Great White North is the debut EP from new Montreal band Erik Lind & The Orchard. Born as the solo project of veteran songwriter Lind, the band took shape in 2011 as a four-piece outfit featuring guitarist Mikael Tobias (Flicker State, Courtney Wing), bassist Lisa Dee Perusse (Throwback, Patrick Lehman), and drummer Michel Aubinais (Hey Hey My My, Statue Park), delivering soothing folk-tinged indie pop rock. The band’s lush, melodic sound has drawn comparisons to fellow Canadians Wintersleep and Dan Mangan, with soaring harmonies reminiscent of Fleet Foxes and The New Pornographers, while Lind’s tranquil voice recalls Great Lake Swimmers’ Tony Dekker. The group spent much of the second half of 2011 playing intimate venues in their hometown. They built arrangements for songs that Lind had composed over the previous few years on acoustic guitar, and had begun to develop through home recording experiments. In the early spring of 2012, the foursome headed into Montreal's Treatment Room Studios (Plants & Animals, The Acorn, Angela Desveaux) to begin laying down bed tracks for the self-produced EP. Shortly thereafter, work shifted a few streets East to the familiar confines of Tobias's apartment in the city’s Little Italy neighbourhood. There, the intimacy of home-recorded elements began to merge with bigger sounds captured at the Treatment Room, and that contrast can be felt throughout the Great White North EP, from the crashing cymbals and soaring vocals in the anthemic close of the title track, to the raw fret noise heard in album closer “The Kick.” Great White North offers a concise and tightly produced introduction to Lind’s earnest, bittersweet songwriting. Backed on vocals by Tobias and Perusse, Lind delivers his insightful, heart-on-sleeve lyrics with keen pop sensibility. Whether it's the jangly acoustic guitar and tambourine on "If We Knew Then", the swift pace and overdriven amps of “War Outside”, or the alt-country feel of “Coming After the Wrong Man”, the EP's six tracks never get stuck in one place, with catchy melodies, rich vocals and memorable hooks spread throughout.