Ohbijou - Swift Feet for Troubling Times & Beacons & Metal Meets (2006-2011)

Ohbijou -- a Canadian indie pop ensemble whose folksy, multi-instrumental sound welcomes comparisons to the Bowerbirds and Arthur & Yu -- started out simply as a solo project. Brantford, Ontario-based singer/songwriter Casey Mecijia began working on Ohbijou's first songs in the early 2000s; she started collaborating on those songs with her multi-instrumentally inclined sister, Jennifer, soon after. The Mecijia sisters eventually relocated to Toronto, where Casey attended classes at Ryerson University and Jennifer enrolled at the Ontario College of Art and Design. The sisters welcomed a host of new members into Ohbijou soon after they arrived, and the band's lineup eventually included the likes of Heather Kirby, James Bunton, Anissa Hart, Ryan Carley, and Andrew Kinoshita. Ohbijou's first release, the Zips and Zings EP, came out in ...

Casey Mecija, lead singer, songwriter, and guitarist for the folk-pop septet Ohbijou, comes off as a passionate and conflicted person in the lyrics to the songs on the group's album Swift Feet for Troubling Times, searching for love in a wooded landscape frequently populated by wolves, among other animals. Whether those beasts are real or metaphorical is hard to tell in Mecija's sometimes flowery poetry, but they don't seem so threatening in the way she presents them musically. The group employs both acoustic folk and country instruments -- banjo and mandolin in addition to guitar -- plus chamber instruments like violin and cello, and lots of keyboards to create atmospheric arrangements played in swirling, circular patterns. Mecija's vocals are much calmer than the emotions she evokes in her words, and they are somewhat buried in the mix, no more prominent than many of the instruments. This gives the music a mysterious air, but it also robs the songs of the force they might otherwise have, which is particularly notable in the much improved remix of "The Otherside" that constitutes the hidden 14th track on the disc

On their second release, Beacons, the Toronto-based indie pop ensemble Ohbijou sound more self-assured -- vocalist Casey Mecija, in particular, sounds far more confident. Which is odd, because her voice seems so fragile otherwise -- in the midst of all the elemental, atmospheric multi-instrumental flourishes that crowd Beacons, her tender, vibrato-heavy soprano sounds as if it were no bigger than the head of a pin. Maybe she sounds confident because Ohbijou enjoyed quite a bit of success leading up to this album -- the band collected armloads of accolades in their native Canada, including an Indie Band Residency in Banff. Whatever the reason, this confidence makes for a solid (not dazzling, but solid) second album. Ohbijou sound more meditative, more mannered here, hovering somewhere between Sarah Blasko and the Decemberists. A lot of room on Beacons is given over to meandering, introspective tracks ("Thunderlove," "Cliff Jumps") -- and as glimmering and darkly lovely as they are, they don't quite match the sparkling, slapdash wildness that characterized Ohbijou's debut, Swift Feet for Troubling Times. Which isn't to say that Ohbijou don't try to reach the heights of, say, a track like "St. Francis" (the lead single from their debut) -- "Black Ice" and "Wildfires," are quietly stirring, even though they miss single-worthy catchiness by a hair's breadth. Truth be told, it's tough to really put a finger on one stand-out track on Beacons -- a problem that definitely didn't plague Swift Feet. That said, this disc is well worth the price of admission for fans of Ohbijou's previous work -- this is an elegant, grown-up elaboration on the band's previous work.

"We drove for hours to get there. The veins of concrete became dirt and stone. A little hamlet lined the shores of slate plates and determined pines. We could feel a sharp wind fill our mossy lungs. The city seemed so far away. We came to Dyer's Bay to write. A wood cabin with giant timber walls...the idyllic band retreat but there was something more stirring in the underbelly of th...is landscape. We had become so distracted; fitting in music like a penny off a sidewalk. We needed a place to focus and time to remember the romanctic relations between our ideas and musical ambitions. We set up our instruments and devoted ourselves to unpacking each melody, image and rhythm. We became friends with the families that lived in each burrow of the peninsula and were inspired by their devotion to the community and to their children. Songs began to assemble themselves and in this space we could discern the narratives that would have otherwise been lost to busy schedules in the city. There was a need to propel our music forward and I think that involved attempting to construct a new language for lyrics and an application of new effects. "A parsing of this blood to find myself in you" reflects the overarching methodology to the lyric writing and musical arranging of this album. It was a "parsing" of emotions and an investigation of the relationship of those emotions to music. There was an attention to detail that we've never had before. Dyer's Bay was a site to house and inspire our ideas, and after three memorable sessions in that wooden cabin we had the skeleton of our forthcoming album, entitled Metal Meets. We would come to realize the potential of each song with the guidance and wizardry of producer/engineer Jace Lasek. Ohbijou traveled to Montreal to spend the winter months at Breakglass Studio. Jace Lasek would leave an indelible mark on our band. His talents for experimentation and engineering awesomeness would expand the possibilities for what an Ohbijou song could sound like. We've never had so much fun recording an album and we owe so much gratitude to Jace, thank you. Ohbijou is proud to share Metal Meets and is excited to perform it live for audiences upon its release this September, 2011." Casey MecijaSee. Ohbijou return with their third album: Metal Meets. Their second release, Beacons, garnered international attention and chart-topping songs, and propelled headlining tours through Asia, Europe and North America. Metal Meets cements Ohbijou's status as one of the most important bands at work in Canada. The album is the band's most mature and creative offering. Conceptually, Ohbijou draws on... geographies populated by rumbling volcanoes, deep lakes and haunted waterfalls, metals torn from damp earth, and dark desires usually uncommitted to words. Each song is housed in a matrix of experimental effects and timbres, and layered atop are Casey Mecija's moody, tender vocals. Ohbijou has come of age, and their adulthood is more precocious and imaginative than their youth.