Cultural Festivals

Like fellow OBEY act Julianna Barwick, Crystal Dorval (AKA White Poppy) trades in ethereal layers, guitars and vocals piled atop one another, emotional and cathartic, best heard in headphones or churches. The difference is Dorval records everything by herself–she’s her own writer-editor. “I remember someone telling me something about painting once–a painting can technically continue […]

First there was York Redoubt. Then there was Long Long Long. And now there is Each Other. When Brad Loughead and Mike Wright moved to Montreal in 2011, they teamed up with ex-Burdock Christian Simmons, another Haligonian, and formed the dream-space trio. After a string of EPs, and discarded digital versions, Each Other is two […]

The Hamilton punk quartet TV Freaks is named after a song by Australian band The Victims, but “I do like TV,” says bassist Kevin Bell. “Me and my girlfriend have been watching Kitchen Nightmares. It’s a staged-reality kinda thing to to watch. You don’t have to think about much to watch it. Kinda like our […]

OBEY Convention’s mission statement says that the event’s “only consistent theme is a spirit of adventure and innovation.” Fitting then, that the convention will be capped off by a performance by the Halifax Rumi Ensemble, a local collective of artists who are taking part in an ongoing, international musical collaboration that celebrates the life and […]

”I want the audience to experience a piece of theatre that feels like an intimate conversation,” says actor Mary Fay Coady, who will perform a monologue from her play Tender Beast at Agricola’s Lost and Found as part of this year’s OBEY. “I like talking about matters of the heart, and we all have one […]

“Every song is about this internal good versus evil. I’m really into religious allegories as a metaphor for dealing with depression and anxiety. I’m working on one where the lyrics are ‘I hate myself’ and just saying that out loud–I was crying when I was writing it, it’s incredibly cathartic. I’m finally making the music […]

In the grand tradition of outsider music and art festivals in Canada, OBEY stands at the top. Like its contemporaries (your Wyrd Fests, your Somewhere There Festivals, your Toronto Thaws, your Festival International de Musique Actuelles), for seven years running, OBEY pushes boundaries, defies genres and stokes creative fires. Art In Fest, OBEY’s standalone contemporary […]

“I’m wearing all white right now” Camella Lobo says with a laugh. “I don’t know what that means!” While a pale wardrobe might not seem particularly puzzling to some, for Lobo, the brains beind Tropic Of Cancer, it does seem to pose a bit of a quandary. Tropic Of Cancer’s haunting, synth-laden output over the […]

Lisa Lipton works with many moving parts. There’s her drumming practice, developing since 2011 and showcased as the marquee exhibit BLAST BEATS at Nocturne 2012. There’s the film she’s making, The Impossible Blue Rose, which she’s been writing, filming and assembling on the road from California to Windsor, Ontario. Unlike most features, which are unveiled […]

“People forget that we are alive,” says Tanya Tagaq. The Inuk throat-singer from Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, has been performing her unique style of traditional throat-singing for over a decade. For In the Dead of Winter, Tagaq will perform her original score to the 1922 film Nanook of the North at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium on […]