Utatnaq, Alexis

Websites:  No
Origin: Baker Lake, Northwest Territories, 🇨🇦
Biography:

There are not many pianos in Canada’s Arctic. That’s why Alexis Utatnaq of Baker Lake in the Northwest Territories has put off learning the instrument and instead plays guitar.

“I would very much like to be able to play the piano. But it is not easy to get hold of one here. That’s all that is stopping me,” he laughs.

Alexis does not label his music as any one particular style. That’s because he has noticed a change in the music tastes of northern audiences. “Two years ago, everybody was into country music. Now there is a broader range of interests. And I want to explore them a little.”

He was thirteen years old when he first strummed a guitar. Inspiration came from listening to old records and watching some of his neighbours perform. Soon he was writing his own songs.

“At first, I wrote in English. Now I use Inuktitut as well,” he says.

Alexis is well-known in the N.W.T. He has performed at “Toonik Tyme” in Frobisher Bay and “Folkon the Rocks” in Yellowknife. He has lived in Yellowknife and Fort Smith, and went to school in Edmonton and Ottawa. But he always returns to Baker Lake. “It is still my home. I’m very attached to the place.”