Siichaq

(Sea-check) Kennie Mason grew up in Florida, listening to reggae, metal, rap, jazz, and anything else her musician father had playing in the house, and later discovering artists like Nirvana and Alex G. Her need to write music comes mainly from somewhere else in her DNA: as part Native Alaskan, that part of her identity was not much of a presence as much as a confounding ingredient in her life in the south. Like the incurable ringing of tinnitus inside the skull, an alien feeling has burrowed in her psyche. At 12 years old, she was placed in a wilderness therapy program, as her mental state had deteriorated to a precarious low. For six weeks, she fended for herself in the forest in the rain, cold, and darkness. With such a harsh punishment for letting her feelings be known early on in life, it always feels like there are repercussions waiting for her around the next corner. As Siichaq, which is Mason’s Iniupiaq name, there are no such consequences for spilling her guts for the world to see.