Youth of the nation

In communities filled with despair, Northern Manitoba rockers Lost Priority hope their music will help

Lost Priority, a rock band made up of four Oji-Crees, used their music to stay out of trouble while growing up on the Wasagamack reserve in Northern Manitoba. Richard Knott

Winnipeg musicians talk of forming bands because there’s nothing else to do in the city during the winter, but in Wasagamack, Manitoba, there’s really nothing to do.

Located 600 kilometres north of Winnipeg, the Oji-Cree reserve has a population of about 1,600. It’s from this community that rock four-piece Lost Priority has emerged with its debut CD, All That We Are.

Speaking by phone from his home on the reserve, 23-year-old singer-guitarist Jonathan Harper said that the group formed in 2000 as a way to escape boredom, inspired by mainstream nu-metal acts like Korn, Limp Bizkit and Papa Roach. Playing in a band soon became an effort to escape the drugs, alcohol, gangs and violence its members grew up surrounded by.

“I’m not scared to say we also experimented with drugs and alcohol, and just being negative,” Harper said of the group’s junior high and high school years. “Stealing, that was what we considered fun at that time, ‘cause we had nothing really to do.”

Eventually, marriage, the birth of their children and a renewed focus on their music led Harper and his bandmates – guitarist Stanley Mcdougall, bassist J.R. Harper and drummer Mark Harper – to clean up their act.

Stealing, that was what we considered fun at that time, ‘cause we had nothing really to do.

Jon Harper, Lost Priority

All That We Are is the band’s first CD. The eight-song, 39-minute disc was recorded during March 2008 at StrongFront A/V Productions in Winnipeg.

While the band’s sound hasn’t changed much from the influences they imitated when starting out, it’s the lyrics that are the most compelling. Harper hopes the band’s music will be a voice for aboriginal youth who are ignored in communities like Wasagamack.

“There’s been a lot of suicides in Wasagamack and the surrounding communities because the authorities are so ignorant of what’s happening related to alcohol and drugs,” Harper said. “Most of the time I hear that people feel they aren’t being helped in any way – there’s nothing for them in the community and they have no options to move somewhere else, so that isolation really affects them.”

He’s only seen things get worse in recent years – more drugs, more gangs and more violence. If the elders in the community would listen to the young people, Harper said, things might be different.

“[The young people] have lots to say. I know they want more stuff in the community. There’s an arena, but it’s not being maintained; there’s a school, there’s a gym, but our school was almost burned down by a youth and now there’s no activities there.”

Ultimately, Harper says, what the young people want is to not feel alone.

“I think what they would want is a place where they could feel safe, basically, and relate to other youth or individuals.”

While the situation sometimes makes him feel helpless, Harper wants to make a difference with Lost Priority.

“What I’m trying to do with my music is portray how I feel, and so hopefully they can relate to the music and the lyrics and not feel alone.”

Published in Volume 63, Number 24 of The Uniter (March 19, 2009)

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