Tuesday 18 June 2019

iskwē - A World in London

iskwē

with Alex Mak

A World in London, Borough, London, UK
11th June 2019


Powerful and passionate singer songwriter iskwē was on #AWorldInLondon at Resonance 104.4fm with guitarist Alex Mak. Her soulful and revealing lyrics offer deep insights into the present lives & history of indigenous communities in Canada, telling stories that need to be told and very much heard. 

Alex Mak
iskwē is an Indigenous pop and electronic music singer from Canada, who received a Juno Award nomination for Indigenous Music Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 2018 for her second album The Fight Within. The name iskwē is one part of the artists' traditional Cree name, which was gifted to her through ceremony in 1998 and she prefers this moniker over the legal name she was given at birth, as it is a connection to her spirit and culture. Further to this, iskwē has adopted Standard Roman Orthography to write her name, removing the use of capitalization, because this is a common practice used by Cree academics to write the language.

Originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba, iskwē has lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and Toronto, and now calls Hamilton, Ontario home. She released her debut album Iskwé in 2013.
Bridging cross-cultural aesthetics while exploring her own struggle to both fit into and break away from modern Western archetypes has been an important part of iskwē's artistic vision since the release of her WCMA nominated self-titled debut album. Her debut single "Nobody Knows," produced by Juno Award nominees The Darcys and featured in the Netflix series Between, captivated audiences by turning a stark spotlight on the more than 1200 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.
iskwē garnered a win at the 2017 Western Canadian Music Awards (WCMA) for Electronic/Dance Artist of the Year and her 2017 album The Fight Within recently received a JUNO nomination for Indigenous Music Album Of The Year. She followed up with a number of singles before releasing The Fight Within in 2017. In 2018, she received a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nomination for the song "Healers".



No comments:

Post a Comment