Sewn Back Together

In their respective projects, Adam Sturgeon and Daniel Monkman have analysed the contemporary Indigenous experience in Canada from opposite angles. With Status/Non-Status (formerly Whoop-Szo), Sturgeon has waged war against Canada’s colonialist foundations—and the genocidal legacy of its residential school system—with a visceral, volatile mix of grunge, psychedelia and post-hardcore. As Zoon, Monkman has channelled past traumas into soothing shoegaze hymns that have aided his recovery. But as OMBIIGIZI (Ojibwe for “this is noisy”), these two artists of Anishinaabe descent don’t so much forge a common language as develop a whole new dialect. Recorded with Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew and his frequent studio partner Nyles Spencer at The Tragically Hip’s Bathouse studio, Sewn Back Together filters the DIY spirit of classic ’90s indie rock through the textural density of early-2000s post-rock and folktronica, yielding an album that teeters on the edge between clarity and chaos, while exploring Indigenous identity and injustices through the lens of personal family histories. “Kevin and Nyles were able to encourage us to step outside of ourselves and made us realise that maybe our musical crutches are also vulnerabilities at times,” Sturgeon says. “So, we just stripped all that back and were encouraged to tell our stories more openly.” Here, Sturgeon and Monkman share those stories, one track at a time. “Cherry Coke” Daniel Monkman: “This was actually a Zoon demo, and it was just a mumble of words. I wasn’t necessarily singing, ‘Cherry Coke’. Nyles thought I was singing, ‘Jericho’, and Kevin thought I was saying, ‘Cherry cold’. But the song is about my relationship with my dad when I was living on the rez with him. Whenever he had spare change, he’d give me, like, a dollar and I’d keep it inside this little margarine container and go to the convenience store. There was just one on the rez at the time, and I would always get a bag of barbecue chips and a Cherry Coke,