Edzi’u Unveils New Album, Potlatch In The Box
Today, Edzi’u unveiled their second album, Potlatch In The Box. The album draws inspiration from the Canadian ban on the Potlatch and how it affected their ancestors’ tradition and culture.
Edzi’u is a Tahltan and Tlingit artist based in Vancouver, Canada on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. An innovative songwriter and composer who paints stories of the past, present, and future with textures, elder’s stories, words, and their ethereal voice – their new album Potlatch In The Box is a stunning showcase of that artistic vision. Being rich in culture, full of passion and spirit, the power behind their use of sound goes deep within the listener, inspiring them to be bold and genuine, while living fully within their hearts.
Drawing inspiration from their roots and their experiences Edzi’u weaves together a tapestry of sound that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. The album features a diverse array of tracks, from the hypnotic first single “Warrior Song” to the pulsing “Raven Clan Welcome” – they shine a light on the wrongs of the past and the present, including Canada’s ban on the Potlatch, and how it affected their ancestor’s traditions, culture and world. That being said, there is a balance in the new music – a hope – one that shines with their rich, soulful vocals that have a style (and sound) like no other.Â
Listen to Potlatch in the Box below and learn more about Edzi’u via our Five Questions With segment.
Care to introduce yourself to our readers?
I’m a mixed, queer, Tahltan and Taku River Tlingit sound maker from northern British Columbia and southern Yukon who comes from a strong history of song creators and storytellers. In 2019 I graduated with a Bachelor of Music Composition, but I’ve been writing music since I was old enough to know what music was. I discovered sound art while in music school and produced my debut album Kim Ani, which samples audio clips from three generations of my grandmothers.
My first stage was inside old cars and trucks, driving to my traditional territories while singing country and rock to my aunts and uncles. When I was five years old I would borrow graphic books of early composers from my school library and dream of writing music for orchestras. Now, I live in Vancouver, the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Watuuth nations where I am a composer and audio engineer as well as a musician. I own and operate Ts’ats’ée Sounds, an audio production company where I write music for short films, dance, podcasts, New Music productions, and am a producer on other artists’ records.
Tell us a bit about your most recent release.
The album is called “Potlatch in the Box” – which has a double meaning. The term “in the box” is a producer term, meaning you mix on a DAW rather than a soundboard desk. I wrote and produced “Potlatch in the Box” completely using a DAW and software instruments. The cover art for the album was drawn by Tahltan cartoonist Cole Pauls, featuring a bentwood box with figures of a wolf, raven, and humans bursting out of it. Potlatch is the theme of the album. In simple terms, a potlatch is a ceremonial feast practiced by Indigenous peoples along the Northwest Coast, and each community and nation practices potlatch differently. But really to us as potlatching people, potlatch is the backbone of our entire lives, society, law, culture, how to be in relationship with each other and the land… so much is taught through the potlatch in how to be who we are.
This was the premise for “Potlatch in the Box,” and I wanted to create an album that spoke to our strengths as potlatching people in the face of legislative and colonial violence while representing Potlatch sonically. Each track of the album is built out of principles and teachings I’ve learned about Potlatch such as balance, honouring your community and clan opposites, welcoming, oratory, and dance. The audio clips used in the album are from interviews of my family and friends where we discuss our colonial inheritances as Indigenous peoples such as displacement, resistance, legislative impacts to our communities, death, and consequences of these impacts on our lands and food sources. The sound of the album from track to track is diverse but cohesive, drawing on dance beats, emotional audio clips, and haunting vocals.
Where do you tend to pull inspiration from when writing?
Over the years I wrote many songs about love and heartbreak, which I still do from time to time. Right now and for the past few years I am most inspired by my community and my family, resisting outer and inner colonial forces, and our power as sovereign people.
In terms of how I create my songs, I center the audio clips I’m using, paying attention to the tone, timbre, and presence of the person’s voice, and create a sound world for the voice in the audio clip to live. I draw a lot of the inspiration for the sound of the songs from the sound of these voices, as well as what the interviewee is talking about.
Do you have any upcoming shows you’d like to tell us about?
I have some talks in the works for performances but nothing concrete as of this interview. I’ve been focusing on this album release and am already planning and writing for my next EP, which will be completely different from this project. I will likely be performing “Potlatch in the Box” in Victoria this summer and fall, and I usually perform several times in Vancouver throughout the year. In my other sound and music work I am working on some big compositions for various projects, a short film, a new works classical collaborative piece, and I’m shopping around a sound art installation to some local Vancouver art galleries.
What’s your goal for 2023?
Creating a large outside sound installation with spatial sound is a big dream of mine. I have a few ideas percolating with some other incredibly talented Indigenous collaborators. Whatever happens, I feel like 2023 is going to be my year, so we will see what comes my way!