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Hamilton-based punk rock trio The Penske File are charging into a new chapter with their new album Reprieve, out now on Stomp Records. Urgent, anthemic, and bursting with energy, the record captures the band at their most sonically adventurous yet. Produced by longtime friend Adam Michael, Reprieve blends stripped-down folk reflections, sprawling indie rock epics, and explosive punk anthems like “Dead Maps” and "Lions" We caught up with Travis Miles to talk about the new album, the band’s creative evolution, and what keeps The Penske File pushing forward.

PRT: According to the Cambridge Dictionary, a reprieve is either an ‘official order that stops or delays the punishment, especially by death, of a prisoner’ as well as ‘an escape from a bad situation or experience’. I guess the title refers to the latter, but why did you go for that title?

Travis: I mean the title kind of suits both in vagueness. The death of everything is a looming certainty best chased away by love and we love making music. We wanted a one word album title. Alex suggested Reprieve and we all felt it was perfect. 

PRT: You have to be one of the most positive, energy-giving bands I know. With everything that is going on nowadays, do you find it harder to stay in that positive mindset?

Travis: Firstly, thanks I definitely take that as a compliment! At times I would say its hard to stay in that positive mindset. But not when it comes to things concerning the band. I feel like it’s ever important to find positive forces and beauty in this life, and despite the dread inducing state of the world on a macro scale there is so much beauty that can be found all around. Punk rock communities, spaces and music have always been one of those shining positive forces in our lives, so why not have our music reflect that? We’re about celebrating love and beauty in spite of despair, kind of always have been. 

PRT: You’ve recorded your last couple of releases with Steve Rizun, whereas you worked with Adam Michael for the new album. What was it that made you want to work with Michael for ‘Reprieve’?

Travis: So Adam has been a pal of ours since the inception of the band. He’s an incredibly multi talented musician and started getting into the recording world at the onset of Covid. We knew that - after three albums with Steve - it was time to try something different. We were kind of throwing around names of people we could work with, and at this time Alex and Adam had a night together, and over what I presume was several beers they sort of (from what I can tell) got aligned on what we wanted to get out of the album sonically. Alex then suggested working with Adam to us. As soon as we decided to work with him and got to it we knew we made the right decision. Adam is such a positive force and it was great to have his outside ears on these tunes. In a lot of ways it felt like home, inviting him in to essentially be a fourth member of our crew for the creation of the album. 

PRT: You recorded the album with the three of you together in a room to capture the live energy. What are some of the pros and cons of recording an album that way rather than recording parts separately?

Travis: For us, I honestly don’t see any cons of recording the main parts live at all. It’s more fun, it takes less time and therefore costs less, and it also captures a certain subtle energy that can get lost in an ultra dialled and segregated recording process. That being said, there’s still a lot that ends up getting recorded separately. It kinda became a running joke with us that we recorded all the drums, bass and primary guitar for 13 songs in two relatively easy and short days, and then spent what, at times, felt like a million evenings in the preceding months chipping away at vocals, guitar overdubs and other bits and bobs. 

PRT: You’ve said about the new album that you recorded it with a ‘first instinct wins’ type of mentality. Was there a lot of overthinking on past releases?

Travis: In a way it feels like there was. And to be honest, speaking for myself, there always is … overthinking is kind of my home base or default mode ahaha. But I’m very proud of our past couple records, and while the process of working on them felt, perhaps, arduous at times I have no issues or regrets with the way they sound or the way the songs turned out. I love ‘em! Honestly, I just think we’re a bit older now, a bit more dug in to understanding what works and what doesn’t, and more often than not it’s the thing that gives everyone an initial spark of inspiration or excitement that is worth pursuing. Amongst the three of us we have enough creative juice and songs waiting in the wings to let something fall away if that’s what the energy in the room calls for. 

