GOLDEN GIRLS
Singing sisters set to shine
Harlequin Gold is fronted by Kelowna-raised sisters Elle and Avery O’Brien. The group released its four-song debut EP Baby Blue earlier this year to universally positive reviews, with songs such as Take Me Home grabbing ears across Canada and down the U.S. west coast.
The working lineup of Avery on bass, keyboards and vocals, with Elle on guitar and vocals, producer and guitarist Justice McLellan, and drummer Jamison Ko came together about a year ago.
Elle O’Brien is quick to note that the connection to music for both sisters is a “lifetime” thing. The two grew up singing and writing songs together, but they hadn’t planned on coming together in a band.
A few years back, Elle was a microbiology graduate contemplating dentistry and Avery was “studying coffee,” working as a barista in Melbourne, Australia. When their brother had a life-threatening dirt biking accident and wound up in a coma, Avery came home and the family united to face an uncertain future.
During this difficult period, the siblings concluded that they wanted to make music together again — it was one of the only things that made them feel OK in a very hard time. Once that choice was made, things started to move.
“I met Justice at Zulu buying tickets for a Canada Day party at the Waldorf and asked him if he was coming,” said Elle.
“After that, we kept on running into each other — in East Van, at the park, and so on. After about the eighth time, we decided to go for a drink and that’s when I discovered he was involved in music, and he immediately fit right in with what we were doing.”
McLellan produced the first two DIY recordings by Harlequin Gold. Recorded in an apartment, Without You Now and Youth both were hits on Spotify. This early positive fan response led to the decision to become a full band. In short order, the group was getting good opening gigs with bands such as Sunflower Bean at Canada Music Week in Toronto.
“I was working on a solo, electronic EP project,” says Elle. “But I didn’t really have the drive to do it, because singing with Avery just felt so much better and natural. I can’t imagine making music any other way now, actually.”
Produced by McLellan, with input from Mark Needham (The Killers, Imagine Dragons), John Raham (Dan Mangan, Frazey
Ford), and Stephen Marcussen (Paul McCartney, Band of Horses), the Baby Blue EP is most certainly not an electronic-based effort. The closest comparison would be what Metric might sound like with two female voices.
From the title track to the hookfilled natural breakout single, Take Me Home, the recording is loaded with intricate and atmospheric guitar and a stripped down and driving rhythm section, all buoyed by the sisters’ complimentary harmonies.
The vocal interplay is the standout quality of the EP, and one that both singers admit has long been in the making.
“Even before we were singing or writing together, we were always singing and harmonizing other songs,” said Avery. “It would drive our mother nuts driving in the car as we would start harmonizing to whatever was on the radio, really badly. Nobody ever sang the melody or the lead, we both just kept trying to find interesting ways to harmonize around the music.”
Without question, the sisters found their spaces within the songs. From the almost early folk duets in the title track to rising arena hooks of Want You More and the natural singalong chorus in Take Me Home, the EP is full of accomplished musicianship. The catchy pop got noticed well outside the Vancouver indie scene, leading to the band getting work in the U.S. and dates in Australia for the Big Sound festival.
Both sisters are pumped to pursue all the international opportunities available to them, with a plan to hit somewhere in the U.S. every 45 days (as the work visas permit) to build a following. The Baby Blue EP is best viewed as a calling card; the siblings say they’re sitting on enough finished songs for a fulllength album and can easily fill a headlining set.
“We have a good dozen songs we’ve locked down as a band and another section that we just need to sort out the keyboards for,” said Avery.
So it’s a typical case of tour and build a market for your music facing Harlequin Gold. In keeping with the nature of how music is consumed today, the members are able to chart where the streams are coming from and use that to determine where to play. It seems pretty certain that Europe is on the list.
“Europe is where we have the greatest number of streams at the moment, by far,” said Elle. “Specifically in Germany, where we’re looking at 60,000-plus streams compared to a tenth of that in all of Canada. The cool thing about social media is that your music can travel so much farther and can find fans, and you can decide what to do with that information.”
Elle says she writes “in clumps,” usually in the morning, which “probably drives the neighbours nuts.” But lately, much of the songwriting process is pulling ideas out at band practices and working on them as a whole.
“It’s pretty awesome how our singles have shown the different influences coming into the band, from Justice’s rock style to Jamison’s jazz and Avery’s indie rock and my ideas,” said Elle.
Harlequin Gold appears ready to shine anywhere the music takes them. The band regularly releases performance videos, and keeps fans engaged across social media platforms.