The Revenants

The Revenants

The Revenants are a Canadian punk band from Vancouver, formed in 2002 by childhood friends Jessica Emdee and Ariel Kwiatkowski. Emdee teaches herself guitar and starts writing songs from the age of twelve, while Kwiatkowski begins without a drum kit and plays by banging on pots and pans before the group acquires equipment and builds a song catalogue.

Line-up

Over time, the band includes guitarists Chris Loveland, Teryn Kilgore and Winona Ruth, and bassists Blake Petersen, Shannon O'Brien and Katherine Krajnak. The two founders remain central to the project, which develops out of DIY punk ethics and school-age friendship.

Music and recordings

The Revenants release Kiss Me Deadly, with about half of its seven tracks dating back to the earliest garage rehearsals in Vancouver. Their earlier material is shaped by a DIY approach, and they continue to rehearse there. The band also appears on compilations including Cheap Thrills Vol. 1, Cheap Thrills Vol. 2 and Music to murder that someone special to.

Activity and collaborations

The band provides original soundtrack music for The Baxter Avenue Morgue, a haunted attraction in Louisville, Kentucky, across several years from 2003 to 2006. A separate American band with the same name forms in Louisville in 1996 and records material that blends punk, black metal, gothic and other dark styles, but the Canadian group is the one identified here.