Native Sun News Today: Lakota pop singer ready to drop latest release

Monday, April 29, 2019

Wanbli Ceya on the move

Oglala pop singer excited about ‘Bunniez and Bearz’

By James Giago Davies

Native Sun News Today Correspondent

nativesunnews.today

PINE RIDGE— Although he does hop in planes and fly oversees to far off places, and dream big dreams, about dramatically transforming his Oglala world through his music and his vision, Wanbli Ceya is, at his elemental core, as plain and simple as the most isolated patch of windswept, sunbaked, blizzard-blasted buffalo grass on the reservation he calls home.

He is not big, or strong, or fearsome, and despite also fearing failure as much as any ambitious person, he is still a warrior determined to succeed. He is willing to live and work humbly, among the wahpanica, the Oglala poor, and when he promises no amount of success can ever kill his humility, or compel him to leave his home, you believe him.

“I’m really just trying to take the reins on everything,” he says, “and it’s really awesome, and I’m so much happier than I’ve ever been, because I’m back (in Pine Ridge) and I’m making it work.”

His journey began in Iowa, where as the son of an adopted Oglala mother, he was raised in the Wasicu world, and he fought his way out of a suffocating reality that left him in poor mental health, struggling with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Despite being a singular personality, cut from clearly specific cloth, he managed to make his way back to his tribe, slip into the fold, and humbly embrace his Oglala identity. Externally, the man in the mirror was clearly Oglala, and internally, it took very little time for Wanbli to return to his Oglala roots.

He had early success, as the pop performer, JuQ, being nominated for best debut artist, and his nine-track project, Tempo, nominated for best pop recording, in 2017, at the Native American Music Awards. His first video, about his song, July, received over ten thousand hits in 2018, and the Native Hope documentary, in which he was featured, amassed over 140,000 hits in one week.

Wanbli must have thought himself on his way to at least financial security, if not music fame, but as big as his first step into the world of pop music had been, his next steps ran afoul of stumbling blocks and dead ends. He left Dakota South Records to hook up with Dream Warriors, and they hooked him up with a three-month trip to Liverpool, England, and a chance to hone his art and presentation with similar young artists at Brouhaha International.

But once back stateside, an inner alarm clock kept warning Wanbli that he must remain true to his original path, his distinct vision, about who he was, what made his people special, and what he had to do to play his part to help them heal their wounds and return to the people they had once been. So, he cut his ties with Dream Warriors as well.

JuQ on YouTube: july - JuQ

Wanbli is presently staying with relatives, and he is working at the grocery store in White Clay, Somedays, he must walk or hitch the two miles back from work to Pine Ridge, but even here, he finds a silver lining: “After I get off work sometimes, I walk back, and people will pick me up, and I’ve actually met some really cool people doing that.”

Wanbli is excited about the days to come because he is still making his music, and he feels free to make it go where he wants it to go, and say what he wants it to say. He has become a part of the Pine Ridge landscape: “Everybody knows me for something. For my music, for walking around town, for working at the grocery store.”

This is perhaps not the type of fame Wanbli was looking for, but he has grown to understand that his path always had to start from this point, among these people, bonding with them at this level.

“Working at the White Clay grocery store, I’ve honestly never been happier,” he says. “It feels like now I am making more conscious strides toward bigger things that I want to do. ‘Bunniez and Bearz,’ will be my first release off my own imprint, and I’m already working on who else I can bring into the picture. I feel super on point, and I feel like getting away from Dakota South Records and Dream Warriors (was important), and really feeling about how much I can do this myself, and doing it here, and showing people how possible all of this is.”

Bunniez and Bearz, a seven tract offering, is set to debut May 3, and will be available on all online stores (iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Bandcamp).

“It's really weird,” Wanbli says, “because this is supposed to be a side project, but it still has its own world and life, and I have to give it that, and that’s kind of what’s exciting.”

Most of the songs on his next release were written while he was in Liverpool. He settles on a beat, and then creates lyrics which speak to all the essential themes stressed in most of his songs, songs about humility, and love, and kindness, and genuineness, in the traditional Lakota way. His voice has enough energy and character to stand on its own, and his ability to speak conversationally to his audience was honed by long hours performing for, and connecting with, school kids across Lakota country.