Digging Roots, the husband and wife duo hailing from First Nations Canada, are bringing their brand of contemporary roots music to Australian shores.
Raven Kanatakta and ShoShona Kish have been creating music since 2004, and Raven describes the pair's sound, and what influenced their musical direction. “I would say our genre jumps a lot. We fit in alternative categories. We play blues, reggae and hip hop. It's a contemporary mix of all sorts of music, but then I guess we bring some of our traditional music in there as well.
“We do this thing called 'song lines' which is a tradition from where we come from, and it involves using the land as a melody. Imagine you're sitting by a lake. You have a drum in your hand, playing a beat, and you're looking up at the horizon. You see a mountain going up, then you see it going down again, then it goes into a valley. So you build a melody off that. We do chant sometimes, but mostly it's a framework to build the melodies into our contemporary song forms.”
Their musical partnership started spontaneously and successfully. “I met ShoShona through a mutual friend. We connected, and the first time we met we were just having a really good chat and she lost track of time and realised she had an audition.
"So I said I'd come and check her out and we'd never played music before or anything. It just so happened that I had my guitar with me and she asked me to join me on stage. Out of 130 people auditioning for a spot at the Ottawa Folk Festival, we played two tunes and got the spot. So we've been playing ever since.”
Digging Roots have showcased their music around Australia twice before their arrival this year, and Raven explains why he believes they are received so well over here. “I think part of it is we're different, and we come from a different part of the world. Every time we've come back, we've connected with different people.
"There's two kind of connects we make when come to Australia: the indigenous folk from down there, but also just with regular folk, like festival organisers etc.”
Their songs have touched on subjects such as in the incomprehensible issue of the near 1,200 missing and murdered indigenous women in Canada over the last few decades ('Hwy 17'). Raven explains why they include contemporary messages in their songs. “Music does something to the brain. When you play music or listening to music, the brain lights up in ways that nothing else can do that.
“As human beings we are built for song and dance. Any original culture in the world has music and dance together. We have sung songs that have messages behind them, sort of like Bob Marley or early Ben Harper. Because you're able to say things that politicians really wouldn't address.”
Digging Roots have a newly recorded single to surprise Australia with. “We're finishing up recording a song right now that we're going to bring over with us. It's a new song that we're going to unleash in Australia. It'll be released in Australia first, and will hit the radio in the next few weeks.”
Written by Liam Steers
Digging Roots Shows
Sat 13 Feb - National Multi-Cultural Festival (Canberra)15-19 Feb - Cross-Cultural Workshops @ BEMAC (Brisbane)
Fri 19 Feb - BEMAC (Brisbane)
23-26 Feb - Cross-Cultural Workshops (Yirrkala Arnhem Land, NT)
Sat 27 Feb - Arnhem Club (Nhulunbuy)
Thu 3 Mar - Klub Koori (Sydney)
Sat 5 Mar - Bellingen Memorial Hall
Wed 16 Mar - Newtown Social Club (Sydney)
Sat 19 Mar - Brunswick Music Festival (Melbourne)
