Why NorthSideBaby is a big deal in northern Canada

This article includes a discussion of suicide that some readers may find distressing. Resources are available at the bottom of the page.

“I took that energy, all those frustrated feelings, all those unanswered questions, and I put it into the music.”

NorthSideBaby ends his shows with For Dre, an anthem of loss that stems from something anyone in a small, northern Canadian community knows something about: suicide.

“When I lost my bro, I lost him about eight months before I dropped that song,” said Dawson Pastion-Bear, the man known as NorthSideBaby on stage.

Use the player to hear For Dre. (It contains explicit lyrics.)

“For eight months, I went on a journey where I was lost. I kind-of didn’t care what happened to me.

“There’s a certain kind of energy that comes with suicide, and it’s very… it can be scary.”

Pastion-Bear comes from northern Alberta’s Dene Tha’ First Nation, a collection of communities and a culture that bear a strong resemblance to places in the Northwest Territories like Gamètì and Fort Resolution, where he just played shows.

Communities are keen to book him, he’s enthusiastic to be “the talk of the town,” and young people in isolated places are thrilled when he shows up. (NorthSideBaby has 50,000 TikTok fans, nearly 100,000 on Facebook and another 20,000 on Instagram.)

For Dre is last on the set list because “without his encouragement when he was here, I don’t think that I would have the vision and drive that I have now,” said Pastion-Bear.

“He was the one that told me all this was going to happen.”

Tłı̨chǫ freelance reporter Kaylee Nitsiza interviewed NorthSideBaby before his Gamètì show.

In that interview, he discussed his past trips to the NWT, what motivates him to perform, and how he thinks young, Indigenous creators and performers can be successful.

“You have to really love what you do,” he said.

“I’ve been making music for 11 years and I didn’t see success until six months ago.”

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This interview was recorded on March 16, 2024. The transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

Kaylee Nitsiza: Where are you from?

NorthSideBaby: I come from Treaty 8 territory, High Level, Alberta – Dene Tha’ First Nation. I grew up in Chateh at first, then I grew up a little bit more till about 10, went to Meander, and then I lived in Bushe [River] for the remainder, like, late teenagehood. That’s who I am.

I’ve heard that this isn’t your first time here. I hear you checked out the Behchokǫ̀ hand games before.

When I was younger, I used to go on the hand games trail all around Alberta and the NWT. I would even go to southern Alberta. We travelled all over the place. Behchokǫ̀ was one of the places that I had the opportunity to go. My uncle always talked about how it was the biggest hand games tournament. I’d been playing for probably three, four years at this point.

When I was 15, I went. The drive was, like, freaking forever, man. Real forever. I was only 15 but I think the age limit was 16. They let me play, though. They let me play. They broke the rules for the boy! On the low, though. They’d see me around all the time and they were just like, “He always plays anyways, let him play.” We lost. It was fun, though.

I’m glad that you could visit us here and experience our culture. What do you think of the NWT since you’ve been here, so far?

It reminds me a lot of home – the sunsets, the land, icy roads. It’s very cold. Everyone’s been so welcoming. I love how I’m noticing that when they greet us, they shake our hand. For me that’s a big thing. I definitely think our Dene culture is connecting there. Everyone’s been super sweet and I’m really excited. We’re the talk of the town right now.

There are so many fans here waiting for your performance tonight. You do a lot of shows around Canada. What is your favourite part of doing these shows?

I love performing, but it’s got to be meeting everybody after the show. I meet so many great people. A lot of people, they come up to me and sometimes they’ll share my their story with me. It’s amazing, the stories that you’ll get out of other people if you just listen. So I would say meeting other people and realizing we’re not so different. We all go through similar things, just sometimes on a different level.

Connecting with the fans recharges me, too, because when I go back to the studio, I take all of that energy and I let it spew out, almost like inspiration. I take all the inspiration from the shows and I try to think of how the fans would be singing the song that I’m literally recording. It’s super inspiring.

A lot of your fans are inspired by you, seeing another native kid being able to do these shows and go all around Canada, inspiring people and entertaining them. One of your songs that I wanted to ask you about, specifically, was For Dre. It’s a song that talks about this problem that many people in the NWT are dealing with today. What I wanted to ask is: do you have any words of encouragement or advice for people who are dealing with grief, or the loss of a friend?

I’ve been speaking a little bit about it at the shows. When I lost my bro, I lost him about eight months before I dropped that song. He passed away and unfortunately he succumbed to his own, you know, his own fate. It was really sad, because it was a lot of emotions.

I didn’t know how to feel. It was like, “Bro, what about this. What about… we were supposed to do this, you know? We talked about this.” We had that conversation of, like, “Yo, bro, if you ever need anything…”

For eight months, I went on a journey where I was lost. I kind-of didn’t care what happened to me no more. The grief process? It’s a scary process because you’re vulnerable. You’re vulnerable to your emotions, you’re vulnerable to death. There’s a certain kind of energy that comes with suicide, and it’s very… it can be scary.

First of all, I would just say be around your community. Be around your people. Rely on your people to hold you up and pick you back up. The worst thing you can do is isolate yourself, especially when you lose someone like them. It’s such a dark energy.

