Jo Ellen Pameolik is looking forward to rejoining the music scene after the release of her sophomore album, Pink Sky.
“Since the release of my album in April, I’ve been at home recovering from health issues... Alianait [Arts Festival] was the first event I attended.
“I took a long, long break from my music career to raise my children the last 20 years,” said Pameolik, who comes from Arviat and has four children under 20. “I had to focus on them. Now that my youngest daughter is 11, I was able to focus on my own needs... [and] concentrate on this album for a little while.
Speaking about the recording process, Pameolik says, “I was terrified of being this vulnerable. I talk about pain and love and family and what we all go through... my producer [Chris Birkett] really helped me with the making of this album the way I wanted to.”
Birkett worked with the late Sinead O’Connor on the song Nothing Compares to You, “which was phenomenal,” says Pameolik. “He guided me on how to harmonize with myself. I don’t use any electronics... [the album] was done within a week, the whole album.”
Pameolik’s first album was mostly gospel, as her family was raised in that tradition.
“My mom raised us as Christians with gospel music, which we all loved,” she says.
The latest effort is a much more personal endeavour.
“It was overall a very vulnerable, personal album for me... there’s a song on [there] that is very personal to me and my family,” says Pameolik, who adds that her family wrestled with the decision of whether or not to include the song 'Cam’s Struggle,' written by her nephew, Cameron.
“I’d like people to know he struggled with mental illness early on [in life]. He fought it... for his happiness and well-being.
“It was in a way a hard decision to be like ‘we need to include this on the album,’ the way he might have wanted to... we don’t know if he wanted to... he wrote it in his room alone. He died by suicide.”
Pameolik is, however, proud that the song has gained traction on Spotify.
“It really seems to help a lot of people... Nunavut has the highest suicide rate in Canada. It’s [a hard subject] to talk about,” she says.
In general, she believes as an artist that music “helps people to heal with life struggles that everybody goes through.”
For the immediate future, Pameolik is busy applying to appear in other music festivals, and is looking forward to “working with other artists across the North.”
She adds that “this new album was made possible by the support of the Government of Nunavut Department of Heritage and the help of Hitmakerz.”
