Toronto band Kiwi Jr. embraced a couple inspirations on their latest album, Blowin’ Up. Released in August 2026, Blowin’ Up — the band’s fourth album since 2019 — marks Kiwi Jr.’s first release on the Olympia, Washington-based label K Records. “It's cool to be on K now,” Kiwi Jr. frontman Jeremy Gaudet says. “[It was] always on our mind as an inspirational label and home to a lot of great artists.”

Secondly, the Torontonians had long been inspired by the music coming out of nearby Detroit, and they opted to record Blowin’ Up there. “The Detroit music stuff was on our mind constantly” during recording, Gaudet says. “We didn't think we were just going to show up for a week and make, like, a classic Detroit record or anything like that. But we were thinking of Iggy Pop and MC5 and the White Stripes and bands like that.”

While on tour in support of the new album — coincidentally, Kiwi Jr. will play in Detroit this Saturday, Oct. 24, before embarking on a European tour in November — the band visited The Current studio to play a couple songs from the new album and another from their previous release. Between songs, Gaudet had a chat with The Current’s Jill Riley. You can watch and listen to the full session in the player above.

Interview Transcript

Jill Riley: I am here with Jeremy Gaudet, the singer, guitar player of the band Kiwi Jr., the Toronto-based band Kiwi Jr. Welcome to — well, welcome to Minnesota, first of all.

Jeremy Gaudet: Hey, thank you.

Jill Riley: Yeah!

Jeremy Gaudet: Feels good. It's been a long time coming. We've been trying to come here for a few years, and happy to be here now.

Jill Riley: It's so cool to have you guys come by, and so this is your first time in Minnesota. So I would like to talk about the new album because your first three records kind of came out like, boom, boom, boom! Right in a row. But as part of this new album Blowin' Up, you signed a new record deal, and I wonder if you would talk about your decision to go with the particular label that you did. There's a lot of history there, like a lot of, like, DIY indie history there.

Jeremy Gaudet: Yeah, that's right. So the new record is on K Records. It's a co-release between K and Perennial. That's how they do it there now. And it's funny because when we started Kiwi Jr. in like, you know, over 10 years ago now, our very first practices, it was just Bro and the drummer and I. We were a two-piece, and the sound we were going for was, like, decidedly a K Records sound. We were talking about Beat Happening a lot and Tiger Trap and a lot of those kind of twee bands that were on that label at that time. And you know, we added a bass player and another guitar player and then we kind of pivoted into a more rock sound that we have now still, but it's cool to be on K now, and they were always on our mind as, like, you know, just kind of an inspirational label and home to a lot of great artists.

Jill Riley: I just remember there was this kind of sweet spot of time where when you talk about that kind of, like, twee pop kind of sound, like, I was so drawn to that, and I think the reason that I was so drawn to that sound is because I like the hooks. I liked the like happiness of the sound, and I love the sound of just that, like, 1960s organ that would add so much to it. And that sound shows up on this record. I wonder if you could talk about that a little bit. Like, what is it? What does the word "twee" mean to you?

Jeremy Gaudet: Well, I don't know. No one's really ever called Kiwi Jr. "twee," but to me, it's just kind of like a naivety, kind of like a, you know, it's like DIY pop, right? So it kind of, to me, like, I think about groups that were inspired by, like, girl groups from the '60s and that really kind of, like, yeah, just kind of innocent, naive, sing-songy pop stuff. But you're doing it yourself, so there's a little bit of, yeah, roughness around the edges. And yeah, I like a lot of that music too. And K Records is chock full of it.

Jill Riley: Did you make the record in Canada or did you travel to the U.S.? Because I thought I heard something about Michigan. I know that there's a track on the record with — what is it called? — "Pure Michigan." So I was curious about that.

Jeremy Gaudet: Yeah, we made the album in Detroit.

Jill Riley: OK.

