Manchester Scenewipe

Ohbijou

Ohbijou are 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 the summer of 2005. The band’s debut full-length, Swift Feet for Troubling Times, was released one year later; the lead single from that album, “St. Francis,” hit number four on CBC Radio 3’s charts that December. The next two years found Ohbijou collecting accolades and playing a bevy of live shows around Canada; they were nominated for the CBC’s 2007 Galaxie Rising Stars Award, were awarded an Indie Band Residency at the Banff Centre, and performed at Toronto’s Virgin Festival and Guelph’s Hillside Festival. Ohbijou’s sophomore album, Beacons, was released on Last Gang Records and Bella Union Records in 2009.