idlenomore:

Idle No More: Winnipeg, December 21 2012

“They may be Canadians, but we are not. We are…the people of these lands.”

Awesome!

Featuring LORENZO (aka MC “Frozen Hands” lol) — rapping and singing at 03:34. LOVE IT!

(Source: youtube.com)

Lorenzo Answers Some “Questions”

Lorenzo has a new intimate and unplugged video out for his song Questions and we got a chance to get him to answer some of our own questions about it.

We found this new video here at RPM by Leonard Sumner aka Lorenzo for his song called Questions which was released recently on Vimeo. Shot by Jordan Molaro in a hotel room unplugged and in one take, I had to ask Lorenzo one question myself before posting this video – “what do you want the people to know about it?”

Here’s what Lorenzo had to say:

“I just hope people enjoy it. It came to me after the spring equinox and we had a feast at work. I was listening to a traditional person speaking, and I heard them say ‘will there be any questions for you from the creator?’ in their speech. It may not have been in that exact phrasing. But something along those lines.

It set off a chain reaction in my mind..

‘Will there be questions for me, like I’ve had questions for you.’

To me it meant when our time is done here, will the Creator ask me questions as to why I made different choices in life. Or why I hadn’t embraced or used my gifts and talents completely. I’m sure we’ve asked why we’ve faced different obstacles in our lives or felt like we weren’t chasing our dreams hard enough.

So after about a week of digesting that phrase, on the night before the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Youth Secretariat’s ‘Regional Youth Gathering’ (I work for AMC’s Youth Secretariat) held in Fisher River Cree Nation, I couldn’t sleep. My guitar was calling me, but not my usual guitar. It was a new Fender Acoustic I Picked up from that Future Shop on the Rez in Vancouver. I had stored it in my closet, but something was drawing me to it. Almost like it wanted to write the song. I picked it up and started strumming, and almost immediately there was a chord progression I had never used…

To read the rest of the interview and to watch Lorenzo’s new video, entitled Questions, click this link.

Here’s an RPM feature audio interview with Anishinaabe musician Leonard Sumner, aka Lorenzo, and host Ostwelve.

Winnipeg’s Leonard Sumner, aka Lorenzo, and his unique style of hip-hop and country music have gained a wide following and recognition in the last couple years. In this candid interview Lorenzo speaks about his influences and inspirations, his future plans, and how to stay true to your music.