Most bands operate with something akin to a family dynamic, even if the members are not related by blood. There are sibling rivalries to be dealt with and a sense of loyalty that (hopefully) keeps everything together. Some musical collaborations actually are families, too. Take local act Maplewood Lane. Singer-guitarist Rebecca Rowan and bassist Nathan Rowan are a married couple, as are keyboardist Alana Worsley and guitarist Ryan Worsley. Drummer Joel Willoughby is Rebecca's brother, and the connections don't stop there. "Joel actually married Ryan and Alana," the singer reveals. "How many people in a band have done that?"

"I work at an Anglican church. I'm not officially ordained, but I can do certain ceremonies," says Willoughby, who has joined his sister and brother-in-law-plus their infant daughter, Ivy-at an Oak Street coffee shop to be interviewed.

"We're all connected; it's really interesting," notes the drummer, who conducted the aforementioned nuptials in Mexico, surrounded by his bandmates and their circle of family and friends. "My wife, she does the merch."

"And Ivy's going to be the cello player," Rebecca adds.

Well, that might take a few years, but don't rule it out. It wouldn't be the first time Maplewood Lane has expanded its ranks, or its sound. Now a quintet with stated influences ranging from Wilco and the Early Day Miners to the Cure and the Notwist, the group started, back in '98, as a rootsy trio.

"Joel and I were hippies then," Rebecca recalls. "I had dreads, all hippied out. He had the bongos going."

Nathan adds: "Our first album-we only did, I think, 300 copies of it and they're all gone-was bongo drums and acoustic guitar and bass. And it was acoustic bass that played on a little bit of it, too, so it was a real folk sound."

Maplewood Lane went electric with the addition of Ryan and then Alana. The band's maturing sound was captured by local musician and producer Jonathan Anderson on a self-titled album released in 2003. A collection of sweet-and-mellow jangly gems, that disc retained a little of the folk flavour of old. On the just-released EP The Golden Skies, which Anderson also helmed, Maplewood Lane takes its pop influences up another notch, especially on the uptempo opener, "Come What May", which kicks off with a surprisingly rocking alt-guitar riff and bursts into a disco-tinted beat during the choruses. "Canadian Winters" features infectious handclaps and a hey-hey-hey refrain that won't leave your head for days, while the delicately melancholic "Tears" boasts enough delay-treated guitar, swirly keys, and boy-girl harmonies to satiate any Slowdive fan.

At the heart of it all are Rebecca's songs and her effortless delivery of a seemingly endless supply of lilting vocal melodies. Her lyrics tell of connections between people that time and distance can't undo, and of deep yearnings to be with absent loved ones. "You fill up the grey skies/You birds of travelling," she sings on "Tears". "Separated then united again/One day, there'll be leaving no more."

"I'm not actually a troubled, depressed person," Rebecca says with a soft laugh. "Our parents worked in Africa and India [as missionaries] when we were growing up, so we actually spent most of our childhood away from family and friends and moving a lot. So in some ways, a lot of my writing is processing all that life experience of different countries, airplanes, leaving people that you love-always having that experience of saying goodbye and then coming together. Having all these people and memories spread all over the world is such a big part of who I am that my writing goes along those lines."

The members of Maplewood Lane might be racking up some travel time of their own if all goes well. The group is hoping to get accepted to Toronto's North By Northeast festival, which would facilitate setting up some other dates in Ontario in June. The five-piece also plans to cross the line for some shows on the West Coast of the United States.

Getting the support of a label would be nice, too. The band currently releases its CDs under the Anniedale Records imprint. Anniedale isn't an actual label, per se; it's a collective of like-minded indie bands, including Jonathan Inc. and Dawntreader.

"We all have full-time jobs, we're all married now, they have a little baby," Willoughby says. "Playing music as a band is harder and harder as you get older. Getting financial support would be a dream."

"If we could do it full-time and just devote ourselves to the music, we'd all love that so much," Rebecca states, "because we all love the music so much."

One step at a time. For now, Maplewood Lane is celebrating the release of The Golden Skies with a show at the Railway Club on Saturday (April 30) and plotting its future. Once young Ivy is old enough to start taking those cello lessons, there's no telling how far this family business might go.