King Bob formed a few years ago when Jackson McDonald, after playing around Victoria BC in a series of bands like Timing X and The Plodes, began work on a project of solo material. With help from producer and longtime collaborator Evan Matthiesen,  Jackson released Depresh Mode, 4 tracks of loud, hook filled songs which served as a preview to the hefty body of work he planned to release under the moniker King Bob. “The whole idea came fully formed,” says Evan. “The name, the songs, the look. I knew it was going to be something special.” Soon a band was formed, and in the coming year King Bob would be filling rooms around Victoria, gathering a large following of fans chanting “ALL HAIL KING BOB!” at their lively shows. Currently, the live band consists of Jackson McDonald on lead vocals, guitar and keys, Evan Matthiesen on drums and backing vocals, Jes Matthiesen and Annie MK on guitar, and Jeremy Rai on bass.

  In late 2024, they released Rookie, a 17 track opus that- as Destroyed Victoria puts it- “evokes the nostalgia of ‘90s/late aughts alt-rock and pop-punk... a mix that features all the recognizable characteristics of the genres -catchy hooks and riffs, lyrics that are easy to sing along to, and songs that often run under three minutes- but it’s his musings on life captured in his lyrics that serve as an outlet for his relatable, personal struggles and philosophical musings on modern life that elevate him above the rest.” 

The songs cover a wide range of topics familiar to any downwardly mobile Millennial or Gen Z’er: poverty, depression, mental illness, housing insecurity, and arrested development. The album concludes with its 2 main singles, Try and Figure It Out, the latter becoming a local radio hit which led to dubbing King Bob the “Band Of The Month” on 91.3 The Zone for January 2025.

  King Bob already has his eyes on the future, with two more records planned, each with a different concept, “The next record is going to dive deeper into themes of aging and the transition from adolescence to adulthood, especially for people like me who don’t feel like they’ve changed that much,” Jackson says. “The third record I have planned is going to tackle those big-picture questions- how did we get here, and where do we go from here.”