Crown Lands and Indigenous peoples

One of the most exciting personal musical discoveries of the year has been Crown Lands. The duo are inspired by Rush and Led Zeppelin and other similar bands, and their name references the land which was illegally taken from the indigenous people as North America was colonised and they were marginalised in their own country, and worse...

Cody Bowles is the drummer and vocalist in the band. He is half Mi'kmaq, an Indigenous tribe from Nova Scotia.

The luxuriantly bearded Kevin Comeau plays guitar, bass and keyboards - including a double-necked Rickenbacker.

They have produced a number of tracks which link back to their origins, and protest about the forced changes that took place for many as well as exploring the violence against indigenous people - continuing to this day with recent discoveries of unmarked bodies at former schools for indigenous children.

They also explore the murder and disappearance of thousands of indigenous women and girls, which was the subject of a national enquiry.

The End of the Road references the Highway of Tears.

And my introduction to Crown Lands was this amazing piece of music... complete with double-necked Rickenbacker and top quality riffage...

Think they can't play that live with just the two of them? Think again :)

People are going to listen to you, so you may as well say something that matters. I don’t play rock and roll to talk about rock and roll, I play to talk about things that matter to me.

Kevin Comeau