Semiah Smith performs at the Come Toward the Fire festival, which includes Vancouver debuts by Cree neo-soul/R&B artist LOV and Cherokee/Muscogee folk-Americana singer Kalyn Fay, alongside Burnstick, Francis Baptiste, Joey Stylez, Curtis Clear Sky
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Semiah Smith is having a good hair day.
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“I wrote this song called Propane, but it was like, Pro-Pain, more of an emo song — like maybe I’m pro-pain, you know?” she says.
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“I got stuck on that, and I was like, OK, I want flame hair. It was supposed to look geothermal.”
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Instead, over Zoom, it’s a cascade of colour — red, blue, some emerald.
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“But it’s showing up more as rainbow. Which is OK”
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The fluorescent ‘do suits a young artist intent on breaking down boundaries between the traditional music of her Six Nations community and mainstream pop. A dynamo of a singer, Smith makes formidable bids for dance floor supremacy with songs like Clementine and North Star. Vancouver audiences will see and hear this for themselves when the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) artist performs at this year’s Come Toward the Fire.
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Now in its fifth year, the festival features three days of Indigenous music, art, storytelling, film and cultural programming. This year’s program includes a free Day of Knowledge Sharing, family-friendly performances and workshops, Indigenous markets and screenings, and a closing concert hosted by Reservation Dogs star Dallas Goldtooth and headlined by four-time Juno winner Aysanabee.
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Smith performs Saturday as part of a daytime lineup that includes Vancouver debuts by Cree neo-soul/R&B artist LOV and Cherokee/Muscogee folk-Americana singer Kalyn Fay, alongside Burnstick, Francis Baptiste, Joey Stylez, Curtis Clear Sky and the Constellationz, Eagle Ex Machina and others.
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“I’m totally solo for Come Toward the Fire, and solo shows have always scared me. But I’m warming up to them a little bit more. There are going to be backing tracks, but I also have some acoustic songs. I wouldn’t call myself the best guitar player, but she is going to play guitar. I just love showing different parts of myself. And I’m really excited — I get to dance a lot.”
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Even at its most dance floor-savvy, Smith’s music incorporates traditional Six Nations elements, in part because of the way she learned to sing.
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“I think I’m a traditional vocalist first. That’s how I got into music. I would do a lot of eskanye (Ë:sgä:nye:’) — they’re hand-drum songs — when I was in high school.”
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Smith took singing lessons as a child, then returned to singing in high school through traditional music, including Women’s Shuffle songs.
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“I saw online that people were making their own versions of Women’s Shuffle songs, and I decided that I wanted to do that. So I feel like my first real introduction to making original music was actually from my traditional music, and I feel like that has always stuck.”
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That collision of contemporary pop and tradition extends beyond her music. When we spoke, Smith, who also oversees her visual presentation in shows and videos, was racing to finish the outfit she planned to wear at Come Toward the Fire.
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“I’m cutting this to the wire really, really badly.
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“It’s going to be kind of like a Selena outfit — Selena Quintanilla. I’m going to have flare pants and kind of a bustier top, and then I’m going to string beads on it.
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“I love pop, but a lot of what I want to start doing in the future is really homing in on: What is a pop girly as if colonization had never happened? What would a pop girl look like from Turtle Island?
