A Red Deer acoustic duo is set to release their first single later this week.
Totem and Tusk, made up of musicians Tony Sowan and Aaron Craddock, will release the song Saving Me this Thursday on all streaming platforms.
The song is based on a true story of Sowan finding an Indigenous woman in the street who was “distressed and intoxicated.”
“I’m not sure what got her there. But I managed to help her a little bit and got her a cab,” Sowan said.
“While we were waiting for the cab, we were standing around for a few moments and I talked to her for a bit. She was very apologetic about the situation she was in. It kind of broke my heart.”
The name Totem and Tusk represents the heritage of the bandmates: Sowan represents the Totem as an Aboriginal man and Craddock represents the Tusk – his heritage is linked to an area of Russia where mammoth bones were found.
Saving Me was one of the first songs the two worked on together. Craddock had written the guitar part and the lyrics came naturally from there, Sowan said.
“The essence of the song – where it says, ‘Saving you is saving me too’ – is about both of us remembering what it was like to be an absolute mess, but understanding you can get out of it and pull yourself together,” he said.
Sowan said he speaks from “the Aboriginal side of things.”
“My grandmother had gone to residential schools. It broke her and eventually broke our entire family. It’s the same thing with my mother – she eventually turned to harder drugs and she went missing. I haven’t seen her since I was 14,” said Sowan.
“Generational trauma is a real thing. We’ve talked a lot about that publicly in the last little while. I think that’s why this song speaks to, not only somebody who’s had a rough past that can see through experience how to put things together, but also … to our Aboriginal people who are hurting right now and looking for support among their own people and beyond.”
Upon meeting about a year ago, Sowan and Craddock quickly developed chemistry as a musical duo and began making music together. They are set to release an album of songs – one track will be released at a time.
Their first single was recorded in Red Deer with engineer Donny Smith. Contributing artist Jon Werkema played the violin on the track.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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