Biography
Aysanabee is an Oji-Cree singer-songwriter from Ontario, Canada, whose debut album Watin was released in 2022. He has won two Juno awards, both in 2024, for Alternative Album of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.
A member of the Sandy Lake First Nation, he was born Evan Pang, with a non-inherited surname his mother chose in an attempt to protect him from anti-Indigenous racism: by portraying him to the community as Asian instead of Indigenous. He was raised in Kaministiquia, Ontario, outside of Thunder Bay. He reclaimed his grandfather's surname, Aysanabee, as an adult.
Aysanabee worked for a mining company as a teenager, later studying journalism and working as a digital content creator for CTV News. He played in various bands as a sideline, and began actively creating his own original music as an outlet during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aysanabee submitted his music to the International Indigenous Music Summit after making enough money on a cryptocurrency trade to cover the submission fee. He was the first outside artist signed to Ishkōdé Records, a new label launched in 2021 by singer-songwriter Amanda Rheaume and ShoShona Kish of the band Digging Roots.
Watin was released November 4, 2022. Named for his grandfather's first name, the album features several recordings of his grandfather, recorded in phone conversations during the pandemic, as spoken interludes. The album was preceded by the single "Nomads", which reached #1 on the CBC Music Top 20 and charted on the Canadian rock radio airplay charts, reaching #1 on the Alternative Rock chart in March 2023. Aysanabee became the first Indigenous Canadian artist ever to top that chart. CBC Music named Watin as one of the 22 best Canadian albums of 2022, and "Nomads" as one of the ten best Canadian songs of the year.
Watin was shortlisted for the 2023 Polaris Music Prize. Aysanabee was a Juno Award nominee for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year for Watin at the Juno Awards of 2023. He performed "We Were Here (It's in My Blood)" at the live gala on March 13, backed by the traditional Indigenous round dance group Northern Cree; he also received praise for his performance outfit, a long jacket designed by Travis Shilling with feathers representing the Canadian residential school gravesites.
Aysanabee released an EP Here and Now in 2023, that earned him a nomination for Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year, and won Alternative Album of the Year at the 2024 Juno Awards. He also won a Juno for Songwriter of the Year with the song "Here and Now", becoming the first Indigenous artist to win in those categories.
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