Adam Sturgeon, a member of bands Status/Non-Status and OMBIIGIIZI, is comfortable talking quantum physics and the healing nature of shoegaze music.
With a name that draws attention and awareness to Indigenous identity politics, Status/Non-Status brings conversations about ancestry and family lineage to centre stage. There is an almost distinct shift from their 2019 album Warrior Down to the 2022 release Surely Travel — their more recent work having a distinctly ‘groovier’ feel — juxtaposing bluesy rock with the band’s metal/shoegaze sounds, more familiar from the 2019 release.
Aside from the differences in sound, Sturgeon shared that in OMBIIGIIZI he found a sense of brotherhood with fellow musician Daniel Monkman (of Zoon) that neither had previously experienced, particularly in their genre of music.
“There are a lot of things we don’t have to say because we are both Indigenous,” Sturgeon shared, speaking of the collaboration with Monkman. OMBIIGIIZI is heavy and roving, whilst simultaneously ephemeral — evoking dreamscapes of London, Ont., suburban nights stretching out onto the traditional territories of Sturgeon’s Anishinaabe ancestors.
On reconnecting with his Anishinaabe ancestry, he shared that he found pathways through honouring his family name, saying that the Sturgeons were “stargazers,” which became the name he gave his son.
The conversation shifts to performance as a call and response between the audience and musician, and the healing aspects of music — how this relates to gathering for ceremony, and how this offer opportunities to transform collective energy, which is both a gift, and responsibility.
“There is a fire in Indigenous music, drumming and ceremony, an inherent way of being and expressing this deep aspect of ourselves, and that can be intimidating,” said Sturgeon, “Music empowers communities, strengthens and heals us.
“Holding these spaces is vulnerable work,” he adds quickly, “I’m not an Elder. That is where balance comes in, and the gift of perspective and seeing it all through the lens of the past.”