If there’s one thing Tia Wood knows, it’s music. From Saddle Lake Cree Nation, on Treaty 6 territory in Alberta, she says falling in love with the art was “inevitable.” Her mother is in a drum group, her father is a founding member of the Juno-winning, Grammy-nominated group Northern Cree (of which her uncles are also members) and her sister is a Juno winner too. Wood spent her childhood “jamming” at home and travelling with her family, performing with them at powwows and other community events. “From a young age, I knew music was something I wanted to try to pursue—I just didn’t know how,” she says from a powwow in Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. “I just remember how good it felt to be onstage, especially with my family. Those are some of my most cherished memories and happiest moments.”

Wood started exploring music on her own on TikTok in 2020, and the Nehiyaw and Salish artist quickly grew a platform by “Indigenizing” popular sounds and music from other genres. Now, she is creating original music professionally (and has a record deal with Sony Music to boot) and stepping into the solo spotlight. Her debut single, “Dirt Roads,” which dropped this past summer, is an intoxicating blend of traditional Indigenous music and R&B backed by silky-smooth powerhouse vocals. “It was so exciting, but I was more nervous than anything else because I hadn’t put anything out before—I was like, ‘Are they going to think the song was worth the wait?’” she says, laughing. “But the response has been crazy. I was at a powwow [just after the release], and all my family and friends were coming up to me [saying], ‘I can’t stop listening to that song!’ It’s been really cool.” And it’s just a hint of the greatness that’s sure to come for Wood: She’s releasing a new EP, Pretty Red Bird, on September 27.

FINDING HER VOICE

“I didn’t plan on [making] traditional music—that’s what I was doing with my family. I felt like [we] had already covered that. I didn’t plan on doing [the kind of music I’m now doing] either because I didn’t think it was possible. A turning point for me was starting TikTok. It was when Bella Poarch was blowing up and she was doing head bops and stuff to one beat. I saw another native girl singing to that beat, and then I started humming something myself—this melody from a song by Inez Jasper and my sister, Fawn Wood. I did two takes and posted one, and the response I got was insane. I was like, ‘Hey, maybe there is a space where I can do this traditional style with these beats, and maybe it’s something people will actually listen to.’”

STAYING CREATIVE

“I find inspiration in where I come from and the things I grew up seeing around me. I feel like where I come from [gave me] a perspective that not a lot of people get to see. With Indigenous representation, we [have] the tip of the iceberg—people are just starting to get a little glimpse. I take a lot of inspiration from that—and everything, really: relationships, friends, family, all that other stuff.”

Sony Music

STRONG ROOTS

“When I make music, I want my people to understand and relate to it. My biggest goal is to make music that young rez kids can hear themselves in and that makes them feel seen and heard. But I also want it to reach people who have never been in a rez [so they] can kind of get a glimpse of that [life] and [have an] understanding of it.”

HEART AND SOUL

“There’s all different kinds of singing that Indigenous people do—powwow is the one I grew up with. We’re told that this drumbeat is one of the first beats you hear in the womb; we call it the ‘heartbeat of mother earth.’ And it’s so funny that we call it that because you’ll see little native babies passed out around these loud drums and they will not wake up. Ever since I can remember, I’d dance or sing at a powwow and it would make everything stop—everything would just disappear for a while. It made me feel good no matter what was happening or where I was in life.”

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