Indigenous Songwriter Of The Year Aysanabee Finds Clarity Through Musical Journey
In the ancient Italian town of Barletta, as dawn broke over cobblestone streets, Aysanabee found himself drawn to the discordant melody of broken bells. The two-time Juno Award-winning Indigenous artist wandered alone through the quiet morning, recording the haunting sounds on his phone while contemplating the whirlwind his life had become. This moment of clarity amid a relentless touring schedule would later inspire lyrics in “Edge of the Earth,” a song about finding one’s path through heartache and growth. For Aysanabee, these stolen moments of solitude represent the rare spaces between performing, traveling, and the administrative work that now consumes 60% of his time as a full-time musician – a reality far removed from his childhood in northern Ontario, where he grew up “in the bush with no electricity.”
Born in Northern Ontario, Aysanabee (born Evan Pang) represents one of Canada’s most compelling musical success stories in recent years. Before his music career took off, he worked as a journalist, developing storytelling skills that would later inform his unique approach to songwriting. His decision to perform under his mother’s maiden name carries profound significance, representing a reclamation of his Indigenous identity and a break from generations of cultural suppression.
Aysanabee’s musical journey gained significant momentum with the release of his debut album “Watin,” which featured conversations with his grandfather interspersed with songs inspired by those exchanges. This innovative approach blending journalism and artistry resonated deeply with audiences, leading to his groundbreaking achievement as the first Indigenous artist to win Alternative Album of the Year at the Juno Awards with his EP “Here and Now”.
“I grew up in the bush with no electricity in the North. I didn’t know how music career works. It took a lot of work and took a lot of discipline, perseverance,” Aysanabee reflects on his unlikely path to success. His current “Now and Then” tour represents a culmination of this journey, bringing together songs from both his albums plus new material. “It’s about bringing these songs on the road and presenting them the way they were always meant to be presented. Because obviously, I played a lot of shows, and some people got the full band experience, some people got solo experience.”
The tour name carries multiple meanings, as Aysanabee explains: “Now and Then, it’s a little bit of a play on words from the last record ‘Here and Now,’ but it’s also on the broader sense of just Watin, my debut record, Here and Now, my follow-up, and we’ve got the new song out. I never had a chance to tour any of those records as a headliner. So it’s about bringing these songs on the road and presenting them the way they were always meant to be presented.”
Particularly meaningful for Aysanabee are the tour stops in remote northern communities. “That’s kind of why I went to the North as well. No one would really tour up to those places. I really love going to the regional places because even when I was in Australia and Tasmania, we’re going to these places no one goes, the whole town would show up,” he shares with evident enthusiasm. “One of my fond memories from this tour is playing in Red Lake, Ontario, which is like a twenty-seven hour drive north. The furthest northern streetlight in Ontario.”
These remote performances create powerful connections with audiences starved for live music. “There’s someone who drove 500 kilometers to come see the show. There were people driving down on the ice roads to come see these shows, and people from everywhere from all different backgrounds,” Aysanabee recalls. “Those moments really are this reaffirming feeling. I was honored by so many people who turned up and were so attentive. I got a chance to speak with a lot of people after that show, and they’re just so appreciative of that.”
A distinctive feature of the “Now and Then” tour is Aysanabee’s commitment to showcasing other Indigenous artists as opening acts. “I’m aware that there is music industry that pays attention to what I’m doing and so people have been following the artists. I am making sure it’s a benefit to both people. I want the artist to be show ready. I want to see that they’re working really hard towards where they want to get to,” he explains about his selection process. “Every artist is really doing such incredible works in their own markets. I think they deserve to be kind of listened to across the board.”
His recent single “Edge of the Earth” showcases Aysanabee’s gift for transforming personal moments into universal experiences. “I wrote that song with my friend, Sean Sroka, and my friend, Derek Hoffman. Derek Hoffman is a producer who I love to work with. We’ve become pretty close over the last few years,” he shares. “We get together in the winters and catch up. That’s the only time our schedules align. And then we’ll get together, go grab a tea, coffee, whatever, and just play and just talk for three hours. And then we’ll start working on music.”
The song emerged organically from these conversations: “It’s always this massive catch up. The year before, we’d actually written somebody else together. And so this is almost somewhat of a continuation of that because we’re just chatting, catching up on what happened with the last year. And they were just like, ‘Wow, it sounds like you’ve found some calmness. It sounds like you’ve found some clarity. It sounds like you’ve found some moments of happiness,’ and we kind of just started writing the song from there.”
