Big Hassle Media NY
40 Exchange Pl, Ste. 1900
New York, NY 10005
P 212.619.1360
Big Hassle Media LA
3685 Motor Ave Suite 240.
Los Angeles, CA 90034
P 424.603.4655
Jeremy Dutcher isn’t easy to pin down. Performer, composer, activist, musicologist — these roles are all infused into his art and way of life. His music, too, transcends boundaries: unapologetically playful in its incorporation of classical influences, full of reverence for the traditional songs of his home, and teeming with the urgency of modern-day struggles of resistance.
A member of Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Jeremy was studying music in Halifax when he had an epiphany. “I started to look into the canon of classical music for content that dealt with indigenous issues, or was written by indigenous people,” he recalls, “and there’s not too much…”
“So when you don’t see something out there, you have to make it yourself.”
Jeremy worked in the archives at the Canadian Museum of History, painstakingly transcribing Wolastoq songs from century old wax cylinders. “Many of the songs I’d never heard before, because our musical tradition on the East Coast went underground.” As a measure of the Canadian Government’s Indian Act, all ceremonial songs and dances were banned in public for decades. Jeremy heard ancestral voices singing forgotten songs and stories that had been taken from the Wolastoqiyik generations ago.
“I started to listen to this amazing archive and understood at once that it was my responsibility to bring these back to the people,” he explains, “and think about all the good things these songs could bring into our community if we start to sing them again. Song is just one part of a multifaceted project of reclamation of Wolastoqiyik identity.”
For Jeremy, it was clear early on that this project would be about much more than just recovery. As he listened to each recording, he felt his own musical impulses stirring from deep within. Long days at the archives turned into long nights at the piano, feeling out melodies and phrases, deep in dialogue with the voices of his ancestors.
These “collaborative” compositions, collected together on his debut LP Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa, are like nothing you’ve ever heard. Delicate, sublime vocal melodies ring out atop piano lines that cascade through a vibrant range of emotions. The anguish and joy of the past erupt fervently into the present through Jeremy’s bold approach to composition and raw, affective performances.
“I’m doing this work because there’s only about a hundred Wolastoqey speakers left,” he says. “It’s crucial for us to make sure that we’re using our language and passing it on to the next generation. If you lose the language, you’re not just losing words; you’re losing an entire way of seeing and experiencing the world from a distinctly indigenous perspective.”
“We need to be insistent and unapologetic in telling our story on our own terms.”
FIRST NATION COMPOSER JEREMY DUTCHER
WINS POLARIS PRIZE
FOR BEST CANADIAN RECORD OF 2018
USING MUSIC TO SAVE HIS LANGUAGE WITH NEW LP
WOLASTOQIYIK LINTUWAKONAWA (OUR MALISEET SONGS)
ALBUM STREAMING ON BILLBOARD
Also available on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play & Deezer:
https://www.smarturl.it/jeremydutcher
Download available upon request for album reviews
—
Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawais named as one of Noisey’s
“40 Essential Albums You Probably Missed So Far in 2018“
Watch Jeremy Dutcher perform on
—
“Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawais an unprecedented piece of cultural archivism, and its revival of a dying tongue is an example of what music can tangibly do for humanity.”
– NOISEY (Phil Witmer)
“It is said that music is the universal language, but Toronto-based First Nations tenor and pianist Jeremy Dutcher has created an accessible album in his native Wolastoq, or Maliseet, a language spoken today in Canada by an estimated 600 people.”
– BILLBOARD (Karen Bliss)
“The future meets the past as Dutcher’s resonant operatic voice is paired with a recording made over 110 years ago of a speech by Wolastoqiyik ancestor Jim Paul, on death and what comes after. Layered with crystalline strings and booming horns, the result sounds grandiose yet intimate.”
– NOISEY (Veronica Zaretski)
FIRST NATION COMPOSER AND 2018 POLARIS PRIZE WINNER
JEREMY DUTCHER
SHARES CASEY HQ REMIX
FOR “POMOK NAKA POKTOINSKWES”
VIA THE FADER
AWARD WINNING NEW LP
WOLASTOQIYIK LINTUWAKONAWA (OUR MALISEET SONGS)
USES MUSIC TO SAVE HIS INDIGENOUS LANGUAGE
“In the new artist’s hands, “Pomok” is transformed from a devastating, piano-driven march into an electronic number more knotty and dancefloor ready but no less urgent.”
ALBUM STREAMING ON BILLBOARD
Also available on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Google Play & Deezer:
https://www.smarturl.it/jeremydutcher
Download available upon request for album reviews
—
Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawais named as one of Noisey’s
“40 Essential Albums You Probably Missed So Far in 2018“
Watch Jeremy Dutcher perform on
—
“Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawais an unprecedented piece of cultural archivism, and its revival of a dying tongue is an example of what music can tangibly do for humanity.”
– NOISEY (Phil Witmer)
“It is said that music is the universal language, but Toronto-based First Nations tenor and pianist Jeremy Dutcher has created an accessible album in his native Wolastoq, or Maliseet, a language spoken today in Canada by an estimated 600 people.”
– BILLBOARD (Karen Bliss)
“The future meets the past as Dutcher’s resonant operatic voice is paired with a recording made over 110 years ago of a speech by Wolastoqiyik ancestor Jim Paul, on death and what comes after. Layered with crystalline strings and booming horns, the result sounds grandiose yet intimate.”
– NOISEY (Veronica Zaretski)
1500x1500
Auralast
Pomok Naka Poktoinskwes
800x533
Matt Barnes Photography
837x837
Matt Barnes Photography
636x421
Matt Barnes Photography
800x800
Aura
800x533
Matt Barnes Photography