Toronto chamber-pop ensemble Ohbijou melted legions of hearts with the winsome sounds of 2006’s Swift Feet For Troubling Times. Three years later, they’ve returned with the lushly orchestrated Beacons. The album marks a major step forward for Ohbijou, not just in terms of its sound, but of its reach: the community-oriented crew signed with several labels (including Last Gang in Canada) to get their record out across the world.

EYE WEEKLY spoke to Ohbijou den mother Casey Mecija about her group’s leap into the great unknown.

Ohbijou are closely identified with a tight-knit pocket of the local indie music community. What’s it like stepping outside that world?
It’s kind of daunting. I think we’re holding on to the community by a thread — the same year we release Beacons, we’re also putting out another Friends In Bellwoods compilation. It’s definitely not the same…. I guess the music industry has become a bit more fleshed out for me. It’s really scary to step outside that small community, though.

The songs on Beacons are bigger and bolder than those on Swift Feet. Is there a correlation between your sound and the expansion of your community?
That makes a lot of sense, now that I think about it. With this album, we’re trying to pack in a lot more sound within a certain timeframe. And I think as our world of music has gotten bigger, our approach to songwriting has changed.

Toronto geography factors heavily in your songs. Bathurst Street appears more than once on Beacons.…
I live close to Queen and Bathurst, and it’s a pretty active intersection. There’s always a sinking sense that happens in me when I cross there, a real sadness. I think that feeling probably has more to do with what I’m seeing — the homelessness and the grittiness, even as it’s in the process of being extremely gentrified with the Starbucks and the Tim Hortons showing up. The city is changing so quickly, and the romance of it being a little dirty is being covered by new businesses and new bars. It’s not the Toronto I feel like I grew up in, when I came here for university. So I think I’m trying to maintain that vision of Toronto, somehow. I love this city! I’m in a relationship with it that’s always changing. It’s tumultuous and romantic.