In the quiet hum of Vancouver, Canada, ACTORS are redefining modern post-punk by marrying its brood with the shimmer of new wave and the precision of electronic production. Think of it as a "post-post-punk," which debuts in Bucharest on Friday, January 31, as ACTORS will perform at Control Club.
Led by Jason Corbett, ACTORS started in 2012 with the single Post Traumatic Love. From there, the band eschewed releasing an immediate album, instead opting to hone their work through a series of singles that slowly built a devoted fanbase. When their debut album, It Will Come to You, finally arrived in 2018, it had been worth the wait. The album felt like a long-lost treasure from the early ‘80s, with soaring anthems channeling early U2, the mystique of Bauhaus, and the cool precision of Duran Duran. Songs like L’appel du Vide, Face Meets Glass, and Slaves became instant favorites. Each track conjures vivid mental imagery, feeling like it belongs somewhere on a Michael Mann "vibe-movie" soundtrack.
It Will Come to You would bring ACTORS international recognition. They became a festival staple, lighting up stages at Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Cold Waves, and Infest. Their music started showing up in unexpected places—on Netflix and American TV networks. By 2019, their vinyl editions were in their third pressing, and ACTORS were officially one of the most exciting and sought-after acts in the post-punk revival.
By the time they returned in 2021 with their sophomore album, Acts of Worship. This album traded some of It Will Come to You's warmth for a sharper edge tailor-made for the dance floor. Tracks like Love U More and Like Suicide struck that delicate balance between post-punk introspection and new wave exuberance. The addition of Kendall Wooding on bass completed a lineup that Corbett described as embodying a balance of masculine and feminine energy.
The band's reputation grew as they toured in support of Acts of Worship, with live performances becoming the stuff of legend—electric, immersive, and hypnotic. Meanwhile, Corbett continued to shape the sound of the modern post-punk scene, producing music for artists like Bootblacks and SPECTRES from his Jacknife Sound studio, which, by this point, was a hub for the genre’s resurgence.
In 2022, they revisited their early work with a reissue of Reanimated, the 2017 EP that marked their pre-album era. Featuring remixes of Post Traumatic Love. By 2024, they pushed forward again, releasing the introspective In Real Life, the crunchy Dead Inside, and the erotically charged Object of Desire. In 2025, the former track has seen the one-and-only Baron of Techno, Dave Clarke, remix.