Ostrea Lake
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada | Established. Jan 01, 2011 | INDIE
Music
Press
"They think it's the place in Germany," says Elias Abi Daoud, leader of Ostrea Lake, of when people say his band's name aloud. Really it's the road he grew up on in the decidedly more rural Musquodoboit Harbour, between Porters Lake and Lake Charlotte. But his baritone ukulele-based, harmony-grazed pastoral folk songs do have their beginnings in another city, Boston, where he began writing them when he was 18.
"I was finishing high school and I wanted to get out of Nova Scotia for a bit," he says. After returning in 2011 he connected with Moe Kabbara at the Agricola Street open mic house, next to the old NSLC. "Moe really added a lot," he says. "The song from our first EP, 'Buildings Grow On Man-Made Soil,'–I went with him when he got his first mandolin at the Folklore Centre, and the night we got home he wrote that. It was meant to be."
Another partnership Abi Daoud values is with Nick Macdonald, who engineered Ostrea Lake's latest EP Dear Outside the Woods. "All the ukulele and vocals we did in the woods behind York Redoubt," says Abi Daoud, "and the rest in his house. It was me and Nick mostly–it took us eight months, with his work and my work. We built it around the forest sound we got from my voice and my ukulele."
Despite varying recording locations and techniques, the four-song Dear Outside the Woods doesn't sound patched together or even lo-fi, and there's an intensity in some of the songs that suggest there's a louder, rockier tension underneath, something above the lullaby hush Ostrea Lake is so good at.
Abi Daoud tries to adjust to the crowd he's in front of; for IDOW he and Kabarra will be joined by bassist Scott Keddy: "It's a modern kind of folk twist." - The Coast (Tara Thorne)
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Ostrea Lake is an independent folk band based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The band was formed in January 2012 by singer-songwriter Elias Abi Daoud and multi-instrumentalist Moe Kabbara.
Elias Abi Daoud was born and raised in Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia. Growing up on ‘Ostrea Lake’ road, Elias recalls sitting by the lake listening to the sounds of the woods and water intermingle in peaceful harmony. Inspired by his early memories, he named the project after the Nova Scotian Lake. Elias took singing and guitar lessons in high school, however it was his discovery of the baritone ukulele that led him down the path of songwriting.
Moe Kabbara moved to Halifax in 2011 from Beirut, Lebanon. Moe is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist, and met Elias through an encounter at a local music event. The project initially was a creative outlet for the two young musicians, which combined their diverse musical backgrounds and allowed them to create a unique sound.
Ostrea Lake’s first few performances took place at a community hub in Halifax known as ‘The Open Mic House’, which brought together members of the music and art community from professional to first time performers. In March 2012, Ostrea Lake released their first self-titled EP, which was well received and praised. The band made their first festival appearance in Amherst, NS at a community festival known as “Beckwith Bash”. However, it was after the release of their second EP (Dear Outside The Woods – 2013) that the band started playing on a regular basis. After the EP release, bassist Scott Kedy joined the band, adding a rich color to the sound and expanding the viable venues the band could play in.
OL has performed in a multitude of venues over the years. Most recently the band appeared in one of the biggest Canadian indie festivals, Pop Montreal, and one of main folk festival in Atlantic Canada, In The Dead of Winter. The band has performed consistently in Halifax at various musical venues, including The Carleton, The Company House and The Seahorse tavern.
The community nature of the first shows the band played influenced the essence and direction of Ostrea Lake. The band participated in several community events such as: Black Street Party 2013, IfYouBuilt solar powered concert 2013, ‘Just Us!’ food farm event (Wolfville, NS), Breastfeeding awareness campaign (Tatamagouche, NS), and a ‘Community & Culture Awareness’ event (Ellen Vale Junior High). The band is known for providing an intimate musical experience where the audience feels engaged and part of a community regardless of the setting.
Ostrea Lake released their third EP, Rippling Waters, in the summer of 2015.
Band Members
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