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Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.<\/span><\/p>\n Every Monday, there will be a fresh \u2018New Music Monday\u2019 article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!<\/span><\/p>\n For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at <\/span>CFUV 101.9 FM<\/b><\/a>, UVic\u2019s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.<\/span><\/p>\n To date, there have been 79 New Music Monday features published through this collaboration.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This week, <\/span>Treewell<\/b><\/a> is the New Music Monday highlight!<\/span><\/p>\n Treewell is a screamo band whose members range in age between 15 and 23-years-old. Since forming and playing their first show in 2025, they have been making waves in the scene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The five-piece screamo outfit is comprised of Max Richmond and Knovah Selinger on guitars, Garnet Hawthorne on bass, Thorn Drovin on drums and Everett Rinaldi on lead vocals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The band started with Richmond and Selinger, who had been jamming together last summer and planning to put a band together when Rinaldi came into the picture after he moved to Victoria from California.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The idea to start an emo band came up serendipitously between the three of them, then they recruited Hawthorne and Drovint.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Treewell started jamming in September 2025 with all members of the band. Since then, they have been hard at work writing music and playing as many shows as they can.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Their first show came from CFUV music director Troy Lemberg, who had a band drop off a bill and needed Treewell to fill the slot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d been jamming for maybe a month at the jam space and we had maybe three songs,\u201d Drovin told Victoria Buzz.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOut of nowhere, Troy reached out to one of us and was like \u2018hey, we had a band drop off this bill, do you want to fill in,\u2019 and I think it was day-of.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The show was at the Fernwood Community Centre, also known as \u2018Big Fernwood,\u2019 where Treewell opened for an Ontario-based band called Ivy Gardens.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI used to grow up watching Ivy Gardens because I used to live in Ontario, and one of my first hardcore shows ever was an Ivy Gardens show,\u201d noted Rinaldi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd one of my first shows ever was with this band, and it was really surreal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The show went well for Treewell and from there they have kept at it and have grown a considerable following in Victoria\u2019s underground music scene.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In early 2026, they played a sold-out house show and a sold-out show in the halfpipe at Influence Board Shop.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n As nearly half the band are minors, Treewell has been especially influential for screamo fans who are under 19-years-old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI really feel like there is a growing movement of new bands and there\u2019s new kids who want to come to shows because like, there\u2019s these other kids who I know that are playing shows,\u201d said Selinger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cNow their friends are coming to shows and it just feels really awesome.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Rinaldi also noted that the age diversity in the band has never been an issue for them, and they see it as a strength more than anything else.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt honestly, really reminds me of skate culture,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI grew up skateboarding my whole life and I would go to the skate park as a 15-year-old. I would be skating with guys who were way older than me, but having that common interest brings people together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n In late April, Treewell released their debut EP <\/span>Star Shaped Wounds<\/span><\/i> into the world after recording with Cody Baresich at Circle A. Studios here in Victoria.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rinaldi noted that while the track \u201cOnestaratatime\u201d was initially everyone\u2019s highlight track from <\/span>Star Shaped Wounds<\/span><\/i>, \u201cAntlers\u201d was a brand new song and it became their new cornerstone.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen we recorded this EP, we recorded a song that we hadn\u2019t played live, ever,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe basically wrote it, recorded the EP and when we played the release show, we played \u2018Antlers\u2019 for the first time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n As the band\u2019s lyricist, Rinaldi says that he loves how dynamic the song is, with tempo changes and a musical complexity that the whole band is really proud of.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe song has a spoken word part in it that is very, very personal to myself and it was difficult to write,\u201d Rinaldi continued.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s about a relationship, another person having borderline personality disorder and the chaos that ensues from that, and I think the song captures that feeling very well.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Richmond added that the song started with a riff he came up with and workshopped with Drovin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This song, and much of Treewell\u2019s music, is heavily inspired by the band You and I.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Check out \u201cAntlers\u201d below:<\/span><\/p>\nHighlight Track \u2013 \u201cAntlers\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n