In 2018, Logan Staats of Duncan catapulted his music career through The Launch a competition that led to his big break with his single The Lucky Ones.
Five years later Staats indeed feels like a lucky one as he is bestowed the 2023 TD Indigenous Songwriter Award. Staats will be honoured this June at the SOCAN Annual General Meeting in Vancouver. This event will bring together music creators, publishers, and music industry stakeholders to see Staats unleash his talent on stage. Those unable to celebrate Staats’s achievement and performance in person will be able to stream SOCAN’s AGM live.
“It is so validating for me,” said Staats. “I’ve won awards before — best folk album, best radio single, even best rock — but I’ve never been recognized for my songwriting specifically. It means a lot because the writing is really where my heart’s at.”
Staats, an acclaimed Mohawk artist from Six Nations of the Grand River shares that he was asked to audition for The Launch in 2018, which was filmed in Toronto and open to artists Canada-wide. This not only skyrocketed Staats’s career but led him to places such as Los Angeles and Nashville to work with stars of the industry. Staats has impressed many with his music at local venues such as the long running Islands Folk Festival.
READ MORE: Huge lineup of international and First Nations acts coming for Islands Folk Festival
“The Lucky Ones is actually my only song that I didn’t write myself; it was a single connected to The Launch,” said Staats. “Nashville in particular was awesome and I got to write with a ton of amazing artists while I was there.”
This was not Staats’s first, or last brush with inspiring musicians. Since embarking on this journey his path has enabled him to create authentic music through raw reflection and honest storytelling on his new label Red Music Rising. Staats said he is beyond grateful to have found mentorship along the way with Indigenous icon Buffy Sainte-Marie who he has been blessed to open for, on many occasions.
“Buffy has been just so supportive of me since day one, and we’ve become good friends over the years,” said Staats. “Not only with my music but with land defence too. I was arrested at gunpoint last year for defending Wet’suwet’en lands, and when I got out of jail she called me and told me she was proud of me. It’s again something that’s so validating, to be recognized by someone like her.”
Staats wishes to pay forward the guidance he’s received by connecting with Indigenous youth through his own music, songs like his latest single Deadman which earned him his first TD Indigenous Songwriter Award.
“When I sing ‘give me back my love’ people assume I’m singing about a girl, but it’s really about my culture, my people,” said Staats. “All the things that residential school took from us. Music is medicine to me, and I hope people feel that too when they listen to my stuff. That it’s healing, it’s inspiring. Music is my gift from Creator, and I believe everyone is given a gift, whether it’s painting, poetry, carving, whatever. I hope people are inspired to use their gifts from Creator.”
Staats is the fifth Indigenous artist to be recognized with the TD Indigenous Songwriter Award since 2018, and will also receive a cash prize of $10,000 in addition to a performance opportunity in front of music industry professionals. Indigenous artists who received honourable mention awards in the amount of $1,000 this year include Aysanabee, Ila Barker, Kaeley Jade, Uncle Joe, and Twin Flames. All submissions to the award are adjudicated by Indigenous songwriters and industry leaders.
Staats said when it comes to memorable moments, being the recipient of this award is high on his list, but his real reward is sharing his talent and gift with others.
“I am blessed, that I get to do music workshops at a lot of the places I travel to,” says Staats. “It’s just fun to hang with the kids and meet new families.”
chadd.cawson@cowichanvalleycitizen.com
Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.