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August 16, 2013

Goodbye Ohbijou: Notes on music, labour, and the impossibilities of satisfying multicultural ideals in Canada.
By Casey Mecija

For the last eight years I have defined myself, in part, as front woman for the band Ohbijou. After some commercial and critical success, extensive touring and hundreds of live shows, our band has decided to go on “hiatus”. Though humbled, warmed and inspired by those who listen to the music we make and create an audience for our craft, we are tired. As our farewell show nears, I have been spending time sorting through an archive of experiences with the band and our audiences. I am sorting through many feelings, mostly feeling sentimental but also interrogative. My relationship to Ohbijou’s reception is also one of ambivalence. I have been met with complicated responses from critics and larger audiences due to my race, gender and sexuality. I can’t help but feel sadness for the ways my body been inscribed as a performer. I can’t help but feel tired by the ways that my brown, performing body comes into contact with the multicultural sensibilities of Canadian audiences. I am frustrated by the ways that my Asian-ness and my sexuality have been at times hidden and at times showcased to support notions of an “inclusive” Canadian multiculturalism.

Despite a passion for writing and performing, it feels impossible to continue to create music in the form of Ohbijou. Despite adoration for my bandmates and the sweet fans and listeners who support this project, we must stop now. When we formed, we were a group of friends enjoying learning new instruments and sounds together in my basement. It is difficult to locate all of the reasons why I feel resent for a relationship that I have invested so much time, money and emotion in. I am disheartened by the years of unquantifiable work that have resulted in growing anxieties over how to create a sustainable future. Our initial intention, and one we continue to hold dearly to, was to produce social change through music. It has always been important to us to support local initiatives that aim to take care of the city in which we live. In our own ways, we will continue to do so. There is a larger conversation to be had about the labour of producing music and the changing patterns of consumption in the contemporary moment. Outside of the safety of commercial success, as the internet changes our interactions with music and consumptive patterns, it is a difficult existence. It is difficult to support and tour with such a large band.

There have been many moments where our band has been sutured to notions of multiculturalism. The media has often referred to Ohbijou as “multicultural”. In an article written for a college weekly the author describes us as: “multicultural in both influence and membership.” We have also been introduced on the radio as the “multi-culti” band. This association is a polite way of saying that not all of us are white, which is the usual configuration of bands in Canada. Attendant to this proclamation is often a conflation between our bodies and the sound of our music: our music becomes a multicultural sound, or is referenced to as “world music”, which is a slippage of reading raced bodies. In a newspaper article our band was also described as “a Toronto pop orchestra of mixed race”.” Why was it important to describe us as a band of “mixed race?” We were “exotic” when compared to the normal configurations of Canadian bands. Our cultural and gendered make-up has become intrinsically important to how some media makes sense of us. This is tiring.

An ambivalence surfaces when moments of pride in our work and its reception collide with well-intentioned but racist consumptions of our music. Ohbijou has been fortunate to tour through out North America, Asia and Europe. We were lucky to book a show in a beautiful botanical garden in Brussels, Belgium. After playing our music set to an attentive audience, I was confronted by two young Belgians:
“You played a really great set tonight.”
“Thank you so much, we really appreciate you being here.”
“We could really hear the Asian influence in your music.”

I was surprised and confused by this response. How did our performance, our ‘sound’, communicate Asianess? We were an orchestral pop band that played pop songs. In the novel What We All Long For Dionne Brand writes:
“People stand and sit with the magnetic film of their life wrapped around them. They think they’re safe, but they know they’re not. Any minute you can crash into someone else’s life…”

Brand captures why it is necessary to think with transnational trajectories, as we seek to understand our encounters with strangers. How have constructions of otherness confined my work as a musician to a single narrative? I played Asian influenced music because my body was read as Asian, not because of the sound, or the melody or the instruments. My Filipino body was collapsed into a particular sound and mode of expression.

As a band we have felt the generosity of strangers and have traveled to many beautiful cities and towns. We remain committed to the political power of art and the messy moments when only art can respond to devastation, to difference. To make music, as a racialized person in multicultural Canada, is a difficult project. I am not giving up on the potential of such a project to alter the ways that people think and feel about queer life and the histories of colonialism out of which Canada was born. But, as a band, we are tired and we are broke. We say a sweet goodbye to each other and to our audiences and I hope that my words and Ohbijou’s music, in some small way, effect change.

