CASTLE PROJECT: reviews and articles

EXCLAIM!
Vancouvers Ryan Ostiguy has taken the lemons life gave him and made some delicious lemonade
with Diaries. After lost love left him in the dumps, Ostiguy regrouped to form Castle Project and
create this pulsating tribute album to his broken heart. The end result is an ambitious pop record,
brimming with electricity. Instead of brooding, Ostiguy converts his angst into soaring, arena-rock
songs that give Coldplay a run for their money. The comparison is most apt on Celebrate the End,
due to its rock ballad pace, lilting piano, and Ostiguys intermittent falsetto. A quick misstep occurs
with Away From It, which strays too close to the alt-cock-rock of Bush. Things get more
interesting with the sinister and thunderous In Frustration, while Hearts at the Door evokes the
Beatles and Modest Mouse. All told, Ostiguy takes grand aim at some pop heavyweights, and his
thoughtful eye for detail gets him close to the mark.

COAST
Castle Project
Diaries of a Broken Heart
(White Whale)
Ex-Spitfire member Ryan Ostiguy wrote this disc after the dissolution of his marriage. And while the title
might lead you to believe that the songwriting will be trite just another series of over-done love-gonewrong songs its everything but. Diaries, produced by Howard Redekopp (New Pornographers, 54-40),
so perfectly captures the rambling thoughts and painful self-doubt that accompanies such a destructive
event, you may find yourself thinking that he was reading your mind. Diaries is a difficult and cathartic
piece of work which ultimately reaches far beyond its origins. Like Conor Oberst or Elliott Smith, the
power (and validity) of Ostiguys writing lies in the fact that it speaks so universally. Like when he
writes Its the look in your eyes/Dont you want me/like you used to want me, on In
Frustration. Or Im picking up pieces of broken glass/these cuts on my hands wont heal too
fast/just give me one minute to catch my breath/what little I have to give you/whats left. This is
for the wronged, the emotionally discarded and betrayed. This is for those who seek answers
where there are none, yet continue to torture themselves by repeating the same questions over and
over. This is for those who still yearn, still wake up in a cold sweat and find themselves
inexplicably crying. It is for the hearts that sink and the chests that tighten. And you have to wonder, after
all this, could a person ever regain ones nobility?
Dave Hayden

NORTH SHORE NEWS

Castle Project - Diaries of a Broken Heart
(White Whale Records)
Rating: 9 (out of 10)
Castle Project is the new project from Ryan Ostiguy, who used to pound the skins for local punk outfit the
Spitfires.
So it comes as a surprise that Castle Project sounds nothing like the Spitfires; it actually has the pop
sensibilities of Coldplay and early Radiohead. It's quiet, subdued, painfully sad and heartbreaking. Not
because it's a bad album, mind you, but because Ostiguy is achingly honest and blunt in chronicling the
aftermath of a failed relationship.

When he croons about being confused and lonely, there's little doubt he really is confused and lonely. It's
that emotion that makes Diaries such a compelling listen.
Ostiguy handles nearly all the instrumental duties, with members of Limblifter and the New Pornographers
lending a hand. Even the piano and guitar layers sound melancholy.
Most pop and rock bands have songs about messy breakups. Ostiguy, however, is more heartfelt than most.
This is the definitive breakup album.
- Jocelyn Chan

THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

A castle built on heartache
By john lucas
Publish Date: 2-Jun-2005
Ryan Ostiguy sets a good example for the neighbourhood kids, whom he encourages to play in traffic.
Rebecca Blissett photo.
If the songs on Castle Projects debut CD, Diaries of a Broken Heart, are anything to judge by, Ryan
Ostiguy hasnt merely had his heart broken, hes had it pilloried, doused in kerosene, and paraded down
Main Street on a pike. The discs 11 lushly orchestrated selections take listeners through the downward
spiral of a failing relationship, from the first shocking discovery of betrayal, through attempts to make
things right, and to the weary resignation that the good times are gone for good. When, on Celebrate the
End, Ostiguy croons, I watched you deceive me/I need you to leave me/Alone for life, he leaves no
room for doubt that he means it.
Reached by telephone in Kamloops, where hes working on the set of the Harrison Ford flick Firewall, the
Vancouver-based songwriter acknowledges that the record is about his own divorce. He reveals that, in
retrospect, Diaries of a Broken Heart is a document of a partnership headed irrevocably toward collapse.
When he started working on it, however, he still saw the faintest glimmer of hope. I was probably trying to
tell myself, at that time when I was recording these songs and singing these lyrics, that the shit was messed
up, Ostiguy says. But I wasnt looking at it that way. I was too busy looking at it like Weve got to make
this work, weve got to fix the problem. But as soon as I took those demos that I had done at home and
went with Howard [Redekopp] and recorded, I realized that I was trying to tell myself something, but I
couldnt fathom it in my head that I was being screwed over or that this was going to end.
End it did, and if it left shattered lives in its wake, it also gave the world a darkly beautiful collection of
songs. Diaries of a Broken Heart isnt all painted in shades of midnight black and gunmetal greyThe
Airways and Away From It temper the gloom with leavening blasts of guitar-charged alt-popbut the
discs finest moments tend to be its most reflective. With their yearning strings and plaintive melodies,
numbers like Broken Glass and Rearrange Them wont fail to touch anyone who hears them, including
the person who inspired them.
I dont know what she feels about it, Ostiguy says of his ex. I dont know if shes actually listened to the
lyrics and gone, like, This is all about me. But it is. Right now it just feels like she could care less about
anything, so if she hears it she probably laughs. But thats how I feel, and thats how I felt, so I dont even
really care what she thinks. It was more of a healing thing for me to do it.
Ostiguy is already preparing a follow-up to Diaries. He expects to head back to the studio in September,
with Redekopp once again in the producers chair. As for the heartache, it seems Ostiguys hardly getting
over it: expect another assortment of sad, sad songs. I dont think Ill ever make a record that doesnt have

that content in it, because I guess Im just a really emotional guy, he notes. I like music thats true to your
heart, and thats just what Ive always done.
Moreover, Ostiguy realizes that if he continues to explore the darker side of relationships, his music will
always find a sympathetic ear. Everyone understands the feeling of having a broken heart; Ive just
expressed it, he asserts. I get e-mails from people that are talking about how the lyrics really mean a lot
to them. Theyre going through a breakup at the moment, and they can hear the distress in my voice, and
they can hear its the truth. I love that. I love the connection with other people who are going through the
same thing or have gone through the same thing. Its pretty cool. Im not the only one.

THE GEORGIA STRAIGHT

Castle Project
By john lucas
Publish Date: 14-Apr-2005
Diaries of a Broken Heart (White Whale)
As long as people have hearts to be trampled on and relationships to toss
down the shitter, well continue to need breakup songs. With titles like
Celebrate the End, In Frustration, Waste, and Apologies, its pretty
clear that Castle Project mastermind Ryan Ostiguy has spent some time on
the lonely side of the street. These are songs that document that aching,
interminable moment when the fire has gone out but the pain still burns.
Maybe its all been said before, but Ostiguy makes the ache convincing with
his heartfelt singing. He also plays most of the instruments himself, and his
classic, layered approach to downbeat pop (with able assistance from producer Howard Redekopp) makes
Diaries of a Broken Heart a winner, tailor-made for anyone who has ever spent the wee hours staring at the
bedroom ceiling and wondering how in the hell everything went so terribly wrong.

VUE
Divorce, Canadian style
Castle Project With Fake Cops and the Frosted Tipz Sidetrack Caf Fri, June 17 (8pm) After years
spent pounding the drums in Vancouver rock band the Spitfires, Ryan Ostiguy stepped away from the rock
n roll lifestyle to focus on his family life. Sadly, the relationship went south, and Ostiguy took his battered
heart and his enduring love of lush-sounding indie-rock into the studio to create the Castle Projects Diaries
of a Broken Heart.
Id always been doing this kind of stuff, the more indie kinda stuff, just by myself, Ostiguy says. Id sit
down in my house and record a song every two days or something; I have a whole library of songs Ive
written. When my marriage ended, there was nothing for me to do and I wanted to concentrate on music, so
I said, Screw it, and I called up [producer Howard Redekopp] and we went and recorded the record.
While Ostiguy still harbours strong feelings for the power and fury of rock (theres even talk of a Spitfires
reunion), he explains the delicate sounds to be found on Diaries are better suited to the complex emotions
involved in a breakup. I just think emotionally you can bring it out in that kind of music, but not as much,
he says. I like to hear a song with more emotion to it. I like the strings. I like piano. I like all that stuff and
its pretty hard to bring out in rock n roll.
The project started as a way for Ostiguy to work through his pain, but soon it evolved into a haunting
expos of the feelings most people must endure at one point or another. Emotion-wise, youre getting
nothing but 100 per cent the truth, he says. True feelings. And I dont think theres anything better than
that, listening to somebody spill out the truth of their life. So many people tie into that and they listen to it

