Steel Cut Oats had to make a difficult choice.
When two members of what was the five-piece indie pop-rock band decided to move on, there were only a few options open to those remaining.
They could recruit a fourth member to round out their sound. They could call it quits and go their separate ways.
“Then there were three of us,” says Sophie Janke, guitarist. “We were kind of like, well, we could still do this.”
The result of this decision was a struggle to become a band of three multi-instrumentalists. Yet, nearly two years after taking the chance, the fruits of their labour have blossomed on their full-length debut, Okay Love You, Okay Bye.
Released on July 17, 2026, Steel Cut Oats’ new record meditates on what it means to be on a journey, whether it be through love, loss, or personal turmoil. It encapsulates the wayward notions of navigating life in your early 20s with a righteous femme passion.
However, it took time to get to a point where they could record a full-length album. After releasing two EPs as a five-piece band (2022’s At the Eleventh Hour and 2024’s Top Autonomy), it would take plenty of practice to create a full sound with less members.
In another sense, it was a perfect opportunity to grow as musicians.
“Now we all play dual instruments,” explains Sarah Roberts, vocalist. “Both Sophie and I play guitar and then I also play synth and sing. Sophie also plays the fiddle and sings. Ted (Edward Morris) plays the drums and the bass at the same time. It’s made watching us on stage really quite interesting and yeah, it was quite uncomfortable.”
However, with practice, they managed to get over the hump of operating multiple instruments while on stage.
“It was so nice musically to have that challenge,” says Janke. “I was playing rhythm and singing backup, and it didn’t really give me space to grow. So, I think the three piece, for all three of us, was just a great motivator to get better as musicians because we actually had to grind to not flop on stage.”
It also helps that they can fit all their gear, plus their members, in one vehicle.
“On tour, we had a show where there was only one extension cord running out to where we had set up our sound,” says Janke. “We were like, we’re a one-plug, one-car band. It’s pretty cool.”
It was overcoming this challenge that proved to Roberts that they were ready to their first full-length album.
“Sophie and I are still going to write songs,” says Roberts about her thoughts in the time in the midst of the departure. “We have such a good groove of writing songs together, and we were like, well, I don’t want to stop this. We have momentum, and then yeah, we tried it. Then we were like, maybe we should do a full album.”
To Yukon
When acclaimed Canadian prog-rock trio Rush recording some of their most popular albums, they would retire to the cottage-like Le Studio in wintry Morin-Heights, Que. It’s one of the most famous studios in North America, due in part to it being a pure, creative retreat for those that want to solely focus on their craft.
Steel Cut Oats had a similar idea in mind. Although it was less glamorous, it achieved a similar purpose on Okay Love You, Okay Bye.
“I was unemployed, Sophie was finishing her master’s degree and Ted was also unemployed for a little bit,” says Roberts of the band prior to recording. “We kind of had this moment where we were all in transition periods of life and so we were like, let’s try and align these weird transition periods.”
Like their first EP, they decided to record in Whitehorse, Yukon, where they had access to an “amazing studio”, according to Roberts. This access led them to taking things slow, using their limited funds to live together in Yukon for four months alongside Janke’s father rather than spend it on a studio that would require incredibly tight scheduling.
“We wanted there to be an air of creativity and so we spent a bunch of time together in Yukon, making this album,” explains Roberts, “in the meantime, adventuring and, like, going to Alaska and climbing mountains. Doing all the fun things.”
She says this helped form the sound of the album, which while still consistent with their raging femme rock sound from their previous work, is also softer where it matters, giving several of the tracks a mythical vibe, inspired by their adventures in and around Yukon.
It also lead to an album that spoke to the transitions each member was going through at the time of writing.
“Sarah, Ted and I have all, in the band and in our personal lives over the past two or three years, gone through some major changes with, like, letting go of places, people and things,” says Janke, “and I don’t think we really talked about that in-depth, but it came out in our songwriting and that’s kind of magical.
“We wrote (the songs) about different things for us, personally,” Janke continues. “They really translate into our real lives. Then, as a band, we’ve also been through that and it was hard. It wasn’t always easy to say goodbye to our members and move into a new sound. We definitely changed.
“The album is really about that. It’s like, acknowledging something was hard or weird, but choosing to be positive and excited about the next thing.”
Since the album dropped, the band has just finished a tour on the East Coast in June and the West Coast in July. The reception they’ve gotten from fans, especially from those who were able to listen to the album before seeing them live, has been astounding.
“My favourite moments are the ones where women and femme people of all ages can unite over loving this like, cool indie girl band,” says Roberts. “The first track of the album, Woman of Grace, is such a feminist banger, and there was such a cute moment at one of our shows where there was all these women of different generations standing up and all excited about this track that talks about being told that you’re too much of this and too much of that.
“Women are always told to be in a box, and I think being able to write such an aggressively feminist song and have people like it felt really good.”
For now, Steel Cut Oats will be taking a respite to recover from touring before attending Nova Scotia Music Week in November, with plans to release a music video for their song “Marty & Clive” and continue to write songs together.
Steel Cut Oats’ full length-debut Okay Love You, Okay Bye is available now on music streaming platforms.
