Sebastian Gaskin is a rising force in the Canadian music scene whose genre-defying blend of his Indigenous roots with soulful R&B melodies, and captivating storytelling has earned him critical acclaim and a growing fanbase. With his highly anticipated debut album LOVECHILD officially out today, February 21, via Ishkōdé Records and Universal Music Canada, Gaskin is poised to make an even greater impact. Featuring chart-topping singles like “Ghost” and “Cherie Amour,” along with the SOCAN Award-winning “Medicine,” his album highlights his powerful voice and multi-instrumental talents. Recently, he earned two JUNO Award nominations, including Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year for his standout track “Brown Man” and Recording Engineer of the Year for “Ghost.” As he celebrates this major milestone in his career, we sat down with Gaskin a few days ago to discuss his emotional single “Song For Granny,” his musical influences, and what it feels like to share his debut album with the world.
Jeromme Graham: Sebastian, your debut album LOVECHILD is set to release on February 21st. That’s pretty exciting. What does the album mean to you personally, and would you say there’s a central theme or message?
Sebastian Gaskin: This album is coming out, finally I’ve been working on this thing forever. You know? This album has been the culmination of the past decade or so. Six to ten years, basically. There’s a lot of stuff that’s happened.
A lot of these songs I wrote a number of years ago now. It’s nice to finally be able to release these into the world, so I can start putting out music that I’ve written in the last year or so. There’s definitely some catharsis. There’s a sense of relief. There’s excitement.
Jeromme Graham: I’m sure. It’s funny. They do say you have your whole life to work towards your debut album and putting that first body of work out into the world. Did the success of songs like “Ghost” or “Cherie Amour” influence the direction of the project or had you already kind of had that planned out?
Sebastian Gaskin: Well, the record was pretty much finished when we started putting those songs out. I had already had all the songs written. The only thing that may have changed was the sort of sequencing on the album. I always planned to have an interlude and an intro for my debut record. I think that’ll be a thing that continues on for me into the future.
Jeromme Graham: Oh, definitely. That injects some personality in there and listeners can get to know more about you while they’re enjoying the music as well. I wanted to touch on “Song For Granny,” which is a heartfelt tribute to your late grandmother. Can you talk a bit about the songwriting process for that track?
Sebastian Gaskin: I wrote that one at home. I had just moved to Toronto, like six or seven months before I wrote the song. I was living in this basement apartment in Parkdale. That’s one of the songs with no co-writers. It kinda came out of nowhere. I ended up having a real sense of healing while I was writing it because I shed some tears. And especially writing about my auntie Lisa losing her sight and stuff like that. Sort of directly talking to my grandmother, about how the family’s been doing since she’s left the earth. I hope that the song can help provide that sense of healing to other people as well.
Jeromme Graham: Oh, I’m sure it will. What’s it like being able to channel your personal experiences with grief and family struggles into your music? And does it give you a sense of relief knowing that it will resonate with listeners and they’ll be able to kind of ease their own burdens by listening to “Songs For Granny” and material like that?
Sebastian Gaskin: Yeah. I hope so. I discovered songwriting in my teens and it’s always been this therapeutic thing for me. It’s been the way that I process pretty much everything in my life. Whether it’s good or bad, happy or sad. You know?
Jeromme Graham: Nice. I caught that reference! Your music blends so many different genres and influences, but there’s especially a strong R&B vibe in a lot of your music as well. Who are some of your biggest influences?
Sebastian Gaskin: I discovered Toronto R&B specifically in my late teens. Pretty much around 18 or 19. I was really big into PARTYNEXTDOOR towards the end of high school.
I’m also a really big fan of Leon Bridges. Then obviously, you have the greats like Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, and all those folks. But I find I draw a lot of influence from more modern artists.
Jeromme Graham: That makes sense. There’s a lot of that sound, especially running through songs like “Cherie Amour” which is such a vibe.
Sebastian Gaskin: Totally. That’s like straight out of a Majid Jordan album. The production was very much inspired by that.
Jeromme Graham: You’re an artist with deep ties to your heritage and community. How has that influenced your approach to music and storytelling?
Sebastian Gaskin: It definitely provides some purpose. There’s pressure that comes with that. Needing to inspire the next generation of creatives from not only my community, but the Indigenous community in Canada as a whole. But I tend to focus on where I come from, where I can directly make an impact. I’m hoping that a little rez kid can see me performing or see a music video of mine and say maybe I can give it a shot. Maybe I can see myself doing that one day.
Jeromme Graham: Were you shocked or maybe inspired by the reception to “Brown Man” when you released that last year?
Sebastian Gaskin: You know, I’d never really written a song like that before, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. There was a lot of response from the American Indigenous community, which was really cool getting to connect with Lakota people from South Dakota or even hearing from people down in Arizona.I feel like there was more support for that with the American Indigenous community. We were running ads for it on Instagram. And I was trying my best not to read the comments. Because there were tons of great comments about this all, but then you get the one horrible comment from somebody’s burner account. The response was maybe a little overwhelming at times, but I love it all.
Jeromme Graham: That’s really interesting. I guess kind of on that subject of reaching across borders, you’ve been performing internationally. What was it like playing in Germany and overseas? Have these global experiences kind of shaped your artistry? And may we hear some more international influence on your new music to come?
Sebastian Gaskin: Oh my gosh. Germany was amazing. It was for this festival called Reeperbahn, which is not like how Coachella is a music festival. It’s more so for the industry.
So you’ll have music companies like CIMA or Manitoba Music there and you get to drum up business or to get a German booking agent. Those gigs are always a little weird because it’s kind of filled with suits, but it was great getting to experience a different culture. I actually have some roots in Germany. My dad’s dad, who I’ve never met, is from Germany. So I felt a connection to that land, while I was there.
Jeromme Graham: Oh, interesting. I’m sure it must’ve been different playing to suits and industry types as opposed to adoring crowds of listeners, but it sounds like a really cool experience.
Sebastian Gaskin: It was great. Not complaining at all. The journey home, though, I will complain about a little bit. I ended up losing my crossbody bag, which had my passport and my plane tickets and everything.
Jeromme Graham: Oh, no!
Sebastian Gaskin: It was like I was like a chicken running around the airport with my head cut off for eight hours. And I missed my first flight and we were able to book another flight after that, so I got home.
Jeromme Graham: I guess that’s ultimately what counts at the end of the day. Recently, you won the Vince Fontaine Indigenous Song Award. You’re kind of on the rise in the Indigenous music scene up here. How do you feel your success is contributing to the visibility and representation of Indigenous artists in music?
Sebastian Gaskin: Well, I am Indigenous and working with two incredible labels, Ishkōdé and Universal. I hate to say that I put the pressure on myself, like I’m opening doors. But that’s kinda what I’m doing and hopefully keeping the door open long enough for even more Indigenous artists to come and operate at this level in the music industry.
Jeromme Graham: You’re definitely opening doors and making a name for yourself. With your album dropping imminently, are you already looking ahead to what’s next? Maybe a tour?
Sebastian Gaskin: We’ve got some gigs coming in. We have a couple of festivals. One is on the West Coast. I’ll say that for now. We’re slowly building a tour out. We’re going to the UK in May for this festival called The Great Escape, so some more international work is in the works.
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