Mi'kmaw rapper Wolf Castle launches the only Indigenous label in Atlantic Canada

As Tristan Grant closed out 2024 and took stock of the future, he kept thinking about something that was missing: an Indigenous music label in Atlantic Canada.

"When I looked around, there's less than 10 Indigenous music labels in the country that are doing it at a certain level, right?" said Grant, a Mi'kmaw rapper and producer from Pabineau First Nation who performs under the name Wolf Castle. "And the thing that I think is really important is I find [as] Indigenous people and their stories and their voices are getting more and more exposure and more and more in the front-facing culture, we have to protect that and make sure that while that is happening, we still have control over that."

Labels including the Ontario-based Ishkōdé Records and Red Music Rising, as well as Vancouver's Land Back Records, have been building infrastructure for Indigenous artists nationally for years, but their roots aren't on the East Coast. (Though Mi'kmaw fiddler and singer-songwriter Morgan Toney is signed to Ishkōdé Records.) As far as Grant can tell, there doesn't ever seem to have been a label of its kind on the East Coast. So the award-winning rapper, who has also hosted CBC Music's contemporary Indigenous music show Reclaimed, wants to expand the network. 

His answer: Castle Records, an imprint of independent Atlantic Canadian label Forward Music Group, which is home to Wolf Castle, Michael Feuerstack, Motherhood, Aquakultre, Nico Paulo and more.

"I felt like, right now, on a national level, there's a lot of Indigenous music that's being made and is really good. But there's a lot of people at the emerging level and there's no infrastructure, there is not a lot of support to bring those artists to that next level of putting records out and getting that national exposure and getting that support," Grant explained. "And I've managed to carve out at least a little bit of something for myself, and I really just want to share the love and help Indigenous artists kind of go along a similar path of me, and then hopefully an even bigger and better one."

With Castle Records' official launch this month comes the announcement of its first signees, Wabanaki-based collective the Hello Crows. Formed in 2022 when members Judie Acquin, Dylan Ward, Mattie Comeau and Quinn Bonnell first came together as part of a Wabanaki songwriters' circle for National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Hello Crows released their debut single, Come Back to Me, in 2024. On May 1, they dropped their second, Warbler, to celebrate the signing and what's to come.

"We have the four of us and, including Tristan, the five of us have our own individual careers that have been successful over years, but coming together, it's just another dynamic of Indigenous success in the Atlantic and Wabanaki homeland for me, anyway," Acquin explained. 

"We were in talks with other people for a record deal," said Comeau. "And basically, [Tristan's] name got brought into the chat. And it just felt like a really natural connection, you know, we trust that he's got our best interests at hand and really big fan of what he does, and how hard he works at his own career."

Castle Records' current focus is the Hello Crows and championing their plans for 2025, but Grant dreams bigger. When people think of Indigenous artists in this nation, he wants them to think about the Atlantic region.

"Because for me … I'm going to stay here. I'm not moving to Toronto, I'm not moving anywhere, so I'm gonna be doing my best to make sure those Atlantic artists get that national exposure and we start making connections across the full nation."

And for the Hello Crows, whose coming together as a band is as much about the relationships within as it is about the music, that local support is immeasurable.

"Even through adult life, there are a lot of people that look at me or see me and don't think that I'm going to be successful or they're surprised to find out that I have become a successful person through my life," explained Acquin. "And so to have somebody to believe in you, what a feeling, you know? It doesn't give you ego or anything like that. But it's just knowing that you're being supported in something that you really love to do. That's a really cool feeling."