Song You Need: Zoon’s “Manitou” is an all-too-rare reckoning with nostalgia
Watch the music video for the Indigenous post-shoegaze musician’s new single, the second from their upcoming LP Bekka Ma’iingan.
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Perhaps the first thing that strikes you about Daniel Monkman's music is the storytelling. Even beneath the Northern Lights-textures of Bleached Wavves, their debut project of self-dubbed “moccasingaze” as Zoon, you could feel the narratives that were stringing their syllables together even if you couldn't always hear the words. Sewn Back Together, Monkman's full-length experimental rock collaboration with Status/Non Status as Ombiigizi (pronounced om-BEE-ga-ZAY), lifted the veil of dreams ever so slightly and planted the listener barefoot in the soil of Monkman's stories.
"Manitou," Monkman's new song as Zoon and the second track from their upcoming sophomore album Bekka Ma’iingan (out April 28), is both a callback to Monkman's first project and a new beginning. Though not a shoegaze song by definition, the music's funereal orchestra and Monkman's vocals, which seem to come forth from the strings like sea foam from a tidal pool, all work to swath you in a similar way to Bleached Wavves. It's one of the most threadbare and devastating pieces of music that Monkman has released yet.
The new song comes with a music video directed by Trevor Blumas. Monkman sings and thrashes underwater, suggesting a baptism gone awry, while visited by memories of people from their past. In a statement, Monkman explained how the song was inspired by their own friendships, the unacknowledged mental health struggles that hung over them, and their conflicted relationship with a formative time in their life.
"'Manitou' is about the group of friends I had growing up in Selkirk, Manitoba. We’d run across the red bridge and have fires and drink. Our little piece of heaven, until some cops would come and ruin our fun. Running from them was fun though. It was some of the best times of my life. I did notice a very sad element to the whole thing afterwards. Everything was just so normal at the time, I didn’t have anything to really base it off of, but I know now a lot of us were struggling with mental health issues and not properly taken care of, but we took care of each other and some of us got lost along the way, some passed on, I will always remember. 'Manitou' is that feeling I get when I reflect back to those times. I wanted to write music for a film that would never be made."