Bonsound

The Far North is not at the other end of the world, it is in the center of mine.

Elisapie, singer-songwriter from the Great North, presents a second single off her new album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl to be released on September 14th via Bonsound and European label Yotanka. The love song Don’t Make Me Blue was written by Elisapie and composed in collaboration with Joe Grass. The song explores a complex and contradictory love, one that pulls people between a roller coaster of desire and a need for stability, protection and authenticity.

Don’t Make Me Blue builds a rich universe of sensual vocals, chiaroscuro and ostinato rhythms, and the music includes elements of her inuit animism. Elisapie is accompanied by Joe Grass, Nicolas Basque, Robbie Kuster, Jason Sharp (bass saxophone) and Paul Evans (programming). cial Elisapie’s new song is available on all digital platforms. The song is accompanied by a video directed by the talented Adrian Villagomez. The video illustrates the search for a balanced love, without superficiality.

Elisapie is also announcing a new relationship with her European label Yotanka and agency Uni-T. The French label (whose roster includes Louis-Jean Cormier and Mathieu Holubowski) literally felt in love with Don’t Make Me Blue.

Despite a period of profound artistic questioning over the past few years, Elisapie has found comfort and hope in classic Indigenous folk songs, like Wolves Don't Live By The Rules (released this passed April). She found the inspiration deep within herself to write new songs and create this magnificent oeuvre.

The Ballad of the Runaway Girl is a return to her roots after a six-year hiatus. The album is an introspective, cathartic journey from the day she was born up to today. Her latest work is a poetic endeavor driven by urgency, doubt, gentleness, sensitivity, grace and motherly love. Mostly written in Inuktitut, her mother tongue, the album also includes a song written in French, which was co-authored with Natasha Kanapé-Fontaine. Elisapie will perform over 50 shows in Quebec and across Canada (as well as a show in New York City) starting this September.

Elisapie shared Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules, the first single off her upcoming album last April. Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules is the first stone that triggered the whole creative process around her new album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl. Before creating this album, I was going through a rough time, says Elisapie. I was feeling weak. I had an important artistic block. Every time I wanted to write something, it felt heavy. I could see myself sinking. Then I stopped writing and started to listen to old folk music from home, songs I’d listened to as a kid, songs that made me who I am.

The album Spirit Child (1981) by Inuk folk-singer Willie Thrasher was a major influence on Elisapie’s work. It almost became an obsession for her. Willie Thrasher gave me strength. I was finding myself in him. Somehow, his life was torn from him. He was sent to a residential school in the south. He lost his language and his traditional Inuit way of life. Willie Thrasher did not have an easy path, but he is a fighter.

Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules echoes Willie Thrasher’s life. The song is a tribute to survival, to nomadism and to the free spirit of the Inuit people. It’s also an ode to the animal life and spirituality. It’s a song about resistance, about the land that saw us born and helped us grow.

This first single (mixed by Howie Beck) is a return to the essential for Elisapie. The folk sound, full of personality, leaves all the necessary space for her to express her sensitivity. The guitarist-singer Joe Grass, who lends his warm voice to the chorus, admirably accompanies Elisapie on the track. Other contributors include Nicolas Basque (Plants & Animals) on guitar, Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson) on drums, and Jason Sharp on saxophone.

To visually accompany Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules, Elisapie produced a collage of archival footage filmed up north during the 60s. The montage explores the winds of change descending upon the Inuit community at that time.

Biography

Ambassador for Inuit culture, Elisapie represents the wild and rough beauty of the North. Her new album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, is the musical tale of an expatriate Inuk.

Elisapie’s journey started when she was given up for adoption as a baby, on the tarmac of an airport. She went on to grow up in Salluit, dreaming of the South. Then came her escape to Montreal, where she started a family and forgot about the extremes of the North.

Elisapie is now reconnecting with her origines, offering her soulful down-home folk music as she tenderly looks back on her heritage. Her style is direct as she tells her story and makes aboriginal musical classics shine. This album goes back to her roots, with both soft and raw moments and her very own mix of Inuktitut, English and French, unveiling the woman behind the music.