Aysanabee and Snotty Nose Rez Kids lead SSIMAs nominations, awards handed out Jun 6

Will McGuirk May 18, 2023

By Will McGuirk

Aysanabee and Snotty Nose Rez Kids are among the nominees for the 2023 Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards (SSIMAs). Aysanabee leads with six nominations and the Kids have five.

Presented by TD Bank the National Indigenous Music Awards Show will take place at The National Arts Centre in Ottawa Tuesday, June 6th, 2023.

The SSIMAs span 16 categories, celebrating solo artists, duos and groups from across Canada as well as showcasing the diverse music and culture within the Indigenous community. Nominees were selected from 250 Canada-wide submissions by an invited panel of jurors comprising Indigenous and music industry professionals.

“Presenting and promoting Indigenous music is a cornerstone of our Festival," says Trina Mather Simard, CEO and Producer of Ottawa’s Summer Solstice Festival which runs June 21 - 25. “We’re celebrating Indigenous voices” adds Advisory Committee Chair Elaine Bomberry, adding “These Awards, in Canada’s capital city, provide an excellent platform for artists to be recognized for their hard work”.

The award ceremony will be hosted by Anishinaabe activist, broadcaster and content creator Sarain Fox. Performers have yet to be announced. Tickets are on sale Friday May 19th at 10AM, starting at $20.00 (including tax plus fees).

This SSIMAs presentation kicks off Indigenous History Month and is a prelude to the Annual Summer Solstice Indigenous Festival (SSIF), June 21st-25th at Madahoki Farm in Ottawa. The free festival coincides with National Indigenous Peoples Day (NIPD) on June 21.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Aysanabee, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Louise Burns, The Weber Brothers, Lily Monaghan, Billy Strings, quinnie, Moonshine Collective, Great American Ghost,

Will McGuirk November 5, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“It’s a perfect pop song, and exemplifies what Depeche Mode do best – incredible production and instrumentation that only enhances what was already a great song. We went with a more slowed down, elegant Bryan Ferry-esque treatment.” - Louise Burns

“As long as I can remember, I wanted to make a record with my dad. I’ve been burning up and down the highways the last 12 years, and as time slips away, you start thinking, ‘I need to make time.’ - Billy Strings

“this song is about how i used to be scared of falling in love because i enjoy longing for things and people. found out you’ll know u really love somebody if loving them feels even better than wanting them.” - quinnie

“The song isn't as literal as the video implies - the things that we go through as people can be harder than you could ever imagine and going through them alone can be truly torturous." - Ethan Harrison, Great American Ghost

<a href="https://theweberbrothers1.bandcamp.com/track/wild-side-2">Wild Side by The Weber Brothers</a>

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Birds of Bellwoods, Villages, Mimi Webb, Valentyna, Mariel Buckley, Kris Ulrich, and Neil Young

Will McGuirk October 7, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“That moment when you see the mistakes you keep making, but can’t seem to change the pattern like the lyrics say, ‘with all the lights above me, I only see that shadow cast below.’ “ - Birds of Bellwoods

“We all have those moments where you just want to drop everything and leave it all behind. “Love Will Live On” is a daydream on just how good it could be if you actually did it.” - Villages

“It’s a broad stroke of what intolerance and shame can create in a bible-belt, prairie town. Lots of imagery from my childhood, church and the bottom of a glass.” - Mariel Buckley

Jadea Kelly will play the Biltmore Theatre in Oshawa Sunday Oct 2 2022

Slowcity.ca Open Mic: Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Jadea Kelly, Dan Mangan, Bells Larsen, Sampa The Great, Reuben and the Dark, Elle Celeste, Mimi O'Bonsawin, and Kodaline

Will McGuirk September 16, 2022

By Will McGuirk

“It was important for our new music to be positive and to show our fans that we needed Life After to talk about our experiences in 2020/2021, but that we're back touring, traveling the world, making new music, and ultimately, we're good!" - Young D, Snotty Nose Rez Kids

“The music is steeped in queer love, young love, and lost love. I knew I wanted the aesthetic of the ‘Teenage Love’ music video to reflect all of these things.” - Bells Larsen

“This is a song about shooting yourself in the foot, told from the foot’s perspective. There’s barely any gray area left in the middle ground. We are so averse to seeing the other side achieve a win, we would rather that all sides lose.” - Dan Mangan

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with KTheChosen, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Ariel Posen, Billy Strings, Natalie Hemby, Triptides, Ryan Bourne, Tennyson King, Bad Skin, and Star Goes Nova

