Greater Sudbury singer-songwriter Polly Kultur (this is a stage name - you may know her as Fionna Tough) released her debut EP, “I Heard a Distant Rumbling,” late in 2020.
Many of the tunes are about her awakening to some of the injustices and harsh realities of this world.
“Some of those songs were written like seven years ago,” said Kultur. “It was kind of around the time I was really waking up to a lot of the realities about climate change and indigenous struggles.
“A lot of that is what motivated a lot of my lyrics. Just being a settler person and figuring out things about my identity and how to relate to Canada, the history of it. Just dealing with that and struggling with myself has motivated a lot of the lyrics.
“I do have one track that’s sort of about love.”
One of her tracks, Cosmic, features the lyric “What to do after work, after school.” She said it has the meaning that we’re so caught up in our lives that sometimes we don’t open our eyes to everything that’s going on around us.
“Once you do open your eyes, sometimes you can feel really crippled,” she said. “You don’t know how to make a change or make a difference, or you don’t know how to be an ally.”
(You can listen to Cosmic in the video below).
Another track on the EP, Opposite Bodies, has a similar theme. At the time she wrote the tune, she was waking up to the realities of the world, and the people in her life hadn’t done the same kind of reflection.
“The whole song is kind of like these back and forth lyrics ‘You do this, and I do this, and I feel this, and you are doing this,’” Kultur said.
(You can listen to Opposite Bodies in the video below).
Kultur said it took her about two years to record and release the EP just because it’s so expensive to go to the studio.
“Whenever I had some extra money, I would go in,” she said. “I recorded it at Deadpan Studios (in Sudbury) with Matt Wiewel. I had Brian Quebec compose the bassline. He’s like amazing - a legend. And then Andrew Gagnon is also a local musician, a percussionist.
“I was really lucky to be able to work with them. It was a really great experience.”
Kultur said she hasn’t had much promotion for her album yet beyond a couple of plays on local radio. She said it doesn’t help that performing opportunities have been at a minimum due to the pandemic.
So she’s hoping that more people will listen to her album through this article. “Thanks to anyone who listens,” Kultur said.
