Last year, we set out to highlight the voices and sounds of Indigenous and Native artists from across the North American continent. Now we’re revisiting our growing list to introduce you to some of our new favorites: budding singers/songwriters and indie-pop crooners, as well as those reshaping rock and hip-hop.
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From words of pain and healing — which echo the shared experiences of people of color in a post-colonial world — to urgent calls for environmental justice, music remains one of the many ways they’ve fiercely preserved a connection to their culture and language despite centuries of oppressive assimilation. Let this serve as your reminder that celebrating and supporting Indigenous and Native communities starts with listening to them.
Words by Steven Ward
Produced by Sandra Burciaga Olinger
1. Elisapie
Those of you who read last year’s feature should already be familiar with Inuk singer/songwriter Elisapie. Her first two albums — There Will Be Stars and Travelling Love — overflow with propulsively vibrant rollickers of indie-pop design sung in both English and Inuktitut. Whether you find yourself hopelessly enamored by the breezy rhythms that oscillate on “Turning My Back” or scintillating riffs that jump from “Life Is What You Make It” (a song that calls to mind the beguiling punchiness of Rilo Kiley), you won’t find anything but jams buried in her catalog.
Steeped in pensive alt-folk soundscapes, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl saw Elisapie confronting with agonizing honesty the individual and collective trauma that led her to leave her home behind. More recently, she released a truly ethereal covers album in the form of Inuktitut — an at times haunting and searingly triumphant reappropriation of songs by Blondie, Queen, Cyndi Lauper, and others that illuminates the memories these classic hits came to define in her youth living in Salluit, Nunavik, Quebec.
2. TwoLips
The project of Los Angeles-based Kianah LongChase, an enrolled member of the Native Village of Eklutna located in Alaska, TwoLips discography is one replete with songs that crisscross R&B/soul and hip-hop. Her debut EP, Yellow Gold, gilded her lambent vocals in funkily spiraling rhythms and silky smooth textures. Subsequent releases like Psychowave and FRIEND ANTHEM signaled an evolution in her sound, ornamenting her self-explicating and hypnotic bars with heady beats and suave instrumentals.
She also possesses a prolific collaboration streak — teaming up with Def Sound and Tolliver on her SixDollarSage Mixtape. The release of her most recent single, “Nations,“ finds her sinking her teeth into a rallying anthem made all the more rousing by its rush of shuddering drums. A sight to see live, if you ever come across TwoLips on a lineup, be sure to get yourself a ticket to the show.
3. Ruby Waters
It’s hard to pinpoint which is the more affecting quality of singer/songwriter Ruby Waters’ 2019 debut album Almost Naked. Maybe it’s her stirring lyricism and the ease with which she arouses existential weariness and hope alongside heartbreak and unabashed desire. Or perhaps it’s how she gives life to the poetic nature of her words, enveloping them in soaring rock choruses as on “Sweet Sublime,” or riff-sizzling confessionals like “Last Cigarette.” Whichever the case, the whole album is rife with hits.
Waters, who is originally from Ontario and is of Métis and Slovak heritage, returned a year later with her sophomore effort If It Comes Down To It. All seven songs arrived aglow and burning with a melodic resonance that lent greater urgency to her driving folk-rock. “Fox” and “Difficult” are just two instant favorites you’ll find tucked away within.
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4. Xiuhtezcatl
From the moment Xiuhtezcatl released his self-titled debut in 2018, he established himself as a notorious collaborator, eventually co-founding the hip-hop trio Voice Runners with Tru and producer Jaiia Cerff, and a fearless lightning-rod of political and environmental activism. Just this year he’s provided his code-switching flow to tracks like the sublime “La Cura” — featuring Tonina and Sam Pine — teamed up with BARDO for the revelatory feel-good groove anthem “We’re All Just Stars,” and enlisted Oglala Lakota artist Mato Wayuhi on new single “Veils.”
With Aztec roots, Xiuhtezcatl was raised in the tradition of the Mexica (one of the native peoples of México). His family has passed down the traditional knowledge of seeing an individual as part of a greater whole and emphasizing the connection between all aspects of the natural world. Xiuhtezcatl has spoken about the impact of fossil fuels on indigenous and other marginalized communities. He has delivered speeches at the United Nations and gained notoriety after delivering a multilingual speech in English, Spanish, and his native language, Nahuatl, during the 2015 United Nations General Assembly.
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5. CHLOE STAR
CHLOE STAR might only have a handful of singles out, but every single one of them is a banger. First came the bombastic alt-pop “Element,” a bass-bumping and swaggering track that showcased the Los Angeles-based artist’s intoxicating bravado. They’ve since edged closer toward driving pop-punk with the release of “Fool” and “Found My Peace” — her recollections of toxic love finding ecstatic fulfillment in their blistering sincerity. Her latest single “Happy Place” stays true to the pop-rock sound she has so vibrantly cultivated.
Growing up, Chloe Star spent much of her adolescent years between Los Angeles and on the reservation of the San Manuel tribe of Serrano people in San Bernardino, California. Despite a chaotic childhood that was often unstable, she found peace in journaling and writing poetry. After teaching herself piano and guitar, she soon started transforming those personal words into lyrics.
6. Shawnee Kish
Mohawk singer/songwriter Shawnee Kish started out singing Shania Twain songs, her dulcet vocals undoubtedly tapping into previously unplumbed depths of the country singer’s hits. Unsurprisingly, her self-titled debut EP is a cascade of invigoratingly soulful pop (“Light Me Up,” “Got It Bad”) and rapt ballads resounding within colossal soundscapes (“I Left, but I Never Lied”). This year brought with it her follow-up Revolution — a jubilant, gutting, but altogether ravishing display of heartwarming wonder. Its closing track, “For Me,“ encompasses the staggering beauty that’s now synonymous with Kish’s music.
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7. Cassidy Mann
Cassidy Mann unveiled her debut EP, If It’s Not Forever, just last year. Its six tracks are awash in her melancholic but effervescent style of indie pop. Whether she’s singing about ex-lovers or lost friends — as on her latest single, “Everblue” — the Winnipeg singer/songwriter views her music as a means of preservation. A sentiment that stems from her family’s roots in the Sagkeeng First Nation and the importance of storytelling in conserving everything from memories to culture. Cocooned by gleaming folk acoustics and her translucent vocals, songs like “Along for the Ride” revel in the gentle splendor evoked by her intimate lyrics.
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