a ‘circus’ of puffins:
the Puffin EP release show story
Released Apr. 5th, 2026
Written by Melissa LeBlanc (@hfxcoffee) for Inside the Scene (@insidethescenehfx)
Released Apr. 5th, 2026
Written by Melissa LeBlanc (@hfxcoffee) for Inside the Scene
How might one describe a gathering of Puffins?
‘Circus’ is one word that really resonates – a collective noun for the bird that conveys this quartet – something about the energy being a little whacky. Or even ‘puffinry’, just because it sounds “gas as fuck.”
“I think I’d go ‘improbability’,” says Schnell D’Souza, Puffin’s lead guitarist. “There’s like, a lot of things that had to go right. I mean, [Josh, Isaac, Richard’s] friendship developing, me moving here, and connecting with [Isaac].”
Prior to Schnell completing the Puffin puzzle, Josh Hayden, Isaac Bezanson, and Richard Sinal grew up in the Halifax scene together. They spoke fondly of coffeehouse ragers at Halifax West – picture a gym teacher for an MC and 200 kids packed into a school cafeteria. Every teenager’s dream, right? Isaac and Josh’s band Majesty would play these events, and so did Richard’s bands Morning Static, and Dark Sky Parks.
One day the powers that be – maybe external forces of the universe – drove their bands to collaborate as a five piece and play ‘Something From Nothing’ by the Foo Fighters.
Fast forward to mid 2025. After six or seven months of practicing together, they needed to land on a band name. Briefly, they decided on ‘Room Six’, named after a Rockopolis practice room, but that only lasted a day.
“The way we named it was very cute,” says Schnell. “The guys came over, sat at the table, and we made coffee for everyone. Josh brought donuts. We were not getting up from this table until we had a name.”
As they talked through names at that table, coffee and donuts in hand, the group considered what words best express who they were. This led them to think about their group members: two ‘white dudes’ and two ‘BIPOC dudes’. This thought sprouted some contenders like Penguin, Marble, Domino, and, eventually, Puffin. A simple, wholesome thought about a group of people coming together from different backgrounds. Being based in the East Coast, this one resonated with the group most.
Puffin it was.
The Self-Titled Debut EP – Puffin
This collection of songs is fun, frustrated, and feels like a well-connected series of plot points in a storyline for a new-age, angsty Scott Pilgrim vs. The World movie – in the best way. (Can someone make this short film, please?)
I’ve personally had their EP on repeat. My favourite track being ‘Trust’. As described by Richard, Trust is the “most impactful, dynamic, and interesting to sing.”
“[It] starts very soft and sing-y and gets really screamy at the end. So it is … a build up of emotions throughout the whole song.”
Richard’s favourite, however, is ‘Barnburner’.
“It is just so outside of anything I think I would ever have thought about myself doing in the past until Schnell came around,” Richard says. “It’s a great song and it gets the crowd going and gets myself out of my comfort zone”.
Written by Schnell, Barnburner is about facing rejection on one’s career path – a topic I could relate to.
“I didn’t get into med school last year,” Schnell shares. “That is a frustrating feeling, and I found turning to art was like an outlet. I think I didn’t play guitar for two days, and the first thing I played when I sat down was that riff.”
“The first lyric is like, ‘I’m sitting down to write this song, I’m sifting through my derivative thoughts’ – like, am I being derivative of my influences? And I am kind of making fun of myself a little bit. The song goes hard as hell, I was like, ‘I don’t think anyone cares about the lyrics’. So I wrote in the lyrics, ‘you just need a reason to mosh’. It’s cool that it is out there and people can un-piece the story.”
Schnell says it now feels cathartic to play, because he’s since become a Med student at Dalhousie University. “Yes, I am in med school, it all worked out … [I] have an amazing community of friends in school and a lot of them show up to our shows. It is a very cool feeling to be playing that song to that crowd.”
Puffin is a seriously talented group.
Each clown is quite versatile in their circus, aka puffinry, and can flex into different positions for songwriting.
Their drummer – and resident excel spreadsheet specialist – Isaac has roots in jazz, playing bass as his primary instrument. When writing the drums for the band’s debut single, Gas Station Lemonade, Isaac described how he began to get into his groove.
“I’ve never had the sole role of a drummer in a band, just played a handful of songs on drums in bands where I was primarily the bassist… so I was trying to figure out what to do.” explains Isaac, “I was just doing these wild triplets and stuff and it just felt right. It was almost like my brain detached from my limbs, like my hands were just doing the right things that sounded good.”
Josh, the bassist, actually comes from a guitar background, and tracked a layer for Barnburner. Josh and Isaac have been playing music together since grade six.
“I already kind of had that camaraderie with him,” says Josh. “With Isaac switching to drums and me on bass … it’s been really fun.”
Josh’s talent runs deep, and his bass is actually generational – check out this video to see his father, Shane, playing it back in 1987!
