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BRAIDS

Calgary, Alberta
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Hometown: Calgary, Alberta
Record Label:  Kanine Records
Band Members:
Raphaelle Standell-Preston: Lead Vocals/Guitar
Austin Tufts: Drums/Vocals
Katie Lee: Keys/Vocals
Taylor Smith: Bass/Guitar/Drums/Vocals

“This … 4-piece performs tighter than bands twice their age.“- Heavy Dylan Terra

“Native Speaker made the 2011 Polaris Music Prize shortlist“

Received five nominations and took home Indie Album of the Year for their critically venerated debut Native Speaker at the Quebec Indie Music Awards (GAMIQ)

BRAIDS is a band comprised of four best friends from Calgary, Alberta, who in their last year of high school decided to forego the whole college thing, choosing instead to hunker down in the garage and practice obsessively. After a year of honing their sound they packed up and moved across the country to Montreal, where they began self-recording/producing their debut album Native Speaker. “The four members construct music which is ample and rolling, but filled with radical texture and startling immediacy, an influence of their more recent surroundings.”  BRAIDS has an extraordinary collaborative dynamic — even their name suggests a soothing continuous progression with lush and interweaving imagery, implying the interweaving of the band members’ individual ideas.

In January of 2011, BRAIDS was able to see the product of their labor come together with the release of Native Speaker. It captures a period of innocence and change, yet demonstrates a striking maturity for a young band just getting started.