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 and welcomed a host of new members. 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. 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. They went on an indefinite hiatus in 2013.
