INDIGENOUS ROOTS SHOW IN INDIE BAND
Nêhiyawak’s music melds Western and Cree cultures
When nêhiyawak performs Thursday at the National Music Centre, Marek Tyler will be playing a 182cm by 91-cm elk-hide frame drum.
It was loaned to the band by Kwakwaka’wakw artist Carey Newman, who had been consulted by Tyler about the type of wood he should be using to achieve a certain sound in the recording studio. The B.C. artist, who works in wood carving among other mediums, had some suggestions about the sounds made by different types of wood. But he also suggested that Tyler come pick up what he simply called a “big drum.” He was advised to bring a van.
“I was expecting a large handheld drum, but that’s not what I encountered at all,” says Tyler, whose band will be playing at the National Music Centre as part of its Alberta Spotlight series. “I encountered a drum that was the size of a doorway. I had never seen anything like it before. When we finally brought it to the studio, it just became a character unto itself. It took a sound and made it more important, more than just a bass drum.”
The nêhiyawak trio, which includes Tyler’s cousin Kris Harper on guitar and vocals and Matthew Cardinal on bass and keyboards, ended up using the drum extensively on their upcoming debut album. Recorded with Colin Stewart, the Victoria-based producer/ engineer who has worked with everyone from the Waterboys to the New Pornographers, Dan Mangan and Yukon Blonde, the album is set for a fall release and finds the band building on the appealing hybrid of expansive synth-heavy indie rock and sounds that spring from the band members’ Indigenous heritage. Despite being an integral part of the album’s sound, the so-called big drum doesn’t always make it to the stage for nêhiyawak shows, and not just for logistical reasons.
“I won’t bring it into clubs or anything like that, out of respect for the drum,” he says. “So this will be a real opportunity to have the drum in a live setting. So I’m really excited about that.”
It’s all part of what Tyler calls the “respectful process” of exploring their Indigenous background while performing and writing music. All three of the band members have backgrounds in Edmonton’s indie-rock scene. Harper played in Pale Moon Lights, Cardinal in Diamond Mind, while Tyler has played in acts across Canada, including a stint with New Pornographers’ Kathryn Calder, after studying music at MacEwan University. In the summer of 2016, nêhiyawak came to life in what Tyler calls a typical “born-in-the-basement” type of way. The three musicians all have a Plains Cree background and they chose a name that translates to Cree people or people of the plains. But Tyler points out that finding an intersection between contemporary indie-rock and more traditional sounds remains a work-in-progress for the trio. In the band’s bio, the act is described as hailing from amiskwaciy, the Cree word for the Edmonton area, in Treaty 6 territory. While Tyler, Cardinal and Harper are the musicians on stage, Tyler points out that the project also brings in the talents of other Indigenous artists, including electronic artist Jason Borys to do front-of-house sound and Cree artist Courteney Morin to provide visuals. As the band seeks to be more specific in its cultural outlook, it has proven to have universal appeal. In its relatively short lifespan and with only a few songs recorded, nêhiyawak quickly became favourites on the festival circuit. In May, the band will travel to the United Kingdom for a handful of dates.
“I think it’s important to acknowledge where you’re from,” Tyler says. “I think it’s important to us to acknowledge those teachings. I think it’s also important for us to learn more about those teachings, and this is part of that process. The three of us are not Cree speakers. There’s a substantial amount of learning that we have to take on if we are going to continue this work. So I think this process ignites that or blows on the coals of that learning experience.”
Harper provides and sings the band’s lyrics and often writes about Indigenous issues, even if often in an abstract way. The slow-burning and haunting Disappear, for instance, drew inspiration from a lecture by Honduran human rights campaigner Bertha Oliva and from Robert Lovelace, a former Ardoch Algonquin First Nation chief, activist and Queen’s University professor, and explores what the band calls “the juxtaposition between abandonment and abduction.”
“I think the magic is in the process,” Tyler says. “There’s a process in how we create the songs. There’s a process in how we make decisions. That process involves our cultural teachings. That process is teaching us how to care for these songs, how to care for these decisions, how to care for these drums.”
nêhiyawak plays Studio Bell, the National Music Centre, on Thursday with FOONYAP at 7 p.m. Visit studiobell.ca.