dead ex girlfriends performed during Sled Island on Thursday, June 18th at #1 Legion (Upstairs) & Saturday, June 20th at Palomino (Main Floor).

Interview Audio:

Interview Transcript:

Willow (CJSW)
I’m Willow Pflueger with CJSW 90.9 FM, here at Sled Island 2026. I’m talking to dead ex girlfriends. Hello, can you guys introduce yourselves and your roles in the band?

Vada
Yeah, hi. My name is Vada. My pronouns are they and she, and I’m vocals for dead ex girlfriends.

Gabrielle
My name is Gabrielle Giroux. My pronouns are she/her, and I play guitar in dead ex girlfriends.

Siena
My name is Siena Rose. My pronouns are she/her, and I play drums in dead ex girlfriends.

Cairo
My name is Cairo Dawn, and I play the bass for dead ex girlfriends.

Willow (CJSW)
Awesome. Thank you. And I heard that you guys met in a pretty interesting way. Do you guys want to talk a little bit about that?

Vada
Yeah, I guess like we all met through different ways. Gabby and I grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, together, both in the music scene, but not really like friends or even our genres didn’t really cross over. Actually, I thought that Gabby hated me, but we knew of each other, and it wasn’t until after high school when I was living in a house and needed a roommate, that Gabby was also looking for a room to live in, and she moved in, and we became really fast friends, and talked a lot about creating music together, and then later into our friendship, that was kind of when I think it was like beginning of COVID or something like that. I’ll let you, I’ll let you talk about it.

Gabrielle
Yeah, I guess in 2020 we were like, you know what, we need an outlet to deal with all of this, and we’re already kind of in our small group or circles, so we started jamming in my living room and found some places to rehearse, and we looked for a bassist for like I don’t know two years maybe and Siena was just there now and yeah me and Siena were just like Facebook friends randomly and she had posted about wanting to start a punk band, so I messaged her, and a couple years later we actually did it, and we didn’t have a bassist for a few months, tried finding one, and all of a sudden Siena goes, ‘you know what, my little sister plays bass, and she’s really good,’ and we’re like, ‘why didn’t, why didn’t this come up earlier,’ so like, yeah, Cairo, little sister, joined the band, and she’s amazing, and really, like, I feel like the band was finally formed when Cairo joined, so yeah.

Willow (CJSW)
That’s great. And you guys came from Saskatchewan to play your debut Sled Island in Calgary. How does it feel to play your debut?

Siena
It feels it feels pretty great. We’ve actually attended Sled together without Cairo, sorry, Cairo, a couple of years ago, and I remember, like, thinking and saying to the girls, like, “Oh my god, maybe like one day we can play a Sled Island,” and yeah, just the feeling is so surreal, and getting to perform on some of the same stages that some of, like, our most, like, favorite bands have performed at, is just… it’s a really great feeling.

Gabrielle
We’re actually playing tonight at the No. 1 Legion upstairs at 9:30 which is where we saw Mannequin Pussy play a couple years ago together, which is kind of serendipitous, I think.

Willow (CJSW)
How long are you guys in Calgary for?

Vada
So we got to Calgary on Wednesday, and we’re in Calgary until Sunday, so we’re here for the full festival, which is like, I don’t think we would do it a different way, because Sled is one of our favorite festivals, and there’s just so much to do. Yeah, so, and we love Calgary.

Willow (CJSW)
What do you guys have planned for your time here?

Siena
Oh man, well, okay, well, I’m really excited to see clipping., as well as Black Country, New Road. I’m gonna try and see if I can run in to see Backxwash, but I might not have time, but also I’ve had just a lot of fun just walking around this city, because this is the longest I’ve ever spent in Calgary, and it’s really cool here, and all the buildings are so big, and there’s a train, and I like that.

Vada
I’m really excited to see sadbirthdays on Sunday. They played last night, but I didn’t catch it, so I’m excited to see it on Sunday. I’m excited to see illuminati hotties, that’s going to be super sick. And yeah, I wish I could see Pale Hound, but I heard it was a super sick show as well.

Willow (CJSW)
What is the music scene like in Saskatoon?

