Botfly, Photo by Chelsey Buchanan

Halifax hardcore trio Botfly recently dropped a video session unveiling a series of songs to be featured on their upcoming EP. Recorded by Ben Brennan, who has captured every Botfly release to date, the three-piece shot the session in the basement of a house on Union St. as a thoughtful nod to a place that became a home, hangout, jam spot and recording space to a plethora of punk and hardcore bands in the Halifax scene.

As the Union St. house closes it’s doors to the punk community, Botfly‘s final session captures the end of an era, and bids adieu while adding a shot of sentimentality to the brooding aggression that is Botfly‘s earnest and abrasive sound.

Comprised of Keegan Goodspeed (guitar/vocals), Dewayne Shanks (drums), and Sean McInnis (bass), Botfly are preparing a new slew of releases, as well as some roving live dates this Labour Day weekend. We tagged in Keegan Goodspeed for some wise words on Botfly‘s songwriting, current lineup, the Union St. video session, and more.

Keegan Goodspeed on the expressive outlet of Botfly songwriting:

“Botfly…. It’s been one of the better parts of my life for the past two years or so. It’s really given me a way to release and express my aggression in life. From the very beginning I had a vision of the live performance having this over bearing feeling of heaviness and sadness, yet also anger. I wanted every note and every word to hit as hard as it possibly could. Then songs just started coming to me, knowing what styles I liked and not sticking to any one genre in particular, songs basically started writing themselves. Even today, I still haven’t felt restricted to a certain genre style, I just write from basically what I’m feeling at that moment.”

On the current lineup of the band:

“It helps a lot to have two guys with me who are 100% committed and understand the way the band works as well. This line up is the 4th line up this band has seen, but it’s also the best line up I could ask for. The band is truly a collaboration of the 3 of us and our frustrations, and angers. I don’t think we’ve played a show in a long time where one of us wasn’t on the verge of tears by the end of the set. That’s why we are putting so much into this band, it gives us an outlet for emotions that we would normally just bottle and let bother us for far to long.”

On the upcoming releases, and the Union St. video session: 

“The band is in a really good spot right now, we have a split 10″ with our good friends Bonesaw off to pressing, we have a 7 song EP in the works, and we just released this live session video filmed at the Union Street basement. We’re all really happy with the live session, and extremely happy we were able to film/record it at union. That basement has provided this city with a place where not only some amazing punk and hardcore records were made, but also a place where we all felt home at one point in time. Now that it’s no longer a place we can really go, it added a sentimental element to that video for us.”

On touring plans, and surviving the winter:

“We are headed to Ottawa and Montreal this Labour Day weekend for a couple shows. We have some shows lined up at home in October and November, and then we should be in Newfoundland in mid January. We hope to travel more next year if we survive the wrath of winter. Basically we will play anywhere and everywhere. In the meantime we will continue to write, and put out music and basically do anything and everything we can with this band until the day inevitably comes where we have to stop taking it so seriously.”

Botfly on Bandcamp