Iskwe [windspeaker confidential]

Windspeaker: What one quality do you most value in a friend?
Iskwe: Sense of humour. To me, my best of friends are the ones I’m able to laugh with, especially when I’m feeling blue...it’s always nice to have that person that you know will always help you laugh and feel better, if even just for a bit.

W: What is it that really makes you mad?
Iskwe: Being stuck in the middle seat on an airplane, next to someone that smells bad. It’s really the worst thing ever.

W: When are you at your happiest?
Iskwe: When I’m at the park with my pup, hands down. She’s so goofy and playful, it really makes me happy just watching her run around and play with me and other dogs. So freakin cute!

W: What one word best describes you when you are at your worst?
Iskwe: Asleep. It seems that whether I’m sick, sad, bored, cranky, whatever...I choose to just take a good, long, cozy nap!

W: What one person do you most admire and why?
Iskwe: My sister. She’s the funniest person I know! She’s also extremely loving and warm, and takes her family and friendships to the deepest spot in her heart.

W: What is the most difficult thing you’ve ever had to do?
Iskwe: Finding the part in my brain that remembers the English language when I was introduced to Denzel Washington. He’s actually a pretty small man in height, but his presence was massive and my ability to make sound was non-existent.

W: What is your greatest accomplishment?
Iskwe: That one (of many) time I attempted making an omelet, and it did not result in scrambled eggs.
W: What one goal remains out of reach?
Iskwe: Becoming fluent in my Cree language.

W: If you couldn’t do what you’re doing today, what would you be doing?
Iskwe: An Arts programmer of some sort for Aboriginal youth, for sure! My passion rests entirely in the arts. I’d have it no other way. That, or a published author.

W: What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Iskwe: When I was a teenager, I was hanging out with my Grams and we were talking boys. She looked over to me and said, very seriously, “My dear, a woman should have as many boyfriends in her lifetime as she has pairs of gloves.” I’m still not too sure what that means because I prefer mittens, but I thought if I could figure it out, then I’d know the key to lifelong happiness.

W: Did you take it?
Iskwe: I took in every drop.

W: How do you hope to be remembered?
Iskwe: The one that got away...

IsKwe is a Canadian girl from Winnipeg who embraces her mixed heritage of Irish and Cree/Dene. She has been writing and performing her music for the last 10 years between cities—Toronto, New York and Los Angeles—in order to find her sound. She says of her early days in the music industry, “I started off having a difficult time finding my place in music because I was really adamant about fitting into a specific genre. I was told I had a soulful voice, and that I should be a soul/R&B artist, so that’s what I did.” IsKwe says of her initial release, “My first EP had a solid neo-soul vibe to it, and it just didn’t fit me. It wasn’t a true reflection of me. I moved to the United States, lived half and half between L.A. and N.Y.C., took a crash course in the music industry, and finally found some comfort in allowing myself the freedom I needed as a writer to express and just be me. I quickly found comfort in ‘dark and painful,’ and began creating the album I’m soon to release.” She tells us her music is about relationships with people, how she interacts with them, romantic relationships, her observations of other people’s lives and how they live them.
Born into a family of artists she says she is called IsKwe (pronounced is-kway) by everyone but has two names from birth; Meghan and Wasiskwan IsKwe, which means “Blue Sky Woman” in her native Cree language. IsKwe also wears her attachment to her culture with a tattoo on the side of her neck of Cree syllabics, the back of her neck sports butterfly wings with a map inside each wing. Lastly, for now, a Haida frog for healing is on her left shoulder.

IsKwe believes in contributing to her Native community and is focused on promoting positive change and educations via youth workshops in Canada and the U.S. During Barrack Obama’s 2008 Democratic Convention, she performed for the Native Nations Uniting for Change gala at the Denver Art Museum. Of that experience she says, “I was so honored to be a part of that, in any way possible, and it will definitely be something I remember until the end of time.”

She has performed at the Canadian Aboriginal Festival in Toronto, the Gathering of Nations in Albuquerque and various other music festivals to bring awareness for the need for change.

Over the last four years, IsKwe’s professional focus has been on the creation and release of her self- titled debut album. It is due out in early 2013. The album was written my IsKwe and in her words her “genius producer Musashi” and friend Miku Graham , “a brilliant vocalist and songwriter.”