Salluit singer-songwriter’s debut album tops iTunes Canada charts

Charlie Taqqik says he doesn’t think of himself as a musician.

“I’m just a guy who plays music,” the Salluit-based singer-songwriter said, despite the fact his debut album Taqqik sat at No. 1 on the iTunes Canada songwriter chart for five days in June.

Released on May 2, Taqqik, which is the Inuktitut word for moon, is a seven-track album recorded over six and a half days in Salluit and Montreal last winter.

Taqqik said he isn’t sure why his album did so well on iTunes.

The album was produced by Simon Walls and released as part of a series supported by the Aumaaggiivik Nunavik Arts Secretariat of the Avataq Cultural Institute.

Basic tracks were recorded in the community hall in Salluit and completed in a converted shipping container that served as a makeshift studio.

“All these songs were 30 years in the making,” said Taqqik, who described his songwriting process as mostly improvisation and playing with chords on his guitar.

“The album is an expression of myself because I know who I am and where I’m from,” he said.

Walls and Taqqik played nearly every instrument on the album themselves, recording drums, guitar, organ, bass and vocals.

Three of the songs include harmonies from Taqqik’s sister, acclaimed Inuk artist and 2024 Juno Award winner Elisapie, who first encouraged him to release an album.

“Our voices gel together well,” Taqqik said. “I didn’t ask her to be on this record, but she insisted that she would like to add her voice and be there for me.”

Their collaboration is heard in songs like Arsaniit and the first song they co-wrote, Taitsumani Inuit, which was written in 1996.

“[The album] is an imitation of the heroes I listen to,” said Taqqik, who grew up listening to Elvis Presley, the Beatles and, closer to home, artists like William Tagoona and the northern Quebec rock group Sugluk, which included his uncles George and Sandy Kakayuk.

“I made it my own. That’s all,” he said.

The song Elaisa, named after his 16-year-old daughter, is a lullaby he wrote when she was three.

“It was written to express how proud of her I am,” said Taqqik, who had attended Elaisa’s high school graduation the day before this interview.

“When I wrote the song, I was working in the mines and the song is saying, ‘I’ll be there soon, I’ll be with you.'”

Taqqik pointed to the album’s closing track, Siarnisamik, as his favourite.

“I like to keep people guessing because it’s about a woman who ran away from me looking for a better man. I wasn’t enough for her and I wish her the best,” he said. “I think I’m even softer than Taylor Swift.”

The songs aren’t simple three-chord progressions or typical Inuit folk songs, he said.

“I’m really hoping [to perform the album live] but first I’m looking forward to getting my bandmates together to learn the songs, because there are some tricky notes and chords,” he said, speaking of his band which includes guitarist Quincy Kuananack, bassist Mark Kadjulik and drummer Jimmy Kakayuk. 

For Taqqik, who is also a logistics and maintenance manager at Ikusik School in Salluit, this album has been a long time coming.

He was given his first guitar by his father at age seven but only learned to play at 14, as he was much more interested in “WWE, Bruce Lee and hockey back then,” he said.

Adamie Papigatuk, lead guitarist for Sugluk, was one of his “inspirations to pick up the guitar and play for real,” he said.

Taqqik hopes this album will inspire other artists to release their own music.

“Hopefully the album can encourage some singers who are in doubt, like most artists are and I still am, to write their songs and record their music,” he said.

Taqqik is available on most music streaming platforms including Apple Music and Spotify.