LAST SUMMER, Owen Steel was unpacking at his dad’s place. His friend was over. He had things to do—but instead, he checked his email, found one unread message, and learned that he would soon be playing his first-ever set at the Evolve music festival. “I got really excited,” he recalls. “I think I jumped off the bed and ran downstairs and I called my band immediately.”

Now 22, Steel’s prepping for his second year playing the Antigonish fest. He’s one of two artists there representing foodclothingshelter music, a two-year-old artistic collective (read: a group of musical friends from St. Andrews, New Brunswick). Co-founder Luke Macdonald calls it a “support system” for rising Atlantic musicians; Steel calls it “a big bucket of inspiration,” but struggles to really define it: “I’ve always been a little confused as to what foodclothingshelter really is. I don’t think any of us really know… It’s basically a group of friends who’ve played music together growing up, and put a name on it.”

“I want to stomp my foot really hard; I want to have a tambourine around my ankle; I wanna have a gritty-sounding guitar; I wanna sing songs about dogs and…and lightning.”

Full story. Yep. All at The Coast. For more on the collective, check out their MySpace—some of it ain’t half bad.