Yukon Musician Erica Dee Mah Releases New EP, Paper Wealth
Yukon-based orchestral folk musician Erica Dee Mah shares her new EP Paper Wealth out now on all digital streaming platforms.
To celebrate the launch of the EP, Erica is also releasing ‘Crocuses’ as the 2nd single following the release of the previous single “The Garden“, which debuted in March. “Crocuses” is a serene and ethereal track written as an ode to artistry and expression.
“I wrote this song about the last summer I lived in Vancouver before moving to the Yukon,” says Erica. “I was taking guzheng lessons at Crystal Mall and would ride my bike through the city to my lesson each week. It was a time of deep musical study. The song celebrates personal creativity and freedom, and cultural connection.”
A singer-songwriter and contemporary guzheng player, Erica grew up in Smithers, BC, and then lived in Vancouver from 2000 to 2014 before moving to her current home in Whitehorse, Yukon. In 2022, she released The Sargasso Season, an original collection of songs written on the traditional 21-stringed Chinese zither. The album, which received national media recognition, is an exploration of sounds and possibilities on the versatile instrument and seeks out a place for the guzheng in Canadian folk-roots music. Erica writes about transoceanic journeys, Chinese-Canadian identity across generations, and finding connections in new landscapes. Her new EP Paper Wealth draws on similar cultural themes but with much deeper knowledge of the traditional instrument.
Says Erica:
“Paper Wealth is a collection of songs that I wrote on the guzheng about Chinese-Canadian cultural identity across generations. July 1st, 2023, marked the centennial of the 1923 Chinese Exclusion Act, and while writing these songs, I thought about the long journey to citizenship and the even longer journey to social acceptance that Chinese-Canadians have endured over the past century.”