“These Days”

Biintigen miinawaa, Welcome again,

 

Once again, a chi-miigwech to CBC Superior Morning for debuting the new releases for the upcoming album, “and then…”. I’m a big fan of CBC, and they were the first to ever play my music, so I am feeling respect and gratitude for their support, and for all of you who are coming to watch, listen and follow along with the release. The entire album will be available digitally in December.

Five weeks ago, we released “Warrior’s Lullaby” (you can read the blog here).  An emotional for so many. I want to add here, that I will NOT be making funds/revenue on this song or on an upcoming song “Crying Bones”. Should there be any funds from these two songs, we will donate the full amount to an organization that is dedicated to using full donated funds to reconciliation efforts. We are currently working on finding the right organization to donate to. Two weeks ago, we released Listen to the Waves” (read the blog here.) This one is light and fluffy…. written on my honeymoon. Two weeks ago we released “i miss you. This song brings so much emotion to the core (read blog here.)

These Days” is something completely new and out of my general element. My co-producer, engineer, guitar player and friend, Jordan Elcheson, really pulled this song to a whole new level. I am a fan of alternative music, but I certainly don’t see myself as an alternative song writer. He really helped merge my style into the alternative style with this song. Such an amazing musician he is.

Where did this song come from? Well, my son was 2 years old when I wrote this, and I had put him down for a nap. I had 1.5 hours to write a song. I hadn’t written a song since “Boob Not the Bottle” which I was commissioned to write to endorse Breast Feeding. (I loved breast feeding my son personally, so it was really a cool song writing experience for me.) Anyway, I wanted to write something new and different.

I have always been a huge fan of Gordon Downie and his unique style of writing. His songs could mean almost anything you wanted them to, depending on your mood, your life experience, your background or or or… His craft with lyrics and melody are so unique and admirable… now, I will say I don’t think I could ever write like him, but I wanted to try and write with that approach … in 1.5 hour!… and see what I could come up with. Thus, “These Days“, was born. It actually took about 15 minutes to write. I through it on Facebook, and then completely forgot about it until this summer when we decided to throw this album together. Jordan truly brought it to life from that point!

 

Vanessa Willow Giiniw-Ikwe

The artwork is a special story too. If you have been following this album release, you will remember that I’m doing a slow release on the music and a slow release on the artwork too. Sonya Belisle completed the artwork on the first 2 songs. Vanessa Willow Giiniw-Ikwe completed this releases addition and will be doing the next one as well. I told the artists that I didn’t want to know what they were doing, and I did’t want to add my input; I wanted them to truly have their own thoughts and interpretations of the songs through their art. It will be interesting for me (and hopefully all of you!) to see how this album artwork progresses through the songs.

When Vanessa added to the artwork for “These Days“, I didn’t have a clue as to what to expect. Like I sorta eluded to, a song can mean almost anything depending on your mood, lived experience, background or who is around…. any direction really. Vanessa felt and saw something I never would have. Man I love how this amazing woman thinks!

Vanessa kept thinking about the line “These days are faded memories”. Both Vanessa and I identify as Ojibwe Indigenous. It is part of our belief that we all have blood-memory. The memories of our ancestors flows in our genetics and blood. Not to compare us to turtles but they just know what to do when they are born. I think that analogy kinda explains it, but not really. When you have those dreams that you know come from somewhere else, far away, long ago, deep inside… And so her art that she added this round brought that ancient thought and knowledge into this day for the art. I was moved and gloriously mystified and in love with what she said.

It really goes to show that you never know what a song might say or mean to someone else. The power in words and melody goes so deep and reaches WAY further than what we intend as song writers. A truly amazing, genuine, gifted singer-songwriter friend Leanne Goose once said, “A song doesn’t belong to us, it comes through us from the Spirit World.” So so true! That little statement makes me rethink so many songs I hear, picturing them from the Spirit World… doesn’t that enlighten your thoughts on music? (And if you have the time, please check out some of Leanne’s songs that came through her, I just love her. Her song “Never Forget” is one that haunts my soul.

Well, I thank you all for reading this little post, and I so much appreciate you watching, listening and sharing… 🙂 The next song that will be released is, “Crying Bones”. That is a song my son actually inspired (he is now 5 and 11/12! and we must include the fraction), and he honestly wrote the chorus of it. I hope you come back to listen next week too.

If you would like to be on a mailing list for the songs as they come out, please feel free to send me an email to shyanne.leah@gmail.com and I will send you the next blog post with the “Crying Bones” release and video. Vanessa Giniw-Ikwe will once again be the next artist for this song. So excited to see how the album art evolves with the song releases!