PACKS Are Still Melting the Honey and Writing What Comes After
PACKS. Photo credit: Carlee Diamon.
Toronto-based band PACKS blends alternative rock, garage rock, grunge, indie rock, lo-fi, and slacker rock, resulting in a sound that feels both nostalgic and uniquely theirs. The band, which used to be the solo project of Madeline Link, certainly knows how to craft mesmerizingly off-kilter songs with Link’s unique vocal delivery, hazy atmospheres, infectiously peculiar melodies, and wickedly weird guitar riffs. Ahead of PACKS’ show at Calgary’s Bob-Sled festival, Link chatted with REVERIE about the festival, their 2024 release Melt The Honey, as well as their upcoming record.
PACKS are making two festival stops in Alberta, the first at Bob-Sled in Calgary with Winterruption YEG in Edmonton to follow. PACKS will be performing in Calgary on January 21st at the Palomino Smokehouse and Social Club alongside Sour Widows, Mossy Dole, and Victrix. “I’m excited to check out the program once we’re there and hit up the shows in the area,” Link states. “I’m excited to see the other bands we’re playing with that night – will be the first time meeting all of these bands… I’m just excited to be in Calgary and wander about, go to the amazing record stores, and see the people.”
Fans can expect to hear a combination of PACKS’ anthemic, fast-paced, rocking tunes and calmer, softer, slower songs. “Sometimes if you start the set with slower songs then you’re really looking forward to the more upbeat ones and by the time you played a couple of those and see like a quieter song come up again you’re like ‘Oh thank goodness a little break,’” she explains. “The slower quieter songs and the faster crazier songs necessitate each other. I wouldn’t really have as much fun playing a set of only slower songs or only faster songs.”
As for fan favourites at live shows, “fm” and “HFCS” (which stands for high-fructose corn syrup) usually get the most love. “Fans are always the most excited about ‘fm,’” Link says. “It is such a short song, but I think people can be surprised by it when we play it because it's not on an album where the whole band is playing. Of course, with ‘HFCS,’ people kind of start perking up when that song is played.”
Last year, PACKS released the beautifully melancholic “before I was bleeding.” Link plays the bass clarinet on the track. “I was just experimenting with different instruments and beginning the songwriting process, knowing that it’d lead to another album, so I just wanted to have a little fun,” she reflects. “I played the bass clarinet in grades 7 and 8. I always love going back to it when I’m feeling inspired. It is a really pensive internal song. It’s super introspective. I find the bass clarinet resonates with that idea perfectly.”
Melt The Honey, which was released in 2024, is PACKS’ most recent album. One of the standout tracks from the album is the slacker rock garage tune “HFCS.” With an instantly memorable chorus, hard-hitting, heavily distorted guitar riffs, and exhilarating energy, it is easy to see why this track is such a fan-favourite at live shows. PACKS were heavily inspired by The Hives for “HFCS.” “The Hives are a huge common ground that my bandmates and I can all agree on, in that band is rocking,” Link says. “We’ve learned two of their songs to do as covers. When you learn a new cover, all these new techniques that this other band has, you can kind of incorporate into your band. Playing those Hives songs, I think, allowed us to harness the energy for all of our most rocking songs like ‘HFCS,’ ‘Silvertongue,’ or even ‘Missy.’”
The heartwarmingly dreamy grunge-folk tune “Honey,” featuring irresistibly hypnotic melodies and earworm guitar riffs, is another standout track from Melt The Honey. “I wrote that song when I was in Chile and was just enjoying my time there with my boyfriend [Diego Parragué] at the time, but now we’re married,” Link recalls. “I was just falling in love because it's such a relaxing place where you can really just observe all the minute details and fall in love with them. When we finished recording it in Mexico, we were mixing it back in Toronto at my guitarist Dexter [Nash’s] house. Diego hadn’t really done anything in the band yet at that point, but he’s a great keyboard player. We asked him to come on over and see if he could insert a great solo at the end of the song. He just sat down at the keyboard, and we gave him his space and time, and he wrote that great ‘60s kind of blaring garage rock solo.”
PACKS. Photo credit: Carlee Diamon.
