Zoongide’ewin (aka Zoon) continues to share tracks from his debut album, ‘Bleached Wavves,’ released via Paper Bag Records this past June. ‘Bleached Wavves’ spent 7 weeks at #1 on Canada’s Earshot Chart this summer.
Now, Zoon has shared the intense, and aurally confounding, Landscapes. At its core, the track is driven by enlightening observations about inequality. Daniel expands on the intent of the song and the purpose of the inescapable and addictive loop within the track. “Landscapes was a political art experiment about the concerning amount of soul sucking ‘jobs’ that are only available to people living under the poverty line. When I first moved to Hamilton, Ontario, I could only find factory jobs that were extremely repetitive so I tried to express that in a musical sense. My goal was to create something like a loop of sound to give the listener a sense of madness. Because that’s the reality of those types of factory / assembly line jobs. I saw so much pain in the workers and that stuck with me. I didn’t realize that when politicians say during their campaign ‘we created 10,000 new jobs’ that they actually mean they’ve created 10,000 new ways to slowly kill vulnerable citizens.”
“The song title is taken from early ‘post colonial contact’,” remarks Daniel. “The elites wanted a way to convince families to move to the New World so artists were hired to paint landscapes and make it look as if Canada was more inhabited than it really was.”
For the music video, Zoon bassist Drew Rutty and his partner Vikki directed the entire shoot. “The song is from my point of view,” notes Daniel. “And the video from theirs, the combination of the two worked so well together and really plays in the theme of the track.”
Watch the video for Landscapes via YouTube below.
Zoon was interviewed in CBC Radio 1’s national, cultural morning show ‘q’ with Tom Power on Monday, and you can listen to the captivating and emotionally charged interview here. “My whole thing is, I just want people to find a place where they can express themselves because when you start doing that it’s a do-it-yourself therapy,” says Daniel in the conversation. “Even just writing down your lyrics or what happened during the day. When you start to do that, you become self aware. And when you become self aware it opens you up to a lot of different opportunities, like self love.” Daniel further expands on his personal and musical journeys and shares tracks from ‘Bleached Wavves’. “It’s a pretty amazing record, Daniel” says CBC ‘q’ host Tom Power “I don’t know what I was expecting when I put it on, but I was kind of blown away by it.”
“Even though he uses the term ‘moccasin-gaze’ to describe his melodic wall-of reverb take on droney guitar rock, ‘Bleached Wavves’ is a multi-suite concord of sound and style that’s so much more than a mere rock record,” enthuses Dominionated in their glowing review of the album.
On ‘Bleached Wavves’, Zoon paints a message of hope and fortitude, lessons he learned studying the Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of his life and channeling it all through the shoegaze filter with nods of inspiration to one of his favourite and formative bands, My Bloody Valentine. The creation of the LP was a testament to Daniel’s ability to reverse engineer with minimal gear (his guitar and a digital delay pedal) and recording at his home the intricate sounds and layers of music texture he heard in his head. He was sometimes forced to wait days or weeks to return to working on songs, this patience and reality of ‘waiting’ currently something the entire world is similarly and collectively experiencing right now. All artwork for the record is by Danielle Roberts.
Born and raised in Selkirk, Manitoba, a small prison town outside of Winnipeg he describes as “one of the roughest places,” Daniel has constantly faced an uphill battle. In his teens he was victimized for his First Nations heritage, which led to him abusing drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. His best friend died of an overdose; Daniel nearly followed him on multiple occasions. But with the spiritual guidance he learned from 12-step therapy, Monkman got clean and began to follow a passion for music he discovered from a young age growing up within the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.
‘Bleached Wavves’ includes the singles, Vibrant Colours, Help Me Understand, Light Prism, the title track, Bleached Wavves and Brokenhead.
‘Bleached Wavves’ track list
1. Clouded Formation
2. Vibrant Colours
3. Was & Always Will Be
4. Bleached Wavves
5. BrokenHead
6. A Perfect Sunset, Ahead
7. Light Prism
8. Infinite Horizons
9. Landscapes
10. Help Me Understand
