of rock-and-roll grit.
It also helps that Brannon and Flint are very different musicians.
“Trav’s greatest strength is that he’s just an extremely instinctual musician,” says Brannon. “He’s got a phone full of riffs and musical ideas, but his personality is not to, like, ‘Oh, I’ve got this idea, now I want to turn it into a complete song.’ Whereas my personality is very much like, ‘That’s super cool, let’s figure out how to make that into a whole kind of song.’
“We don’t write to achieve a certain sound,” he adds. “Like, we just write what we like, so that’s kind of where we don’t really worry about whether it’s going to fit into a certain kind of motif or whatever, so we just let our flag fly as far as the stuff we like.”
It helps that they have a band of talented musicians to help make their unique sound stand out—a sound you can hear live on June 7 as the band hosts their album release show at the Sanctuary Arts Centre in Dartmouth. Opening for them is Mike Trask, who just released one of the best blues albums of the year, BEET. The show will feature a surreal, immersive A/V environment thanks to WASKO AV. It’s all ages and begins at 7pm.
If you want a taste of the band before you go see them live, check out their Broken Piano Sessions on their Instagram page, where they enlist their pianist—a piano tech, at that—to play a broken piano as they jam.
This article appears in May 1-31, 2025.