Moonfruitsby Caroline Rodriguez-Charette

If you regularly attend some of the more musically-inclined rallies of Ottawa’s solidarity groups, then you have no doubt run into the local band, Moonfruits. From showing their support for numerous social groups — such as $15 & Fairness, Leap Ottawa Saute, and Solidarity Ottawa — to standing against Kinder Morgan, this pair of banjo-wielding, bilingual singers is not afraid to show their political colours.

To bandmates Alex Millaire and Kaitlin Milroy, interaction with local social movements is an integral part of the give-and-take relationship that comes with being songwriters.

According to Milroy, to be a songwriter is to be “kind of like a barometer for social issues, in a way to talk about things that are, sometimes, not always easy subjects to broach,” she told the Leveller in an interview.

Furthermore, she adds, music has a unifying power for the band, one that brings people together and “invites them to live in a more politicized space, to see themselves as part of a community.”

To this end, they also understand they have a responsibility to the people who come to listen to them, since, as Milroy commented, their music — and their band — is a “reflection of ideas.”

The pair always takes their time when working on things, since, in their understanding, art is a crucial piece of social well-being and a platform for addressing important social issues.

A group they were especially happy to have shown their support for is the Good Food Markets, which is an initiative to sell high quality produce and dry goods in various communities around Ottawa at a more affordable price.

“There’s something particularly heartwarming about having a bunch of radishes put in your guitar case,” said Millaire.

Millaire and Milroy will keep supporting all of these organizations wherever and whenever they can. Although it is becoming more of a challenge as they continue to pursue their lives as musicians, they are always happy to donate their time for important social causes.

“We want to live in a better world and we want to help build it in our small way and when we see people working towards that end, we feel a sense of duty to also take part,” said Milroy.

Not too long ago, Moonfruits launched a crowdfunding kick-off party to raise money for their next album at Bread by Us – the band’s favourite local bakery.

“The crowdfunding kick-off was amazing. The place was packed for hours,” said Millaire. “It was Kaitlin’s idea, to kick it off with the band rather just an online thing.”

The band has surpassed their goal of $5,000 with their crowdfunding, and with additional support from the City of Ottawa and the Ontario Arts Council, the band is able to take on their next recorded album.

Their next album, performed entirely in French and with the theme of fighting isolation with compassion, comes out in May 2017. It will be about a village “making a hard go of it in the here and now,” according to an update on their gofundme page. While parts of this village will stem from the band’s imagination, much will also be based off the experiences they have shared, their travels and all the incredible people they have met along the way.

This article first appeared in the Leveller Vol. 9, No. 4 (January/February 2017).