But also, when I was coming out of that, and I was putting my feet back up and standing on my two feet again, I realized that no one was going to have me like I have me. You know what I mean? No one can make sure that I’m as good as I need to be to make it to the next day, so I have to get to that point. Whatever it is that I have to do to get to that point, then that’s what I’ve got to do until then.

So I gave myself an objective. I gave myself a plan, something that I was going to do. And I was like, “This is what I’m going to get done.” I told myself: one year. You’re going to give music everything for one year and, if it doesn’t happen, then you can go work and give up and go to the oilfield. I gave myself a deadline.

It helped me and I took that energy in the song For Dre – I took that energy, all those frustrated feelings, all those unanswered questions, and I put it into the music. I took all that emotion and I just threw it in there and said how I felt, as pure and as raw as I could. That’s the song that came out of that.

I play it for my bro at the end of the shows, because without his encouragement when he was here, I don’t think that I would have the vision and drive that I have now. He was the one that told me all this was going to happen. Unfortunately, he’s not here, but I know that I can live for him. You know? He can live through me.

Thank you so much for sharing all of that. That was a really good message that you can pass on to us, so thanks for that. So – with all of your experience in the music industry, what is some advice you would give to other native youth who want to make it into music?

Well, first things first, don’t wait for anybody to put you on. Don’t wait for me to put you on, don’t wait for another Indigenous rapper to put you on. You have to really love the music. You have to really love what you do, because I’ve been making music for 11 years and I didn’t see success until six months ago.

My thing was: I’m just going to make music no matter what and if people like it, then they like it. And if they don’t like it, then that’s the way it is and I would just make music on the side, and work a job. So passion. Be passionate. Learn everything you can about it. Learn why.

There are certain songs that you like – listen to the artists that you actually enjoy and digest their music. Dive into it, be a listener and then, when you learn all the rules and you learn how to make music, you learn how to write raps, that’s when you have to focus on your craft, focus on your art. And then I promise, when you do that, you don’t wait for anyone to put you on, you just work every day and make it sound good.

If it sounds good, people will find you. Like, you never have to tell someone when they’re hot, because the people are going to tell you when you’re hot. You can’t be making mediocre music and just pray and hope that it’ll go. That’s not sustainable. It’s just like building a building. You have to build the foundation first. So my foundation was 11 years of foundational work. And then we opened. And then we were doing what we’re doing – travelling, touring, big songs, charting. All these amazing things that we’re about to do, too.

My biggest advice? Rule number one, don’t wait for anyone to put you on. Rule number two, be really passionate about your craft, really care for the music that you’re making. I feel like a lot of artists try to sound like other artists, they try to sound like the person that they might enjoy. But that’s why it’s so important to learn the rules and then break them. Because that way, you get to say, “OK, this is how beats work, this is how timing works. Cool. Now I know all that and I can do whatever I want.”

And number three, I don’t think this is spoken about enough so I’m going to say this now: I know and I hope and I pray that there is going to be a more successful musician that is younger than me. And he’s going to be Indigenous, and he’s out there right now. He’s probably just sitting somewhere like in the bedroom just playing music, making music. He’s probably not on TikTok, he’s probably not on Facebook. Because that’s where I was one year ago.

When he’s ready, the universe and creator will just make it happen and he’ll inspire a whole different generation of people. When it comes, when you get a lot of eyes on you, people will hate and people will say things and people will try to tear it down and try to rip it up. They’ll say anything. People will just start saying anything, because that’s how bad it gets. When you reach a certain point of success, people want to see you do good, but never better than them.

You have to just block out the noise and focus on number one and number two, you know what I mean? Be about your craft. You’ve really got to live it. All the stuff that I do in my life right now and all the stuff I rap about, I couldn’t rap about if I didn’t live it. That’s not the way my mind works.

Also, it’s very important that you learn to educate yourself and learn how business works, learn how to see yourself. A lot of people, rappers especially: “Check out my song, check out my song, my song, my song.” It’s all them, them, them. You know? But when you learn to make it a lot less about you and more of a movement, and you create a movement, then the world’s really your oyster. You can do a lot of great things, you can change a lot of lives.

Do you have any messages you want to pass on to your fans in the NWT?

Stay deadly, bro. Take it day by day. The world makes us feel like we’re behind, but we’re not behind. Embrace your journey. Look around, look at the people around you. Say thank you, say I love you, hug ’em, because they’re here today. You never know what life is going to throw at us.

We just have to be willing and able to make it to the next one. I think that’s a good-enough thing to go off of. It’s hard out here, man. There’s no denying it. But it doesn’t mean it’s not worth living. It’s worth living. It’s there. There’s a good day out there for everybody. And if they want it, and if they seek it, then they’ll know what they have to do to live it.

You’ve got to treat people good and have compassion for your community members. We’re all going through something. We don’t have to tear each other down, that only just makes it worse. We don’t win if we all are fighting. There’s no unity in that. There’s no camaraderie. There’s nothing solid about that.

We can get along, we can co-exist. It’s a big world.

The NWT Help Line is available at any time of day or night on 1-800-661-0844. Kids Help Phone is also available around the clock at 1-800-668-6868 or you can use live chat or text options instead of calling. If you’re trying to help someone who is talking about suicide, the GNWT has a list of resources.