The story behind the gorgeous jacket Aysanabee wore at the 2023 Juno Awards
Painter Travis Shilling and the women who previously designed Prince's jackets helped create an original look
Up-and-coming musician Aysanabee garnered a lot of firsts this year: he was nominated for his first Juno, for contemporary Indigenous artist of the year, and performed for the first time on the Junos stage at the 52nd awards, held in Edmonton on March 13. That same day he hit another milestone: his song "Nomads" officially hit No. 1 on the Alternative Rock chart, marking the first time a First Nations artist nabbed that spot in the history of the Mediabase Canada chart.
While the Oji-Cree singer-songwriter's Junos performance was mesmerizing, his gorgeous outfit also caught a lot of attention. The jacket was designed by Ojibway artist Travis Shilling and fashion designers at Call and Response, according to Aysanabee's label, Ishkōdé Records. Shilling's father, Arthur, taught him how to paint, and Arthur taught himself the art in residential school, where he gathered charcoal from fires and made paintings of food hidden under the bunk beds because there was no good food for him to eat. "He'd paint pictures of sandwiches and fruit and this and that, and kids would go and look at that food," Aysanabee said, backstage in the media room.
Travis and Aysanabee collaborated on the singer's coat, which is decorated with 122 feathers with numbers standing for the number of unmarked graves found at residential schools across the country so far.
"Travis Shilling is out there painting a lot about his culture, his life, his experiences, and it seemed appropriate with the context of my album, that we work together like this," said Aysanabee.
The coat was created by Catharine Robinson, Lori Marcuz and Annie McDayter of Call and Response, a Toronto-based design company. Call and Response founders Robinson and Marcuz are known for having designed Prince's incredible jackets on his tours between 2011-2016.
