Photo A by Ben Quinn
The bikers’ famous credo is that we ride to live and live to ride. But Graeme Jonez wants you to know that it runs deeper than that. His new single, “Ride or Die,” raises the stakes of a life on the road to something truly metaphysical—an irresistible rendezvous with the infinite that’s just a full tank of gas away.
A gutsy, gritty piece of latter-day roots rock, the song is sung from the perspective of a rider who’s surrendered to the call of the “great highway,” trusting it to take him wherever it will. That road might even end in death, but he welcomes the chance to one day learn “the kind of things no living man knows.” In the meantime, he harbors “no worries about tomorrow/’Cause tonight it’s ride or die.”
“Shouldn’t we all think this way?” Jonez asks, by way of explaining the mindset he was in when he wrote the song on a 2023 trip to Mexico. “I mean, everyone dies at some point, and we never know when it’s coming. So why not do things that really make you feel alive while you still can?”
Recorded at Toronto’s The Nelson Room by producer Derek Downham and engineer Tim Foy, “Ride or Die” conveys its message with a sound that’s raw, honest and untamed. It blends the influences of country, blues, folk and rock into a contemporary sound that conjures up the feeling of an exhilarating road trip broken up by contemplative nights around a campfire. Jonez has even thrown in some affectionate nods to the 1960s hot-rod music he grew up with, including a shoutout to Jan & Dean’s infamous “Dead Man’s Curve.”
Painting pictures on record comes naturally to this Anishinaabe/English song stylist, whose skills as a writer and performer depend equally on the storytelling traditions of his birth culture and his personal affinity for vintage folk and blues. His Indigenous background has enabled him to infuse an everyday concept like motorcycle riding with the significance of the lyrics “My mama swears we all go to heaven,” he sings in the new single’s opening lines, “but everyone I know just turns to bones and dust.”)
A member of the Sheguiandah First Nation on Manitoulin Island, Jonez is an alumnus of Manitoba Music’s Indigenous Music Residency; since then, he’s received grants from the Toronto Arts Council and Ontario Arts Council, and last year participated in a one-week songwriting residency at the SOCAN LA House. High-profile live gigs have included the ReconciliAction Market (Downie Wenjack), Union Summer (Red Music Rising) and Aga Khan Museum (Indigenous Peoples Week). He made his recorded debut with 2023’s full-length album Creatures & Criminals, giving him a foothold that led to the success of singles “100 Days Deep” (which saw rotation on SiriusXM’s Indigiverse) and “The Flood!” (#1 on the Indigenous Music Countdown and ultimately the Merilainen Music Award winner for Single of the Year).
This year will bring the release of his eagerly anticipated second album, with “Ride or Die” its tantalizing opening salvo. As with all of his music, there’s plenty for us to chew over while we wait.
“‘Ride or Die’ was inspired by the motorcycle lifestyle, but it’s really just about our individual relationship with our own mortality,” he says. “Are we all living the life we want to live? What happens when you die? Are you ready to meet your maker if tomorrow is your last day?”
open.spotify.com/track/00m8LoE09VL7vzGgqKZ6TQ
Maybe. But we’d really like to hear that album first.
