This isn’t your typical July Talk song.

The band is known for being outspoken when it comes to issues they’re passionate about, this time joining forces with the next generation of the First Nations community.

“Mourning Keeps Coming Back” was written, performed and recorded by students at Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School in Thunder Bay, Ontario. Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School is a private school established by elders in the Sioux Lookout district and provides lessons to more than 80 Indigenous students from 20 First Nations.

July Talk members Peter Dreimanis and Leah Faye visited the school in November 2017 as part of the New Constellations tour. The duo toured the school and held a workshop with the students.

Dreimanis told CBC that they had “chatted on the way into town about how we should likely figure out a way to break the ice a bit, because it’s a lot to ask of anybody to have them put themselves out there and write personal lyrics on the spot, let alone high-school students that see us as strangers.”

“We discussed ideas with a few of the other artists on the tour. We decided that we would each play them the first song we remember writing when we were young. First-ever songs can be great, and there’s usually a naiveté about them that is amazing, but it can be pretty embarrassing for the writer to play them years later. It felt like the only way to make the rest of the folks feel safe being vulnerable with us was to throw ourselves into the ring first.”

All of the students who helped write the song received a writing credit. Check ’em out below.

Producers:
Leah Fay, Kevin Drew and Peter Dreimanis

Performers:
Guitar:
Nathan Meekis
Donovan Day
Joel Aganash

Vocals:
Hailey Morris
Latoya Pemican
Jordyn Johnup
Latisha Pascal
Alaina Sakchekapo
Lester Gliddy
Kayden Angeconeb- verse 2
Gloria Mawakeesic – verse 3
(AJ) Dazelle Beardy outro vocals.

Lyrics
Aleena Crowe
Alexis Angeconeb
Jaylene Harper
Haley Jeremiah- McNeil

Artists:
Nicholas Ferrio
Ansley Simpson
Cris Derksen
Peter Dreimanis
Leah Fay
Kevin Drew (producer)
Charles Spearin (bass, guitar, horns)
Brendan Canning (bass)
Sam Goldberg jr. (guitar)
Derek Downham (drums)
David French (sax)
Julia Hambleton (woodwinds)

July Talk play the Shaw Conference Center with Metric on April 21!

Filed under: July Talk