Will McGuirk September 25, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“The lockdown has given me time to reflect as well as a shared experience with others in terms of dealing with grief and the uncertainties of life. Things have happened globally and locally, to people I know and care about, and also to strangers that I may never meet. The necessity of this project seems to have grown daily within the year that we've been working on it. This makes me proud to have captured the feelings and thoughts of my family and friends and excited to share these expressions and observations with the world. This is my favourite body of work thus far.” - KTheChosen

“I’ve always doubted myself, and I still do, but this album makes me think, ‘Hey, you’re doing all right, kid. You just need to keep going.’” - Billy Strings

“It just seemed like everyone was looking for answers but there weren’t any, people seemed angry at the wrong things, and there was just a lot of hate and not a lot of peace and love. . . I realized that there is nothing I could say to make anyone feel better or much I could do. I felt that all we can really do, is slow down our pace of life, listen to each other, be there for each other, try to enjoy the small things, and do the small things to be kind to each other.” - Tennyson King

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with The Halluci Nation, David Strickland, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Haviah Mighty, Amythyst Kiah, The Human Rights, Jean-Michel Blais, and Clinic

Will McGuirk September 10, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“We never thought that a song could translate our sound into words like this so well, from beat to voice to instrument. We are in such awe of these incredible artists we are proud to call our family, and the opportunity to all come together on this track”. - The Halluci Nation

“While much of this song talks about the things that I feel I’m on my way to achieving, some of which being those nice-to-have material things - for me, these things are symbolic of something more abstract - a lifestyle that I couldn't fathom prior.” - Haviah Mighty

“I tried to give a moment to every instrument, like solos or bring outs. For example, I did things like giving the Second Violin some moments on their own too. Usually they are there to support and accompany the First Violin, but when the Second Violin player came to look at the music, she thought there was a mistake. She was the only violin playing. I’d have to tell her ‘It’s not a mistake, it’s your time to shine. There’s often been this idea in classical music that one instrument is the chief, the king of all the instruments, and the others are in the background merely supporting.” - Jean-Michel Blais

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with The Strumbellas, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, The Lovely Eggs, The Record Company, Nation of Language, Samantha Fish, and Niz Wiz

Will McGuirk July 24, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“The song is really about ego, and it's that inner ego that everyone holds within them." - Snotty Nose Kids

“We are all morons. In a world of moronic things. In a world of moronic ideas. You are moron. I am Moron. We are Moron.” - The Lovely Eggs

“To watch someone quietly working a craft with their hands, taking their time and allowing themselves to focus in a way that hopefully quiets the mind and blocks everything else out can be incredibly calming and hypnotic. Whether at a professional level or just channeling energy into a personal hobby, there’s a lot of power in having a pursuit that requires attention and finesse.” - Nation of Language

"It's about flipping the power structure, the power dynamic, in your life. The world or a personal figure might be putting you down; it's about taking control and owning your life and owning the situation." - Samantha Fish

“I remember pontificating these thoughts in my basement studio before looking up and saying, ‘Hey! Am I the only one feeling this?! Am I the only one thinking about this change? This undertow of a tide sweeping us all potentially under water? And how we don’t know when we can come up for air?’” - Niz Wiz

Slowcity.ca Open Mic with Haviah Mighty, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Valerie June, Alex Cuba, Overcoats, Metric, Lukas Nelson, Tedeschi Trucks Band

Will McGuirk June 21, 2021

By Will McGuirk

“This song is my protest – a reminder that regardless of all the conversations, the chatter, the media, the justices and injustices – this feeling and fear we walk with, is as present as ever. After all these years, encountering the police as a marginalized person still triggers pure fear. These feelings within the production – the intensity and depth of the chords, the stress and tension of the pacing – it all mirrors the feelings of paranoia, fear, control, and our innate will to survive when encountering law enforcement. Having UK-based artist, Yizzy, bless this record brings it full circle. From a light skin male’s perspective from somewhere else on the globe, our experiences still mirror one another, a further testament to the eerie similarities of trauma among Black folks.” - Haviah Mighty

“The community was able to look on the bright side even though news media still fail to see and recognize us as human beings. No matter what label you throw at us, we know who we are and where we come from.” - Young D, Snotty Nose Rez Kids

“It took me a really long time to come back to the home in my heart. In a physical sense, that’s Texas and Hawaii. But in a spiritual sense as well—I think I finally decided not to run from who I am and who I am destined to be.” - Lukas Nelson