 

 

July 19, 2013

 

Ohbijou has chosen to go on an "indefinite hiatus". For the past 8 years we have shared experiences of music and friendship that extend beyond any dream imaginable. We are sad to close this chapter of our lives, primarily because our time together as a band was also often marked by an unbridled sense of hope and possibility. In the beginning, our youthfulness buffered the long hours spent traveling in small vans to play late hour sets; our surety that being in a band would make us young forever buffered the harshness of being paid in beer and press. In the beginning, we turned down commerical offers sure that they compromised our potential to create change, through art, in our local communities. In this, we feel successful. Unfortunately, it is time to take pause and allow for new experiences. However, we do not leave without feelings of swelling gratitude. We are thankful for the interviewers and the writers who have paid us respect and for the collective of musicians and artists who we surround ourselves with. We are forever inspired by our travels to places we never thought we would visit. From Thunder Bay, Ontario to Arabaki, Japan we have met so many people who have impacted us. We are thankful for the promoters and venues who have welcomed us on their stages and to those who have worked on our behalf. Thank you to Steven Himmelfarb, Beth Cavanaugh and Indoor Recess, to our record labels and to Remi Arora for his continued support. Thank you to our friends, families and partners who have patiently showed love and support through this adventure. Lastly, we are grateful to those who have listened to our music, attended a concert and made space for us in their lives. Thank you. - Casey Mecija

 

We will be performing a farewell concert at the Great Hall on Saturday, September 7th, 2013. We will be joined by many of our dear friends whom we have shared the stage with over the years. A few of our special guests include members of The Wooden Sky, The Rural Alberta Advantage, The Acorn, Snowblink, and more to be announced. We hope you can join us in this celebration, further details below:

Ohbijou Farewell:
Saturday, September 7th, 2013
The Great Hall - 1087 Queen St W Toronto
Doors: 8pm
Tickets $20, available at SS/RT and online at Ticketfly.com

 

We thank you for your continued support.

 

~ ohbijou

 

 

November 6, 2012

Hey All!

On December 1st, 2012 at Lee's Palace, we are performing at the Canadian Artists For Civil Liberties Launch Show, and we are very much looking forward to it!

Canadian Artists for Civil Liberties is an initiative of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association and musician Nathan Lawr to help raise public awareness about the philosophy, mandate and goals of CCLA. We are going to be sharing the evening with stellar performances by Maloo (Maylee Todd solo) and The Minotaurs; a talk by Judy Rebick , a reading by poet George Elliott Clarke ; spoken word performance by Dwayne Morgan and burlesque performance by Great Canadian Burlesque . And it'll all be MC'd by CBC Music's Vish Khanna . The evening is happening to raise awareness for an important cause, and it's something that we'd love for you to come out and support.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is a national organization founded in 1964, dedicated to promoting respect for and observance of fundamental human rights and civil liberties. Its work, which includes research, public education and advocacy, aims to defend and ensure the protection and full exercise of those rights and liberties.

Canadian Artists for Civil Liberties Launch Party.
Saturday December 1st 2012.
Doors at 9:00pm.
Lee's Palace.

 

Tickets:
$10 for CCLA Members
$15 in Advance
$18 at The Door
Tickets available from Ticketmaster , Soundscapes , and Rotate This .

 

And please check out the following links for more information:
Canadian Civil Liberties Association www.ccla.org
Canadian Artists For Civil Liberties
Add the event to your Google Calendar

 

So, please come on out and support an amazing cause and enjoy an evening of words, music and performance with us!

 

~ ohbijou

 

 

June 26, 2012

Happy Summer everybody! Hope you are enjoying the heat! We've got a little bit of touring planned for the summer, so come check out a show if you're in the area. We'll be playing in Yellowknife at folk on the rocks from July 19-22, it's our first trip up north, so we are so very excited!

Next, we'll be returning to Ontario to play at the hillside festival at Guelph Lake Island from July 27-29, hillside is one of the best festivals in Canada and we feel very fortunate to be playing there again.

In the fall, we'll be participating in the inaugural Arboretum festival in Ottawa on September 15th. Arboretum music+arts festival is completely founded, conceptualized and organised by volunteers, so if you'd like to make a donation to the festival, you can do so here.

We thank you for your continuing support, and hope to see you at a festival near your town this summer!

~ ohbijou

 

 

February 6, 2012

Hello! Hope everyone is staying warm and safe over the winter months. If you are in Toronto and feel like venturing out this Wednesday February 8th we are performing at the Drake Underground. We have two fantastic opening acts - Donlands and Mortimer, and Folly and the Hunter, so you should check it out! Tickets can be purchased online here: http://guestlistapp.com/events/86853 . Hope to see you this Wednesday!

