WELL, THERE I WAS, the envy of my co-workers at The Nation. I had just gotten to listen to 7th Fire live at the Native Friendship Center’s annual pow wow in Montreal.
This year it was held at Vanier College and was a little different than most pow-wows I had been too.
Normally I always heard the sounds of the traditional big drums accompanied by chanting upon entering.
This time was different. I was greeted with an outburst of contemporary native talent. One of those talents was 7th Fire and it was my pleasure to interview Allan Deleary, the lead singer of the gang.
The Nation: Let’s get some basics. How many albums do you have out?
Allan Deleary: Well, 7th Fire has one official one out under the label of First Nations Music. Undistributed by EMI.
That came out in April of this year. The band had released it previously under an independent label with an accompanying music video. The video was the title track, which was The Check Is In The Mail.
Preceding that, we’ve been on another CD called Jill The Bars Break and that was about three years ago I guess. It was nominated in the World Beat category for the Juno’s.
Before that, we put out an independent cassette called Well What Does It Take? We did one prior to that under my stage name, which was Tommy Hawk, called The Buffalo Cliff Collection. Over the past five or six years, we’ve put out four releases.
And when is your next album coming out?
We are going into the studio November and we’ll be in the studio on and off for two months after that.
We are going to try and get a product out for next spring so we can visit all the folks across Canada.
We’re trying to make a tour so we can do the major centers like Toronto, Winnipeg and Montreal and that stuff, but we’ll
be bringing our own PA with us. This is so we can go out and do communities.
Do you mean Native communities?
Oh yeah! I mean like it’s a long drive between Winnipeg and Regina but there’s a lot of Indian reserves along the way. That’s the kind of things we like, you know. So we’re going to bring a PA, go on the road and live like pigs… (laughter) The pigs that we are… (laughter)
You do a lot of acting like pigs?
(Laughter)… No, no, not at all. We never. Probably someone misjudged us… (laughter) And we’ve never went back to that town… (more laughter)
It seems your band has changed its style from label to label or cassette.
Well, yes, I think the consciousness of the lyrics is still there in terms of the message, but what we’ve realized is that I’m essentially a poet.
That’s how I came into this thing when I first started reading my poetry to music. From the Buffalo Cliff Collection to Well, What Does It Take? we were essentially a reggae band with Indian-conscious lyrics and some chants.
But what we’ve done since that time is drop a four-barrel carburator on the reggae and stepped on the gas. It’s what we’ve done. We’re more rock, a more heavy sound than what we were previously.
Yes, I noticed that in your show today. Are you planning to do a lot more shows like that?
I hope so. We would like to do a lot of communities. I think it’s important reaching youth with the music we do. It’s an alternative to Pearl Jam and those types of bands.
I mean, Pearl Jam, I love those guys. I really like that kind of music. But this gives youth a different perspective in the same vein kind of thing.
All in all, you know, 7th Fire’s always an evolving kind of entity. And having said that, with the last album, The Check Is In The Mail, we consciously made the effort to make the music more accessible to not just the Indian populace, but the general population as well.
After all, in the end, you want to make a living at this sort of thing. We try hard to do that.
Thoughout all this, I’ve noticed that a lot of your lyrics are very politically conscious. Will this always be a part of 7th Fire?
Yes, I think so. For one thing some of the music, well, a lot of the music you heard tonight, was written while I was drinking.
Now, I’ve been dry for over three years so my anger has tempered a bit. I’ve learned to channel it. One, through the music. But I’ve learned that with the anger, I can’t be angry at myself and I can’t be angry at my people.
I think it’s been a long process of learning. I’ve mentioned tonight that for the kids, we know who the enemy is. It’s not the Native communities or conditions, and it’s not ourselves.
It’s the feds and it’s the people who have racist tendencies, people who do not believe that the world is one of the most beautiful places in all of Creation. It’s amazing, you know, the beauty of this world.
How people get along is something for our First Nations peoples to be proud of as a surviving culture. It’s with the notion of 7th Fire. It’s a prophesy about obligations.
For me, part of those obligations as a young Objibway man is to find my roots. To speak out about retracing my past in order to know my future.
And having said that, it’s more globally inclusive in that the world has become so small through technology so that you can reach a fair amount of people through music.
It’s one of the least harmful ways of communicating. You don’t have to beat people over the head. People get up and dance to the groove. And if they listen to the lyrics, fine. And if they just get up, dance and listen to the 7th Fire show, well, that’s great too.
What else would you like to add?
Well, I don’t know. I guess I would like to encourage people to keep on listening. Not only to our band but also to the other native talent out there. There’s a lot of young folks coming up. Support those people. It’s a hard way to make a living.
In the end, be true to yourself, whatever that truth is. That’s a message I’d like to send to everyone.
