An album written to win back the affections of a lover becomes a journey through hurt, pining and eventually acceptance and catharsis. Guardian Newspaper Trinidad and Tobago Aug 26, 2012: " When Jeff Wight, vocalist of the new rock band Buffalo & Back, started writing songs for the forthcoming album Letters to AGM, he was kind of just hoping Miss AGM would fall in love with him—again. Wight, 22, and guitarist Andrew Mc Intosh, 28, released their first single Yorktown Heights in June and followed with Blue Hair in July; neither helped Wight regain his lost love’s interest. He did, however, discover what music truly meant to him. “Now I’m giving myself to the music more sincerely and understanding that music is something that doesn’t let you down. Music can’t betray you. Music is just music. Music is whatever you make it,” he said. As Wight describes it, “The entire album is actually based on a really serious relationship I had and is kind of a chronicling of happy times and the eventual demise. She lived in Buffalo (upstate New York) and I lived in New York City. That’s why the band is called Buffalo & Back, because I used to take eight-hour bus rides to Buffalo like every weekend,” related Wight. Mc Intosh has no problem carrying some of the baggage on what the duo jokingly calls “the tote album.” After eight years and two albums with local “pop-punk-fusion” band Skid’nevely, Mc Intosh said he was ready for a new direction. “I didn’t know I was still gonna be creating alternative electronic stuff until Jeff showed up. This just made me free to just do music,” said Mc Intosh who added that he rarely remembers the lyrics to the songs he loves; the melodies are most important. Wight doesn’t feel any shame either about the basis of the album’s lyrical content. “I noticed other artists like Bon Iver had done the same and that made me feel more comfortable with sharing I just felt like someone was willing to share a painful story and I felt that was beautiful and I thought if he can, why can’t I share my own pain.” A chance introduction by a mutual friend brought Mc Intosh and Wight together only three months ago, but their energies synced so well they’ve produced almost 12 songs. Mc Intosh creates the music and edits Wight’s lyrics. They’ve shot a quirky animated video for Yorktown Heights and trekked to the Santa Cruz valleys to film the video for their third single To Your Happiness, released on August 23. Although Buffalo & Back hasn’t yet had a debut performance, they’ve garnered more than 600 fans on their Facebook page and a few subscribers to their YouTube channel—and nearly 8,000 views of their debut video. Their music has been featured on Star 94.7’s Underground Music List and on 95.1 FM’s Total Local segment. Two weeks ago, they appeared on Gayelle the Channel’s TV show, Dreevay. Mc Intosh and Wight may work well together because of a common desire simply to make music and not money. They also share an understanding of some of the difficulties to working as alternative musicians locally. Wight, who said he’s been writing since he was young, named jointpop as one of his major influences. He described jointpop as “real authentic Trinidadian rock” and believes the local music industry is slowing opening up to non-soca artists. Mc Intosh, who grew up in St Lucia and played and arranged for steelbands for nearly 12 years there, is not so sure change is near. “It’s really hard to do anything but soca and make a living off of it here,” he said, with a shrug. They might not be soca artistes, but both acknowledged a wide range of musical influences. Yet, they don’t want to recreate sounds, they want to invent them. “It’s the music that I like and the music that he likes and somewhere we meet in between,” explained Mc Intosh. “I’ve tried to make each song sound different. Yeah, they’re all acoustic, but each has almost a different genre in itself. One is very ragtime, a couple are indie. Then there’s an electronic weird one". In September, both Mc Intosh and Wight are off to London, England, to attend Point Blank Music Production College. Unsure whether they’ll make a debut (or farewell) performance before they leave, Mc Intosh said the current focus was getting the music “out there”, primarily online." - Zahra Gordon