The Strumbellas

The Strumbellas is a Canadian indie-rock band whose music blends rootsy harmony vocals with country, folk, and punk influences. ∙ Formed in Toronto in 2008, the sextet released a well-reviewed 2009 eponymous EP and played weekly residencies at venerable local nightclubs The Cameron House and The Dakota Tavern. ∙ Keyboardist David Ritter created an 8-bit video game in which the band members battle characters from the songs on their 2012 debut album, My Father and the Hunter. ∙ Their second LP, We Still Move on Dance Floors, won a 2014 Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year: Group. ∙ “Spirits,” their hit single from the 2016 LP Hope, topped Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, won a Juno Award, and earned three honors at the Canadian Radio Music Awards. ∙ In 2017, the group received two Canadian Independent Music Awards for the track “We Don’t Know”: Songwriter of the Year and Single of the Year. ∙ The Liberal Party of Canada used “One Hand Up”—from their fourth album, Rattlesnake—as the anthem for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s successful 2019 reelection campaign.