Press

War Eyes is a Victoria-based rock n’ roll band, comprised of Ryan Foster on vocals and guitar, Kyle O’Shea on bass and Steve Reynolds on drums.

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The group came together in a moment of serendipity when Foster and O’Shea met walking their dogs in James Bay—both hoping to get into playing music with a band. 

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“We both love music and Kyle, more than anybody else I know, has an encyclopedic knowledge of music of all types and we really bonded over that,” Foster told Victoria Buzz. 

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“I had been writing music for a while, in and out of bands and in a singer-songwriter capacity… and invited Kyle to come start jamming with me at the Art Farm.”

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O’Shea had never picked up a bass until the pandemic when he decided to take a stab at learning an instrument with all his newfound free time.  “I needed a hobby, some kind of creative outlet so I decided to just pick up a bass and go jam with him,” he said. 

 

Reynolds came into the group a bit later when he replied to a classified ad that Foster had made looking for drummers in the Victoria area to come and jam. After growing up on Vancouver Island, Reynolds moved to Southeast Asia and China for 25 years and had the opportunity to play in a handful of bands through his time there. With his former band, Taiwan Milk, Reynolds even had the chance to open for some big bands touring through Asia, like Megadeth and Biohazard. 

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“It was a really great opportunity to get to meet and play with some of these really big bands that were touring and playing overseas,” said Reynolds.  “Just watching and being a part of it was incredible.”

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After the three had come together in September of last year, they wasted no time in fleshing out some of the songs in Foster’s catalogue that he wanted to take from being acoustic songs to full-fledged rock tunes.  War Eyes took three of those songs to The Noise Floor recording studio, located on Gabriola Island, to work with Jordan Koop who is known for his work in recording bands and retaining a warm ‘live-off-the-floor’ sound. 

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While recording they really found their sound by blending rock, punk and heavy rock, inspired by groups like the Ramones, Neil Young and the Strokes.  War Eyes chose their title track from the EP, “No Faces No Names” as their New Music Monday highlight song. “I think this song is something that, not only do we like the song but I think it came out the best of the three,” Foster explained. “The vision of it was much more fully realized beyond what we hoped.” Foster says that it started as an acoustic song that was written while he was listening to a lot of Bob Seger and Neil Young, which may have inspired the storytelling approach he took to writing. 

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“People have probably noticed it has become more acute, the more we isolate ourselves from each other,” Foster said, describing what he was thinking while writing.  “The driving part of the story of this song is how art is used as a unifying force that creates community and creates a place for people to be and feel welcome.” Foster added that specifically, this song is about his time living in Vancouver, trying to become part of the music scene there and navigating the struggles that come along with being new in a tight-knit and competitive community.  “Getting up on stage and playing music, being able to express yourself and feeling—just for a moment—that unity when you bring everyone together and you’re a part of something. That can make all the difference for people and that is what the music community is all about,” he continued.

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To listen to War Eyes’ EP in its entirety, check it out on Bandcamp, Spotify or Apple Music. 

War Eyes just played a release show for their debut release at the Phoenix Bar and Grill in Victoria and are trying to pull a show or two together for March and April in town. 

 

Additionally, they have an upcoming show that has been confirmed for May 10th up in Duncan at Jac’s on Queens. 

Follow War Eyes on Instagram to stay up-to-date with all upcoming shows and future releases.