Toronto’s Mad Iris formed in 2023 with the look, sound, and feel of a mid-90s garage band; four friends with guitars. Their music pivots between noise rock, punk, shoegaze, and grunge, plucking sounds from bands like Sonic Youth, the Amps, and the Breeders. Frontwomen Kaiya Rosie and Ela Hintasu blend bratty screams with hushed sighs, contrasting Parick Muldoon’s kaleidoscope guitar distortion and Josh Pryce’s roaring drum beats. 

The group established themselves by cutting their teeth in Toronto’s underground alternative scene, becoming a local staple. On stage, they trade instruments between songs, taking turns in the lead with infectious chemistry. Each track wears similar clothes in different genres, propelling towards disaster, then bending backwards, shifting from gritty-feedback to dreamy haze to masterful sloppiness.

On record, Mad Iris is raw, unpolished, and intimidatingly cool. Off-stage, they’re grounded and self-aware. As Pryce puts it, “We’re just four friends hanging out and making music together. There’s lots of playful love in it.” That chemistry drives their energetic debut. 

Mad Iris, out May 29, 2026, covers desire, obsession, jealousy, and pettiness, while taking place on back seats, night buses, and gas stations, with gum stuck to desks, and drinks spilled on sticky floors. Throughout, obsessive impulses spiral into emotional meltdowns, with songs lurching between restraint and eruption.