Pickle Juice Unleashes a Punk Rock Storm with 'Cheeky EP'

Emerging from the snow-covered slopes of Revelstoke, Pickle Juice is turning up the heat with their debut release, Cheeky EP—a riotous, high-energy blast of punk rock chaos. This five-piece crew, hailing from Canada, Australia, and England, proves they're more than just a bunch of snow-season misfits. They're a force to be reckoned with.

The band's raw, unfiltered energy fuels each track, packing in raucous guitars, razor-sharp lyrics, and anthemic choruses that demand to be shouted at full volume. The lead single, "Curbstomp," embodies this reckless spirit, thrashing through searing guitar hooks and unrelenting drum beats while frontman Tim van der Krogt delivers vocals dripping with attitude.

Tracks like "Toxic and Sweet" and "Caught in a Lie" further cement Pickle Juice's signature sound—a mix of classic punk grit and modern alt-rock swagger. Their music has an unpolished charm reminiscent of basement jam sessions and beer-soaked dive bars, yet their chemistry and sharp songwriting keep everything tight and infectious.

With a Western Canada tour on the horizon and their buzz growing fast, Pickle Juice is proving that they're here to shake things up. Cheeky EP is just the beginning—so strap in, turn up the volume, and get ready for a wild ride.

"Cheeky EP" is a high-energy, no-holds-barred punk rock ride. What was the creative process like putting this record together, and how does it represent where Pickle Juice is now?

In a way, it’s like any debut project—rather than capturing a single moment in time, this EP is more of a journey through our early days as a band. It includes songs we wrote within the first few months of playing together and tracks we were still working on when we started recording. Even the recording process reflects that. We recorded the first two singles six months before the rest of the EP, mostly because, as an indie rock band made up of five guys who hardly work for half the year and snowboard for the other half, it took us a while to raise the funds to finish the project exactly how we wanted.

Creatively, our process has always been the same: I (Tim van der Krogt) write the melody and a rough skeleton of a song, and then we refine it together as a unit. It works really well because it lets everyone write their own parts and bring in their own influences. We’re a band of guys from the UK, Australia, and Canada, and we all grew up playing in different music scenes and listening to different styles of music. That mix of influences is something we think makes us unique—it allows every song to have its own stamp from each of us. It’s also taken our music in directions we wouldn’t have considered if we all had the same background.

We recorded the EP with David Ziehr, who was amazing to work with. Going into the studio, we still weren’t entirely sure what Pickle Juice was. The songs were all different, and we weren’t sure how they’d sit together. But with David’s help, we figured it out. Even though the tracks vary stylistically, you can tell they all come from the same band. So, this EP

represents us knowing who we are now—which is exciting, because moving forward, we’ll be stepping into the studio with confidence in what we are and what we want to be.

Your music combines influences from Canada, Australia, and England. How do those different musical backgrounds shape the band's sound and energy?

It’s really just a case of exposure. I’m not sure we consciously try to sound like anyone in particular—when you write, you subconsciously include the sounds and styles you’ve been exposed to, right? Being from different places means we’re all bringing a little bit of what we were hearing at the time into our music. For example, Josh and Ben grew up in Australia, listening to Triple J. They soaked up Aussie surf rock and even some of those poppier vibes from bands like Spacey Jane or San Cisco—even if they don’t claim to be huge fans, that sound lives in them.

I grew up between Canada and Australia, so I’m a bit of a hybrid too. The difference is, thanks to CanCon laws, I heard a lot of Canadian music. Then there’s Tom, who grew up on skater punk, practically turning his nose up at the radio. He might bring a bit of that Canadian pop-punk sound from the 2000s into our mix, even though he’s a Brit. But even then He was telling me just the other day how bands like The Kooks and The Wombats were inescapable in his world.

And for Pete, he was tuned into BBC Radio Four and steeped in that distinct British rock sound. Plus, he had an extra edge from playing in a band called Hazels and hitting the gig circuit alongside acts like Pale White and Catfish and the Battlement which brings a direct, person-to-person influence forward. In the end, all these different backgrounds blend together, creating something uniquely our own.

