Inside Husk: How Scarecrowz Built a Self-Produced Hard Rock Album in Their 25th Year

Four Ottawa Musicians Produced Ten Tracks Themselves and Gave the Band’s Name Its Own Imagery

The credits on Husk by Scarecrowz read like a band that decided to do almost everything itself. The Ottawa four-piece produced this ten-track hard rock and heavy metal album alone, and three of its musicians shared the engineering. Only the mix and master went to an outside hand, Rohan Despande. The record then came out on 6 June 2025.

Scarecrowz open Husk with Clutter, the track now in the playlist below. The band’s full run of coverage sits on the Scarecrowz artist profile. The album came to NewMusic.News through PopHits.Co Music Charts, which verifies independent artists and places their releases across its network of music news desks. Give it a spin before reading on about the four players who produced it themselves.

---

Scarecrowz Formed in Ottawa in 2000 and Marked Their 25th Year by Producing Husk Themselves

Scarecrowz formed in Ottawa in 2000, so 2025 was the band’s twenty-fifth year. Plenty of groups mark a milestone like that with a compilation or a reunion show. Scarecrowz, by contrast, marked it by writing and recording ten new songs.

The line-up on Husk is a four-piece. Ger Madden sings lead and backing vocals and plays rhythm guitar. Reno D’Santie handles lead and rhythm guitars, on electric and acoustic. Meanwhile, Trevor St. Peter plays bass, and Aansen Harrison covers drums and percussion. In addition, Zac Bryan steps in on bass for one track, Degeneration, and its official lyric video is on YouTube.

The engineering stayed inside that circle too. D’Santie, St. Peter and Bryan engineered the sessions, and the band took the producer’s credit as a group. As a result, the decisions on Husk belong to the people who play it, from the guitar sounds to the running order.

Even the packaging followed the same instinct. The photography credit goes to Madden, with artwork by Rachael Chandler of Artistik Vibe. It is a small detail. Still, it sums up the whole record, which stayed close to home with the people who know the songs best.

Madden is also the last founding member still in the band. A year after Husk came out, he told the whole story on Episode 127 of the All About M.E. Podcast. He covered how Scarecrowz first came together, and how the band kept going through every line-up change since.

Ten Tracks Run From the Opening Riff of Clutter to the Closing Pull of Dark

Husk runs for just under forty-six minutes. It opens with Clutter, a song about throwing out whatever is weighing you down. It then closes with Dark, which is about reaching for a way out when you cannot see one. In between, the songs range further than a quick listen might suggest.

For example, The Scythe tells a battle story set during the Crusades, with riders, steel and a long view of who fought and why. Khildren Of The Corn, meanwhile, turns a horror-film pun into something more reflective. It is about leaving the fields of your youth for a better life, and wondering what you gave up on the way. At almost six minutes, You’re Not Leaving Alive is the longest track.

The titles also do something the band’s name always invited. A husk, a scythe and a field of corn all belong to a scarecrow’s world. Husk leans into that imagery without turning it into a gimmick. On Bandcamp, Scarecrowz files the record under hard rock, heavy metal, metal, garage rock and Ottawa. That is a fair map of where it lives.

What a Self-Produced 25th-Year Album Answers About Scarecrowz, From Black Sabbath to Motörhead

Every long-running band eventually faces a question: is there still something new to say, or only something to repeat? Husk answers with ten new songs, a fresh set of images and a production made entirely on the band’s own terms.

Two reference points help place the sound for new listeners. First, Black Sabbath set the template for slow, heavy riffing on their first album in 1970. The darker, weightier moments on Husk sit in that tradition. Second, Motörhead added speed and a rough, garage-style edge from the mid-1970s. That is the energy the faster tracks on Husk draw on.

Scarecrowz moves between those two poles across the record. In the end, that range is the clearest sign that a twenty-fifth year can be a working year rather than a commemorative one.

Who Should Hear Husk by Scarecrowz, and Where to Follow the Band

Husk suits listeners who like their hard rock and heavy metal raw rather than polished. It also suits anyone curious about how a veteran band sounds when nobody else is steering the sessions.

From the NewMusic.News curator team: “Producing Husk themselves gave Scarecrowz a record that sounds like a band in a room. The riffs on Clutter and the slower weight of Dark carry the same rough edge. That consistency comes from four players making every call together.”

Stream Husk on Apple Music or buy it on Bandcamp. After that, explore the earlier catalogue on Spotify and Bandcamp.

Follow Scarecrowz on Spotify, Apple Music, SoundCloud, the YouTube channel, Instagram, TikTok, X, Facebook and Linktree, and visit the official website.

---

About The Author