Anishinaabe Songwriter Graeme Jonez Blends Roots and Rock in Gritty New Single, “Ride or Die”
The bikers’ famous credo is that we ride to live and live to ride. But Graeme Jonez wants you to know that it runs deeper than that. His new single, “Ride or Die,” raises the stakes of life on the road to something truly metaphysical—an irresistible rendezvous with the infinite that’s just a full tank of gas away.
A gutsy, gritty piece of latter-day roots rock, the song is sung from the perspective of a rider who’s surrendered to the call of the “great highway,” trusting it to take him wherever it will. That road might even end in death, but he welcomes the chance to one day learn “the kind of things no living man knows.” In the meantime, he harbors “no worries about tomorrow/’Cause tonight it’s ride or die.”
“Shouldn’t we all think this way?” Jonez asks, by way of explaining the mindset he was in when he wrote the song on a 2023 trip to Mexico. “I mean, everyone dies at some point, and we never know when it’s coming. So why not do things that really make you feel alive while you still can?”
Recorded at Toronto’s The Nelson Room by producer Derek Downham and engineer Tim Foy, “Ride or Die” conveys its message with a sound that’s raw, honest, and untamed. It blends the influences of country, blues, folk, and rock into a contemporary sound that conjures up the feeling of an exhilarating road trip broken up by contemplative nights around a campfire. Jonez has even thrown in some affectionate nods to the 1960s hot-rod music he grew up with, including a shoutout to Jan & Dean’s infamous “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Painting pictures on record comes naturally to this Anishinaabe/English song stylist, whose skills as a writer and performer depend equally on the storytelling traditions of his birth culture and his personal affinity for vintage folk and blues. His Indigenous background has enabled him to infuse an everyday concept like motorcycle riding with a quasi-spiritual significance with the lyrics “My mama swears we all go to heaven,” he sings in the new single’s opening lines, “but everyone I know just turns to bones and dust.”)
A member of the Sheguiandah First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Jonez is an alumnus of Manitoba Music’s Indigenous Music Residency; since then, he’s received grants from the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council, and last year participated in a one-week songwriting residency at the SOCAN LA House. High-profile live gigs have included the ReconciliAction Market (Downie Wenjack), Union Summer (Red Music Rising) and Aga Khan Museum (Indigenous Peoples Week). He made his recorded debut with 2023’s full-length album Creatures & Criminals, giving him a foothold that led to the success of singles “100 Days Deep” (which saw rotation on SiriusXM’s Indigiverse) and “The Flood!” (#1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and ultimately the Merilainen Music Award winner for Single of the Year).
This year will bring the release of his eagerly anticipated second album, with “Ride or Die” its tantalizing opening salvo. As with all of his music, there’s plenty for us to chew over while we wait.
“‘Ride or Die’ was inspired by the motorcycle lifestyle, but it’s really just about our individual relationship with our own mortality,” he says. “Are we all living the life we want to live? What happens when you die? Are you ready to meet your maker if tomorrow is your last day?”
Maybe. But we’d really like to hear that album first.
Hi, Graeme! Good to meet you! Care to introduce yourself to the readers?
Aanii! (That’s hello in Anishinaabemowin, the language of the Anishinaabe.) My name is Graeme Jonez. I’m a singer-songwriter living in Toronto, born and raised in “The Railway City” (St. Thomas. My musical style melds folk storytelling with rock, blues, and indie pop.
The song frames the open road as a metaphor for life’s journey and mortality. How did this idea take shape during your trip to Mexico, and what inspired you to explore these deeper themes through a motorcycle lifestyle?
I wanted to write a song that had a real outlaw motorcycle vibe, and I’d come across the phrase “ride or die” recently. I wanted to turn that whole “she’s my ride or die” cliche into something darker, deeper, more raw. I’ve been a motorcyclist all my life, so I have these visions and memories of cruising into the sunset on a desert highway, camping under the stars, and things like that. I wanted to write a song that captured those visuals, those vibes.
I try to write more when I’m traveling, and I just happened to be on a trip to Oaxaca when I decided to write the lyrics. I came home and put the melody to it, recorded a demo on my phone and, a few months later, we were recording it in the studio.
Your Anishinaabe heritage and its storytelling traditions seem to add a spiritual dimension to your work. How does your background shape the way you tell stories through music, especially in a song like “Ride or Die”?
Yeah, you nailed it. The Anishinaabe are storytellers, and my medium happens to be songwriting and music. It’s important to incorporate my culture into my music, which you’ll find in a lot of my songs. In “Ride or Die” I touch on the sensitive subject of Christianity, which has been a curse to Indigenous people but is also an important part of many Indigenous peoples’ lives. Whether you believe in the spirit world, reincarnation, or heaven & hell, we all gotta ride that great highway someday. On “Ride Or Die” I’m asking listeners to turn inward and ask themselves if they’ve lived life to the fullest and made peace with what happens in the afterlife.
The song pays homage to 1960s hot-rod music, including a shoutout to Jan & Dean’s “Dead Man’s Curve.” What role does vintage music play in shaping your sound, and why did you feel it was important to reference it here?
Good question. First off, that song is awesome and I 100% recommend it to anyone who hasn’t heard it! I grew up listening to Oldies radio, and when my friends were listening to new stuff in high school, I was listening to my parent’s records and buying old cassette tapes. I saw Bob Dylan live when I was about 16, and that changed me forever. I bought a crappy guitar and took out a bunch of songbooks from the library, mostly folk music and some oldies. In my late 20s, I got into Delta Blues music. And I’m a huge Beatles fan. So yeah, vintage music has a big influence on my writing and musical style. I used to call myself a folk musician, but I think I’m outgrowing that moniker as my records evolve.
“Ride or Die” was recorded with producer Derek Downham and engineer Tim Foy. How did their contributions influence the song’s gritty and authentic sound, and what was the recording process like?
Tim’s studio (The Nelson Room in Toronto’s Roncesvalles Village) is a hidden gem with great sound, incredible recording equipment, and great instruments. Derek played a lot of the instruments, and he’s got next-level talent in pretty much everything. I knew we could turn the sound in my head into reality, and we really brought it to life. From the Red Dead Redemption-tinged intro to the big choruses and that wild, extended outro, the production is really exceptional. It’s one of the main reasons I chose it as the lead single for the upcoming album.