Vundabar is a band built on strangeness—something wonderful, like the name’s German roots in wunderbar suggest, but a tiny bit twisted, just a little bit warped.

 

Peculiarity is at the core of the Bostonian band: the sonic collaboration between Brandon Hagen (vocals/guitar), Drew McDonald (drums), and Grayson Kirtland (bass) gives way to an edgy, alternative sound that sets itself apart from its genre by way of eclectic influences and nearly visceral inspirations. The trio basks in groovy indie-rock, always lacing a dulcet verse or off-kilter hook between catchy choruses, a formula they’ve been crafting since their adolescence.

 

“Drew moved next door to me when I was 13,” said Hagen. “I played music and he played music, and our dads tried to set us up as friends, which effectively made both of us not hang out with each other for two years. Later, we had a high school ska band Drew played in, so we would record at his house together.”

 

Vundabar has retained its same in-house, garage-punk quality since Hagen and McDonald first conceptualized the group in 2012; the raw, authentic blend between Hagen’s vocals, McDonald’s beats, and the irreverent, often surreal lyrics, was apparent in their 2013 debut album, Antics, and hasn’t faltered in the near-decade and four albums since. Evolving is one thing, but growing is another; Vundabar does both. Far and few between are the TikTok users who haven’t heard “Alien Blues,” their viral song from 2015’s Gawk album, which has amassed over 100,000 uses on the app and more than 129 million streams on Spotify, skyrocketing to their most played song. 

The band has been releasing music on their own label, Gawk Records, since their inception. The fifth album in their discography, Devil for the Fire, continues the tradition. Despite being recorded in the peak of the pandemic, the 9-track record is, perhaps, Vundabar at their finest: rough, real and undeniably raw.

 

“It was a very bizarre time recording Devil for the Fire,” said Hagen. “Right before we started recording, my dad had a near-fatal heart attack that induced a stroke. I don’t know if there’s another COVID record like this, because my routine while we were recording it was: be at the hospital, get a COVID test, go to the studio, get a COVID test, go to the hospital, get a COVID test.”

 

Devil for the Fire explores a new journey for Vundabar, one focused on elements of the mind. Hagen, who was living with two psychologists at the time, recalls how he was heavily influenced by “books on neurology just lying around the house.” Before his dad’s stroke, Hagen was “hooked” on neuroplasticity—how the things you do and the ways you think can physically alter your brain.

 

“A lot of that research is done on stroke patients,” he said. “I started writing the record with that in mind and heavily informing it. And then while I’m writing it, my dad has a stroke—so the things that were conceptual were becoming very visceral and real. The writing took on a new level of intensity, and it played heavily into what I was thinking about and what I was feeling when we were writing it.” 

But what better album for Vundabar, who have been together through their early adolescence to their young adulthoods, than one about the capacity to change? What better quinary record to follow up a pandemic, a tragedy and a recovery than one written through it all?

 

“Sonically, there are some moments that are kind of extreme,” said Hagen. “There’s a yacht rock song, slow and breezy. And then there’s a song that’s the loudest and heaviest wall of sound that we’ve ever done. It’s a pretty mixed bag, but when it’s funneled through the three of us, it makes sense.” 

 

An album that “makes sense” and was recorded in a time when the world certainly didn’t is a feat in itself—but partnered with an ever-growing fanbase, a truly unique sound in a sea of indie-rockers, and an exploration of the powers—and limits—of the mind? Well, there’s no denying that Vundabar is, in a word, wunderbar.

 

Devil for the Fire by Vundabar is available to stream now on all music platforms.