iskwē Essentials

Electronic musician iskwē makes cinematic pop and alt-rock through the lens of her Cree, Dene, Métis, and Irish heritage. She was born Meghan Meisters in Manitoba in 1981 and shortened her Cree name, waseskwan iskwew (“blue sky woman”), to create her stage name. While her self-titled record came out in 2013, it was her 2015 single, a Darcys-produced tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women titled “Nobody Knows”—written in the wake of teenager Tina Fontaine’s murder—that established her voice as an artist. In the years following, she’s built her punchy electronic sound into bigger, denser arrangements and incorporated traditional elements while becoming a frequent collaborator, teaming up with fellow Indigenous artists like Tanya Tagaq (2018’s anthemic “The Unforgotten”) and Tom Wilson (2021’s jazzy “Starless Nights”). Solo or buoyed by co-conspirators, iskwē’s bold songwriting is always rife with drama and social consciousness.