Billed as 'the most metal fiddle player you know,' Sage Haskelchi'i Cornelius is a monster on this unconventional vehicle for riffs and rage. 'It needs to be, because not everything is clean-cut storylines.' TingeĪ heavy metal fiddler ? You read that right. I like how it's sort of unapologetically thrown together,' Ailani said. 'There are so many different things going on in this album, but I like it. She went on to explain that Mortified 's title is an unflinching reference to self-hatred, and overcoming it. This isn't a usual Ailani heartbreak/falling in love album - don't worry though, you'll still get a solid share of those themes,' Ailani told Grimy Goods.

'I am proud that I broke out of my usual shell a bit. When Ailani released her last album, 2022's Mortified, she made it clear she was broaching uncharted territory for her artistry. 'And I think her voice is what makes her quite unique.' And what she was putting out was very well done,' Yazzie says of her early perception of Ailani.

As she continues, Ailani represents a milieu of young, Native artists who simply write quality songs and put them out there. 'She has got such a clear, pristine, pretty voice,' Yazzie says, noting that Ailani comes from a long line of artists, including visual art and ceramics. Hailing from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, the mononymous Ailani - born Ailani Swentzell - is an up-and-coming singer/songwriter who's been committed to the craft since high school.Īnd the first thing you'll absorb about the indie-popper's driving and intimate sound is her bell-like tone as a vocalist. continuing to showcase that Native people can make whatever sounds they want, and they do.' Ailani 'I think their work is important because they're pushing Native music into new sounds,' Renata Yazzie says, 'You don't hear a lot of Native bands that sound like Earth Surface People…. 'How some overcame extraordinary odds with minimal resources.' 'I found a lot of solace in their stories of survival and their stories of triumph,' he continued. I grew up around my traditional people: farmers, storytellers, medicine people, jewelers, weavers, artists, revolutionaries, creatives. It's something I saw a lack of growing up in rural Arizona,' Dakota Yazzie told Shoutout Arizona. 'Earth Surface People came from a need to tell Indigenous stories, places, history, attitude. This aural tapestry is heard on their latest album, 2022's nihookááʼ diyin dineʼé (Earth Surface People). Skillfully weaving threads of jazz, fusion, R&B, soul, the group's sound achieves a seamless dialogue between Indigenous and Black American musics - driven home by the artistry of a key collaborator, in Diné vocalist Nanibaah. Led by Dakota Yazzie - no relation to Renata - Earth Surface People is a genre-fluid collective with a Navajo core: Yazzie, and his synth-playing younger brother, Cochise Yazzie, are Diné. With this in mind, open your hearts and ears to this cross-section of Indigenous talent, as the curtain opens for Native American Heritage Month 2023. 'In terms of Indigenous artistry in music and in film and in TV, we are in a moment where Native people are negotiating their own terms with how they want their identity and their art to be connected or not connected,' she explains, referring to sensations like 'Reservation Dogs.' 'They're negotiating that on their own terms, and it's an act of sovereignty for us to be able to do that. Some wear their identities and heritages in more elaborate displays, and some less so - which is just as valid. While her work braids Native and classical influences, Yazzie is attuned to sounds across the Indigenous musical spectrum for instance, she tipped off about Levi Platero, a blazing New Mexican blues guitarist who hails from the Navajo Nation.Īnd as 2023 winds down, Yazzie's championing a panoply of Indigenous acts, from a neo-soul groove machine to a heavy metal fiddler - and below, she explains why she is. 'Whether that be teaching, uplifting their music, filling in on keys for a band, promoting shows or writing about them for different outlets, teaching music, or teaching piano… I aim to just help Native musicians get the tools they need to make the music they want to make.' 'Everything I do is in support of Native people pursuing their musical love,' the Diné classical pianist tells. Renata Yazzie considers herself a musicologist, advocate and supporter of Indigenous music and musicians - whether she’s making music herself, or studying at Columbia in New York.

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