Kele Fleming celebrates the power of perseverance with her latest single and video Sturgeon Love — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The Victoria indie-folk singer-songwriter’s first single since the release of her latest album The Song I’ll Write For My Whole Life, Sturgeon Love pays tribute to the universal drive to survive and flourish, riding a jubilant, up-tempo current like a wave of whitewater rushing to the sea.
“The song is a celebration of life and spirit,” says the Victoria, B.C. artist. “I wrote the song for the ancient Fraser River sturgeon. They are a symbol of survival and perseverance to me. The song is rhythmic and flows like a river and the words evoke the mysteries of life hidden in its murky waters. The lyrics and melody pull you in and hook you with the love that flows through the song.”
Fleming — who even has a sturgeon tattooed on her left forearm — has lived near the Fraser River and its massive ecosystem for decades, but not nearly as long as the ancient but endangered fish species has inhabited the waterway and lived through human challenges to its survival. The largest freshwater fish in Canada, some sturgeon are known to live more than 100 years, although overfishing and water temperature alterations brought on by climate change are now threatening the population.
“The sturgeon have plied the waters of this river for millennia,” she explains. “Like a holdover from the times of the dinosaurs, they have remained mythic and secret in the river for so many years, until white settlers arrived on what is now Canada’s Pacific shores and ‘discovered them.’ Everything changed.”
Sturgeon Love was recorded with Juno-winning engineer Sheldon Zaharko, who also worked on The Song I’ll Write For My Whole Life and was recently named 2021 Recording Engineer of the Year by BreakOut West and the Western Canadian Music Association. “Sheldon is an absolute dream to work with and guided me every step of the way in realizing my artistic vision on this album,” says Fleming. “I can’t wait to start working on the next one with him!”
As on her previous album, Fleming was joined in the studio by bandmates Ron Yamauchi on piano and keyboards, Aaron Trory on bass and electric guitar and Tony Lee on drums. The video for Sturgeon Love was filmed in Victoria’s Beacon Hill Park last summer by JayFet Films.
Watch Sturgeon Love above, hear more from Kele Fleming below, and share the love at her website, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
