Red Man Laughing - The Tagaq Interview
Ryan McMahon
In this episode of the Red Man Laughing Podcast we sit down with the genre bending Tanya Tagaq Gillis. Unconventional in her approach to Traditional Inuit Throat Singing, Tagaq has created a name for herself as a risk taking, innovating & dynamic World talent. Her new album, Animism, is being released by Canadian label, Six Shooter Records, on Tuesday May 27th. Visit Six Shooter Records for more information & to buy the album.
This podcast episode is part punk, part community, forward looking, candid & it encompasses the politics, struggle, celebration & challenges of 2014 in Canada. In our conversation we talk about everything from her own Indian Residential School experience (yes, she's a survivor), her creative process & her collaborations, Carnegie Hall with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra & how her art always ties her back to the land.
Tagaq - photo credit: Nadya Kwandibens | Red Works Studio (redworks.ca)
BUY TAGAQ's NEW ALBUM

Get the digital version of the album on iTunes on Tuesday May 27th, 2014.
FROM THE LABEL
Tanya Tagaq’s music isn’t like anything you’ve heard before. Unnerving and exquisite, Tagaq’s unique vocal expression may be rooted in Inuit throat singing but her music as much to do with electronica, industrial and metal influences as it does with traditional culture.
This Inuk punk is known for delivering fearsome, elemental performances that are visceral and physical, heaving and breathing and alive. Her shows draw incredulous response from worldwide audiences, and Tagaq’s tours tend to jump back and forth over the map of the world. From a Mexican EDM festival to the Canadian High Commission in London, UK, her music and performances transcend language.
Tagaq makes musical friends and collaborators with an array of like-minded talents: opera singers, avant-garde violin composers, experimental DJs, all cutting edge and challenging. Tanya’s albums make for complex listening, but her string of Juno nominations attests to her ability to make difficult music speak a universal tongue.
Animism, the new album, was produced by west coast shape-shifter Jesse Zubot (Dan Mangan, Fond of Tigers). The record features Michael Red (Low Indigo), a sound sampler and DJ whose wild northern field recordings often serve as Tagaq’s de facto backing band, percussionist Jean Martin and Spanish opera singer Anna Pardo Canedo.
FEATURED MUSICAL TRACKS
We featured 3 musical tracks for Tanya's new album, Animism, in cooperation with her label, Six Shooter Records. We thank Six Shooter for allowing Red Man Laughing to stream the music in this episode of the podcast.
Featured in this episode are the following tracks (in order):
- Uja
- Caribou
- Fracking
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