WATCH / SHARE “MOHKINSTSIS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MOHKINSTSIS” HERE
PAST PRAISE FOR GHOSTKEEPER
“a re-conjuring of joy that mingles with wounds past and present, thrusting them to the forefront of a musical partnership that spans decades, land, time and space. … amongst the tapestry woven by Cîpayak Joy's multilayered extension of contemporary electronica, Ghostkeeper's past, present and future dance hand in hand.” Exclaim!
“The pop experimentalists return to their roots while pushing their creativity forward on new album, Cîpayak Joy.” RANGE Magazine
Photo Credit : Jared Sych // DOWNLOAD HIGH-RES
“Mohkinstsis” is the brand new single from Calgary Métis pop experimentalists Ghostkeeper. It's the first missive since their last album, the critically-acclaimed Cîpayak Joy. Centred around the core duo of founding members Shane Ghostkeeper and Sarah Houle, “Mohkinstsis” gets the rest of the band – drummer Eric Hamelin (JOYFULTALK) and bassist Ryan Bourne (solo, Chad Van Gaalen) – back in the room together, and the results are stellar.
The band's playing provides a robust framework for Shane's storytelling, expertly nuanced but never drawing attention to itself. Subtle sonic colourings in the margins add a sense of tension and release for the song's key moments, and it all rides out in a dreamy, quasi-doo wop reverie, Hamelin's tumbling drums tussling with a more developed version of the opening guitar lick. The mix, by longtime Ghostkeeper associate and JOYFULTALK mastermind Jay Crocker, is roomy and spacious mix, allowing the song room to breathe, and revel in the dramatic sonic vistas that emerge from simmering, in-the-pocket rhythm section-led sections.
The song itself is both a nostalgia-laden origin story of Ghostkeeper and Houle's romantic beginnings, and also an offering of sincere thanks to the various communities that welcomed them so warmly upon their initial move to Calgary years ago. Chief among these communities were the Blackfoot people, Shane recalls. “They were so welcoming, so nourishing and supportive when we first got here”, he says. “Not long after moving here, I was gifted an eagle feather as a welcoming token, and it hangs from the headstock of my guitar to this day.”
WATCH / SHARE “MOHKINSTSIS” HERE
BUY / STREAM “MOHKINSTSIS” HERE
Before living together, Shane would – literally – run from his house north of the Bow river (‘vintage kicks look sweet on concrete’ he sings) to meet Sarah after work, stopping only for a short breather on the picturesque Crescent Heights ridge, which overlooks the river and downtown Calgary. While bracing himself for the rest of his journey, he'd find himself gazing down at the confluence where the Bow meets the Elbow river, imagining what it would have been like in its days as a Blackfoot nation encampment.
Thanks to his participation in filmmaker Trevor Solway's Amplify, an acclaimed docu-series focused on Indigenous singer-songwriters, Shane was able to meet and talk with various Blackfoot elders as part of the project. It was in these meetings he learned that, historically, the Blackfoot people were well known for welcoming people of other nations to meet at the confluence to prepare for their journeys west to the holy waters of the Banff hot springs, and Ghostkeeper couldn't help but see a parallel with his own feelings of welcome in the community. He began to regard the confluence as “two rivers that meet like lovers forged in destiny” a perfect metaphor for these early romantic years with Houle.