The Breakouts are presented in partnership with Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Post Modern Connection has finally found its sound. The members of the Vancouver-based indie-rock duo—Tega Ovie and Georges Nasrallah—spent their formative years experimenting with styles, trying to figure out who they were as a band.

“Those early days were all about jamming,” Ovie says. “For me, it was kind of wading in and discovering all these new sounds. I didn’t grow up listening [to indie rock], so I wasn’t confined to a particular sound.”

That period culminated in the release of their debut EP, 2021’s Clustered Umbrella. But if that was the sound of a band sorting out its identity, Post Modern Connection’s latest release, A Welcome Change, feels like an arrival. Over five tracks, the EP explores a dreamy kind of art-pop, filled with hooks and infused with some dance and a little rock and roll. Since it was released in November of last year, the EP’s already at half a million streams on Spotify, and the music has found an especially receptive audience on TikTok.

“It’s been incredible,” Ovie says. “The EP release has shown us that people are really listening. We’ve been playing in packed rooms, which, again, is incredible for us.”

The band formed in 2016, while Ovie (who’s originally from Nigeria) and Nasrallah (who grew up in the UAE) were attending college in Kelowna. After relocating to Vancouver in 2022, they joined ARC Program BC: a music initiative designed to nurture and mentor new local talent. Ovie says it helped integrate them quickly into the local music community.

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The band is now central to an emerging indie-rock revival here, its reputation buoyed by high-energy live sets that are capturing an increasingly devoted audience.

“It’s been really validating and encouraging,” Ovie says. “I think this past year has finally shown that we can actually do this. It’s not just a pipe dream.”