Nick Sherman
- Musician
- Singer-Songwriter
Nick Sherman sings about life in Northwestern Ontario with a focus on finding strength and hope, even if the themes or topics can be heavy. “You have to go through these hardships to know what you’re made of,” Sherman says. But the Thunder Bay-based artist isn’t afraid to confront issues that affect Indigenous youth in isolated communities, because they mirror those he faced growing up. “Winterdark”— a song about young Indigenous people facing insecurity, and even death, after being forced to relocate to larger urban centres for high school — was rerecorded for the new album because it’s sadly still relevant today: “There were a lot of issues with young Indigenous people dying in Thunder Bay, being found in the river here. It’s nine years later and that’s still happening,” Sherman says. “Every fall, plane loads of kids get flown into this city and they still come here with this threat, worrying about what could happen to them.” While he still calls his rural birthplace of Sioux Lookout home, Sherman spent much of his youth out on the land, moving between his hometown, the small First Nation community of Weagamow Lake, and his family’s trapline on North Caribou Lake. It was here in the depths of the Northern Ontario forest that his family members would play guitar as they tended their trapline, and Nick found himself soaking in songs and lyrics.