Red Deer’s ‘Totem and Tusk’ release debut single based on fateful experience

Headed north on 40 Avenue, something or someone caught his eye on the median.

“It was a person,” he wrote.

The woman, it turned out, was Indigenous like him, and no older than 19. Heavily intoxicated, Sowan believed, she asked where she was, then requested Sowan make a call to her mom.

Totem and Tusk — named after vocalist and guitarist Tony Sowan, a Cree man, and Aaron Craddock, who is Russian.

No answer. A call to a cab next, he recounts. It would be there in 10 minutes.

As Sowan recalls, the woman’s next words stung most: “Thank you so much for stopping sir. At least someone gives a s*** about me.”

Sowan, 43, hasn’t seen his mother since he was 13, and his grandmother attended residential school. He knows all too well about the meaning of ‘struggle.’

His hope now is that ‘Saving Me’ and the story behind it will shed more light on intergenerational trauma faced by Indigenous people, but also the plight of those experiencing drug use, alcoholism, mental illness and homelessness.

“She was apologizing profusely, but I told her, as the song now says, you’re only lost for this moment. I went off to work, got a notification the cab had arrived, and then just hoped she’d gotten home and straightened out. It was really powerful,” he says, noting they haven’t crossed paths since.

“That’s the poetry of the story: you hope that person realizes they’d gone a little far, pulled themselves together and made a better person out of themselves from the experience. I made many poor decisions as a kid too, but I’m now holding myself together and not harbouring so much anger.”

But that anger is intergenerational, caused largely by the residential school system — a trauma passed down through several descendants.

“I think the story I posted touched people in the sense that we all know we need to do more to help our fellow men and women, especially when they’re in distress,” he says. “We need to deal with people with compassion, rather than quickly judging. I hope that transfers to the song.”

‘Totem and Tusk’, a play on Sowan’s Indigenous background, and band mate Aaron Craddock’s Russian heritage — that nation formerly being home to mammoths — formed early last year.

The pair have an entire album’s worth of songs ready for release, and plan to do so gradually.

‘Saving Me’ features ‘beautiful’ — in Sowan’s words — music written by Craddock that had laid dormant without words to fill the void until the two connected their musical minds. It also features the violin work of Jon Werkema, with Donny Smith having served as recording engineer and mixer.

“The mental illness stigma right now is huge. I lost a friend recently to mental illness, and I can relate with this song. The lyrics are about this girl Tony met, but it can be related to by so many. Sometimes, just as we hope with this young woman’s story, just talking to someone can save you. Talking can have an impact on so many levels,” says Craddock.

“There’s always help within reach. Music touches people more than anything else in the world, I think. It helped me in my life; saved it, in fact. I came from a pretty rough childhood, and Metallica was one of the bands that helped me. I ran away, fell into hard drugs, but I always had my guitar.”

On another song Totem and Tusk have simmering is one Craddock wrote while in therapy.

“It talks about how if I ever had a family, what kind of person would I be,” he says. “Whenever Tony sings it, it takes me back, but I came out of that to be where I am now, and so can anyone.”

Adds Sowan: “We’re really proud Saving Me is our first song.”

by Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Red Deer’s ‘Totem and Tusk’ release debut single based on fateful experience

What's Trending