By Andrew Breaker
Double Rider is a rock band from Siksika Nation. They consist of three members of Siksika, Hannah Owl Child, Lennon Owl Child and Erin Many Heads. They are a young band that have been playing together for ten years. From being a summertime thing where they would all pick up instruments, they would find lying around during a family function, to making this a serious dream they want. Music runs in their family as their late grandpa Mathew Many heads was heavily into music, and it branched off onto the rest of the family.
Hannah Owl Child is the oldest of the band, she is 25, she is from Siksika Nation but raised in Calgary Alberta, her parents are Tania Many Heads and Joshua Owl Child. Lennon Owl Child is the second oldest of the band at the age of 23. He also grew up in Calgary but alternated between the city and Siksika, he is also the son of Tania Many Heads and Joshua Owl Child. Erin Many Heads is the band’s youngest. She is 22, and she mainly grew up in Siksika, her mother is the late Tracey Low Horn, and her father is Tom Many Heads. They are all related and from the same family. They visited each other a lot considering they were all from the same family and have the same grandparents. Music was within the family. At the ages of 12, 13, and 15 they all decided to start playing together during summers, then it became a serious thing as time went on then they went on and started the band ‘Double Rider’.
“Our grandfather Mathew Many Heads was in a couple bands back in the 70’s and 80’s as he continued to write in the 90’s and he included our parents, so Erin’s dad (Tom Many Heads) and me and Lennon’s mom (Tania Many Heads) and our auntie, Andrea. He included them in a family band which was called ‘Eagle Hill’, so the background of our family is very musical and one day we were just inspired to follow in their footsteps. So, we had some instruments laying around, old amps that our late grandpa used, just kind of got them working and messing around with this and that and we thought ‘hey maybe we can actually do something’ and it went from there.” Hannah Owl Child on how they got inspired to create a band.
About a year ago, they did an Album release show at King Eddies located in Strathmore Alberta. They were surprised with the turn out and the promotion of the album release party because they weren’t expecting a lot of people to show up, so it was a bit overwhelming as well for them. Recently, they performed at the five-day Calgary’s Big Winter Classic Arts and Music Festival, they said they enjoyed it even if they were a bit late, but it went well and it made up for it.
“Believe in what you are doing and find a reason why you want to perform and play music, make music, write music and just making sure you’re having fun with it, never take it too serious to the point where it feels like almost something like you don’t look forward to, so you always want to make it a way of self-expression and a stress reliever. I think what is great about music is that it can help you find yourself and who you are. I say music brought me closer to the community with Siksika because of the different events such as the Run as One event we played at for many years and just the many different community events, and I think Siksika has a really good community with the music area and putting that first, we are really grateful for, we wouldn’t be here right now if it wasn’t for the support from Siksika and the different music festivals that has been put up. So, whatever band from Siksika that is just getting started, definitely look out for community events, those are very important, and really great to get out there so it can bring people together, where our history as Siksika we always had music in the center of everything.” Said Hannah and Lennon Owl Child on inspiring the younger generation to get into bands and music.
“Your improvement, and always remembering who you are and what culture you come from and how important that is to inspire other younger generations as well. Yeah, everything what Hannah said, always look out for community events, it brings everyone together and I think music is a great hobby, it does not just focus on one thing, it extends everywhere, and you can make it make something out of an instrument.” Erin Many Heads on inspiring the younger generation on getting into a band.
What can we expect from this band moving forward? Well, they want to record another LP, they are planning to get back into the studio in about six months and get it released by Christmas time. They want to do more shows as well. Double Rider On the Rise Double
