Mad Iris Are Just Four Friends Hanging Out and Making Music Together
Photo by Sarah Elise Bauman
Before Mad Iris became one of Toronto's most exciting new noise rock bands, it was simply a reunion between old friends. Bassist and vocalist Ela Hinatsu and guitarist and vocalist Kaiya Rosie first met at music school when they were twelve years old, while Rosie later crossed paths with guitarist Patrick Muldoon and drummer Josh Pryce through Toronto Metropolitan University's music program. After the dissolution of a previous project, the four musicians found themselves searching for a new creative outlet. What began as an excuse to play shows together quickly evolved into something more ambitious.
"We like to call ourselves a quartet because I think it's cute," says Rosie. "But I think that speaks to how it's very much a four-piece collaboration creatively."
Three years later, Mad Iris are stepping into their own with their self-titled debut album wrapped in the aesthetics of a well-worn zine: handmade artwork, VHS textures, photocopied flyers, and DIY merch that recalls the spirit of '90s underground culture without feeling overdone. The music follows a similar path. Pulling from the jagged guitars of Sonic Youth, the melodic instincts of The Breeders, and the tongue-in-cheek style of Pixies, Mad Iris channel those influences into songs that feel like the next wave of the genre. The record captures the uncertainty, grief, desire, and beauty of being young, while showcasing the rare chemistry of four musicians who seem to speak the same creative language.
That chemistry is something the band returns to repeatedly throughout our conversation. While many groups claim to be collaborative, Mad Iris genuinely operate as a four-way creative partnership. Songs often begin as skeletal ideas before being transformed collectively in rehearsal, with each member contributing their own perspective and expertise.
"When Ela and Kaiya's writing styles came together, it was definitely something that I hadn't felt before playing in bands," Muldoon says. "They're very unique and very different."
For Rosie, that partnership became the missing piece she'd been searching for as a songwriter. "It was like the missing piece of my songwriting was writing songs with Ella," she says. "I've never met another musician who saw me on the same wavelength."
That sense of trust extends beyond lyrics and melodies. Rosie may arrive at practice with chords, song structures, or fragments of lyrics, but Mad Iris songs rarely remain in their original form. Pryce develops drum arrangements, Muldoon expands guitar ideas, and the entire band contributes to shaping each track into its final version.
The same collaborative spirit fuels the band's visual identity. I was first introduced to Mad Iris through the grainy VHS stylized music video for “Name Tag” that made me feel like I was transported to Smashing Pumpkins-era Gish, Their handmade artwork, collage-inspired posters, and promotional materials that look as though they've been assembled on a bedroom floor before being photocopied a hundred times oozing with the joy being in a band can bring.
"We make everything on paper," Rosie says. "Which is cool, because I think analog is just a part of our band. It's been really fun to make a really unified visual identity where all of our posters, all of our cover art, lyric sheets — everything matches sort of and it's just distinctly us,”
Mad Iris frequently draw comparisons to the alternative and indie rock giants of the 1990s, but their relationship with those influences feels less like imitation and more like conversation. The worn textures, noisy guitars, and dual-vocal arrangements may evoke familiar touchstones, yet the band's perspective remains firmly rooted in the present.
While their debut album explores the messiness of young adulthood through themes of grief, envy, longing, relationships, and self-discovery, the band resists imposing a singular narrative on the record, with common threads emerging naturally across its songs.
"I've said before that what connects our lyrics is that everything's kind of about being a twenty-year-old and living in the city and dating people and breakups," Rosie says.
Album opener "Silver Nails" serves as an effective introduction to those themes. Beginning with dissonance before unfolding into something larger and more expansive, the track encapsulates many of the dynamics that define the record.
"I thought it was the strongest song," Rosie says of its placement. With Hinatsu adding, "It's a really cool introduction. I think when I've had songs and lyrics that I really love, it's because someone feels something that I felt too," Hinatsu says. "It's beautiful to hear it translated into music."
Even the album's most uncomfortable emotions become opportunities for connection.
"'Silver Nails' is such an envious song," Rosie adds. "So many people want something or wish they had something. It feels bad to feel that way, but then to hear it turned into a really cool song feels cathartic."
Photo by Sarah Elise Bauman
For a band that began as friends reconnecting after years apart, that sense of community feels fitting. Beneath the distortion and feedback, Mad Iris remains remarkably simple at its core: four musicians building something together.
As Mad Iris prepares to celebrate the album's release with a DIY show hosted alongside Toronto tattoo studio Zero Studio, the band remains grounded in the community that helped shape them. While they acknowledge the challenges facing Toronto's underground spaces, they're equally enthusiastic about the artists continuing to keep the scene alive. "I feel like right now is such a good time for Toronto music," Pryce says, who leads his own solo project under his name which the band shares admiration for as they enthusiastically shout out other peers including Slug, Heavenly Blue, Amelia Maxwell, cootie catcher, Kingdom of Birds, and producer Ximuna Diego, who the group credits as being instrumental to the sound of the record.
“My dad texted me and he was like, ‘B-Y-O-B at the venue [for their release show]?’ And he's like, ‘I got you guys.’ And then sent a picture of a little bottle of champagne. To celebrate.” Hinatsu laughs. For a band built on friendships, shared creativity, all doing so with an aura of being intimidatingly cool — there may be no better way to celebrate.
Follow Mad Iris and listen to their new self-title album here.
