Bio and Press
The whole story:
Ophelia Syndrome is a unique blend of rock, folk, and jazz with a pop sensibility. Hailing from Hamilton, Cambridge, and Toronto ON, OS formed in the winter of 2002, when Trina Nadeau (cello) and Deanna Wells (vocals, and keyboards) met during their studies in the Mohawk College MusicPerformance program. In 2007 Adrian McFarlane, and Josh Kohler filled out the lineup on drums, bass, and backing vocals.
In 2008, the band entered Catherine North Studios to record their “Shades of Grey” EP with the late Dan Achen and Michael Chambers. In the vein of the singer-songwriter,”Shades of Grey” showcased the bands rare instrumentation, powerful vocals, and seemless ability to traverse and blend genres into their own sound. The EP was released May 2009 and spent 4 weeks on C101 Top 30. OS embarked on several small tours of Southern Ontario in support of the EP, visiting Ottawa, Kingston, Peterborough, Kitchener, Guelph, and Waterloo, as well as playing regular shows in Hamilton, Oakville, and Toronto. OS also appeared at The Cambridge Arts Festival, and as a headliner at The Art of Sound Festival in 2010. Due to the success of ‘Shades of Grey’, OS succesfully fan-funded their debut full length album “all things forgotten” through Sellband.com, raising approximately $16,000 in support of the album. The band is a regular top 5 artist on sellaband.com, allowing OS to gain fans globally in Brazil, The UK, France, Germany, Austrailia, New Zealand, and most notably the Netherlands. With hundreds of new expetent fans, 2 years of refined new material, and the addition of Andrew Barbisan on guitar, lap steel, and backing vocals, OS approached ‘all things forgotten’ as a chance to reinvent their experimental sound to deliver a truly memorable album. Blending male and female vocal harmonies, vintage organ, Wurlitzer, and Rhodes keyboards, strings, lap steel, and even muted trumpted performed by Loretta Hale on Long Wait, “all things forgotten” has a haunting and timeless texture. Recorded and co-produced by Michael Chambers at Catherine North, the album was released in Europe in the autumn of 2011.
E-mail address: opheliasyndrome@yahoo.com Audio: Click here. Video: Click here. EPK: click here.
Selected Press:
- “Ophelia Syndrome has a fresh, distinctive sound. I can’t say why, but when I first heard the name, I was expecting prog rock–Dream Theatre or something like that. I wasn’t expecting All Things Forgotten, a gorgeous album of cello- and piano-based alt- folk/rock songs featuring Deanna Wells’ clarion lead vocals, beautiful ensemble harmonies and a healthy and eclectic melting pot of stylistic influences including Brazilian jazz, Gregorian chant, and many more, all sparkling around the edges of the songs like diamonds around a wedding band.“To read the rest of the interview, please check out: 100 Mile Microphone
- Floorshime Zipper Boots: “All Things Forgotten is the new album from Hamilton, Ontario’s Ophelia Syndrome. The album mixes influences from freak folk, pop, indie, jazz and country into a beautiful basket of flowering tracks. The arrangements are lush, the vocals are stunning and the production is flawless. This is a band with depth, chops and much to say musically. Stream and buy All Things Forgotten at the link below.”To read the full post, please click here.
Posted on February 29, 2012 16:57
The new Song of the Week on TalentCast is “Today” from the Sellaband-funded album of Ophelia Syndrome, a band from Canada which is coming to tour Europe this summer!
Ophelia Syndrome was started by Trina Nadeau (cello) and Deanna Wells (vocals, keyboards) in 2002. In 2007, it was joined by Adrian McFarlane and Josh Kohler, who completed the sound with drums, bass and backing vocals. The band soon created their own sound – a melancholically hypnotising blend of rock, folk, pop and jazz with powerful, emotional vocals of Deanna.
The band debuted with “Shades of Grey”, an EP recorded at Catherine North Studios in 2008 and released in 2009. The EP spent 4 weeks on C101 Top 30. Ophelia Syndrome started performing regularly in Hamilton, Oakville and Toronto, they also toured the rest of Canada. Encouraged by the success of “Shades of Grey”, Ophelia Syndrome decided to try to get their first full album funded by fans and they signed up on Sellaband in the autumn of 2009. In a little over a year, they raised 11 900 € and a year later “All Things Forgotten”, an 11-track album, was released to their fans from all over the world.
The band returned to Sellaband for another round, this time to fund the promotion of the album. Also the second time, the funding was successful and Ophelia Syndrome could plan a European tour. In August, they will arrive in the Netherlands to play a number of shows and they will also perform once in Germany. The details of the tour can be found on their website.
- Congrats! Ophelia Syndrome reached their funding target! Posted on February 06, 2012 12:43
- Tuesday, December 20, 2011: T.O. Snob’s Music
All Things Forgotten is the debut full length album from Hamilton, ON quintet Ophelia Syndrome, a band who take their name from a popular a condition where you fall in love with a mad Danish prince and then drown ‘accidentally’.
The record, fully funded by fans, combines traditional rock and jazz foundations and layers cello, lap steel guitar, keyboards and more over top. Add in gorgeous vocals and you have a warm sound that is both dynamic and lush. I wish I had heard it a little sooner. If I had it may very well have squeaked into my Best Canadian Albums of 2011 list.
- Ophelia Syndrome reaches their target on Sellaband.
Posted on November 19, 2010 19:06 
Just on time before the weekend – congratulations to Ophelia Syndrome for reaching the target! With 11.900€ they are the 59th band on SellaBand to reach the goal and we are very excited about what the results will be of teaming up with Michael Chambers of Catherine North Studios, where they also recorded their debut EP “Shades of Grey” in October of 2008. So we whish all the best for the upcoming periode and are looking forward to hold your album in our hands.https://www.sellaband.com/en/news/229-congratulations-ophelia-syndrome. To view their successful project, click here.
- OS and “Today” won TalentCast Song of the week ending on Feb. 25, 2012. Click here to view the charts.
- OS and “Beautiful Doll” won TalentCast Song of the week for the week ending on March 5th, 2011. Click here to view the charts.
- OS and “6 8 Song” won TalentCast song of the week for the week ending on Sept. 11th, 2010. Click here to view the charts.
- OS and “Stop” won the TalentCast song of the week again for the week ending on March 13th, 2010. Click here to view the charts.
- OS and “Beautiful Doll” won the TalentCast song of the week for the week ending on Dec. 26th, 2009. Click here to view the charts.
- Ophelia Syndrome’s Shades of Grey on C101 Top 30 from the week of August 17 to September 8th. For the complete chart listings, pleasevisit: Earshot-online, and the C101 page.