Jeremy Gaudet: And I had been working on this song called "Pure Michigan" for a couple years, and just, you know, never got around to finishing it. And then once we were presented with the opportunity to make the album in Detroit, which we just thought was really cool — there's so much good music out of Detroit — and I was like, OK, if we're going to Detroit to make the record, I've got to finish this song, "Pure Michigan." So we kind of kicked it into high gear and got that one across the finish line right before we went into the studio.

Jill Riley: I've never been to Detroit before, believe it or not. What was your impression of being in the city? Because I hear so much of the, like, '60s garage rock sound in what you guys do. Were there any moments where you maybe saw like a landmark or, like, there was a little piece of Detroit music history where you were like, "Oh my gosh!"

Jeremy Gaudet: Well, funnily enough, like we were spending probably from, you know, 10 a.m. until 2 a.m. every day in the studio. So on on that trip, while we were making the record, we didn't do a lot of sightseeing. We really, you know, we stayed in a ... We had a big kind of like Victorian-era house in Corktown that we stayed in, and it was pretty near the studio, so it was pretty — it was kind of just a straight shot from the house to the studio, back and forth. But you know, the Detroit music stuff was on our mind constantly. Like, you know, we didn't think we were just going to show up for a week and make like a classic Detroit record or anything like that. But we were, you know, thinking, you know, thinking of Iggy Pop and you know, MC5, and even the White Stripes and bands like that.

Jill Riley: Yeah.

Jeremy Gaudet: That kind of did come up when we were getting sounds in the studio.

Jill Riley: I love the sound of that very classic organ sound in your music. There's something about that sound in your music that I think is, I'm really drawn to. Can you talk about that like particular organ?

Jeremy Gaudet: Yeah. Well, we didn't have any, I don't think there's any organ on our first record, but sometime during the making of our second record, Cooler Returns, Brian, who plays the organ on all of our stuff, he and I were talking about the sound of the organ on the early Elvis Costello records in particular, and you just don't hear it that much in a lot of, I don't know, mainstream rock these days, anyway. And yeah, there was a Farfisa at the studio in Detroit. There was two, I think, actually, and yeah, that's not really an instrument that we own, like a nice vintage organ. But if the studio has one, we're definitely taking advantage of it. I think it was on our second record, it was an Ace Tone that we used. So yeah, I love that sound too. Somebody was comparing one of our songs recently to ? and the Mysterians, like that kind of —

Jill Riley: Oh, "96 Tears"? Totally. And I don't know which one it was, but when I hear that sound, I'm really drawn to it.

Jeremy Gaudet: Talking about yeah, Elvis Costello, and even like the mid-'60s Dylan Records, you know, Highway 61 [Revisited] sound with that organ, too.

Jill Riley: Well, and look at you — you're in the land of the, the birth state of Bob Dylan. Either Prince or Bob Dylan is always going to come up at some point.

Jeremy Gaudet: Yeah, I couldn't leave this interview without bringing Dylan up.

Jill Riley: Talking with Jeremy of Kiwi Jr. The new record is called Blowin' Up.

Video Segments

00:00:00 Photos of the Reenactment
00:03:05 Cooler Returns
00:06:50 Interview with host Jill Riley
00:12:58 Blowin’ Up

Songs 1 and 3 from Kiwi Jr’s 2026 album, Blowin’ Up, available on Perennial; song 2 is the title track from Kiwi Jr’s 2021 album, released on Sub Pop Records.

Musicians

Jeremy Gaudet – vocals, guitar
Brian Murphy – guitar, keyboards
Michael Walker – bass
Brohan Moore – drums

Credits

Guests – Kiwi Jr.
Host – Jill Riley
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Video Director – Ruben Schneiderman
Camera Operators – Derek Ramirez, Josh Sauvageau, Ruben Schneiderman
Audio Engineer – Evan Clark
Video Editor – Jake Rudegeair
Graphics – Natalia Toledo
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Kiwi Jr. – official site