PRT: I feel like your previous albums all had a somewhat different vibe from one another, whereas ‘Reprieve’ feels like the perfect culmination of everything that you’ve done up to this point. Do you see ‘Reprieve’ as a kind of ‘definitive statement’ for The Penske File, or just the next step in your ongoing evolution?

Travis: I appreciate that. And I absolutely do see the album as a definitive statement for the band. It’s currently release day as I’m writing this and I just listened to the whole album for the first time since we sent off the masters a few months back. I’m exceptionally proud of it and feel like this collection plants the flag for who we are as creatives and as a band. 

PRT: Lead single ‘Lions’ comes with the line ‘we were titans, we were thorns, now we wait for babies born.’ Now that some of you have kids of your own, how has the role that The Penske File takes up in your life changed?

Travis: Like many things, the role the band takes on in our lives is ever evolving. When we were in our early and mid twenties we were all pretty aligned on it being our primary priority, we toured A LOT, ripped through what feels like a million part time jobs collectively, slept on floors near nightly and lived on $5-$10 a day. These days it’s a lot different, the band is still a priority, but not the priority. It’s a big part of who I am, but it’s no longer how I define myself, if that makes sense. We still get out there and tour, but it’s more selective as we have more responsibilities at home and more desire to be engaged with things at home as well. It’s funny though, when we were in the midst of creating this album my wife was pregnant with our first child and someone told me that playing in a touring band prepares you surprisingly well for parenthood, and that has totally rung true. The ups and downs of band life has primed me in a way for becoming a father. 

PRT: Before The Penske File, you’ve played together in a band called The Bad Names, which was more of a ska punk thing. Do you ever miss playing ska, or do you spend enough time picking it up now that you have kids? Sorry, lame dad joke.

Travis: My daughter loves ska! And to be honest I still do. Every time the warm weather rolls around I find myself listening to the slackers and Toots all the time. The kind of gritty ska punk we played back then I don’t really engage with anymore. I listen to stuff with a more rocksteady vibe pretty frequently though. 

PRT: ‘Rocking Chair’ is an early album highlight. Can you tell me a bit more about where that one came from?

Travis: Thanks! Yeah there’s actually a pretty cool story behind that one. We were on tour in Germany in the summer of ‘24 and a festival we were slated to play got tied up in some political things I won’t get into, but we decided that the best thing for us to do was to pull off of the festival. We found ourselves with a full free weekend (a rarity while on tour, and with our busy lives these days in general). We rented a beautiful eco cabin like house in small town Bavaria for the weekend. I was hopeful to get something creatively special out of the opportunity, so as soon as we got in I set up the guitar and the amp near the fireplace in the main room. As Alex has said, it kinda felt like I was taunting the guys to do something with it. By the second evening, we were feeling preeettttyyy good ;) and tossing around song ideas - the three of us and our buddy Brandon who was out on tour with us. Brandon was rocking back and forth in a rocking chair,smiling as we were tossing ideas around and Alex pulled the opening melody and lyric of the song out of thin air. “You know I think i wanna die in a rocking chair, with the lights off in a distant stare.” Excitement perked up around the fireplace and we collaborated on finishing the chorus that night. We were so excited about what we landed on that went sent a voice note to our producer Adam and a few other friends that same night. Adam eventually suggested that we record the whole thing live in a setting similar to how it was written, so we set up mics and a camera in his living room a few months later and laid it down 100% live and filmed the whole thing. We are all big fans of folk and Americana type music so this one is special to us being our first proper stripped down song that kind of lives more in the space of those genres than the punk rock genre. 

PRT: ‘Reprieve’ is album number four for you guys. What is one thing you still dream of achieving with The Penske File?

Travis: We’d love to get out to Australia and or Japan to tour one day. 

PRT: Other than the one with The Penske File, what is your favorite Seinfeld episode? 

Travis: I’m currently rewatching Seinfeld for the umpteenth time, I love that show, it’s amazingly funny and classic. That said I don’t really have a fav episode that comes to mind.