“89 Days” has quite a different vibe from the rest of Melt The Honey and sounds like it could have been released on one of their earlier records. “We recorded it as a full band before we got signed to anything, and it just wasn’t chosen to be on the first record, so it was like an orphan song,” Link states. “It kind of has psychedelic elements, and it’s a bit slower, but it’s a nice song.”
The song that changed the most from its demo form from Melt The Honey was “Missy.” “It’s usually the rock songs that end up sounding the most different because I’ll write them just on an acoustic guitar, and I’ll be playing usually at a slower tempo,” Link comments. “With ‘Missy,’ it was recorded a lot faster. I could barely achieve those vocals that were once easy to do when I wrote the song on the guitar. Once it was transformed into the fast tempo and the velocity and energy of which we were playing, the vocals became much, much harder.”
Additionally, Lupita Rico has a spoken word verse in Spanish in “Missy.” “She was our neighbour in that little village [in Mexico] we were staying in,” Link recalls. “She worked at a really cool art studio and brought us by to see these artists… We became good friends. I wrote the little middle part in English, but I was like, ‘I think it would be cooler if we had her kind of like rap singing in Spanish.’ She translated it and sent us a great file. She’s even in the music video, too.”
Fans will be very excited to know that PACKS are preparing to record a new album soon. “In February, we’re going to be heading down to Chile to do some recording,” Link comments. “We all have pretty busy schedules in the summer. We all have work we have to do and shows we have to play, so the winter naturally just becomes the time where all of us have that capacity to record, and there is no part of me that wants to be here in the winter. It’s a great opportunity for us to enjoy the fruits of our labour, but also keep working and enjoy the sun… The two guys [Liam Parsons and Stefan Blair] from Good Morning are coming as we asked them to help us produce the album. I think we will definitely see some choices in the recording process that we never would have thought of, but we love.”
PACKS has played many of the songs that are going to be on the new record live. “Energy” is a song that many people have really enjoyed hearing. “It has a nice big cathartic chorus,” Link states. “Friends of mine have said they like watching that one live.”
Although it is too early to tell how different the recording process will be from previous releases, Link has one idea she really wants to try out. “I really want to play more with percussion, like having a percussive rhythm that surrounds your entire listening sphere,” she says. “I think it's calming but also makes you want to move more. Who knows if it's going to turn out that way, but I definitely want to play more with percussion.
Reflecting on a common theme of the lyrics in the upcoming record, Link says, “The human body is a big thing that I’m noticing [coming up] because all humans have bodies and that’s one thing that kind of should be able to unite us all. We all have hearts. We all have salivary glands. Everyone is just trying to exist. Just [touching on] the things that could potentially bring us closer than further apart.”
Link shares with me that about 80% of the upcoming album has been written. “I always like to leave space for all of us being together, being inspired, and jamming because we don’t get to jam most of the time because we don’t live in the same cities. The goal would be to generate however many new songs we can once we’re all together.”
The new songs are sure to have the ‘90s rock vibe that is part of PACKS’ DNA, but they are also planning to experiment a bit more with new musical styles. “I have been listening to a lot of David Bowie, T. Rex, and ‘70s Brazilian guitar players like Jorge Ben Jor,” Link states. “All these Brazilian bands from the ‘70s have a really funky, poppy element that I love trying to bring the vibe in and see how it collides with all the stuff that already exists.”
Link is also really looking forward to her sister Eva’s new music. Eva’s musical project Triples’ new EP Every Good Story is set to drop on January 30th. Initially, Triples started as a duo with Madeline, but the success of PACKS demanded more of Madeline’s time, so Eva reimagined the project as her own thing. “I’m so excited for her EP to come out, and she is already working on a record as well,” Madeline says. “It’s gonna be an amazing explosion of Triples.”
The opening night of Bob-Sled is sure to be a fun time full of spectacular music as PACKS, Sour Widows, Mossy Dole, and Victrix kick off the festivities. Don’t miss out on this incredibly stacked lineup and catch the show! PACKS will also be playing at Winterruption YEG in Edmonton on January 24th, at CKUA, with Jillian Treidler and Mart Avi also playing that night. This show is also guaranteed to be an amazing time with loads of awesome music!
For tickets to PACKS at Bob Sled, visit here for more information.