Local band makes waves in music career

By Courtney Bachar
The Oshawa Express
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

A local band has not only released their first EP, but also recently took home the Emerging Band of the Year award at the OMAs.

Mark Thompson, Evan Cunningham and Mike Buntsma, also known as the members of ZAFTIG, came together just two years ago.

Thompson, singer and guitarist, met Cunningham, the bassist, in 2018 through his sister.

“He made a good impression on me and I knew he played bass,” says Thompson. “I wrote some demos of the songs we’re playing now. Evan was into them and we started practicing.”

That’s when Cunningham introduced Buntsma to the group.

“He knew Mike, our drummer, and naturally we used him. And he’s highly complimented after a show, he gets a lot of compliments for being a really talented musician,” says Thompson. “We get along really well, and we have a really good sense of humour.”

The name ZAFTIG was a group effort to come up with their band name.

“We had a little difficulty at first to figure out what we wanted, then we saw the word ZAFTIG and thought the meaning ‘juicy’ and thought it sounded fitting.”

Their music is a combination of experimental rock, garage and progressive rock.

“It’s a lot of integration of all three of us,” says Thompson, and it didn’t take long before they were playing shows, a favourite of his being the first show they ever played together, which was at the Mustache Club in June 2018.

“Playing live shows is what we mainly enjoy most about music at this point,” says Thompson. “The recording part is so much fun and we learned a lot along the way, but, for me, I would say playing live is the most important part.”

Cunningham says their first show at the Mustache Club also stands out to him as a memorable moment.

“My most memorable show was the first show we played together as a band at the Mustache Club,” he says. “Mark broke a string mid-set and just kept playing and he killed it.”
Another favourite memory was the last show they played in early March at the Horseshoe Tavern.

“We haven’t played Toronto for a little while,” says Thompson, adding a huge hero of his is David Byrne from the Talking Heads.

“Early in their (The Talking Heads) career they had played at that venue, so I had one of those moments of being a bit of a fan boy knowing he played here,” he says. “It was really nice to play at that venue.”

He notes when writing songs, he tries to think of how it would feel in a live setting, rather than how it will sound on a record.

“Sometimes putting it on a record can change it from what it originally was,” he says. “It’s a really cool experience seeing the transformation of the live songs into what comes out on a record after you’ve sat down and produced it.”

ZAFTIF released its first EP (Extended Play) album in June 2019. They earned themselves an OMA nomination for the second consecutive year and this year took home Emerging Band of the Year at the recent virtual awards ceremony.

“It was a really nice thing to even get nominated,” says Thompson. “We really took that last year (with their first nomination) like, when you get nominated, it really does feel like you win a little bit. It’s always really nice to take part in something like that.”

He notes none of them thought they would actually win.

“We could all agree that we just didn’t think our name would be called,” says Thompson. “It was really exciting. It took a second to sink in for sure.”

Cunningham echoes Thompson’s feelings about the win.

“I was surprised at first, and then happy we won,” says Cunningham. “It’s very nice that small independent artists can get recognition and it’s good to know we have people supporting us and listening to our music.”

Buntsma agrees and feels humbled by the experience.

“It felt very humbling to be recognized within my community for something that I’m passionate about,” he says.

The band is currently working on its second EP release, which they hope to be able to release later this year, with another possible tour out east.

“When we released our first record, we went out east and toured for a week or two. We were thinking of doing that run again,” Thompson says. “When we toured, we were all

sleeping in the van most of the time. That’s where you kind of test personalities and you get to see if you work out together and it felt just like hanging out with your best friends. It was an amazing time.”

Thompson says they’re also looking forward to playing more shows.

“There’s a lot of groups that we like playing with and still want to play with that we haven’t yet, so that’ll be fun when we can do that. It’s fun to just play with your friends and have a party,” he says. “All I hope for the future is that we continue to experiment with the music we create and to enjoy playing every show we get the honour to perform.

Playing original music live feels like such a privilege, and I feel extremely grateful every time a venue is willing to let us grace their stage for an hour or two.”