and they go, Ive been through this, and they can just relate to it so much. Thats partially what I love
about it. Its out there, youre not the only one and Im not the only one. You gotta keep looking forward
and keep going. (PD)
MOTE MAGAZINE
Castle Project
Diaries Of A Broken Heart
White Whale Records
Former Spitfire drummer Ryan Ostiguy has decided to go out on his own under the guise of Castle Project,
a new outfit made up of Ostiguy and some musician friends. With the help of producer Howard Redekopp
(Tegan and Sara, New Pornographers, 54-40), Ostiguy recently released Castle Project's debut album
Diaries of a Broken Heart on Vancouver label White Whale Records.
Diaries of a Broken Heart is probably the saddest and most heart-wrenching album I've heard in a long
time. This guy must have really gone through a messy break-up with someone he obviously cared for
deeply because every song is riddled with references to a relationship gone bad.
Before you even take the CD out of its case, the art on the sleeve fully illustrates the main theme of the
album, with a man and a woman walking away from each other down separate, lonely paths. Take the lyric
booklet out and there is a picture of whom I'm assuming is Ostiguy with writing beneath the photograph
saying, "I'm dead to you".
The sorrowfulness is imminent right from the start with the lead off track "Celebrate the End". The chorus
is "I watched you deceive me, I need you to leave me, alone for life". The next track "In Frustration" is a
Radiohead-like tune that continues the theme of love lost with the line "I'm Dead to you, I'm Gone to you,
I'm dead to you". Many of the tracks show some potential but just end up sounding too self-loathing or
whiny making them almost impossible to listen to unless you're actually going through a break-up.
There is one redeeming quality of the album and it's the redemption that can be found when a person loses
someone but picks up the pieces and moves on with their lives. Like in the song "What it Takes", when
Ostiguy sings, "I watched as you fell apart, and I know that it kills you inside. I know, I know, you loved to
please her but don't need her inside of your life". This is one of the final lines of the album and it represents
that there is light at the end of the tunnel and in the end as the old adage says: it's better to have loved and
lost than to have not loved at all.
Trent McMartin
UMBRELLA MUSIC
Castle Project Diaries of a Broken Heart
(White Whale Records - 2005)
It's no fun to read someone's diary when they're happily in love. In fact,
it's downright annoying. But don't worry, for all the flowery "I can't
imagine life without you" entries, there are albums like Ryan Ostiguy's
confessional Diaries of a Broken Heart to remind us that in the immortal
words of Def Leppard - "Love bites."

Diaries is the perfect soundtrack to put on as you gather the ex's toothbrush and favourite t-shirts into a

grocery bag. The love-one-bad theme is thematically carried through from its cover art - lonely streets, boy
walking alone on front, girl walking alone on back - to the unnerving photo of Ostiguy on the inside cover
with the handwritten inscription "I'm dead to you."
The melancholy continues through all 11 tracks. "Celebrate The End," "Apologies," "How Does It Feel" all
ache with emotional confessions. According to one article, Ostiguy, former drummer and songwriter for
Vancouver's Spitfires, recently split with his wife, which would explain the album's genuine rawness.
References to a sad pop group called Coldplay are inevitable, but this album is worth listening for its own
honest and heartbreaking merit.
Rating: 8

SEE MAGAZINE
CASTLE PROJECT
Diaries of a Broken Heart
(White Whale)
**** (out of five)
White Whale records is quickly becoming my favourite Canadian label. Sure, every band on the roster
sounds like some other band, but they all do it with style. Kids These Days reinvented Modest Mouse quite
efficiently, and The Mohawk Lodge gave Hayden a smiling makeover, so when Castle Project slips into
The Flaming Lips mode midway through their debut, Diaries of a Broken Heart, I wasnt surprised by the
reference.
And if you have to pick a band to emulate, The Lips arent a bad choice. Even though Ryan Ostiguy sounds
exactly like Wayne Coyne at times, his melancholy take on lush pop certainly stands on its own. Layered
vocals, hypnotic guitar lines and compelling tension draw you in and keep you focused. If this were the
sole extent of Castle Projects talents, Id still recommend them. But as it happens each and every song on
the album has at least one moment so beautiful, so sophisticated, so perfect that youd think that it was The
Flaming Lips taking off this band instead of the other way around.
JASON LEWIS