Image courtesy igormazic on FlickrIt's
If milk cartons featured photos of missing musicians instead of children (wait, do they even do that anymore? I mainly drink almond milk these days), then there’d be a good chance you’d have seen Ohbijou staring at you over your morning bowl of Shreddies. The Toronto indie rockers have been incognito for the better part of a year, taking a break from playing shows as they hammer out their third album Metal Meets, due to come out Sept. 27 on Last Gang Records.
That fact makes Ohbijou’s Canada Day show in the capital, part of the Ottawa Jazz Festival, particularly exciting, as it marks the band’s return to playing live. It also means that Ottawans who head out to Confederation Park on Friday will get a sneak preview of the tunes on Metal Meets – some of which, as singer Casey Mecija told me over the phone earlier this week, should challenge the band’s reputation as purveyors of quiet, delicately ornate indie pop.
Click through for Apartment613’s conversation with Mecija, in which we talk not only about the new album but also about Canadian music venues, the current political climate, and winning the musical approval of one’s mom. And if you want to hear the entire interview, tune in to CHUO 89.1 FM on Thursday at 2pm for Apartment613 Live, or wait for our podcast.
Apt613: On Twitter, you wrote recently that you’re excited for Jazzfest as a band because it’s been awhile since Ohbijou has played a show together. How long has it been since you played a show, and what have you guys been up to?
Casey Mecija: The last show that we played was, I think, in the fall. It’s been so long that I don’t actually remember. But the last show we played was a fundraiser for a local venue here in Toronto. We’ve basically been holing up, recording and writing for our new album. So that’s why we’ve decided just to focus on that process and that side of things. That’s why we’ve had a bit of a hiatus from live shows.
Apt613: Is it hard to get back in the swing of things, after a long layoff like that?
CM: It’s not hard to get back into it. It’s more exciting. I think that it just takes a couple of warmup practices to start feeling that musical dynamic between the [band’s] members. You know, our first practice back, we connected really well and it was really exciting to play the new songs. We were just sort of anticipating the [first] live performance, which will be on Canada Day.
Apt613: And I imagine the Ottawa audience is going to get a chance to hear some of the new songs off the album?
CM: Yeah. We’ll be playing a couple of songs off of the new album and mixing it up with some of our older things. So hopefully it’ll be a new set for listeners to hear.
Apt613: On your website, you’ve posted what I take is the first of a series of preview videos, sort of teasing the new album a bit.
CM: They were collaborative videos with three artists: Reynard Li, Laurie Kang, and Hanna Hur. And we did a three-part series, so we’ll be releasing the other three pretty soon, actually.
Apt613: Because in the first one on the website, there’s sort of this crunchy guitar riff going on, and then what looked like to me like marbles rolling across a tile floor. And then there’s this shot of a swimming pool. So I wanted to ask: there are a lot of really great ways to describe Ohbijou’s sound, but I don’t know if “crunchy guitar riffs” is one of them – so what can you extrapolate about the new album from the video? Is there a shift, maybe, in the band’s sound?
CM: I think that with the time that we spent off writing and recording, we also spent a lot of time trying to experiment with new sounds. And tried to push our playing capabilities and potential. A couple of us bought some pedals, and the new album definitely has more effects, more reverb, more distortion. We wanted to progress from our previous recordings, and that sort of experimentation seemed like a logical progression. And it’s stuff that we like to listen to in music, as well – stuff that’s atmospheric, that has an environment in it. So that’s why we incorporated new sounds. You’ll be hearing new things for sure.
Apt613: And on Twitter, you also wrote that the album was “mom approved.”
CM: Yeah! I sat in a car with my mom, and we sat and listened to the album. And I was sort of anticipating what she would say, because, you know, I think we really try to impress our parents – we spend so much time playing music and so much of their support goes towards what we’ve dedicated our lives to. So my mom was like, “You know, people are going to like this!” That was a bit of a relief.
Apt613: Is she going to be in the audience on Canada Day?
CM: No, she’s going to be in California! My mom is always so supportive, but can’t make it to the show.
Apt613: I do have a couple of “Canada-centric” questions for you. If you could play one place in Canada – and that doesn’t have to be a music venue or a club or a festival – where would it be?
CM: I would say Dawson City. I think that we’ve heard so much about the Dawson City Music Festival, and traveling that far north would be an incredible experience. We would love to play Dawson City.
Apt613: Have you ever been to the Yukon or up north?
CM: No, I’ve never been up north. So experiencing that would be pretty special.
Apt613: What are some of your favourite music venues in Canada?
CM: Whenver we go out to Thunder Bay, we play this place called The Apollo, and we have an amazing time there, always. The Biltmore in Vancouver is a really amazing place to play. We just appreciate it when people ask us to play anywhere. Any show we play is pretty special. Oh and Guelph: we like playing in Guelph. Amazing churches and venues there.
Apt613: Given the outcome of our most recent federal election – the one that saw the Conservatives get their majority – as an artist, where do you see Canada going in the next four years? What’s that reality of trying to make a living through art going to be like?
CM: I think that artists and [people with] careers in the arts will only persist through personal initiatives. I think that, you know, we can only sustain ourselves. The government is not going to be there to fund us, and that has been clearly laid out with all of the funding cuts. And so, there isn’t very much money in the arts, but there’s a community of people in the arts who believe strongly in it and want to sustain it. The community will always be there. And because there’s something that we need to resist with this government, I think that in the next four years, the arts scene will definitely thrive.
Apt613: And do you feel that, as an artist, you have to take on a role that involves convincing people of a certain political stripe, perhaps, that the arts are important and integral?
CM: I think that as an artist [I am in] an important position to always be as supportive of the arts and to always communicate that the arts are necessary. Everything is so inundated with economics and consumerism – and the arts are implicated in that for sure, but this is an artistic outlet where people can express dissident voices. And those voices are important in our cultural landscape, for sure.
Apt613: One final question: if you could only cover one Canadian song, what would it be?
If we could cover one Canadian song, we’d cover “Bobcaygeon” by the Tragically Hip. I’ve always really, really enjoyed that song and thought that the lyrics are so beautiful. And Gord Downie does an amazing job at creating a narrative through his lyrics. I would love to cover that one day.
Apt613: It certainly is, in my mind, one of the best Tragically Hip songs, too.
CM: Yeah, it’s beautiful.
Ohbijou play Canada Day at the Confedration Park canal stage at 4pm. The entire Jazzfest lineup that day – which also includes Coeur de Pirate and Ruby Jean and the Thoughtful Bees – is free!
