For singer-songwriter Missy Knott, a self-described “happy-in-the-sunshine girl”, the advent of fall and the cold winter months to follow normally doesn’t give her much cause for celebration. Enter Wild Rice Records and its mission to provide support and mentoring for young Indigenous artists and their recording projects.
Born of collaboration between Knott, Guerilla Studios owner-operator Dave Searle, and Peterborough LIVE Music Festival founder Wendy Fischer, Wild Rice Records will be launched on Friday, September 15th at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte St. E, Peterborough) at Sparkle Celebration, a showcase of Indigenous music and its creators featuring headliner Crystal Shawanda with performances by Knott with Dean James, Gary Williams, Taylor Merrick, and The Bob Taylor Band.
Tickets for Sparkle Celebration cost $33 ($23 for students) at the Market Hall box office, by phone at 705-749-1146, online at markethall.org, or at Moondance Records (425 George St. N., cash only).
“A lot of people in our area don’t know Indigenous music exists because we don’t have a lot of it going on just yet,” says Knott who, at age 19, recorded and released her first album For No Reason At All in 2009.
“You go to Winnipeg, the Indigenous music scene is thriving,” she says. “I was inspired there at the Indigenous Music Awards. Crystal was nominated for Producer of the Year for my latest record My Sister’s Heart, so I spent a week there. There was constantly something going on, whether it was workshops or shows.
VIDEO: My Sister’s Heart – Missy Knott
“In some ways, that’s happening here. We do have an Indigenous arts community here with Sean Conway, Tara Williamson, Patti Shaughnessy, and we have the Ode’min Giizis (Strawberry Moon) Festival. Still, I think a lot of Indigenous artists need to travel in order to be a part of that scene.”
Building, promoting, and furthering the Indigenous music scene in Peterborough is the driving force behind Wild Rice Records, says Knott, fully cognizant of the challenge that presents.
“We want the Indigenous community to thrive and we want people to know Indigenous people are still here, that First Nations people are still here. Yes, I’m Missy Knott. I’m still from Curve Lake First Nation. But people don’t see Indigenous music as mainstream music. They don’t really give it a chance.”
That said, Knott is far from discouraged.
“That’s changing and it’s changing fast. Wendy and I did an event in June at The Venue called The Gathering. It was basically an indoor pow wow. We brought all sorts of Indigenous organizations together, like the Lovesick Lake Native Women’s Association, and they set up booths. Taylor Merrick, one of the top emerging artists from Curve Lake, performed.”
Motivating Knott is her own experience as a youth with a musical gift she wanted to share.
“I had nobody in my life that was in music. It was just something that unfolded. Somebody told me ‘You should a singer’ so I became a singer. When Crystal met with me later on and asked if I’d be interested in working with her, that became my whole world. ‘I have a number one Billboard country recording artist who wrote this song about her daddy dying.’ My dad had just died. It was like the stars were lining up.”
VIDEO: “You Can Let Go” – Crystal Shawanda
Through Wild Rice Records, Knott hopes she can provide the same kind of support and mentoring to other young Indigenous performers, some of whom may be struggling — as Knott herself has — with anxiety and other mental health challenges.
“Mental health and anxiety and all that are huge right now because kids are not used to having conversations about the issues facing them,” she explains. “Everything is done over the internet. That makes it hard to ask people for help.
“Wild Rice Records will be kind of like a launch pad for them, somewhere to go where I can provide them with connections and ideas. And provide them with a studio, as I’m partnered with Guerrilla Studios and with Echo Recording (based at Guerilla Studios). I want it to be that connector for them.”
Pointing to her recent appearance at the Havelock Country Jamboree, Knott says, for the first time, she departed a stage “100 per cent confident” in her performance.
“I always had a level of confidence but I’ve battled with a lot of trauma. My dad dying, the aftermath of that, my mental health … I call it anxiety but I’m not sure exactly what it was. But I didn’t have a support system. The easy way out was having a drink.
“That’s how my family dealt with their problems. The stereotype and the stigma of the First Nations community are not all lies. No matter how hard I fight that or how hard I try to avoid it, you’re still affected by it. To be asked to do the Havelock Jamboree — playing with the guys I played with whom I grew up admiring, like Dylan Ireland and Matt Greco, being on that stage and feeling grounded — was one of the best feelings I’ve ever had.”
Wild Rice Records, as Knott envisions it, will be the conduit for emerging artists to find their confidence early on by providing them with not only the technical means of furthering their music, but also the encouragement necessary to progress to the next level.
While Knott remains proud, and rightly so, of her own artistic milestones — the 2009 Emerging Artist Award bestowed by the Peterborough Folk Festival, sharing the stage with the likes of Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and her February 2017 Market Hall release of Nashville-recorded My Sister’s Heart come quickly to mind — the brightest gleam in her eye is fueled by her two-year-old daughter Lyrik.
“For so long, I was waking up thinking ‘What’s my purpose?'” Knott says. “You can volunteer and perform at all these charity events but, at the end of the day, what’s your purpose? Now I don’t question that. Now I have a purpose.
“I have a person I’m responsible for: a child that’s always going to love me and I’m going to love forever, no matter what I do. There’s no holding back now. I want to make sure I represent her in the best way possible. She has given me a huge push. I don’t want her to be raised in a little bubble. I want her to embrace all the arts, all the culture.”
Another recent life-changing development for Knott has been working with Wendy Fischer.
“Wendy is an unbelievable, energetic ball of magic. She has been a huge motivator in terms of the business side of my art and has opened up this whole new world to me in terms of generating income. After having Lyrik, life changed. You can’t volunteer as much as you wish you could. You’ve got to pay the bills. When I lived in my car and was traveling all the time, that didn’t really matter — but now I can’t do that.”
Now, the September 15 event is Knott’s main focus.
“I chose Market Hall because I love working with Chad Hogan and Patricia Thorne. The venue is beautiful. It’s a performing arts centre, not just a bar. And September 16 and 17 is pow wow weekend in Curve Lake, so the timing is perfect. Crystal is a huge name in the Aboriginal arts community. As soon as I messaged her and said ‘Please, are you free?’ she said ‘I’m there.'”
Also fueling Knott’s anticipation is the fact that Sparkle Celebration will be staged three days after her 28th birthday.
“This has always been my favourite week of the year. My birthday and then pow wow weekend falls right after. It’s my Christmas. Everything is unfolding perfectly. I’m not a winter person. I’m more of happy-in-the-sunshine girl. That we’re getting the ball rolling on all this is giving me something consistent to do during the winter months. I’m really looking forward to that.”