We released a new track, 'Mossy Lungs' recently, you can listen to it here: http://soundcloud.com/wearesolidgold/ohbijou-mossy-lungs

With warm regards,

~ ohbijou

 

 

December 1, 2011

Hard to believe the year is almost over! It's been a good one for us, and we are thankful. We released 'Metal Meets' in September, and have toured it across Canada. We are so very grateful to everyone who came to see us play, it was so nice to roll into different cities and be greeted by such warm and enthusiastic audiences. But we aren't done touring just yet, we still have a couple more shows before the holidays.

December 10th, 2011 - Guelph, ON - Dublin St. United Church - Ohbijou 9pm, Julie Doiron 8pm

December 21st, 2011 - SLOAN, OHBIJOU, BONJAY Benefit Concert for COUNTERfit's Drug Users Memorial Project & The Barriere Lake Legal Defense Fund The Great Hall doors 7 pm, $20.

If you haven't checked it out yet, here's a rad video for "Old Black" by Egyptrixx which features Casey and Jenny's vocals:

We thank you for your continuing support and wish you and your families all the best during the holiday season.

xo,
~ ohbijou

 

 

November 18, 2011

Touring at the beginning of winter in Canada always has its risks. Today, the weather got the best of us. We are all safe and sound, but unfortunately we had to cancel our show in Nelson, BC tonight. We spent much of today assisting other drivers who had gone off the highway, and realized that it was just too dangerous for us to drive all the way to Nelson. We are truly sorry that we couldn't make the show, we were very excited about going to Nelson for the first time, and the decision was not an easy one. To the fine folks of Nelson, and the staff at The Royal, we'd like to extend our most sincere apologies, and hope you'll understand, we will make it there someday!

On a brighter note, here is a nice picture of some mountain sheep hangin' in Radium Hot Springs...

mountainsheep

xo,
~ ohbijou

 

 

November 10, 2011

What a fun night in Sudbury! We began our evening there with a delicious dinner at Laughing Buddha. If you're ever in Sudbury that is the place to eat.

We caught up with our friends in Snowblink who will be joining us for our tour out west. We are so lucky to listen to them every evening. What incredible music.

It was the first show of our tour and we couldn't have asked for a better crowd. Such a gracious and welcoming audience. The Townehouse Tavern is a great place to play! Thank you to everyone who came out. Thank you to Paul Lowenberg (pictured below) for hosting!

paul lowenberg

Now we are heading to Sault Ste. Marie for a homemade meal from the family of our friend and publicist Beth. They are a lovely family and it will be some nice downtime before our long drive to Thunder Bay tomorrow.

We are playing a show at The Apollo on Friday, November 11th. Come out if you can! We always have a great time with the folks in Thunder Bay!

We look forward to seeing you soon!
~ ohbijou

 

 

November 18, 2011

Touring at the beginning of winter in Canada always has its risks. Today, the weather got the best of us. We are all safe and sound, but unfortunately we had to cancel our show in Nelson, BC tonight. We spent much of today assisting other drivers who had gone off the highway, and realized that it was just too dangerous for us to drive all the way to Nelson. We are truly sorry that we couldn't make the show, we were very excited about going to Nelson for the first time, and the decision was not an easy one. To the fine folks of Nelson, and the staff at The Royal, we'd like to extend our most sincere apologies, and hope you'll understand, we will make it there someday!

On a brighter note, here is a nice picture of some mountain sheep hangin' in Radium Hot Springs...

mountainsheep

xo,
~ ohbijou

 

 

November 10, 2011

What a fun night in Sudbury! We began our evening there with a delicious dinner at Laughing Buddha. If you're ever in Sudbury that is the place to eat.

We caught up with our friends in Snowblink who will be joining us for our tour out west. We are so lucky to listen to them every evening. What incredible music.

It was the first show of our tour and we couldn't have asked for a better crowd. Such a gracious and welcoming audience. The Townehouse Tavern is a great place to play! Thank you to everyone who came out. Thank you to Paul Lowenberg (pictured below) for hosting!

paul lowenberg

Now we are heading to Sault Ste. Marie for a homemade meal from the family of our friend and publicist Beth. They are a lovely family and it will be some nice downtime before our long drive to Thunder Bay tomorrow.

We are playing a show at The Apollo on Friday, November 11th. Come out if you can! We always have a great time with the folks in Thunder Bay!