We were also a product of our time. With MTV and Kerrang! we were exposed to a lot of other scenes, and we could download whatever we wanted on Limewire, but at the same time, the radio was inescapable—it was just everywhere. I’m not sure that kind of experience exists nowadays. Kids can hop on Spotify, dive into an obscure Mongolian throat singing echo chamber, and never hear anything else.

"Curbstomp" is a standout track on the EP—raw, aggressive, and full of attitude. Can you tell us the story behind the song and what it means to you?

don’t really love telling people what a song is about—I don’t always believe a song is about anything specific. But I went through a rough patch a few years ago that changed a lot for me. I suffered a concussion, and the effects lasted for about two years. It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to work through, and to make matters worse, my house burned down while I was in the middle of it all.

Every day, you wake up hoping to feel better, but the pain and uncertainty just linger. You can’t do any of the things you love, and even something as simple as grocery shopping turns into one of the most anxiety-inducing experiences imaginable. On the outside, people might see you as perfectly normal, but inside, you’re injured and broken, and it feels like nobody truly understands you.

I had to do a lot of soul searching—figuring out who was important to me and who was dragging me down. I had to let go of a lot of people in the process. I was left feeling angry, hateful, frustrated, depressed, anxious, and, honestly, dead inside.

"Curbstomp," isn’t entirely about that experience but I’d say that I tapped into all of those raw emotions while I was writing it. The boys got ahold of it and turned that energy into something beautiful—a track that’s dynamic with reflective verses and aggressive choruses. It’s one of my favorite songs on the EP, though honestly, they’ve all been my favourite at different points. I’m convinced now the concussion was one of the best things that’s ever happened to me. I mean, no head injury, no PICKLE JUICE.

From jamming in a basement to gearing up for a Western Canada tour, how has this journey been for you as a band? What's been the most unexpected part of it all?

I’m not sure there’s been one specific unexpected moment because our existence, in its own way, was kind of unexpected. When we first started playing, our biggest goal was to maybe one day play an open mic night together. Within a month, we were headlining and selling out our local music venue. Now, it’s not a huge deal since we’re from a small town, but still—none of us expected the band to become what it has. We’ve had momentum from day one, and we’ve just been fueled by it ever since.

Some of the biggest highlights for us were things like our first out-of-town show. We played at Big White, a ski resort a couple of hours from Revelstoke, and the bar reached capacity. We were able to get the crowd moving and singing along, and it was the moment we looked around and thought, "Okay, this is more than just our friends coming out to support us. Maybe we’ve got something here."

I also remember after our first studio session when David played back the unmixed, unmastered tracks. The stoke in the room was so high and we recorded the recording on our phones. We drove back seven hours through the night, listening to those voice memo recordings on repeat. That was the moment when some of the guys really realized that we can write our own stuff, and it can be catchy and it can sound good.

And more recently, we played another out-of-town show where people were singing our lyrics back to us. After the show, I asked a group if they’d seen us before, and they hadn’t—they’d just discovered us through Spotify and Instagram. That was a special moment for me because it really hit home that our music can connect with people. For me, songwriting started as the ultimate form of procrastination, so it’s crazy to see where it’s taken us.

If someone's about to hit play on "Cheeky EP" for the first time, how would you describe the experience they're about to have in just three words?

I’d say Get ready for an earful of sound—it’s in your face right from the start and it’s going to get stuck in your head. I might be a tad biased, but I genuinely believe every song on the EP could stand on its own; each track has something that tickles you in a different way, whether it’s a baseline, a guitar melody, or the chorus, there’s an ear worm in each tune.

We set out to create an EP full of bangers, with no filler tracks, and I like to think we pulled it off—but ultimately, it’s up to each listener to decide. One thing I’ll say is that, in just five songs, the EP progresses a long way from where it starts. It moves through a few different styles and it really represents who we are as a band. We don’t want to pigeonhole ourselves. If we’re working on a tune that feels right and shows potential, we follow that feeling, even if it doesn’t fit neatly into “our sound”. We ultimately want who we are as musicians to dictate our sound so that it speaks for itself.