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Baker's Dozen

Northern Uproar: Tanya Tagaq's Favourite Albums
John Freeman , November 30th, 2016 10:06

With the release of her phenomenal new album, Retribution, the Inuit throat singer talks to John Freeman about the albums that make her laugh and cry. And laugh some more.

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AC/DC - Razor's Edge
This is another album that is indicative a certain time. I remember wearing knee socks and a cap, when I was trying to copy Angus Young. This album reminds me of a summer in Resolute Bay, which is a town of 250 people, with no roads out. Our family name is Kalluk, which means 'thunder' and so, instead of 'Thunderstruck', we would sing 'Kalluk-struck', and we kind of took this album on as familial nourishment. Some people say our name means 'lightning' and some think it means 'thunder' – but for our AC/DC obsession, we are happy with the latter. A lot of people in Nunavut got into AC/DC in the 1980s. I have these beautiful memories of the tundra - the treeless, stark landscape - and the 24-hour sun. And us kids trying to emulate AC/DC and having nothing better to do but pick flowers and berries and play on dilapidated farm machinery on the outskirts of the community. We had the most beautiful nature around us and we would be screaming to AC/DC's 'Thunderstruck'. It is a wonderful memory I have attached to the album. A lot of the albums I picked for artistic merit, but some of them are more about fondness of childhood memories attached to a certain record.