The three members of Ontario punk-rock vets The Penske File—Travis Miles (vocals, guitars); James Hall (bass, vocals); and Alexander Standen (drums, vocals)—are such close friends, it’s comedic.
“I don’t think I ever get sick of James or Alex,” Miles admits, before quickly qualifying, “sometimes I get annoyed by their personality tics, as I’m sure they do mine. Before the pandemic, when we’d spend four to six months of the year touring, me and James would bicker like an old married couple. I don’t know if I’d call this mediating, but Alex would start literally barking like a dog in the middle of a heated exchange. That was usually effective in making us either burst out in laughter—or at least shut the hell up.”
Those hilariously animated exchanges came to a halt due to COVID, when the trio went from playfully wrestling with each other to seriously grappling with feelings of isolation and confinement. While Miles prefers writing to performing, the lockdowns admittedly threw him for a loop.
“Not being an active band during COVID took a long time to adjust to,” he says. “Like many people in many walks of life, throughout the lockdowns, I was experiencing a certain loss of personal identity and confusion about my own life. Much of that, I feel, was perhaps directly related to the absence of that source of catharsis: playing rock ’n’ roll with my best pals.”
On the other hand, the forced isolation sparked Miles into digging deep into music and writing “what feels like a zillion songs. (I) got into recording a little bit, which was certainly cathartic in a way, however not in the same elevated manner as sweating it out in a rammed punk club or basement.”
Perhaps for the best, The Penske File had already written and recorded most of their new record, Half Glow, out July 21 on Union Label Group, pre-COVID, so they’re not having to revisit the suffering that came with it day after day as they tour behind the record.
“Gearing up to put it out into the world feels like a huge weight lifted and a new lease on life for our band, in a way,” Miles says. “We recently played a show in Toronto the day our first single came out, and it was an ultimate high. Creating music together with James and Alex—my oldest friends in the world—is an absolute privilege. Life is short, and singing together, words we believe in, has some sort of power to elongate time.”
Most importantly, the pandemic and all its resulting disruptions didn’t rattle the impenetrable friendship shared by the three members of The Penske File.
“Still best friends, still a rock ’n’ rollers, still going to each other’s houses for dinner, still going out on tour, still making records, still going portaging in beautiful Algonquin Park every summer,” Miles says.
“Portaging.” There’s a word to look up. But before you do, look up The Penske File and Half Glow first here.
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