Growing a life in music: FPCC Music Program supports professional music production of the new Ellescriv album and launch.
Lorissa Scriven performing as Ellescriv, is an alt-folk songwriter from Saulteau First Nation who grew up in the pines of northwest B.C. She received funding through the First Peoples’ Cultural Council’s (FPCC) Music Program to create, produce and roll out the new Ellscriv album, Wandering the Pine.
As a little girl, she’d sing for a grove of pines behind her house, and she was wandering them again this spring, gathering moss and pinecones to decorate for her sold-out album release party on June 1st, at Cameron Lake Outdoor Education Center near Hudson’s Hope. Reflecting her nature-loving spirit, it was not just a stage performance, but a weekend campout as well.
The songs of Wandering the Pine detail the journey from love lost to love found. “I carried these songs with me as I found my way to my person, and he’s been a big part of shaping these songs into what they are today,” Lorissa says. She’s the singer, guitarist and keyboardist, with her “partner in life and music,” Matt Stanyer who contributes guitar, bass, drums and background vocals.
Growing Strong Roots
As Lorissa is growing a life in music, she has been supported by FPCC’s Music Program for the past two years as well as past participation in the Virtual Performance Pilot 2020-21, Indigifest 2021, the Music Retreat 2022, and was a participant in the Festival Program Pilot 2023. The Creation and Sharing funding, one of the options for individual artists in the Music Program, helped hire professionals to work with her through all the stages of her new album– from pre-production to recording, mixing and marketing.
“I don’t know if I would still be doing this type of work if it wasn’t for FPCC’s support, she says. “This support has changed my life and connected me to so many opportunities in an area I was finding difficult to navigate on my own.”
For Lorissa, some of the songs are about self-acceptance, and stepping into that with new understanding. “For years I lived on the defence,” she explains. “It felt like everything about me was fringe. One day I just asked myself ‘why do I bother with this need to be understood?’ I stopped comparing myself, stopped worrying about being a slowpoke and with that came so much peace.” Creating the album has been a healing process, “to be peacefully closing the door on those uncertain feelings alongside someone who is helping you honour them,” she says.
Attending FPCC’s artist retreat, as both a participant and recently as a mentor, has inspired her to incorporate Cree into her music. “Thinking about how things have totally different meanings and what that could mean for me as an artist to be able to sing in my own language,” has her dreaming of singing in her mother’s language.
While Lorissa had always felt a yearning to connect with her heritage, and loved visits with her great grandmother at Saulteau First Nations, she understands her “mom’s from a different generation where she was protecting herself by not embracing her culture, which is of course a classic tale.”
“But I was kind of always this little flag waving, being like, ‘Hey mom, let’s look over here’. And now, as an adult, it’s been a really beautiful experience for me to watch my mom also growing and coming back to this culture, developing a relationship with her mother,” she says. “Being able to bring her to Indigenous-led events has been amazing. Just to experience it together, and have that sense of belonging that I have always had, be confirmed.”
Branching Out
It was a friend, Margaret Lena Fenton who encouraged her to apply. “She reached out to me and told me it’s important for you to actually step into that space, and to be representing other people that are having a similar experience,” of being of mixed Indigenous heritage.
Lorissa felt encouraged, and Fenton knew it would be a connecting and generative experience. “She told me ‘it’s going to be that connection that you’re looking for,’” she says. “And honestly, it’s done exactly that. It’s really opened up my world and allowed me to make those connections that I didn’t even know were possible.”
She’ll be performing at the International Indigenous Music Summit in Toronto, June 10-14. This year’s theme is BAWAADAN, Anishinaabemowin for “dream of it.”
In preparation for her album’s release, she was excited, busy, and taking the time to wander the pines to feed her spirit.
“People have been coming to my shows, watching me on social media and just the way that I am as a person. And they’re constantly saying to me, oh, you’re a forest fairy, or a wood nymph, or a hippie. And I’m like, actually, I’m just Indigenous,” she smiles.
FPCC Music Program
The Music Program supports the development of B.C. First Nations music creatives and professionals residing in B.C. through grants and training programs. This program offers three areas of funding for artists, recording engineers and music industry professionals. For more information on the program click here.
You can stream Wandering the Pine for free by visiting Lorissa’s website at www.ihugtrees.com.
We thank Indigenous writer Odette Auger for developing this story with us.
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