The Collective releases first EP

Embark on a feel-good but emotional journey with The Collective.

The Pictou County indiepop band is releasing its full debut EP “In The Night” on May 14. The four-song collection centres around relationships, from the dizzying honeymoon stage to the final goodbye.

The EP experiments with different styles and genres but still incorporates the band’s signature sounds.

It opens with “Too Good,” a funk-inspired easy-listening tune that leaks in a saxophone solo and horn section. This is followed by the lead single “In The Night,” an unapologetic pop-rock anthem.

The music video for “In the Night” premiered last Friday. They plan on releasing a video for each song. All the videos are being done in house, as their drummer Jay MacLeod is also a videographer.

The horns return for the third track “Loser,” a heavyhitting indie-pop power ballad, and “Long Goodbye (Thinking ‘Bout You)” comes in as a transformational grand finale.

“Long Goodbye (Thinking ‘Bout You)” was the song they entered for the Canadian Music Week Jim Beam National Talent Search last year, which they won for the Halifax region.

Fans of The Collective will recognize these songs as they were written in 2019. The pandemic postponed the EP’s release until now, but one of two lead singers for the band, Niki Campbell, says it was nice to have that time.

“We tried not to change them too much, but just revisit them,” she says. The six-piece band has played the songs live several times. But now as the songs are becoming immortalized, they were able to think about how they wanted them to go.

Despite another lockdown, the band has more to look forward to than they did a year ago.

“We are just keeping inspired because we are still going to release ‘In the Night’ and people are still going to hear it,” says Campbell. “We have high hopes, we are in Nova Scotia, we have fought these fires and we can do it again.”

They are hoping they will be able to celebrate the EP with everyone sometime this summer.

“In the Night” will be available on all streaming platforms, links to some of those can be found on The Collective’s Facebook page @thecollectivens.