We look forward to seeing you soon!
~ ohbijou

 

 

November 7, 2011

The laundry is in the dryer. I'm going to the grocery store soon to buy healthy snacks for what is looking like a very, very long time in the van. It's been a while since Ohbijou last embarked on a Western tour of Canada and we are feeling anxious and excited. The memory of that long stretch of highway to Sudbury has been on my mind lately. I remember driving it for the first time and having a hard time understanding how the landscape could change so dramatically from the city. How could this exist in Ontario? How had we come to industrialize Toronto so much that driving North could feel so shocking? Oh right, colonialism, ha.

Beautiful water, canopies of trees - a pervasive quiet as we all looked out the window. The van can feel like a cage sometimes. Consecutive ten hour drives can be exhausting; but then you end up in a new city, meet some new people, play a show with band mates who have been your friends for almost a decade and you are reminded that being a touring musician is a unique job and that you are lucky.

Now that our album Metal Meets has been released it's time for us to "take the show on the road". We are very proud to share this album with our fans and hopefully we can gain some new ones during this tour too. Along the way we will be keeping a tour diary of our encounters and adventures. We will also be featuring little "get to know you" write up's on the venues and promoters that are so graciously hosting us on this tour. So please come back to our news page for the latest tales from the road!

Here are the tour dates, we are very excited to be touring with our very talented pals, Snowblink!

Nov 9 – Sudbury, ON – The Townehouse
Nov 11 – Thunder Bay, ON – The Apollo
Nov 12 – Winnipeg, MB – West End Cultural Centre
Nov 13 – Saskatoon, SK – Amigo’s
Nov 14 – Edmonton, AB – The Haven Social Club
Nov 16 – Calgary, AB – Palomino Smokehouse
Nov 17 – Canmore, AB – Communitea Café
Nov 18 – Nelson, BC – The Royal
Nov 19 – Vancouver, BC – The Biltmore Cabaret
Nov 20 – Victoria, BC – Lucky Bar
Dec 10 - Guelph, ON - Dublin St. United Church

Please spread the word!!!

tourposter

We look forward to seeing you
~ ohbijou

 

 

October 12, 2011

Hello! Just wanted to thank everyone who came out to our recent shows in Ontario and Quebec, it's been really great playing songs from Metal Meets live, and we are looking forward to our upcoming shows across Canada, please check out our tour page for more information.

Also, we have a brand new music video for 'Niagara'. It was directed by Jared Raab, produced by Josh Warburton and Peter Dreimanis and edited by Nadia Tan. cinematography also by Peter. The fire and water were made by the hands of Brodie Spaull and production assistance was by Robin Love. It was a true pleasure to work with Jared and crew, and we would also love to thank his parents Evelyn and George Raab for opening their home to us, and for putting up with our water soaked trampoline jumping all night long.

 

 

As always, we thank you for your continuing support, and look forward to seeing you at a show real soon!

Until then,
~ohbijou

 

 

September 27th, 2011

Welcome to the new Ohbijou website!
We'd like to thank PromoFact/MuchFact for their generous support.

Our new album, Metal Meets was released today!!! We are super excited. Special thanks to Jace Lacek of Besnard Lakes fame for helping us to realize our sonic dreams! Right on. If you want to get your hands on the digital version right now, please visit iTunes.

Also, our very talented friend Reynard Li created this bio video for the band, so go get to know us by clicking here.

Very soon, we will be releasing our music video for "Niagara" which was directed by Jared Raab. It is a real beauty and will knock your socks off, so please stay tuned for that.

Last but not least, we are hitting the road in support of 'Metal Meets' starting this week. Our sincere apologies to the fine folks in St.Catherines for postponing our performance in your town, we were truly looking forward to sharing the stage with such a fantastic line up, but alas an illness in the band has thrown a wrench into that plan, we are working on rescheduling the show, and will keep you posted. Tonight's show is going on without us, and we encourage you to go see A Sea of Gold and Burgundy, Casey Baker and Grey Kingdom, cause they rule! The rest of our upcoming Canadian tour dates can be viewed on the tour page. We look forward to seeing your friendly faces when we roll into your town!

See you soon!

xo,
~ohbijou

 

 

August 30, 2011

Lots of exciting things are ahead for Ohbijou. Our third album "Metal Meets" will be released on September 27th, 2011 on Last Gang Records. Then we will be touring across Canada, check out the tour page for more details.

We also have a new album teaser video, made by our friends Reynard Li, Hanna Hur and Laurie Kang.

 

 

We thank you for your continued interest and support.

Much love,
~ ohbijou

 

 

 

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