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The Orielles are a 60s surf pop trio from Halifax. The band consists of sisters Esme and Sidonie and friend Henry. With Sid being the oldest member at just 20 and the other two members nearing the end of their teens, it’s hard to comprehend what the young band have achieved to date. After meeting at a house party, they decided to form a band. At this point the sisters didn’t know how to play any instruments (enough to make any other musician jealous!) but they clearly knew what they wanted to achieve and didn’t let anything stand in their way.

Previous blog stars, The Lovely Eggs, hosted The Orielles’ first ever gig in 2013 in the band’s hometown of Halifax, only to then be offered the opportunity to support them again at their 2015 Hebden Bridge gig.

The incredibly lucky, but immensely talented trio gained a slot at this years Canadian Music Week which took place from 2nd-8th May. Armed with their disposable camera The Orielles take control of this blog with a diary, giving us an insight into how they obtained funding through PRS For Music Foundation to play at the event in Toronto, and of course what it was like playing CMW. 

 

We were lucky enough to get this year's CMW slots because the festival’s international focus was on Great Britain. Our manager knew two contacts from Indieweek Canada that helped us get our first slot outside of the UK. We were so lucky with the amount of shows we ended up playing as we left the UK with 3 shows and finished CMW having played 4! This was rad for us as we loved playing out in Canada and wanted to be as busy as possible during our time to make the most of it. It was later pointed out to us on Facebook that we ended up playing 4 shows in 48 hours!

We got the PRS For Music Foundation funding after our devoted manager wrote a 2,500 word business proposal to apply for their international showcase fund. We were fortunate to get granted some of the funding - out of hundreds of bands that apply, only 7 get the money. We were so thankful when we found out as PRS For Music Foundation made that all possible for us. The whole process was very gripping for us – waiting for the date when they would announce which bands would have the opportunity to go across the pond and play their music. 

Our flights out to Canada were pretty chilled (even though we nearly missed both of them!). Once we reached Toronto airport we jumped in a taxi straight to where we were staying. The cab took us right through the city and showed us the range of Toronto’s soaring skyline and cool dive bars and Mexican eateries dotted around the city (Sneaky Dee’s was the collective favourite - shout out to emo night!) Sid and Ez had been to Toronto the previous summer on holiday, so they were used to how rad Toronto was and the laidback feel of the blooming city. We had all planned to move to Toronto by the end of the first day. We were so surprised at how chilled out the fifth largest city in North America was, the people are all super nice and friendly, the food is great and every show we watched and/or played had an amazing vibe to it that we’d never really felt in the UK.

The first 2 shows we played were a cocktail of deliriousness and Pabst Blue Ribbon. By the time of the shows we’d only been in Canada for around 5 or 6 hours and had been rushing around the city to pick up our delegate passes and rent a whole band's worth of instruments. 

The first show at Handlebar was real fun, the small sized room suited us perfectly for our first show outside of the UK. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by The Magic Gang who came from the UK too. After our first show we walked to The Silver Dollar, dropped off our gear and headed up to Lee’s Palace to watch TOPS who played an amazing set full of songs off of their new album which we were blessed to hear. 

Our second show was an hour after TOPS at 2am. We followed a rad band called Walrus from Halifax NS who played to a still lively crowd at The Silver Dollar. We went down really well, being the last band of the night .Everyone that was left was loose and loving it. 

The morning after Silver Dollar we were offered another gig at The Painted Lady that night which was cool because it was located in Little Portugal, one of our favourite areas of the city. The night after was the British showcase put on at The Velvet Underground with Fat White Family. This venue was a lot bigger than the others we played. We opened the show and had a great reaction from the crowd - it was a good way to end our little run of shows in Toronto. After our set, and a last look at the Toronto skyline from The Velvet Underground's roof, we headed down to The Hard Luck Bar to catch Sunflower Beans’ set at midnight. 

After we’d fulfilled all our gigs, we spent a few more busy days hanging out in Canada which included going to tonnes of yard sales, seeing King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard play a captivating set and, to conclude the trip, experiencing a beautiful offshore view of the city as Sid managed to get a temporary speedboat license. Upon returning to the UK we all felt a little bummed out (and pretty jet-lagged) but we’re super excited for what’s coming up next in the UK which is mainly recording and gigging over summer. Hopefully we can return soon though to get our fix of Toronto!

With a lot of exciting new bands the normal thing to say is “watch this space”, but The Orielles have already covered a lot of space. We recommend you catch them now at cool little venues around the UK before they’re off touring the world.

 
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