Siena
Saskatoon actually has a very thriving music scene. There’s a lot of different bands, a lot of different genres, lots of like hardcore and like punk, which is super awesome. Actually, I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years, and the music scene out there, it’s, it’s pretty cool, but it’s, it’s not the same as Saskatoon. Saskatoon has got, like, a very, like, homey, small kind of tight-knit music community, which I think is really great.

Vada
And I think, like, it’s funny, because I think when people ask about the music scene in Saskatoon, or even Saskatchewan in general, like, we even get into the habit of saying, “Oh, like, actually,” and kind of, like, discounting ourselves as well, but Saskatchewan is creating some really awesome stuff, like, there’s some really cool stuff coming out of Saskatchewan, but, like, I don’t know, I’d like to hype up my Saskatoon friends. There’s a lot of really cool things happening there, and especially in the alts and underground genres, and yeah, Saskatchewan doesn’t get enough praise.

Willow (CJSW)
I agree. Any bands that you want to shout out, especially?

Vada
Yeah, let’s give a shout out to The Moon Runners, especially. I love Megan Nash.

Gabrielle
bitterfly.

Vada
bitterfly. Yarbo. We’re playing with Yarbo on Saturday at the Palomino, and then Checkout Queens.

Gabrielle
Cowlock.

Cairo
Mallshrine, the other band that I’m trying to play in. We’re pretty, pretty fun.

Vada
I don’t know, there’s just like so many, there’s so many across all genres, there’s like Unproductive, Slutty Waist. Oh my gosh, I feel like I could go on forever. There’s so much cool stuff happening. Yeah.

Willow (CJSW)
Oh my gosh, it sounds like there’s so much to go see there.

Vada
There is every every day, it seems like. Yeah. I hate when that happens, just forgetting the name, but like you can hear the music. We’ll come back to it.

Willow (CJSW)
And then I know you guys kind of label yourselves as Indigepunk, and I wanted to ask, how would you guys define this label?

Gabrielle
Yeah, we use the term Indigepunk because we do, we’re all Indigenous and we do punk music for like the basic definition of it, but I think it’s it’s about taking like Indigenous perspectives and Land Back and stuff, and applying a punk lens to it, and I think that’s very fun and unique, and it’s just very much us.

Vada
I think another element is that we also incorporate it into like our stage and our, our like aesthetic as well, and that’s also a way that we like reclaim our identities as Indigenous people, and a way that we reconnect to our culture as well, so.

Cairo
I just wanted to say, I remember the band was blind commentary. They’re pretty good.

Willow (CJSW)
And so I wanted to ask, how does playing local shows from your guys’ city compare to playing festivals like this one? Because I know you guys have recently been doing festivals.

Gabrielle
I feel like the biggest difference currently is that you know we’ve never played very much outside of our province. We just did our first Winnipeg show in February, and this is our first time in Alberta, and we’re going to Toronto next week. Oh, yes, we did play BreakOut West in Winnipeg last year too, but I think the big thing is in Saskatoon and Regina, we’ve kind of cultivated a fan base, and you know, we see some regular faces, and it, you know, we become friends with some of them, so playing these festivals, it’s nice to meet new people and see new faces and get to show music to new new people, yeah.

Vada
Also, I love coming to these festivals, like far away from home, and seeing our friends here from Saskatoon and from Saskatchewan, because it’s just like a little piece of home when you feel maybe sometimes overwhelmed as well when meeting new people, and seeing new things. Yeah.

Willow (CJSW)
Yeah, it’s nice to be able to connect with people that you already know.

Vada
Exactly. Yeah.

Willow (CJSW)
I wanted to talk a little bit about your album, take me to the after party. I know it’s a concept album. Do you want to talk a bit about how this album came to be and the inspirations behind it?

Gabrielle
So this album started as an EP. We just kind of were working towards just putting a few songs out, so people had something to listen to, and as we were working on it, we realized that it needed more, and there was a bigger story being told, so once we kind of decided that, or realized that I think it all kind of fell together, and we wrote the last songs to kind of finish the album, and yeah. take me to the after party. is a concept album about party culture, sex, drugs, rock and roll, and kind of how you can lose yourself in that, and like the regret, you know, the morning after kind of vibe. So it was important for us to do the full story and get the full picture out, and also it’s kind of more fun to just do a concept album.

