Burnstick reborn

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This article was published 01/03/2024 (954 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Nothing brings a couple together quite like the birth of their first child.

Nadia and Jason Burnstick — the Manitoba husband-and-wife folk duo Burnstick — experienced the joys and anxieties of a newborn first-hand in 2018 with the arrival of their son.

The emotions from that time emerge on the folk group’s new single, Closer, which previews a new as-yet-unnamed Burnstick album later in 2024.

“We like to think back to when he was born and in that moment it was so overwhelming,” Nadia Burnstick says from their home in Saint Claude, about 100 kilometres west of Winnipeg.

“You don’t know what you’re doing — ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know how to be a parent’ — but there’s this genuine connection, this love that’s there, that you’ll do anything for this person.”

Closer — it’s pronounced with an “S” sound, as in being nearer to someone — is also the birth of a new sound for Burnstick.

“I had written some parts of it, and Jason had some other ideas to add, and it shows how bonded we are in raising our child,” she says.

The music has a dreamy soundscape reminiscent of artists such as Loreena McKennitt or Enya rather than the more traditional folk melodies from their 2019 debut record, Kiyânah, which earned a Canadian Folk Music Award and a Juno nomination.

“The rest of the album is more folky, but that one has a more contemporary feel, for sure,” Nadia says of Closer. “We had this vision for it almost immediately when we wrote it. That’s what the song needed.”

That meant increased time spent on production to go with their improving songwriting, whether it was more time needed to blend their vocals or to work with the rich tones from Jason’s Weissenborn guitars, which already add distinctness to Burnstick’s sound.

“We wanted to make a more cohesive project, from start to finish. You’ll see there’s a flow to the album, and that was done purposefully,” he says.

While they also teamed up with drummer Daniel Roy, bassist Bruce Jacobs and producer Paul James at Winnipeg’s No Fun Club, making Closer and the rest of the upcoming album strengthened their musical relationship as much as their familial one.

“When we were writing and trying things out, (we were) trusting in each other’s ability and judgment — ‘Let’s try this, let’s try that and if it doesn’t work it doesn’t work,’” Jason says. “Beautiful things can happen, and with Closer, the more we (tried different ideas), the better it started sounding.

“We wanted to get the best out of everything.”

While Burnstick has waited five years to release new material, they haven’t spent all their time as father and mother.

The Indigenous couple — Jason is Plains Cree and Nadia is Métis — has made music for several movie and television projects since Kiyânah, most notably the 2023 series Little Bird, which appears on Crave and APTN in Canada, as well as PBS in the United States.

Little Bird focuses on the ’60s Scoop, specifically the consequences a First Nations woman faces after being adopted by a white family.

A lullaby Nadia wrote and Jason performed for the opening episode proved to be powerful for the two of them when they watched the show.

“I remember watching the episode and for about a half an hour after, I just had to lay there and take it all in. ‘Whoa, what just happened?’ I’d never had an experience like that before.” Jason says.

Jason Burnstick also created the music for The Forks’ 2023 Canada Day celebrations, which used an array of drones to create Achakos, a visual display that celebrated ancestral Cree teachings.

“I was really proud of the work I did,” he says. “I hope that they ask us back to do that again because that was quite something.”

alan.small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall