Conversation With An Artist in Lockdown: Creeasian
Photo by Laura Po
Interview by Hollie McGowan
A Breakdancer, Grass Dancer, DJ, producer, and educator, there is no questioning Matthew Wood, AKA, Creeasian’s firmly established place within the city of Edmonton, Alberta, on Amiskwacity Waskahikan territory. By bridging the world of hip hop with his own roots as a person of both Cree and Vietnamese origin, Creeasian has and continues to push for community development founded on non-judgmental and inclusive artistic expression.
As economies begin to open up across the country and throughout the world with the risk of COVID-19 still looming, Citrus recently caught up with Creeasian to discuss how the pandemic has affected his community, his work, his thoughts regarding systemic racism in Canada, and how we can possibly move toward a brighter future.
Citrus: Here in Vancouver we’ve been coming out of “lockdown” mode and our economy is starting to open up. How are things in Edmonton? How are you feeling about it?
Creeasian: Well, they just released word that you can have up to 200 people for events outdoors. Then bars, venues, and restaurants are up to half capacity. But for me, I’m still not at my comfort level to be in those places yet. As an artist I’ve been asked to do some gigs, but I’m still holding off cause as much as I would love to work and get back into things, I think (right now is the) time to be safe. There are communities that are still more vulnerable such as the reserve and Indigenous communities. I want to be healthy and safe so that I can go to these communities and deliver workshops and performances. A lot of my work has been youth workshops teaching dance music in schools and at conferences. I’ve toured with the band A Tribe Called Red as a dancer and I love doing it. But then a lot of my main work is working with youth. What I love about my art is being able to share it. But mind you, I also love being on the road with A Tribe Called Red. That's what keeps me motivated and inspired to keep pushing my art. When I come back home it's like a charge up. I’m able to be inspired and bring it back home and share what I’ve learned or experienced with my communities. So, (right now it's about) finding ways to get that same energy from online gigs or tuning into other online festivals.
CS: I was going to ask you more about that experience (of playing virtually). As I mentioned, I came across your work as a DJ playing during the Virtual Pow Wow. What is that experience playing virtually to an audience that you know is out there but not directly in front of you.
CN: It’s weird. I really work off the energy of the crowd. I come from a dance background so a lot of my energy comes from watching people react. My favorite gigs are DJing for dance competitions and battles because there I get to feed off the energy being put out, and what the dancer is putting out there. And even DJing for festivals or club venues, same thing, if you see a group of people really enjoying it, people are like, ‘Oh, I really love this vibe.’ It helps the artist carry on or turn it up a bit, you could take it anywhere. So with (everything) online, it's kind of a worry. Are they liking it? You kind of have to watch the comments because there are a lot of people showing support in the chat room. But as a DJ, I don’t want to have to pay attention to a chat room. I want to pay attention to the music.
CS: I love, as you were saying, that energy between the dancers and the DJs, or the performers, whatever kind of performance they are doing. But especially with music, the electronic music scene, and the dance music community. It's such a special energy. Obviously we can’t do it right now, however, the flip side of that is that there has been such a frenzy of these online virtual performances and a lot of support coming out in that way which is exciting.
CN: Yes, both being able to support, and then also be exposed to other artists that you aren’t necessarily hearing about whether you didn’t have them as a friend on social media, or maybe you just haven’t heard about them because you’re from a different territory. It's been really cool to reconnect with people you’ve met on the road (while) meeting people that they know from their area. I think that’s what has been really cool about the Virtual Pow Wow and all of the events like this that are able to support artists while they’re at home. There’s a lot of artists that haven’t yet had that opportunity to be in festivals because maybe they’re still working on their social media, they’re still working on their sound, and this is a way for them to test the waters. The music industry is a beast itself, but this is more supportive because everybody’s just there to play music. There’s none of that whole ego, judgemental thing like, ‘I’m better, or my name’s bigger.’ It’s been really cool, the fact that everybody is just trying to work too. We’re all artists.
CS: Unfortunately it's a struggle. Who were some of these DJs that you didn’t know of before that you are particularly excited about?
CN: There’s a lot of younger cats that I didn’t know until Virtual Pow Wow. I’ve started to add some of them on social media and we’re saying in contact, just let alone the roster of what Drum Beat Entertainment has been able to build. I could go through that roster and find 15 or 20 names (that I’d never heard of before), and I’m like, ‘I’d love to meet these people.’ DJ O Show is one for sure. I’d never got to meet DJ O Show in person, but being connected through the Virtual Pow Wow, I was able to help (them) when we were all doing green screens. I was able to set up mine so I was like, ‘Yo. Anybody else want to get through this? It’s a bit of a headache to get through, but let's support each other.’ And then also reconnecting with DJ Pøptrt, Mohawk DJ from Kahnawake. During the Reserve Tour with A Tribe Called Red, we stopped there as well and one of the openers was DJ Pøptrt. All the other guys knew that she’s definitely on to something. She’s got her sound together, she knows how she wants to band herself, she’s about the community, and she’s building her community around her too. So it was great connecting from there and seeing her on Virtual Pow Wow. It was like, ‘Yes, this is exactly what I love being a part of.’
CS: Has there been anything else virtually that you have been involved with?
CN: Ya, I did some dance stuff for a local dance studio here, Mile Zero Dance. They hit me up to be a part of this thing called The Guard Party. Everybody submitted a five minute or short video of their dance. So I did a bit of hip hop and Grass Dance. I do breakdancing and Grass Dance, and just showing both styles and how they compliment each other, how they are parallel. Some people never necessarily knew about the dance style that I’m doing, or even just being out there, even with Tribe, I haven’t really been pushing myself social media wise and promoting myself that way. I’ve been going about it more naturally and building with people that I meet in real life.
CS: Ya, I did notice that you were not only a DJ, but also a dancer and I thought it was really interesting, as you mention on your artist page on facebook, that one style of dance informs the other. Can you elaborate more on that? What’s the connection that you’ve found between hip hop culture and your own?
CN: As I matured as an artist, it became more evident and more clear as to why I was drawn towards hip hop culture. It was very parallel to the stuff I learned (as a child). My late mom, who brought me into this world, she exposed me to Round Dances, Ceremony, Pow Wows. I was a young Pow Wow dancer, a tiny tot. If you went to a pow wow as a little kid and danced during the tiny tot session, you’d get five bucks. So as a little kid, I was like, ‘heck ya!’ I was also exposed to a lot of funk, soul, blues, and rock and roll music because that’s what my mom was into. But she was also very connected with her own culture too, and she supported us as an artist herself doing beading, moccasins, and native crafts. So I was exposed in that way and introduced to my culture right away. My late mom, Diane Wood, is Cree First Nations from Goodfish Lake, and my dad, Houng Tran, is Vietnamese, so that’s where I get my handle, Creeasian. It’s a way for me to represent both nations.
At one point, I didn’t really want to follow a lot of my culture because I was being picked on due to racism. A lot of the schools that I went to were mainly public schools and there were many times that I was the only mixed race kid in the class. So at one point, I didn’t want to do anything that involved my culture. Later on, I found this thing that people were doing which was breakdancing and hip hop and it reminded me of something. It was like, ‘There’s something similar that I know in my life.’ Now I could tell you, but at that time I couldn’t. It was very similar to what I had learned in my own culture, similar to pow wow. And the more I learned about it, the more it challenged me to learn more about my heritage, my culture. People would have this mind set of, ‘Oh you’re trying to be black through black music.’ But what really happened was that the music community itself challenged me to dig deeper into my own roots. So I wasn’t trying to be something I’m not, but I was using a tool that came from oppression. It came from systemic racism. It was kids in New York and communities that were tired of gang fights, killings, police brutality, racism in their communities, and they fought back using art. So, I was drawn to this instantly because in school you try to fit into these different crowds, and me being mixed race, I never felt I belonged anywhere. Then when I found this music, this dance, it made me feel I didn’t need to blend into these other places that people had molded for you. You could create your own mold and your own style. And in hip hop, it's all about finding your own style. You could learn from people about foundation and the original style from New York, but the whole challenge is to find your own. And then how it complimented Grass Dance, the freestyle bit, but also the foundation. It was like a big explosion in my brain. I was just like, ‘Woah, so, I can do this and still follow where my roots come from? And contribute?’ I could wear regalia and have my feathers, we have those things to be an Indigenous person, but you can also facilitate workshops or inspire the youth. You don’t have to be this painted up Indian. You could still be in your street clothes. A native could be a doctor, could be a lawyer, it should be no surprise. So that was what really inspired me. I was allowed to not have to be the loudest person in the room, to be like, ‘Hey look, I’m an Indian.’
CS: I like how you talk about a lot of these parallels in (these different types of) dance and the origins, where they come from. From what I know of different types of First Nations dance is that that dance equals prayer. Then you’re talking about breakdancing which made me think also about capoeira as these forms of dance that were meant to destabilize these systems of oppression and to bring healing.
CN: Well, capoeira, I’m no expert on it, but from what I’ve been told is that it does come from oppression. It was a hidden fighting style and they masked it as a dance. It was a way to keep their community safe, and empower them to protect themselves.
CS: Dance is so healing.
CN: Those frequencies have existed for a long time and with those who I’ve been able to meet while I’ve been travelling. My good brother, Manitou Neeman, his (artist) name’s Que Rock, he’s also a dancer. He does hip hop, grass dancing, a DJ, he’s an MC, and graffiti writer; pretty much does all the elements. He’s Anishinaabe Cree Odawa First Nations, and I owe a lot of my style to his influence. He was already dabbling and searching for this style, looking for ways to still follow his culture, but also became very submerged and involved with hip hop culture.
I was able to meet other indigenous artists that are from Albuquerque and from the Phoenix area that were also practicing hip hop but also still involving their culture from their nation too. So it's existed since as far as I know, people really tuning into it in the mid-late nineties. Then with social media coming about, we were able to learn more and more about each other. So really connecting those people that have been on the same frequency, and that know about those parallels. Even in Grass Dance, as you go across Canada and the United States, there’s going to be that main foundation. But depending on where you come from and your lineage, you’re going to do different steps in a different way. So it's the same thing too with the original hip hop style of breakdancing. It depends what burrow you are from, what neighbourhood, what block you are on. You may have done a six step or a swipe a different way.
CS: I love how these parallels exist in art, culture, and politics simultaneously. Can you tell me more about Grass dance and other types of First Nations traditional dance?
CN: There are many different styles. Just like hip hop has many different styles of street dance depending on where you are from, with Pow Wow, there’s Man’s Fancy, there’s Grass Dance, there’s Traditional, there’s Chicken Dance, there’s many different styles within the women’s dance too. There’s Woman’s Fancy Shawl, Jingle Dress, Traditional, and all of these vary and some of them are more contemporary.
But for me, I’m a forever student to this though too and I don’t know everything about every single category. A lot of the information is out there to learn about it. It’s cool to learn about these dance styles, kind of a journey of your own if you wanted to go down the rabbit hole. There’s really cool stories that you get to learn while learning about these dances. That's what I enjoy about grass dance. For me it's mimicking the way the grass moves, the way it sways in the wind. A lot of it also mimics animal characteristics, their movements, and also constellations, the stars. A lot of our moves, they didn’t come from someone being like, ‘Alright, put your left foot here and point your toe.’ It came from the land, it came from Mother Earth, it came from nature. And a lot of the stories connect, the origin stories that all have meaningful things that teach you how to carry yourself, not just as an artist or a dancer, but as a human being. So it's cool to always go back to these teachings to relearn them, or learn about them from a different territory, another artist who has it a bit differently than from what you learned. It's like trading hockey cards.
CS: I noticed that you run the Sample Cafe, and are the founder of CypherWild YEG. Can you tell me a bit more about these community initiatives that you help to run?
CN: Sample Cafe is a non for-profit organization and our main goal is delivering educational workshops on using production gear (for electronic music production), giving it access to communities like reserves and to schools, the ones that can’t necessarily afford the big gear or access to big studios. What we’ve been able to develop is a mobile studio where we bring all types of samplers, synthesizers, using IOS, smart phones, finding ways to engage, not only with youth, but also elders too. We’re really trying to make it intergenerational by connecting the new generation and our elders. The music that a lot of our elders grew up with, a lot of youth hear it now and don’t realize where it actually came from. Or they may have heard it from their most recent favorite artist of today and didn’t know that that was a song that their grandparents used to listen to.
CypherWild YEG is an ongoing initiative that I’ve been able to host thanks to the support of the city with the Edmonton Arts Council here. They supported us in the beginning years, helping us host in the middle of downtown, Churchill Square. Outdoors jams, it was for three hours and it was a block party jam where basically at our stage we had DJs go for the full three hours. We also have MCs that would come down. Basically, just a block party for families to come to and either spectate or participate. A lot of times we’d also bring in artists to do workshops, like a quick dance tutorial at the beginning to get everybody moving, dancing, and engaged. We have a lot of the community from Sample Cafe come out and perform to do live beats for the MCs, or just to play beats.
It was really just an open invite to everybody that is here in Edmonton. This whole initiative with CypherWild is about community and a space for everybody. So we really nurtured it that way so that no one could just walk in and be like, ‘Hey, let me take over. I’m famous.’ It was like, ‘Well if you want to come out, be present.’ You build with people, not break them down. So that’s what the whole initiative CypherWild has been and will be.
CS: I had no idea that Edmonton had all of this happening! We don’t hear nearly enough of what you’re doing.
CN: That’s the whole purpose of why we’ve also put that forward. We’re always looked at as hick, we’re oil city, the hicks, we’re Alberta, the Texas of Canada. There’s people that won’t come from where I currently live, (which is) across the river by White Ave, to go downtown because it's the inner city. The community where I (originally) come from and where I host my events, we’re always looked at like the “down and outers”. A lot of the people that we bring out are from those communities, whether they come from a shelter, from foster care, they’re inner city, or from an Indigenous or Black community. We exist to show people, ‘Yo we’re doing dope shit. We’re doing good things for the community, we’re helping it thrive, and we’re supporting one another.’ So, it's been really cool to be able to host (CypherWild YEG), but of course sucks (that we can’t get together right now) because of COVID.
CS: We of course don’t know our whole future right now, but….
CN: We might be able to do some things here soon where we’ll still practice social distancing. (People are always surprised) to hear about what we’re doing in Edmonton. We’ve had that same reaction from people from New York. We had New York OGs, pioneers of hip hop, come to our city and be like, ‘How is Edmonton doing this but not us?’ So we exist out here, we have a voice. We are out here doing dope block parties.
CS: It’s been really great slowly starting to connect more with Indigenous artists. I feel like I’ve pulled back a curtain and there’s so much happening that I didn’t know about!
CN: More voices are starting to be heard. More artists are starting to come out and be that voice. So, it's happening! It's crazy! It's nothing new, it's just a frequency that's been waiting to be tapped into. It's like having the dial on the radio and you hear all that fuzz, and you’re trying to tune into 88.5, but you’re on like 86.7 or something. But then you finally tune in and you’re like, ‘Oh, it's clearer now.’ That’s kind of how I felt learning more about these arts and artists. Now it's like, fine tuning to actually hear that frequency properly.
CS: The last artist I interviewed, Young Dene, I spoke with him after National Indigenous Peoples Day and we spoke about the topic of reconciliation. How are you feeling about this topic? Where do you feel we're at with it?
CN: It's a tough word. When that word is being used, it's like, especially in the current time. It's like, it's a word that has been so overused that now when you hear it, it just makes me numb. Especially when businesses, or people that just mention it for the status quo. A lot of people want to be engaged or speak of this, but when the word reconciliation is used it just seems like…
CS: It’s been white washed.
CN: Well, I didn’t want to say that.
CS: I’ll say it. As I mentioned, before my talk with Young Dene, it was National Indigenous Peoples Day so I decided to just quickly look at our government website (before the interview). It was just strange for me to go to our government’s website and see it as a topic. Yet, we're still fighting for justice for the cases of the MMIW. It's an uncomfortable word for me as well.
CN: I know some people do mean well, people who have an honest heart, and you can see how they carry themselves. The word means something (to them), they want this to happen. But it’s like, you see the mistreatment of people in general and it’s an easy thing for a police officer to say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry.’ Or they just get fired. It’s like, they get fired, and then they get charged. There’s a pattern to that. You have these police officers and chiefs be like, ‘We’re here to reconciliate.’ It’s like, well how many fucking times do we need to reconciliate?
CS: Exactly. Again, you look at what’s going on in Canada as we’ve been questioning systemic racism within our RCMP as compared to systemic racism with the U.S. police force. We’ve been making these mistakes for a long time. As you mention, another police officer just gets fired and everyone gets all pissed off, but when are we going to get to the bottom of this? What do you think we should be doing as opposed to just firing our police officers?
CN: I have no answers, because I’m also still messed up from all of it too. It's something that my parents, their parents, our ancestors have been fighting for since the beginning. But now it's being treated like it's something new? That’s what’s frustrating. I also have friends that are concerned or not Indigenous, but very good allies, and they want to ask questions and they’re like, ‘Yo, what can we do?’ It's almost draining sometimes. Like, ‘Aw, bro. We are doing it. We are trying to do it.’ It's not like we’re just trying to idle out here and not do anything. But for me, what I’ve been trying to do is watch it work through the arts and being able to connect (with others), like going to public schools and working with these youth. Maybe their parents have these messed up views of our nations of other nations and showing them, ‘Look, what you’re learning wherever you are is not true. We’re good people just like you.’ I think for me and my approach and a lot of the artists that I work with, it's the same thing about not being the loudest political voice. There are people that have that energy and have that will and are able to push forward that way. And then there are others that are like, ‘Well, this is what I know how to do.’ And it’s not that they’re not trying enough, but people are just trying to do the best that they can knowing from their angle. You have the people that have the energy to be out on the frontlines protesting. Then you have the artists that are really trying to push within the music industry, getting that message out there. You see it working more and more. It's been really cool to see everybody support each other, hoist them up, build them, and let those voices be heard more and more.
CS: It's been great connecting with you. Now that I’ve discovered you as an artist and performer, I’m super excited to hear what you are doing.
CN: Well hopefully when it's safe again, I’ll be in your community and we can connect in real life.
CS: I’d love that! Thank you so much for chatting, Matthew.
CN: Thank you!