Vada
I think, to add to that, we put a lot of ourselves into our music, and we were all sort of going through similar, like coming out of the phase of reflecting on how that party culture kind of impacted us as individuals, and also us as just like a group, and so I think I want to give a big shout out to Cairo, because there was one song that we kept coming back to, just as the three of us, and we could never get it. We just wanted to get it, but we could never get it, and it wasn’t until Cairo was in the band that we were able to come back to it, and she was the reason that it is on the album now, and that song is bummer., and I think that is everybody’s favorite song. Honestly, I think it’s the most listened to. It is my favorite song.

Cairo
Yes, coming back to that song after I knew you guys were working on it for so long was so fun, and I’m so glad I inspired us to finish it, which is kind of funny, because I’ve only been to like maybe two house parties in my life until I started the band, yeah. But you know, I inspired in some way.

Vada
But yeah, I think that like when writing, we put so much of ourselves into our music, and I think that is also a big part of, like, us as dead ex girlfriends too, is that our music is a reflection of us as people, and I don’t think that’s ever going to change. We leave a little piece of our hearts when we’re on every stage.

Willow (CJSW)
That’s such a beautiful way to put that. So, when you guys write songs, is it usually music first, or is it more lyrics first?

Vada
We all write songs very differently. I come from, like, when I was a kid, I was a singer-songwriter, and so all of my songs are written on an acoustic guitar with a notebook, or on my, like, notes on my phone, kind of thing. I’m switching that up a little bit, like I’m experimenting with some different things, but up until now it’s just been acoustic and my voice, kind of thing. And then I bring it to the band, and then we sort of workshop it from there, but then Gabby’s is really different.

Gabrielle
Yeah, I kind of have a kind of crazy way of writing, I’m having like lyrics going all the time, ideas going all the time. I generally like to write my songs lyrics first, which I think is is not very common, so I’ll write lyrics and then mess around with some music ideas until I kind of get it lined up with the lyrics in a way that feels right, but then that being said, sometimes I just give my lyrics to Vada, or we just jam on it, or you know, sometimes we’ll just like, “okay, everyone just start playing something,” see if anything clicks. It’s a very eclectic way of writing, but I think that’s how we kind of get a cohesive sound that’s, you know, not every song is kind of the same structure, or you know, the foundation is a bit different.

Siena
Yeah, I think one of my favorite parts about the band is that, like, we’re all sort of like different, but it really jives together on, like, we all got different sort of like influences and genres that we sort of pull from, and I think that that serves us really well as a band, and we all kind of come back all together and get some, get some good tunes.

Vada
Our Spotify blended playlist is crazy. Road trips go crazy. I also want to make an emphasis on the fact that sometimes we’re like playing a song the same way for so long, and then, like, Cairo and Siena are sisters, which I don’t think we’ve noted here at this table, but they’re sisters, and I think it’s really funny because sometimes when we’re like playing the same song the same way both of them will sometimes just put a like little piece of something different somewhere and will be like that’s really cool but it’s just like so subtle and I love it and I think that’s also a way that they like write songs too is just like by like maybe like picking up something new or like hearing something while they’re listening to a new song or something, and then just like integrating it subtly, and I love it. Yeah.

Siena
Yeah, I feel like Cairo and myself sort of have this like strange sister telekinesis, like we’re only like 15 months apart, so like I feel like I don’t know, we’re communicating through like osmosis or something.

Willow (CJSW)
So, what do you guys want your musical impact to be? How do you want listeners to feel when they are listening?

Siena
I think myself growing up as a woman and very like interested in like punk and like rock kind of music, I really struggled to sort of find bands that I felt like represented me and sort of got across some important issues, and I think that one thing that I hope that listeners kind of take from the band is that, like, you can be loud as hell and take up space, and you should be empowered to do it. Girls to the front.

