New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Zoon has shared their remix of Whoop-Szo's "Cut Your Hair" off the
Warrior Down LP. The song was premiered by Beats Per Minute praising, "Monkman sought to alter the basic DNA of WHOOP-Szo's "Cut Your Hair" by infusing it with a compelling ambient pulse and pulling apart its roughhewn acoustic framework before casting it out into a gauzy atmosphere of roiling tones and vocal textures. It's a mesmerizing experience as these subsuming sounds gather around and drown out the chaos of the outside world, letting us revel completely in the beautiful noise that we're hearing."
On the remix Adam Sturgeon, band leader of Whoop-Szo said, "I'll find an ease in playing the same thing over and over. Sometimes for just a moment and others the whole day. Cut Your Hair is one such song that reaches deep into the core of my being. When we recorded the song for
Warrior Down, I had to go into the studio by myself and it was incredibly difficult to even get the words out. This was a huge contrast to the sonically expansive and aggressive tracks we were laying down at that time and so I've been really shy about the stripped back and revealing nature of the song.
'Cut Your Hair' is a song about my grandpa and me. It's a dedication to survivors and how our stories are tied to each other through Canada's Residential School system. This is not something I've been able to share in a way that is comfortable. Until working with my brother
Daniel from Zoon. Our experiences as Anishinaabe means that a lot can go unsaid between us.
Daniel knew how important this song was to me and how lonely and painful it felt. How we wear the weight of our ancestors in every step we take and how those schools tore the culture from our families. Together we've been able to pick each other up and navigate these challenging experiences. In his style,
Daniel added the missing elements that I had been searching for all along. I'm really proud of how this turned out and so excited for Zoon and all that's to come for them."
Zoon explained the inception of the collaboration, "I was so honored when Adam asked if I'd collaborate with him. I remember the first time hearing 'Cut Your Hair', it was on the CBC show 'Q' and Adam played solo, and there was so much emotion during his performance and I immediately connected with the story. 'Cut Your Hair' is the first contemporary song I've heard that deals with residential schools. Like Adam's grandfather, my grandfather, father, aunt and uncle, all attended these schools for many years. I found this song to be very emotional and I really wanted to capture that on my remix. I ended up isolating Adams vocals and built a wall of sound around it. I swapped bits of the guitar for sound loops to follow the verses and added in piccolos and strings at the end to symbolize a sort of resolution."
Paper Bag Records is proud to release Bleached Wavves on June 19, 2020. The name Zoon derives from the Ojibway word Zoongide'ewin which means "bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit" and aptly describes the inspirations for the project and the lovingly crafted first full-length recording from aboriginal songwriter,
Daniel Monkman.
Bleached Wavves - TRACKLISTING:
01. Clouded Formation
02. Vibrant Colours
03. Was & Always Will Be
04. Bleached Wavves
05. BrokenHead
06. A Perfect Sunset, Ahead
07. Light Prism
08. Infinite Horizons
09. Landscapes
10. Help Me Understand
In the Ojibway language, the word Zoongide'ewin means "bravery, courage, the Bear Spirit." It's no wonder then that
Daniel Monkman adopted Zoon as his musical moniker. The Hamilton-based musician has spent the better part of his 28 years channelling that strength to overcome such adversities as racism, poverty and addiction.
Music saved Monkman's life, and now he wants to share his story. On Zoon's debut album, Bleached Wavves, he paints a message of hope and fortitude, lessons he learned studying the
Seven Grandfather teachings after experiencing the lowest point of his life.
Born and raised in Selkirk, Manitoba, a small prison town outside of Winnipeg he describes as "one of the roughest places," Monkman has faced an uphill battle his whole life. In his teens he was victimized for his First Nations heritage, which led to him abusing drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. His best friend died of an overdose; he nearly followed him on multiple occasions. But with the spiritual guidance he learned from 12-step therapy, Monkman got clean and began to follow a passion for music he discovered from a young age growing up within the Brokenhead Ojibway Nation.
Bleached Wavves is the first true document of what has been dubbed "moccasin-gaze," a tongue-in-cheek nickname for the amalgamation of his shoegaze influences with traditional First Nations music. Like My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, a record that changed everything for him, Zoon pushes forward that famously quixotic, effects-laden sound with a distinctive, new approach.
A song like "Help Me Understand," which mixes traditional hand drumming with gliding waves of droning guitar, feels like new ground has been broken for shoegaze fanatics to obsess over. As he got more into this mindset of mixing cultures, Monkman went even further with his trials, emerging with his most radical vision, the trance-inducing "Was & Always Will Be."
Like most things in his life, making the album didn't come easy for Monkman, however. His gear was stolen, leaving him with virtually nothing. Knowing he had to get creative, he recorded the songs in his bedroom and his jam space, using only a Fender Deville guitar, a DigiTech delay pedal and - channelling his hero
Kevin Shields - some "reverse engineering."
Once it was finished, he got music into the hands of the late publicist Darryl Weeks, who quickly became a fan of what he heard. With Weeks' guidance and industry knowledge, Monkman found an ally willing to help out. He also found a label: Weeks passed on the record to fellow shoegaze enthusiast Trevor Larocque at Paper Bag Records, who offered to give Zoon a home.
While there is a healthy population of nu-gazers creating beautiful noise all over the world, Zoon's debut stands out from all the others. Bleached Wavves is notable not just for its breathtakingly inimitable sounds and giving birth to a newfangled subgenre (see "moccasin-gaze"), but also for its modest, resourceful creation, the sign of a true sonic genius-in-the-making.