The EP Release Show @ The Seahorse
When I asked about the release show, I immediately heard words like surreal and awesome – also stressful.
Just hours before the show they discovered the bass player of idialedyournumber, Seb, could no longer play.
“…Alasdair (Earth Moon Transit, The Couch) runs up without flinching and says ‘find me Seb, get me his bass, I’ll learn as many of his parts that I can in the next hour and a half’,” says Isaac. “Sure enough, [Alasdair] was on stage with them. That is just such an insane representation of, not just local, but musicianship as a whole to be able to do that. And he killed it, you would never know.”
This wasn’t the only surprise on show day. When they reached out to the community for a last-minute fill-in to record the set, Schnell explained: “The fine folks at Friends Music Sessions came through super last minute to record our set. Another testament to the community, because we had just met them around two weeks before to record a mini set. That worked out well, it was cool to have them back.”
“I feel like we’re all perfectionists,” says Isaac. “You just want everything to go right. You don’t want any tech issues, and you want to have a float for your shirts if people want to pay cash. It’s just these little micro things that you don’t think about. You don’t want any barriers for people, for them to not have a good time.”
Schnell went on to add: “I think 20 minutes before our set it really hit me, I was like, ‘we sold it out and everyone is here’. That is when the nerves were really… and I don’t usually get nerves for shows. That felt like kind of a responsibility.”
I think I speak for everyone when I say the Puffin EP release show was a good time.
In fact, it was a beautiful showing of the Halifax music scene and musicianship overall, including all adjacent creatives (photographers, videographers, etc.).
Evidence of the energy in the room was easy to find.
“There was a moment when I took my pedal board out and people started chanting ‘Puffin’ and I was just like, folks, we’re not even close to starting the set,” says Schnell.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a crowd surfer at any of our shows. There were at least 4, just one after another”, added Isaac.
What is Puffin listening to? I am in a never-ending pursuit of human-sourced, meaningful music recommendations, like a toddler closing my mouth to the AI algorithm spoon-feeding me mashed carrots. So, I had to ask the group what music was currently sticky for them and I compiled a list:
- Hot Mulligan – The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still (2025)
*specifically, the Monica Lewinskibidi track - Free Throw – Those Days Are Gone (2014)
- Shame – Drunk Tank Pink (2021)
- Olivia Dean – The Art of Loving (2025)
- Sports – Sports (2026)
- PUP – Who Will Look After The Dogs? (2025)
I would be amiss if I did not acknowledge the PUP influence in the group, as they did a cover at the EP release show. Schnell, being their designated PUP specialist, says: “I remember going to see PUP when I was a teen at my local all-ages venue and I was like, ‘you can write something like this, you can do this’. It was just the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Since then, I’ve been a huge fan and they’re my favourite band of all time. I bring a lot of that influence to the table.”
I closed the interview out by asking the group for some advice.
If you, the reader – a creative or artist – are too nervous to start your project, or you may have to overcome some barriers, what advice would Puffin give? They each had some wise words to pass along.
“The biggest hurdle is the first show … we want it to feel right, we want to feel ready. I feel like the biggest thing is just to get out there, instead of waiting for the right thing.” – Josh
“Talk to other people in the scene to get an idea of what it’s really like. I think, honestly, something that benefited us was putting on our first show instead of getting on a bill. We got a better understanding of how the whole process worked. After going through all that, it just made it easier. It felt like after that was done, we could almost do anything” – Richard
“Playing a show doesn’t have to be the first way you interact with the music scene. If someone wants to get to the point of playing shows, but they want to get comfortable first, they could go up to people who put on shows, there’s a lot of friendly people. I am sure they’d be happy to take on a volunteer, maybe that’s working the door or getting an idea of how sound works, I think maybe understanding the background scene of it before going and actually playing can make them comfortable.” – Schnell
“I think we’re really blessed because we’re such good friends with Jack [Murtha] (Postfun), he’s learned a lot from just playing in Social Smokers Club, Ongorah, Postfun, over the years. I feel like he knew the scene really well. When I was updating him and was like ‘oh, we have enough songs to play a set but we’re not sure how we’re gunna do it’, he was like ‘oh I’ll ask C.J. [Hill] (Electric Spoonful, norc) at Gus’ … and it was just a go from there.” – Isaac
A big thank you to the Puffin crew for sitting down at Seven Bays on Gottingen for this conversation – Isaac Bezanson (Drums), Schnell D’Souza (Lead Guitar), Josh Hayden (Bass), Richard Sinal (Vocals, Rhythm Guitar).
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Listen to the debut EP on Bandcamp, Tidal, Deezer, Qobuz, Youtube Music, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify
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Watch the Inside the Scene EP Release Show
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For even more Puffin check out their interviews on Q104 and Mixed Rhythm
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Follow @puffinisaband on Instagram for all updates, including upcoming spring and summer show announcements!
