Janky Bungag: City-Country for Everyday People

There are country singers who sound like the past, and then there's Janky Bungag, who sounds like the past crashing into your present. A Filipino-Canadian flatpicker out of Vancouver, Bungag came up on skateboards and punk rock, picked up a guitar during the pandemic, works a day job, and in just a few years went from bedroom practice to a Royal Mountain Records signing — sharing stages with Yukon Blonde and the Mary Wallopers along the way.

His sound is what his own bio calls bluegrass-fast and outlaw-warm: the lineage of Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard filtered through the cosmic country of the Flying Burrito Brothers, with the charge of the punk records he grew up on humming underneath. He calls it alt-country for everyday people, and it fits — songs about rent and romance, vices and good friends, the heartbreaks and the smoke breaks, delivered with a flatpicker's precision and a comedian's timing. His first Green Day CD was stolen from the North Vancouver library. It shows, in the best way.

His new album, Hangin' Out & Hangin' On, is out November 6 on Royal Mountain Records, and it's his most realized work yet: a ten-song snapshot of the ups and downs of city living that finds the levity in the grind. The title track is the third single, released with a video that rolls through his Vancouver block by block, and it closes the record as a kind of mission statement. 2025's single "Go Out and Sin" lands at track five. Track titles like "Losing Streak," "Jealous of Jesus" and "Third Wheelin' (In a Four-Wheel Drive)" tell you everything about the record's sense of humour before you press play.

What he sounds like

If Waylon Jennings' outlaw warmth, the Flying Burrito Brothers' cosmic twang, and the rowdy spirit of a punk-house show could have a love child raised in Vancouver, it would sound like this. Honest, funny, lived-in songs about a life that looks a lot like yours — no wagon wheels, just picker's hands and perfect timing.

See him live

Bungag kicks off the tour with a hometown album-release show at Vancouver's Rickshaw Theatre on November 6 — the same day the record drops. From there he plays BC and Ontario through November (including M for Montreal on November 19, Ottawa's Dominion Tavern on November 21 and Toronto's Cameron House on November 25), then carries the tour into 2027 with Winterruption dates in Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Edmonton in January.

Start here

Watch the video for the title track "Hangin' Out & Hangin' On," then stream 2025's "Go Out and Sin" for the sweetly selfish wit that won over Exclaim!'s Staff Picks. Then pre-order the record — it's the sound of real music for real people.

Where to follow

• Bandcamp: https://jankybungag.bandcamp.com/
• Official site: https://www.jankybungag.ca/about
• Label: https://www.royalmountainrecords.com/janky-bungag