Pressgang Mutiny

Pressgang Mutiny is a Toronto band remixing the sea shanty. Tight vocal harmonies meet drum & bass, hip hop, reggae, dancehall and soca, with voices and production arranged together from the outset. The beats drive the phrasing and energy of the singing, bringing a new sound to songs built for collective work.

Formed in 2013, we have performed across North America and Europe, including mainstage appearances at Sidmouth Folk Festival, FolkEast, Chi Shanty Music Festival, Fundy Sea Shanty Festival and Chants de Marins de Saint-Jean-Port-Joli. We bring full-throttle energy to a festival stage and get audiences singing with us. In workshops, we pull the harmonies apart, teach the songs and explore the histories behind them. Our touring also includes Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Port Pieśni Pracy in Poland, the Festival du Chant de Marin in Paimpol, France, and the Connecticut Sea Music Festival, alongside official showcases at Folk Music Ontario and Folk Alliance International.

We have spent more than a decade exploring where these songs came from, who sang them and what they still have to say. That work has taken us to Barrouallie, St Vincent and the Grenadines, to perform at BAGGA Fish Fest, and deepened our interest in the often-erased contributions of Black sailors and Caribbean work-song traditions. Those histories inform our arrangements and collaborations.

Our third album, Departure (2026), features collaborators including Carl Harvey of Toots and the Maytals and reggae MC Sunray Grennan. Its single "Hill and Gully / Sally Rackett" earned support from 132 stations, programmers and syndicated shows across more than 30 countries. We took the album through 31 shows in 29 days across the UK in August 2026, selling every CD we brought. Sidmouth and FolkEast have already extended informal invitations to return.

We are James McKie (vocals, fiddle, production and rhythm bones), Stefan Read (vocals, concertina and melodeon), Richard Kott (vocals, guitar and spoons) and Josh Ludy (DJ).