Bite Down: How Community Helped Forge Ribbon Skirt's Breakthrough Album
Photo credit: Shannon Johnston (@me_onlylouder) - Ribbon Skirt @ SXSW 2025
Sled Island is what I would call a music discovery festival. A festival where each year you find out your new favourite artist, in addition to getting the opportunity to see the stars of the indie music world descend upon Calgary. This is certainly true for attendees, but Sled being a beacon of music discovery is also true for the artists playing the festival themselves. That’s where Tashiina Buswa and Billy Riley of Ribbon Skirt (at the time playing under the name Love Language) met Marlaena Moore and Scott “Monty” Munro for the first time, as they all played a show together during Sled Island 2022. These four Montreal artists connected, found musical common ground, and it has led us to the moment in 2025, where Moore and Munro have produced the first Ribbon Skirt album, titled Bite Down, one of the most exciting and bracing releases of 2025.
Finding musical common ground is also how Billy and Tash first connected, having met each other at school right before the pandemic. The transition into Ribbon Skirt, compared to the previous music they made together, was driven from a love of ‘90s guitar music with shoegaze influences. They wanted to incorporate a more produced sound, with synthetic drum machines and synths, with less natural sounding instruments. Some songs, like live favourite and album opener “Deadhorse” and “Wrong Planet” are straight-ahead ‘90s guitar hero rock that you could envision being programmed on a mid ‘90s edition of MuchMusic’s The Wedge. Other songs, like the closer and thematic culmination of the record, “Earth Eater,” were built bit-by-bit in the studio, as they added big shoegaze-y guitars, reverb-y drums, samples of chattering and laughing, and Tash’s remarkable chanting vocals, bringing to the fore her Anishinaabe heritage. In addition to Scott Munro and Marlaena Moore’s aid in producing the record, Billy and Tash reached out to the legend Greg Saunier of Deerhoof to mix the record, after loving his work mixing for New Brunswick’s Motherhood and Vancouver’s Kamikaze Nurse.
Photo by Ani Harroch
The Montreal music scene is one of the most exciting music scenes in the world today, which Ribbon Skirt are in the center of, from their producers Munro’s band Preoccupations as well as Marlaena Moore, to Mint Records label mates Knitting and Heaven For Real, to Taupe, Sunforger and POOLGIRL. Billy bumped into a lot of his Montreal compatriots at SXSW this year, where Ribbon Skirt played a head-spinning nine shows in five days, ranging from showcases by POP Montreal to a house show! They won the SXSW faithful over and received a glowing review by industry bible Rolling Stone. When I asked Billy Riley what advice he would give to artists from Canada for playing SXSW, he had this to say: “It is what you make of it. It is not the same as playing most festivals where they tell you, this is the show you are playing. It's up to you to hustle and play shows yourself. Prepare yourself to be overwhelmed and busy. Be sure to eat enough and drink enough water, it's very hot. Coming from the winter weather in Canada to Texas weather was a lot. It is what you make of it, but also have fun and remember you are there to play shows, meet people, see bands.”
To bring it full circle, Ribbon Skirt are going to make their grand return to Sled Island this year, their first time under the Ribbon Skirt name, and they could not be more excited. Billy Riley noted "we are stoked. Sled holds a special place in our hearts, it was the first time we played outside of Quebec and Ontario, we just love that festival. We played two years in a row, then took a year break. We played the Sled Island Block Party a few years ago, we played the Legion two years ago, every show has been great. There are so many amazing music fans, CJSW is incredible. It is always a really fun week."
The amount of long-deserved attention and praise Ribbon Skirt has received this year, from top music blog Stereogum naming Bite Down its Album of the Week to international praise from Rolling Stone, has been gratifying for this fan, who discovered them at Sled Island 2023, when I worked a live session they were performing on CJSW. They had the entire station buzzing that day, and very much continue to, as every time I play one of the new Ribbon Skirt songs, like the worldbeater of a first single “Cellophane,” I have people texting in asking “who is this??? This is amazing!” Bite Down, in a sense, would not exist without the oasis of music discovery that is Sled Island, as Scott Munro and Marlaena Moore’s connection with Billy and Tash wouldn’t have been forged if they weren’t grouped together on a bill together in 2022. That is why Ribbon Skirt’s sort-of-homecoming to Sled Island 2025 is circled as one of the must see shows at the festival, as we can continue witnessing firsthand the next steps for one of Canada’s most special bands.
Ribbon Skirt’s new album Bite Down is out now via Mint Records. Check out their latest music video down below and secure tickets to see them in Calgary, AB at Sled Island Music and Arts Festival by visiting www.sledisland.com.