Mississauga #8 First Nation musician releases first album
By Leslie Knibbs
MISSISSAUGA #8 FIRST NATION— Evan Redsky is a member of Mississauga #8 First Nation who has toured worldwide honing his skills as a musician as well as his acumen in the music industry.
He is a self-taught musician who successfully manages his own career and acts as his own booking agent.
“That’s the name of the game at this stage,” he stated recently in an interview.
Only a few weeks ago he returned from a two-week tour of Great Britain with the band Altameda. Their sound was described as “combining the country drawl of Gram Parsons with the raw alt-aesthetic of The Replacements” in a review of their album, ‘Dirty Rain’, released in July of 2016. Following this tour, on October 20, Redsky released his first solo LP, Oblivion, with Victory Pool Records drawing on the talents of Altameda during the recording session.
Recently, Redsky reflected on his long journey to releasing his first solo project.
“For the last few years, I didn’t think there was much reason to pursue music anymore. I was in the middle of a personal reckoning and struggling to make sense of the life I had lived up until that point. That next step slowly revealed itself as I began writing about my own history; started weaving my lived experiences into the music I grew up listening to. The highway songs and FM radio that covered Northern Ontario and the small reserve of Mississauga #8 First Nation where I was raised.”
Redsky began playing guitar at about age 13 at home in Mississauga #8. His mother bought his first guitar in Grade 9. After finishing high school, Redsky attended Fanshawe College in London, Ont., studying Theatre Arts. Although he didn’t pursue an acting career, he certainly didn’t stray from performing in public. Following his graduation in 2012 from college, music really took off. He joined the well-known London, Ontario-based hard core Punk band, The Single Mothers, playing bass with the band touring Canada, America, Mexico, Spain, and England.
Redsky describes his recent release, Oblivion, as “an artifact and extension of our oral histories for the next seven generations to pick up.”
For him, it’s a record for anyone who may want to better understand First Nation people — “for those who may not know why some of us struggle to survive in a country that fights to see our own oblivion.”
During his journey, Redsky often hitchhiked to Toronto from Blind River immersing himself in the rapidly increasing punk and hardcore music scene. While a full-time resident of Toronto now, he remembers sleeping under bridges and on construction sites back in those days. It was this commitment to music that led to him joining The Single Mothers. He remained with the band for half a decade.
Soon after leaving the band, he began hosting fundraising events to bring awareness to the clean water crisis, which affected his paternal family that still resides in Shoal Lake #40 in Northern Ontario. His desire to share his own experiences is akin to something his great grandfather on his father’s side did when he translated pictographs resulting in the work, The Great Leader of the Ojibway, published by the University of Toronto in the 1970s. Redsky’s grandfather, a member of the spiritual group known by the name Midewiwin, was one of the last people to have in his possession ancient birch bark scrolls with etchings dating back centuries. The young Redsky is indeed a storyteller.
Redsky is proud of his collection of songs on the new album.
“I am humbled by the distance that has gotten me here. It took a reckoning to push me down to the bottom, but it’ll be the art that will push me forward. So, here’s to those who could not tell their stories, who could not live to fight their way back out from oblivion.”
To listen to Redsky’s title track off his recent LP release, visit: https://youtu.be/3O9YgBt093U. The debut album, “Oblivion”, is out now through Victory Pool and Big Voice Recordings.