Victoria and Vancouver Island have a lot of musical talent, and Victoria Buzz wants to highlight some of the best and brightest local artists and bands.
Every Monday, there will be a fresh ‘New Music Monday’ article to help people find and support local artists and bands that are up-and-coming, well established or hidden gems!
For this endeavour, Victoria Buzz has partnered with our good friends at CFUV 101.9 FM, UVic’s campus radio station, to find and select the musicians and bands for this regular column.
To date, there have been 87 New Music Monday features published through this collaboration.
This week, PINDN is the New Music Monday highlight!
PINDN is the moniker of Alexander Taylor-McCallum, a Kwakwa̲ka̲’wakw and Nuu-Cha-Nulth emcee and hip-hop artist who was born on lək̓ʷəŋən territory in Victoria.
For PINDN, writing has always been an outlet for processing emotions and feelings, but he didn’t always envision himself on stage.
He is very open and candid about his journey with addiction and the challenges he faces in recovery.
PINDN says he started to write more seriously when he was in the early stages of recovery.
“After cutting these things out of my life, it’s a big change for someone like me who started using at age 11,” PINDN told Victoria Buzz.
“So to cut that out after all this time I found myself really thinking clearly and reflecting on my life, and reflecting on where and how I want to move into the future. I just found myself really writing a lot in the form of hip-hop.”
Music has always been a big part of his life, as he grew up going to shows of all genres in Victoria. PINDN says he related most to heavy music like punk and metal along with hip-hop.
“It really helped me reflect a lot, it’s helped me express a lot,” he continued.
“I find the lyrical structure of a hip-hop song allows me to really tell a whole story with maybe 16 bars in a verse, and the chorus, intro and outro, I feel like I can really articulate a lot as opposed to a shorter one-minute punk rock song, which I used to write a lot more when I was younger.”
PINDN says that while navigating recovery, his friends and family encouraged his writing and eventually convinced him to get up on stage and perform his material.
Although he was apprehensive at first to share his lyrics or to try to rap his words to a beat, this encouragement went a long way and got him rehearsing.
“It’s one thing to write out some rhymes or poetry to yourself, but to really articulate your words to a beat really adds so much to it, and I found I really loved it,” he explained.
“It’s been over four years since I started performing as PINDN, since the first PINDN show and I feel like it’s been quite a journey since then.”
Now, PINDN has more than 100 shows under his belt and is showing no signs of slowing down.
In late June, he released his first full length record, Spirits Back, which he says was largely inspired by the friends and family that encouraged him along the way, as well as his Indigenous ancestors.
“It’s like ceremony to me,” said PINDN. “Although these songs are contemporary songs, my album Spirits Back is structured like a potlatch in a way, or structured in a cultural way with a potlatch in mind.”
“Our potlatches always start with a mourning song to honour the people in our lives that have passed away, and long story short, we start with that mourning song so we can continue with our other songs, our dances and our scheduled program in a good way.”
“Literally and metaphorically wipe the tears away,” he added.
He also noted that a potlatch will always end with a celebration song, which he emulated on Spirits Back as well.
“[The album ends with] ‘Peckin’’ and ‘Spirits Back,’ which to me is a powerful statement that I, we as Indigenous people, are taking our spirits back, but not just as Indigenous people, as people in recovery, other people that are struggling with drugs and alcohol and so much more,” he said.
“It’s really a common cultural viewpoint that alcohol and drugs have the powerful ability to affect our spirits, the things that make us distinctly and significantly who we are. The thing that embodies our characteristics and our traits and everything.”
“My spirit’s back now, and you know, it’s been a long wild journey from that first show.”
Highlight track – “Marilyn (ft. HawLii, Ne’nagwas and Feryn Pilott)”
PINDN chose to highlight the song “Marilyn,” which was written about his late grandmother—an important figure in his early life.
“The song ‘Marilyn’ was dedicated to my grandma Marilyn McCallum,” he said.
“The tragic loss of her when I was in Grade 3 back at Blanshard Elementary, it caused a big, irreversible, immense impact on my family as a whole, the immediate family, in some really intense ways.”
PINDN says that as he reflects on his life so far, all of his earliest memories are with his grandma Marilyn.
“She was really integral in my upbringing, and really helped take care of me at her house on Gorge Road and Carol Street,” PINDN continued.
“She was a loving person, she also influenced me musically—she was a fan of classical music, she was a fan of all kinds of music and a collector of artwork.”
PINDN also noted that when she passed away, he was so young that he wasn’t told about the specifics of her death.
“Later on in my teenage years, my mom told me the tragic story of how it happened,” he said.
“Unfortunately, she was one of the far too many murdered Indigenous women of this country we call Canada today.”
When he found out what had happened to her, PINDN says the experience felt like grieving all over again.
“There’s so many questions I had in my mind left unanswered, and being a young person in addictions I would really use drugs and alcohol and grieve immensely over the loss of my grandma,” PINDN explained.
However, he noted that all these years later, writing this song helped him process his emotions.
“After all these years, writing this song really helped me with that grief, and one thing that really helped inspire those words,”
The track features friends and collaborators HawLii, Ne’nagwas and Feryn Pilott who helped develop the beat for the song and who provided some backup vocalizations that are interwoven throughout the song.
Check out “Marilyn (ft. HawLii, Ne’nagwas and Feryn Pilott)” by PINDN below:
Listen to the rest of PINDN’s Spirits Back on Bandcamp, Tidal and Apple Music. PINDN’s music is not available via Spotify or Amazon.
PINDN has a plethora of shows booked for September in Victoria.
He will be opening a show for Casual, Pep Love and Sweatpants Superstars at Studio 919 on Tuesday, September 8th.
On Saturday, September 19th, PINDN will be playing a show with his full band, the Nation of Creation alongside Mi’kmaq death metal band Feartilizer 1492 and Smother from Chilliwack at Friendship Hall.
Lastly, he has a show booked in Qualicum Beach at the Route 19A festival on Monday, September 24th.
Aside from his many upcoming shows, PINDN says he was the recent recipient of a grant to help fund a follow-up to Spirits Back, and he hopes to get back into the studio soon.
Keep an eye on PINDN’s Instagram to stay up to date on future releases.
Related:
- New Music Monday: JP Meldrum creates cartoonish experimental electronic record
- New Music Monday: Amnesiak speaks to trans experience on latest album
- New Music Monday: Miss the Heart channels feminine-rage on new single
CFUV is a non-profit campus and community radio station that plays a ton of local music of all kinds across Vancouver Island. If you like to support local music they are an amazing resource with a plethora of new local tunes in their arsenal.
“I have a lot of love for CFUV,” said PINDN.
“I think every year the work they put into Eventide is just the highlight of my summer and I’m grateful to have been a part of it.”
Tune into CFUV 101.9 FM on air or online!
Let us know what you think of PINDN in the comments below!
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