Bio
Fronted by partners Alex Millaire and Kaitlin Milroy, Ottawa-based Moonfruits are makers of art-folk bilingue. In a forest of banjo, guitar, kalimba and glockenspiel, their voices burrow and soar. Here is a reverie, tender and powerful, beckoning listeners to elevate the stuff of everyday life.
Stingray Rising Star Award, SOCAN Award and Trille Or winners, Moonfruits have toured Canada coast to coast and are making their first forays into the US and EU, moving audiences with a live show that mixes French and English organically, playfully, intentionally. Their début full-length Ste-Quequepart (2017) \saint-kehk-pahr or Saint Somewhere\ is an elaborate small town fiction that explores the faces of gentrification, isolation and community.
What grows in the forest of Moonfruits’ imagination is a songcraft that is elastic and never fails to transport. Moonfruits have toured extensively as a duo and performed accompanied by double bass, drums, keys and chamber instruments. Whether as a larger ensemble or with naught but their log and lamp, changes of scenery inspire Moonfruits, for they are as at home in your living room as they are in a concert hall.
Notable past performances include the Philadelphia Folk Festival, Ottawa Bluesfest, Folk Fest sur le canal, NAC Fourth Stage, Place des Arts, CityFolk, Festival of Small Halls Ontario, La Nuit sur l’Étang, Blue Skies Music Festival, FrancoFEST de Hamilton (with members of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra), Festival du Voyageur, Quality Block Party, Victoria Bicycle Music Festival and the first simultaneous bilingual CBC/Radio-Canada broadcast.
* The Trille Or awards celebrate excellence in French Canadian Music. In 2019, Moonfruits was nominated in the group, roots group, and singer-songwriter categories. Their Ste-Quequepart album design team, O’lee Graphiste and Gabrielle Dubois, won in the graphic design category.
“... their ability to convey authentic emotion transcends any form of linguistic barrier”
“... that’s what Moonfruits do. They take you somewhere, tell you a story ... and then it stays with you. It follows you, lives inside you, and reminds you about the fact that music is about telling our stories ... Moonfruits is music best experienced in the presence of loved ones.”
What are Moonfruits anyway ?
Things that grow by the light of the moon that take root slowly, quietly, until suddenly we are surrounded by a carpet of mushrooms.