Cover Photo Credit: Samantha Pickard.
School House is a Canadian folk band consisting of Joel Ryan, Mitchelle (Mitch) Jackson, and David Campbell. They are releasing their sophomore album Homeland on February 27, 2026, and begin their Freewheelin’ Field Trip across Atlantic Canada, Quebec, and Ontario from March 5–22.
School House will perform in New Brunswick on March 10th in Moncton and the 11th at the Cap in Fredericton. Their tour will be alongside modern, indie, and folk wunderkind musician Braden Lam. You may know Lam for his album Cry, which focuses on reminiscence of a bygone era.
School House describes their songs as “emotionitive folk ballads.” They inspire to have both a wise and youthful perspective in the Canadian music scene, using their three-way harmony to create beautiful pieces for all ages to enjoy. The name School House came from the friends’ experience of finding out that they accidentally began living in a century-old school house.
The band explained their choice in the folk genre wasn’t much of a choice at all:
“Folk music was never discussed and has been part of our lives,” said Joel.
Looking forward to their upcoming tour, the band members expressed their interests in where they’ll be traveling.
Joel and David both discussed how they’re excited to travel to the East Coast. Joel shared that it will, “be my first time on the East Coast.”
The third member, Mitch, took a different approach, showing his excitement for both Quebec City and, specifically, Charlottetown, in which he humorously added how he’s “excited to eat the chicken sandwiches.” He then explained how “eating out together” is important to the group.
Although School House formed in 2023, they began gaining notoriety in 2024 when they won Group of the Year at the Ottawa Music Awards, in addition to having Faces magazine name their debut album Album of the Year.
That same year they secured their spot at the 2024 Mariposa Folk Festival by becoming “fan favourites.” Since then, they’ve only released an acoustic EP in 2024, until their current release of Homeland.
Mitch expressed how one of his favourite parts about touring is “meeting different people.”
Afterwards both Joel and David agreed, mentioning that they enjoy interacting with fans at merch signings.
Discussing Homeland, all three collectively agreed they’re “most excited for fans to listen to the Interlude.”
Joel expressed how it ties everything together:
“It captures everything about Homeland.”
David further explained how it:
“Wasn’t a song that was supposed to be written… It was just a spur of the moment [thing,] written in a day.”
Finally, the boys reveal their goals to go global, Joel added that they want listeners to recognize them as a:
“Good Canadian band dads would talk about at a campfire.”
If you’re interested in a homelike, Canadian band to support, buy tickets for their Freewheelin’ Field Trip tour at https://schoolhouseband.com.
