Earlier this year RPM tagged Crystal Jfrom the Nuxalk Nation as one to watch. Since then this young artist has released her debut album, the dance, pop and R&B laced Love, and we've got the first track to get you hooked.
Singing since the age of five Crystal J discovered R&B and hip-hop in her teens and currently calls Bella Coola her home. Take this song at its word and you'll know that Crystal is filled with dedication, strength and talent. Or just get up and dance. Either way, Crystal is an exciting new voice!
The Caley Watts Band's The Wolf Song begins as a slow howl before picking up into a quick trot and bringing us down some west coast trails, heads nodding to the rhythm.
I imagine game trails, hunting and rabbits. Images of wolf cubs come to my mind, and then young pups testing their strength against the others'. If The Caley Watts Band from Bella Coola drew inspiration for this song from the wild, it's worked to bring the author back into the woods in his imagination.
Bella Coola is the traditional territory of the Nuxalk Nation, who have been there for an estimated 10,000 years, if not longer. There is a rich culture of storytelling there. In traditional narratives told by Aboriginal peoples of the Pacific Coast, supernatural beings were known to take the form of animals, birds or fish in the human world. In their own villages, these beings lived among the people as humans. Many stories tell of the encounters between humans and animal or supernatural beings, sometimes even with traditional masks and dance that were preserved through the times, even though potlatching and masks were at one time not allowed.
Is Caley Watts really a wolf being, singing the songs of her ancestors?
Watch: The Caley Watts Band - "The Wolf Song":
RPM Records
Revolutions Per Minute is a global new music platform, record label, and boutique agency for Indigenous music culture. RPM’s mission is to build a visionary community of Indigenous artists and to introduce Indigenous music to new audiences across Turtle Island and around the world. Our main site, RPM.fm, has featured the work of more than 500 Indigenous artists and shared their music across our social networks of more than 275,000 followers.
RPM Records is the first of its kind: a label for contemporary, cross-genre Indigenous music, run by Indigenous people. Selected by The FADER as one of “5 New Canadian Record Labels The Entire World Should Know”, RPM Records artists include Ziibiwan, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Exquisite Ghost, and Mob Bounce.
