After three years of hard work, Saskatoon Celtic punk band Wenches and Rogues are releasing their debut album.

Wenches and Rogues is made up of six members in order to cover everything from guitar to bagpipes to accordion and whistles. The band formed mostly out of a shared workplace at Long and McQuade, a music store in Saskatoon. They are a self-described mixed bag — finding a way to mesh traditional Celtic music with heavier genres.

Pierre Bazin, a multi-instrumentalist who plays bagpipes, whistles, the bass and sings vocals for the band, explained this meshing of styles.

Celtic punk band Wenches and Rouges is set to release their debut album Sept. 24 at Amigos.

“We try to take traditional Irish, Scottish and Celtic music and combine it with punk, rock [and] metal. I mean, it’s all over the map, we’ve got everything from traditional instrumental ballads to … covers of death metal bands. We literally have everything in between,” Bazin said.

As of Sept. 20, their debut self-titled album is available for download on Bandcamp and will also be available on iTunes, Amazon, at HMV and at their release show — which is taking place Sept. 24 at Amigos.

Bazin went on to give details on the opening acts for their show.

“One thing I really want to make sure that people know about for this particular show is not only is it a CD release but the opening bands are absolutely killer. Stone the Witch, they’ve been good friends of ours for years, and they’re just awesome. They’re a good kind of all-around rock band, you know, that Foo Fighters alternative rock kind of stuff that’s fantastic. Grizzly Hawk is a punk band out of Humboldt [Sask.] and they’ll absolutely blow you away,” Bazin said.

This album has been a long time coming for both fans as well as the band, and Bazin is excited to share the new album with everybody.

“We put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this album. It was not an easy road. It took everything that we had as a band and it really was a big test for all of us. This is the culmination of all those efforts and we’re really happy [and] proud to be able to give the people what they’ve been asking for the last three years,” Bazin said.

Originally from Newfoundland, Trevor Merrigan is the guitarist and founder of the band. He said that in coming to the prairies, he didn’t believe there was much chance of getting a Celtic punk band together. However, after meeting Bazin and getting Wenches and Rogues together, Merrigan’s hopes have been realized.

“I can actually hold the damn thing in my hands now. Which is something for a long time I wasn’t sure it was ever gonna happen,” Merrigan said.

Mixing traditional Celtic songs with heavier styles is not commonly found in the prairies. However, Merrigan explained that this generally works in the band’s favour.

“I think that the reason why it’s working a lot for us is because there isn’t a lot around here. We are taking aspects of a lot of music that people are fans of and combining it so the crowds that we get at shows are quite diverse. That’s probably one of the main reasons why it’s working so well because people are intrigued by the whole Celtic punk thing and they don’t get to see it very often,” Merrigan said.

Wenches and Rogues CD release is on Sept. 24 at Amigos at 10 p.m. and is a +19 event. Tickets are available at the door for $10.

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Jack Thompson / Staff Writer

Photo: Brent Fellner / Supplied