Low Budget Rock Star grieve the loss of one of their own with their powerful and personal new single and lyric video More Than Ever — showcasing today on Tinnitist.
The transformative single from the Opaskwayak Cree Nation, Manitoba band sounds like it’s about a lover: “I need you more than ever / baby don’t you ever go.” But that chorus was written about drummer Richie Cudmore, who succumbed to cancer in 2022. It was written as a what-if scenario: How would the Indigenous band survive without Richie? Would the remaining members who hail from the remote northern community near The Pas find themselves thrust into the unknown, wandering the streets of Winnipeg, feeling lost, tired and alone?
In the song, singer-guitarist Kennie Henderson is metaphorically searching for answers in the anguish. But with courage and faith in the higher power, the band slowly dig their way out of a dark place by realizing that life is a gift — and their journey from grief to joy is shown via the song’s lyrics and imagery in the video.
Indeed, music has been a salvation for Henderson and bassist Harley Whitehead since the beginning. “Growing up on the reservation,” says Henderson, “I used music as an outlet to help overcome the struggles of poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, and domestic family violence.”
Cudmore died in July 2022, at the age of 58 — just before his band was ready to release the single about him. He wasn’t just the band’s drummer: he was a co-songwriter and a self-proclaimed 21st-century artistic poetic prophet, whose experience and expertise helped foster Low Budget Rock Star’s rise since their debut release in 2019.
Watch the video for More Than Ever above, check out more of Low Budget Rock Star’s music below, and follow them on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
