Young musical artist Lutie Kaviok of Arviat is starting to gain some internet love for his music during the past year.
Kaviok, 22, was born in Winnipeg and raised in Arviat and is currently in his second year of the Nunavut Sivuniksavut (NS) program in Ottawa.
He said he took his first year of NS during the Covid pandemic in 2020 and always intended to return and complete the program.
“I would like to finish this program and then move on and get involved in business or something,” said Kaviok.
“At first, I really wasn't that interested in music, but when I started actually making music it felt different. It gives you some sort of feeling whenever you get a song going. It's the continued improvement that you see in the music too.
“At the beginning, you're very new to it and don't really know what to do and then, a couple of years later, you just know all about music.”
Kaviok said he originally got more and more interested in music because he had a couple of friends who were involved, even though he was more into sports at the time.
“Rap and hip-hop can be, like, any type of song you want. You can talk about anything and say anything. They're both a very free-talking style. You can be emotional. You can be angry or you can be sad.
“You can lyrically use any type of emotion to make a song now.”
Kaviok is a lyricist and a vocalist, but he usually doesn't use traditional instruments to create his music.
He said he creates most of his sound electronically.
“I mix my own vocals and I mix my own tracks. I liked using FL Studio.
“I don't carry a pen and paper with me, but I do write lyrics on my phone from time to time. Whenever I'm like sitting around alone doing my own thing, I just hop on YouTube or whatever and start writing lyrics.
“What I write depends on whatever I'm feeling or thinking at the time. At some point, a full song can come up in, like, five minutes. It depends on what you're feeling and how you're feeling about the beat in the song you're making.”
His stylistic approach to a song depends on whatever he's trying to create. He said many times he's in the moment and doesn't know what he's creating until it takes shape.
“There's very different ways to make your song and it's always good to be inspired by other artists, as well. For me, hip-hop and other different genres can all collaborate and make a great song. It doesn't really matter to me. It's actually cool to see different genres collaborate and see what they come up with.
“I'm planning to do my music full-on, but school is my main focus right now. But next year I'll be 100 per cent focused on the music. I'm simply an artist. I want to make all different kinds of music and be as versatile as I can. I don't want to sit in one certain area of just hip-hop or rock."
His music video for 'Rather drive a Honda' — posted in late August — has garnered close to 200,000 views on Facebook. Aware of the potential opportunities, he tagged Honda Canada in that post.
“As focused on school as I am, I still keep posting music because I don't want to, kind of, just disappear and have my music forgotten, especially with some of the attention I've been getting lately," he said.
“I've been working on a couple of songs and I plan to release my first album over the next year or two. I'm trying to get funding for the project and, hopefully, snag a couple of tours and see what happens in the coming years.”
