Name: Elisapie
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, broadcaster
Nationality: Canadian Inuk
Current release: Elisapie's new single "Isumagijunnaitaungituq", an Inuktitut interpretation of Metallica's "The Unforgiven", is out now. Her full-length album Inuktitut is due September 15th 2023 via Bonsound.
Recommendations: There there by Tommy Orange, member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes of Oklahoma, a beautiful fiction novel that takes you to an urban native american reality, through a lot of humour and through pain, beauty and spirituality everything you want from a book. So true.
Kent Monkman, a Cree artist from Canada, visual artist, his paintings are grandiose!

If you enjoyed this Elisapie interview and would like to discover more about her and her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, and twitter.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

Music for me goes with my environment, it opens my eyes far and wide.

I find listening to music is so precious, because I like a quiet environment. As if time has to stop for me when I listen to music.

I also find that it brings magic to everything in my environment, all of a sudden a boring view becomes poetic. It’s a magic potion and adds colour everywhere

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

As a teenager, I began performing on stage with my uncles, who were themselves members of a famous Inuit rock ’n’ roll band named Sugluk (also known as Salluit Band).



During the same time, I worked at TNI, the village's radio station which broadcast all over Nunavik, and managed to secure an interview with Metallica at age 15. Those moments were both naive and cemented my love of music and set me on my path.

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music meant to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

I went from Debbie Gibson to Bob Dylan and Neil Young, it says a lot. I will always love my first loves, Debbie Gibson made me feel like it was ok to be a young dreamer, dream about romance and make up my own little world as a young hopeless romantic in a small Inuit town.



And Bob Dylan and Neil Young made me realise that I needed to stick to real things and dig deep in order to say something real.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

My G-40 Gibson acoustic guitar is beautiful and old and demands care. It’s an inspiring instrument, I don’t play it a lot but when I start having songwriting urges I go to it. It knows my heart for sure, it’s been my intimate friend.

I love the way it holds me, because songwriting usually consists of a lot of tears.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

It is a very emotional experience. I tend to do a lot of things and at one point I know I need to release, and that’s when I know creation and songwriting is near. It’s a very visceral thing and instinct.

Nothing planned, just digging and opening old closets full of memories.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

It’s still such a new idea to find my sound. I still have no idea how to summarise it. Because I find it very much moving forward each time. But I definitely try to be very real and honest in the way I deliver in my singing, the rest is finding the tones.

The sounds, the singing have to be 100% real feelings. Because I want to be able to relive the emotions each time for the following live performances. Because it’s so amazing being on stage and reliving everything each time.

Joe Grass, my producer and musician in my last 2 albums has been instrumental in finding my deeper self as a singer and artist.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? How far would you describe them as “musical”?

The bass sax is an instrument that reminds me of the North. Jason Sharp has played in the last 2 albums and each time I’m overwhelmed by his sound, it’s as if the North is saying, ‘hear how wild and powerful I am?’ It’s edgy and I love that.

[Read our Jason Sharp interview]

Inuit throat singing is very close to that too, we imitate the environment and animals around us.

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

I love when we are able to bring people up high and loud and intense without them knowing we're bringing them there.

I sometimes feel like we can rely on people to use their own strength and/or their own guts and power to rise up, to speak up.

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

Definitely from the folk music world, but I love when there's a bit of that deconstructive moment or psychedelic moment or a slightly odd turn. Just because we shouldn't take things too seriously.

Music and life are an adventure.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I find that the first moments when your ideas get going and that first moment, like your first melody and first line of a verse, are the most exciting.

The whole process of putting the pieces together, the first day of recording an album, the first time you share a new song with a close friend. The first time you perform the music on stage with the audience. When you're still in the unknown!

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Not so much, I try to connect my music with the audience and their perspective of their own lives.

For example, my young cousin is looking out the window at the town and the mountains that surround the small town where I grew up. What is she or he thinking, what are they wanting to say and express and can’t. How can I help them with my music and the words I sing?

I also think about the world view of Inuit who've been amazing scientists themselves. The way they understand life and the universe and the animal and spiritual world is so rich and inspiring.

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Music for me is like my teacher, it teaches me to be stronger and braver, to face my insecurities, and to make use of my strength and celebrate life. So I definitely feel like music is a very spiritual experience each time. I really don’t see another place where I feel quite so empowered on a personal level.

I’ve learned to not just use the stage to feel stronger. But I can definitely say that the stage is where I feel the strongest and I experiment with the different parts of Elisapie, and I sometimes discover other parts of her. Such a cool place to be.

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

I’m very much a mother of three kids and I try to find that balance. So my kids have an easy and minimally organised life when I'm home. And then when touring starts again it's a huge twist to another complete person, an artist.

So I find that my very boring organised life is important to balance the other part of me when my life is back to shows and interviews and the public eye, and that nomadic lifestyle.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

For me it’s Leonard Cohen, almost all of his songs do that.



It’s almost like a calling, reminding me that I have to feel more, I have to do more to be present more, to bring poetry more, to be truer, to take the time, to search for beauty and to reflect, to find lightness, to find deepness too.

He’s like my spiritual guide.

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I wish to discover more cultures to share my music with. I’m always curious about each country or culture in relation to my music.

People see you differently at first but when you truly meet the audience in a show that's when you realise we're very much the same, searching for connection. I want to travel to the US a little more to share my music and culture.