Cairo
I’m in like a similar way there, where I think I really hope that by the end of my musical career I can inspire like more people to just pick up music, you know, and especially like young girls too. I just feel like music is such a good way to communicate how you feel and express yourself, and I think more people should realize that, like, they can also do it as well, like you know it’s never too late to start, and it’s also never too early to start either. So, yeah, if anyone can listen to our stuff and think, like, ‘I want to do something like that,’ you know, you can. So, yeah.

Vada
I think after a show a couple months ago, I was trying to write an Instagram post, and you know how you like write a summary, and then you write the rest of the whatever you want to say, and I was trying to figure out what it is that I wanted to write, and the best words that I could come up with was ‘big hug,’ because I think that’s what I want our music to feel like, is just a big hug, I want they’re laughing over here, but like, honestly, our music is like empowering, but also it’s not always super empowering. It’s, it’s sad, it’s like reflective, and I know people will relate to it. I don’t want them to relate to it all the time, but when they do, I want it to feel like a big hug, right. And then similar, I want Indigenous women, and also like young Indigenous girls, to know that they can take up space and they don’t have to fit inside the box that’s been like laid out for them, you know. Yeah.

Gabrielle
I was laughing at a big hug, because Vada notoriously hates hugs, physical hugs.

Willow (CJSW)
So, I wanted to ask, do you guys have any other projects that you’re working on right now?

Gabrielle
Like, with all of us?

Willow (CJSW)
Or by yourselves, either one.

Vada
I just bought a MIDI keyboard, and I’m just going to learn how to do that, and maybe do some solo stuff. We’ll see.

Siena
Cairo and I actually play in a side project called mallshrine, and yeah, we’ve been kind of doing some drum and bass, well, not drum and bass, the genre, but drums and bass, together for, for quite some time. So, yeah, it’s, it’s lots of fun to kind of do some little like side project stuff, for sure.

Gabrielle
I just recently, I guess it’s been like half a year now, so I can’t say that anymore, but join The Moon Runners, and I’m playing bass for them, so that’s been fun. Very different kind of music, so testing my skills out.

Cairo
I also started something. This guy just messaged me on Facebook and asked if I could play bass for him, so I was like, ‘hey, I’ll give it a try,’ so I’ll see how that’s working out. I’ve also really wanted to give electronic music an attempt, but who knows. You know what, honestly, yeah, yeah, anything, anything under the sun. I just, I love noises.

Willow (CJSW)
It sounds like you guys all have so much going on right now, but I was wondering, do you guys have a city or a province that you would love to play in next?

Vada
I would love to play in Yellowknife. Yeah.

Gabrielle
Ditto. Like, we are playing in Toronto next week, which is, I’m very stoked about, and honestly, just because I’ve never been, I would love to do the East Coast. Yeah.

Siena
Yeah, I think I agree with Gabby. East Coast would be awesome. They’ve got such a killer scene there, and I’ve always wanted to play New York City as well, of course.

Cairo
Honestly, I’m just so excited about going to Toronto, because I’ve never been there before, so that’s like all that’s really on my mind. Oh, and I would love to go to Montreal someday.

Vada
I kind of like how all of us had, like, so Canadian – you didn’t like specify Canadian, but we’re like, hey, we want to stay here.

Gabrielle
She did say province.

Willow (CJSW)
Yeah, I guess that kind of conjured up the image of Canada. But then for my final question, it’s a little bit more lighthearted. If you could add any instrument to your band, thinking like trumpet, banjo, ukulele, what would it be?

Gabrielle
This is… I don’t know how this would work, but I would love it. Like a keyboardist who plays like the nastiest, dirtiest bass synth, but we have a bass player, so I don’t know how that would work. But we can dream.

Siena
Personally, I think a cowbell player would add some, some flair to the band. Everything needs more cowbell.

Cairo
The theremin, I’m just kidding. Actually, no, a keyboard, an extra keyboard thing would be really cool.

Vada
I think, like, on a serious level, yeah, like an extra, like synth keyboard or something like that, but I think on an unserious level it would be so fun to just have like a designated man to just like stand up there and like scream at like delegated times, ‘dead ex boyfriend,’ that’s like the instrument, that’s it, yeah, there would be auditions, of course.

Willow (CJSW)
Awesome. Well, thank you guys so much for letting me talk to you guys.

Vada
Thank you so much, Willow. This was really fun.