Aysanabee

Two-time JUNO award winner for Songwriter of the Year and Alternative Album of the Year (Here and Now), Aysanabee (Eh-sin-abby) began creating music under his mother’s maiden name during the pandemic when the stillness allowed him to slow down and create music that, he says, more accurately represents himself as an artist. With a swirling mix of indie, soul, and electronic sounds, mournful saxophone, and pulse-quickening fingerpicking, Aysanabee’s music is both hypnotic and melodious, and has been compared to Bon Iver, Matt Corby, Don Ross, Kim Churchill, and Kings of Leon, among others.

Short-listed for the 2023 Polaris Prize, winner of three 2023 Summer Solstice Indigenous Music Awards for Artistic Video, Pop/Alternative/Rock Album of the Year, and Rising Star, winner of the 2023 Jim Beam Indie Award for Indigenous Artist of the Year, and winner of a 2023 Canadian Live Music Award for New Touring Artist of the Year, Aysanabee (he/him) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and singer-songwriter currently based in Toronto. He is Oji-Cree, Sucker Clan of the Sandy Lake First Nation, a remote fly-in community in the far reaches of Northwestern Ontario.

Among his many accomplishments, Aysanabee was also nominated for a 2023 JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Group or Artist of the Year, and became the first Indigenous artist to hit Number 1 on Mediabase Canada’s Alternative Rock chart (March 2023).

His debut album, Watin (Nov 2022), named after his grandfather, includes 10 tracks and nine interludes featuring the voice of his grandfather that combines music and journalism with artistry and expression. “Watin actually started out as a series of conversations between myself and my grandfather,” says Aysanabee. “We spent the first year of the pandemic talking about things we’ve never spoken about, his life on the trapline on Sandy Lake First Nation, falling in love, his life in residential school and then leaving everything behind…we never spoke of it until now. Even though we were over 1,000 kilometres apart, it was probably the closest we’ve ever been.”

In what became a whirlwind year for Aysanabee, he released his first single, “We Were Here” in July of 2022. This single charted on the Indigenous Music Countdown and was featured on an episode of Station 19. This single was also performed live at the 2023 JUNO Awards, further solidifying Aysanabee as a major player in Canadian music. The year continued with the release of “Nomads” (August 2022) which charted on Billboard Canada, reached #1 on CBC Music and #1 on the Alternative Radio Chart (March 2023), and finally, “Ego Death” (October 2022), which led up to the release of his full album, Watin, in November. With the success of his debut releases, Aysanabee has made a name for himself as a unique and talented artist, proving that he is here to stay and will continue to be a major force in the Canadian music scene. 

With Here and Now, the artist’s latest  EP, Aysanabee moves in a new direction, towards his own experiences of love’s end and his process of unflinching self-examination. With high voltage production, Aysanabee shifts Watin’s finger-picked acoustic foundation into soundscape waves that carry his voice forward. The album features 6 new songs including the hit single, “Somebody Else” (June 2023) which reached #3 on the MediaBase Alternative Chart and delves into the theme of memory – a significant motif in his songwriting. “Here and Now”, the title track off the album, is a coulda woulda shoulda song. “There are a million ways and a million different outcomes to any situation but things unfold the way they unfold,” says Aysanabee, “and sometimes you just need to appreciate the moments, the memories, the people who have come into your life for a time to share their gifts with you and vice versa.” 

“Aysanabee has a gift for excavating memories in his songs, and “Somebody Else” is a beautiful example.”

– CBC Music  

“Here and Now quenches the appetite as a sequel. Although the context of this record is different, the authenticity remains. Like a true artist, Aysanabee is always experimenting, growing and putting his heart into the music.”

– Range

“He wrings emotion from his audience, and immortalizes a kind of feeling and a moment in time through his gut-wrenching vocals and the multi-instrumental, gorgeously produced backdrop of his songs.”

– The Gauntlet (Calgary Folk Festival)