Winning Songwriter of the Year at the Junos proved to be both validating and challenging for Aysanabee. “If I’m being completely transparent, it ruined me for a while. It definitely threw me through a little spiral,” he admits candidly. “Initially, when I got that, I was starting to second guess myself a bit. I was writing songs and I was like, ‘Oh, Canada’s Songwriter of the year wouldn’t write that stupid thing.’ I was second guessing myself a lot and trying to live up to this thing. And it was just all in my mind.”
Eventually, he found perspective: “At a certain point, I just was like, ‘You know what? People listen to everything, and they took something away from what I was doing. And they recognized it and found it worthy for me to join this club of all these crazy songwriters.’ It’s wild who’s in this thing. Like Alanis Morissette, all these songwriters who’ve won that award before. It’s obviously a huge sense of pride.”
Aysanabee’s decision to perform under his mother’s maiden name represents a profound act of reclamation. “I think it’s just shifting the narrative and just breaking the cycle. Aysanabee isn’t the name on my legal documents. It should be. But my mom changed it when I was born because she figured I would have an easier time in life if I didn’t have an Indigenous last name, for getting jobs and stuff like that,” he reveals. “I have a good sense of pride in who I am and where I come from, and that wasn’t always the case. That wasn’t the case for my mom. That wasn’t the case for her mom. That wasn’t the case for her dad.”
His debut album “Watin” featured conversations with his grandfather interspersed with songs inspired by those exchanges. “I’d never approached music in that way because I was working as a journalist. So it was like these two separate lanes. That was a record where it combined them,” Aysanabee explains. “The record is very much like a call and response kind of record. The call is this conversation and the response is the song inspired by it. It was a different way to approach a record.”
These conversations with his grandfather deepened their relationship in unexpected ways. “We never talked about a lot of those things before. We grew up in a lot of small northern towns, and there’s an idea of what it means to be a man. You don’t talk about your feelings. You show strength,” he reflects. “I knew he went to residential school. I knew he had these really dark moments in his life, and we just never talked about it. I don’t think he ever really talked to anybody about it except when the TRC came through and he and a bunch of other people gave their statements.”
The recording process became a journey of discovery: “Us talking about it was kind of the first time we’d ever talked about it and probably one of the very few times he talked about it. I just got to know him on a different level. It’s wild that you just go through life with your family for all your life and then actually have a conversation and be like, ‘Wow, I did not really know you as well as I thought.’ You know the person they are, you know who they are, and you know their kind of humor, their jokes, and whatever. But getting to know someone’s life story and all the things that shape them, that’s something that really we didn’t have.”
As the first Indigenous artist to win Alternative Album of the Year at the Junos, Aysanabee hopes his visibility inspires others. “I think, honestly, just the belief and self-determination. Obviously, there’s still a ton of gatekeeping and stuff like that within the industry, but I think the biggest thing is people just seeing themselves in these places and not holding themselves back too,” he says. “I hope that it inspires people to reach for greatness and reach for success and work towards it. Because that’s the biggest thing too. It takes so much work and so much slogging it out and so many late nights and ten thousand hours, the whole thing.”
Looking to the future, Aysanabee is excited about international touring opportunities. “I’m really looking forward to going to more international places and still playing here because I have such an incredible fan base here. But I think going out and performing and sharing these songs and stories – I was touring in Australia for a month and already making plans to go back for next January,” he shares. “To see that a song still carries the same wave and still moves people as much as they move people closer to home where the stories are from – music is this universal language that people just connect with.”
Despite his busy schedule, Aysanabee is eager to return to songwriting. “I’m excited because there’s actually these little pockets of time I have in the summer, which I haven’t had for like three years. So I’m really excited to do more songwriting. I might actually go to the mountains. I’m always writing in the winter when it’s cold and you got your tea and you’re trying to spill your guts and trying to make art out of it,” he muses. “I’m really excited about sitting in the backyard or getting out of the studio and getting a pen, paper, and bringing the acoustic while the barbecue is going. This different thing of just getting some vitamin D – I think the music will be impacted by it.”
Aysanabee’s “Now and Then Tour 2025” will make a highly anticipated stop at London’s intimate Rum Runners venue on Thursday, March 20, 2025. The show, featuring opening acts Brothers Wilde and Thea May, promises to deliver the full band experience that Aysanabee has been eager to bring to regional venues. Doors open at 8:00 PM with the performance beginning at 9:00 PM, and the event is licensed for all ages (though no backpacks or large bags will be permitted). This stop is part of a broader tour that includes performances in Guelph, Toronto, and other locations, giving fans in London a rare opportunity to experience his award-winning music in the way it was “always meant to be presented.”
