Hello Mischief

Hello Mischief is a relatively new five piece band from Charlottetown. The band is comprised of Jinny Greaves (guitar, baritone ukulele, vocals), Andrea Boehner (drums, percussion, vocals), Chloe Cork (trumpet, percussion, vocals), Kat MacNeil (accordion, piano, guitar, vocals), and Amanda Beazley (bass, guitar, vocals).

In May 2021, during the height of COVID, Amanda sent her friends a message asking them if they had any interest in forming a band. The idea was to get out of the house on a weekly basis, skirt the cabin fever, and have some fun hanging out and playing music. In the earliest days, Andrea was not yet in the picture but the other four women started meeting on a weekly basis and they discovered some magic together.  

At first they were playing a variety of cover songs but organically they began to craft their own songs. When asked to describe their sound, the five members all contributed thoughts and the prominent theme or characteristic would be eclectic. The songs are described as very lyric driven, with stylistic traces of Americana, roots, folk, pop music, and Eastern European sounds. The songs tend to lean toward moody and dark themes, even getting into murder ballad territory. The band draws influence from artists like Nick Cave, Lucius, Gillan Welch, and Tom Waits. 

Every member contributes song ideas and they complete and arrange the songs together in a very collaborative, exploratory nature. The process is democratic and fun. 

Every year, they escape their everyday lives for a retreat they call Bandcamp. This serves as a fun, creative, focused time for the members to grow closer and stronger together. During Bandcamp retreats they work on songs, visual ideas for the band, and brainstorm together about future projects. 

These women are finding beauty and joy in each other’s company and the musical connections they are forging. Hello Mischief gives them all a chance to take space in their lives, away from their everyday responsibilities. They shared with me how important it is that their band provides a place to freely express themselves artistically and to exist outside the norms that society tends to have for women and mothers. It allows for new dimensions of identity, as a group and as individuals. 

The band was nameless until September 2024, but after a highly collaborative and exhaustive creative experience involving scissors, magazines, and some nifty collage work, they stumbled on Hello Mischief, and it stuck.

With 16 original songs in their repertoire, they are now talking about capturing them on recording. No exact plans are in place, but they have started discussing it and are hopeful they will begin working on this before the end of the winter. 

This band started as something strictly for themselves. On stage, it is still mostly that way, often playing more for each other than for the audience, but they are beginning to settle into their comfort zone.