The Grinning Barretts
Vancouver Island Drink-along Celtic Punk Rock
The Grinning Barretts are bagpipe strangling, vocal chord mangling, gormandizer uplifting, Riot Brewing imbibing, Vancouver Island Celtic punk rock. They’ve taken Celtic sounds & mashed them up with gritty punk rock passion to create a wild ride of traditionals, originals & additionals that will move your feet into jig formation & bring out your inner rabblerouser.
Pat WEstmacotT
Lead Fuckface, Guitars and Vocals
Coming at us from Street Prophets Union, The Kiltlifters, Sedition Choir, & Hats And Black Ties, Pat has earned his place as the Captain of the Grinning Barretts. We’re always checking this boat for holes, but he hasn’t sunk us yet. Having opened for rad acts like Great Big Sea, Dreadnoughts, GOB, & The Real McKenzies, we figure he’s learned how to patch a hull by now. Pat’s also the king of being in the right place at the right time, having sang with Pennywise, gambled with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones & partied with The Interrupters. When he’s not shredding frets or mixing noise, you can find Pat hiking the mountain with Murphy, the owner of the mountain.
Aaron Bergen
Primary Kilt lifter, Bagpipes, Flutes, vocals
Piper Aaron Bergen brings the sexy(?) to the crew by having proudly played with his own pipe for the large majority of his life. As the bands resident windbag he holds the title of once playing in an AC/DC cover band and brought pipe playing in BC, Washington, Oregon, Scotland, Ireland and Continental Europe. Despite keeping one foot in the traditional, he hates to keep things the same and supports bagpipes in all forms of music, even punk and metal. Because bagpipes are more metal than guitars and Europe was not liberated by French horns. By day he is a steam engineer, by night, a kilted madman who passes out at 9 (even napping mid show on occasion. Yes, it HAS happened). When he isn’t blowing his bag you can find him searching his soul for inner peace, and the meaning of life, at the bottom of a pint at the local brewpub.
Jeremy Fiddy
Head Philosopher, Drums
Our buddy Fid comes to us from an extensive percussion background. Holding a music degree from Uvic, he was formally trained on skins & sticks of various types & has worked with badasses like Sal Ferreras, Bill Linwood, Alex Cuba, Adonis Puentes & Hugh Fraser. On land, has opened for the likes of Great Big Sea & many others; on the sea, he has entertained guests on various cruise lines, including Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises & Norwegian Cruise Lines. This guy has played with so many bands, & appeared on so many recordings, we’re so lucky to be in his current circle of noisemakers. When he’s not jamming with the Barretts, you can find Fiddy with his other band, A Farkin Conspiracy, because this man literally never stops drumming.
Alli Bean
Department HEad – Sass, Keyboard, Vocals
Alli Bean is a multi-award-winning powerhouse pianist, keyboard player, songwriter and vocalist. Her natural style leans toward jazz, blues & funk, but we’ve thrown her into a bucket of nails & gravel to fix that all up. She really ices our cake. Getting her start in the Hollobodies, she opened for acts such as Wise Youngblood, Quadra Sound and Daniel Wesley. She has recorded with Vancouver Island talents Jade Bell & Phil Bulmer, & played venues like Hermann’s Jazz Club, Alix Goolden Hall, & The Union Club of BC. She has a jazz degree, her own body of solo work, & endless energy! She is encroaching on Pat’s territory as resident Barretts songwriter & looks forward to the cage match. When Alli isn’t in front of a piano, she’s likely in a car on the way to another piano, talking to someone about piano, or thinking about piano. We think she has a problem.
Dave Greig
CNO (Chief Neurotic Officer), Guitar, Vocals
Dave is our Swiss Army Knife; gear repair extraordinaire, sound man to local slayers, & when The Barretts call for further frets, whether electric, acoustic or banjo, he’s our man. Starting from covers & working his way up to heavy metal & now into the claws of Celtic punk, he’s accumulated a mosaic of experience across areas of musical creation, including the release of his own single, Animal. He’s opened for Daeodon, Signal Static, Moths and Locusts, & more. When Dave isn’t filling out the Barretts guitar section, he can be found rocking metal with Big Flakes, or running live sound, or tinkering with gear. He has done guitar tech work for bands like Towers and Trees, and PIGS (Floyd Tribute). Pedal boards are his jam.
Andrea White
Lead Hand of Reels and Jigs, Fiddle, Vocals
Andrea recently joined the Barretts, and her Fiddle playing has taken our sound into the stratosphere!!
She is a fan of all things folk, and also plays in the band Coyotes in the Meadow.
She grew up in a musical household, learning to play fiddle and guitar. She has spent years making music and busking with people she has met on the road, travelling cross country numerous times.
Andrea is a massive animal lover who works at a doggy daycare, and shares her time with her furry companion Juno. Social media is not her thing at all, and you are much more likely to find Andi and Juno on the beach or in the woods than on-line!
Cara McCandless
Hey You With The Face, Bass, Vocals
Cara brings the bass, and some true Scottish fire to the Barretts (Robbie Burns is her great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandfather!!). A music festival brat who followed her banjo playing father around to many events, Cara picked up the bass by default in The McCandless Family Band, because no one else wanted to learn to play it!!
A prolific singer and songwriter, Cara has also played in PixElle, Shake Shack, The Femme Fatales, as well as singing with Dan Hill, Jeff, Plankenhorn, and Yellowbelly. She also has a YouTube channel where she has uploaded an original song EVERY Wednesday for almost 2 years! https://www.youtube.com/@caramccandless . She was also one of the winners of Rocktoria 2000 with 100.3 The Q.
When not rocking out with The Barretts, or her solo work, Cara is a music teacher (she really pretty much never stops playing music!!), a tattoo collector, and awesome lightning-in-a-bottle friend to many!!
Murphy
I’m Helping
Newest Barrett of them all! Likes food, people, chasing Alli’s braid, his mountain, food, toothpaste, food, people with food, the occasional sock, firewood, food, his mountain, showing off his kennel, food, being a jackass with his brother Frankie, food, blankets, firewood, loves his couch best place to sleep ever, food, cardboard and food. Still hasn’t figured out what it means to dog….oh hey food!!
Many of the Photos on this site were taken by the most amazing John Carlow of Finding Charlotte Photography and Colin Smith of Colin Smith Takes Pics Go check them out!