Artist Glimpse: Mississauga's Myke Penney

The Jailbirds have built a reputation on high-energy hard rock, heavy riffs, and an unyielding commitment to live performance. Originating from Mississauga, the band has steadily expanded its footprint—winning the 97.7 HTZ FM RockSearch contest and landing international festival slots, including Capital Moto Week in Brasilia, Brazil, opening for hard rock legends Nazareth.

Behind the distorted amps and driving rhythm section is lead singer and songwriter Myke Penney. I sat down with Myke to discuss the band’s trajectory, songwriting process, and what drives their music behind the scenes.

Rob Aguiar: Mississauga produces an incredible amount of musical talent, but local artists often face a real challenge finding dedicated venue spaces to play close to home. Coming up as a rock band in that environment, how did navigating our local scene shape the hustle and identity of The Jailbirds in those early days?

Myke Penney: Thinking about that now, I think it really normalized travelling to gigs for us, which has helped us tremendously honestly. Unfortunately there were not a ton of venues that would accept a loud rock band like us in Mississauga, so we found ourselves travelling to Toronto and Hamilton a lot in the early days.

RA: Winning the 97.7 HTZ FM RockSearch is a major milestone for southern Ontario rock bands. What did that win mean for the band’s momentum at the time, and how did it affect your approach to writing and performing?

MP: Winning Rocksearch has been incredible for us, 97.7 is so supportive of us and local music in general, they are amazing!! I think it just gave us confidence in what we do, to be recognized by some of our inspirations; Colin and JA from The Trews, Steve from Finger Eleven and Kevin from Crown Lands for example were all amongst the judging panel for the final RockSearch show and had some very nice things to say about our band. We just got up there and did what we do, had fun and played our hearts out as we always do, so it was awesome to be awarded the title of 2026 RockSearch winners based on that.

RA: Taking your hard rock sound down to Brazil to play Capital Moto Week—and sharing the bill with rock legends Nazareth—is a massive international step. Brazilian crowds are famous for their intense passion for rock and roll. How did playing to that kind of scale and intensity in South America influence your perspective as a live band?

MP: It changed us a band for the better, for sure. Now it seems like playing shows back home is a tad easier if that makes sense haha from a nerves perspective. Personally, I just picture that Brazil show and all the pressure and challenges that we went through to pull that off, and it just makes things easier for me now. If we could do that and it go that well with what we had, we can do anything. We just showed up with guitars and didn’t get a soundcheck or anything, didn’t know what we were going to be using for gear until really close to the festival date, and it was amazing. Also, their culture down in Brazil is very laid back and no stress, which we learned a lot from I think.

RA: Behind the heavy riffs and driving rhythm section, every track has to start with a core idea. When you sit down to write a new song, what does your process look like for taking a raw melody or acoustic idea and building it into a complete Jailbirds track?

MP: Most of the time it starts with a riff, a lot lately have been at rehearsal and someone will play something that peaks everyone else's ear, and we will all jam it for a bit and record that on a phone or something. Then we’ll sit down together and maybe go through the recordings we have made and stitch some stuff together, or sometimes I’ll take a full idea or an almost full idea and demo it by myself at home and send it to the guys. Once we have that skeleton, all without lyrics usually, we jam it and get a demo with us all playing on it, and that’s when we’ll add some melodies and lyrics etc. Sometimes we do that together, other times I do it by myself, we don’t have one formula other than it starts with the riff, really.

RA: Your new single, “Where Is The Rock N' Roll?”, delivers a high-energy, classic rock punch. What was the driving idea behind writing this track, and how has the crowd reaction been when you drop it into your live sets on tour?

MP: It started with that intro riff, Brian Moncarz (who I wrote the song with) and I got together and we went through my phone for a minute, going over some riffs I had recorded from whenever ago, and we both dug that one. So we built on it and arranged it pretty quickly, it’s just a simple blues song so it was fast, then we did the lyrics all in an afternoon basically. It started as a joke to write about why bands don’t write about rock n roll anymore haha but then we started spitballing and it was really fun, so it turned out to be a really fun and cool track. Once the band got their hands on it, it really came to life. The crowd has been loving this one on tour, it’s been amazing to hear the audience singing the words back at us on this run, that’s been a whole new high.

RA: With the momentum from “Where Is The Rock N' Roll?” and your recent tour stops across Ontario, the band isn't slowing down. Looking ahead, what can fans expect next in terms of upcoming shows, expanding tour routes, or long-term goals on the road?

MP: We have one more thing dropping this year, and are currently planning our 2027 - which will have a lot of shows and releases including our debut full length album, more info on that soon! We want to play everywhere we can of course, trying to get our butts over to the UK and EU stat.

Myke Penney and The Jailbirds continue to push their sound forward through direct songwriting, regular touring, and a focus on live performance. From local clubs across Ontario to international festival stages, the group remains focused on building its catalog and connecting with audiences on the road.

For tour updates and music releases, follow Myke Penney and The Jailbirds on official social channels and major streaming platforms. @thejailbirdsband / all platforms