“When I began to imagine this album, I knew I didn’t want it to be small in any way. Neither did I want it to be known forever as the album that was born out of the pandemic. I was convinced that it definitely was the moment to aim at creating something very special, unique and vibrant, fuelled by the very deep emotions that this time has brought out of all of us.” - Alex Cuba

”This song is heartbreaking but we think it tries to show that there can be beauty in the wreckage." - Overcoats

Slowcity.ca Open Mice with Lowell, Devan, Eivør, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, James Yorkston & The Second Hand Orchestra, and Taylor Abrahamse,

Will McGuirk December 17, 2020

By Will McGuirk

Stay apart, be apart, take a part a lifetime together, the heart won’t part even as lives are sent asunder with the swipe of a scythe, we hear of couples in hospital beds side by side, “its out of our hands” but they hold hands tight as the scythe swoops, and oh to die by your side oh the pleasure, the privilege. . .

“This song is very near and dear to me. Written at a low point in both my career and my relationship, it's simply about feeling like you belong together and being forced to be apart, which I think a lot of people can relate to at the moment.” - Lowell

Slowcity.ca with Elizabeth Leslie, Once A Tree, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Mattie Leon, Peter Katz, Grace Gillespie, Ghost Love, Busty and the Bass, Gillian Stone, and Black Collar Union

Will McGuirk November 30, 2020

By Will McGuirk

“Now is the time to look up from your phone and look around you. What can you do to effect change? I'd like for listeners to come away with a feeling of power, that we, as a collective society, are powerful, but only when we are not divided.” ~ Elizabeth Leslie

“To our knowledge there hasn’t been an Indian and ‘Indian’ (Indigenous) mash-up in Hip-Hop. It seems like an obvious choice that Indigenous people and Indian people would collaborate, as their histories are intertwined in one colonial historical moment where, thinking he’d reached India, Columbus dubbed the people he sought to conquer and eradicate, ‘Indian’.” ~ SNRK

"Part of what I wanted to do with this new music is to not have it be just about my story. It’s in there – it’s all in there – but I think that my older approach to writing was about holding on rather than letting go; This music feels like letting go to me. And I hope that when people hear it, they can hear their own story in it and that maybe it can help them feel like letting go too." ~ Peter Katz

Grace Gillespie · For Nick Drake

Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Here comes the rain again plus Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Esperanza Spalding, Jenn Grant, Tamino, Rhye, Rich Aucoin, Black Mountain and Ada Lea,

Will McGuirk May 13, 2019

By Will McGuirk

So I’m leaving this here because it runs parallel to the way we think here at Slowcity.ca. Its from the Snotty Nose Rez Kids’ press release; “Boujee Natives stems from our belief that everyone is an artist in one way shape or form and that we were all created to create but it’s up to us as individuals to find out what that is for ourselves. We wanted to showcase all the badass First Nations artists that have welcomed us into their worlds as we were coming into ourselves and developing our artistry into what it is today. We are the creators, we are inspired natives, not native inspired, and we like to rock our shit, we dem Boujee Natives.”

So yes its up to us, you, me, to find our creative selves within and build our own future. Music helps so here is today’s open mic which you can air while you woodshed ideas this rainy week. Dig into Esperanza Spalding, Jenn Grant, Tamino, Rhye, Rich Aucoin, Black Mountain and Ada Lea. Dig into the future, unearth yourself.

Slowcity.ca Open Mic - Get Back Up edition with Peter Perrett, Sarah MacDougall, Lydia Ainsworth, Haviah Mighty, Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Bear’s Den, Night Moves

Will McGuirk April 22, 2019

Happy Earth Day, and happy come-down from a fab weekend; The To Oshawa With Love gig at the Oshawa Music Hall with The Stables, Say Ritual and Melanie Payne, was wow wow wow - An army of local music lovers came out. This city, our city has many social issues - it is in trauma. But those of us who know know music helps. Today’s Open Mic is filled with resilience; Peter Perrett, one-time member of pop punks The Only Ones, is resilient. A former addict Perret is now reconnecting with his sons, working with them on this new music. Welcome in to your lives too, Sarah MacDougall, Lydia Ainsworth, Haviah Mighty ( her track she says is “a soundtrack for day-to-day self-motivation,” Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Bear’s Den, and Night Moves. Let’s keep on keeping on.

Shows:

Haviah Mighty - Friday, May 3 @ Drake Underground, Toronto
Bear’s Den - Friday, May 24 @ Phoenix Concert Theatre, Toronto
Sarah MacDougall - Saturday, June 15 @ Old Town Hall, Waterford, ON.
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - Saturday, June 15 @ Yonge/Dundas Square, Toronto