Forrest and Nevada Eaglespeaker of The North Sound, whose October 2026 single “Young Soul” explores expectations surrounding work and fulfilment.
Photo credit: Darnell Stewart
Forrest and Nevada Eaglespeaker have spent years writing songs about addiction and the work of recovery. On The North Sound’s new single, “Young Soul,” they turn their attention to the expectation that people should keep working harder in the hope that life will eventually improve. Released October 7 through Edmonton-based Ram On Records, the song begins a series of new releases from the Saskatoon-based husband-and-wife duo.
“We were raised by a generation where work was the thing, and we’re constantly told if we work harder, our conditions will change,” Forrest said in the release announcement distributed by Killbeat Music. He describes “Young Soul” as an invitation to consider what no longer brings satisfaction and to make more room for the sort of enjoyment that comes easily to children. The song addresses the social and personal demands that can make that difficult.
The single follows two albums whose subjects came directly from Forrest’s experiences with addiction. The North Sound released As the Stars Explode in October 2020, during a period the musicians describe as active addiction. Their May 2025 album What It Takes dealt with the experience of recovery and the difficulties that remained afterward. Revisiting those periods in their songs could become emotionally exhausting, the pair said in their October announcement, and the new material allows them to write about other parts of their lives.
A band that became a partnership
Forrest and Nevada first met in a high-school band class, where he played drums and she played flute. Forrest later performed in Saskatoon’s hardcore and progressive-rock scene and founded The North Sound in 2014. Over the years, the project worked as a quartet, a six-piece band, a trio and a solo act before settling into its present two-person lineup in 2019.
Forrest is the group’s lead singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, while Nevada is a vocalist and composer. On the band’s website, they describe Nevada taking a larger role in writing and editing the material for What It Takes, helping refine lyrics and develop melodies and harmonies. In a January interview with Scott Roos for North Sask Music Zine, the pair discussed writing together from the beginning of a song and Forrest’s interest in giving Nevada more lead vocals. Their account of the new singles places that expanding collaboration at the centre of their work.
The North Sound won Indigenous Artist of the Year at the Saskatchewan Music Awards in 2020 and 2021. Forrest has spoken about the place of his Blackfoot heritage in his songwriting. Discussing the band’s 2024 collaboration with Sultans of String on “Sweet Alberta,” he said he was originally from Calgary and that his family comes from the Kainai Nation, in Treaty 7 territory. He also described himself as unregistered and non-status, a distinction he considers important to how he identifies.
Music and family
The Eaglespeakers are raising children, and their October announcement describes the ways parenthood has changed how they work together. Nevada spoke about learning to combine motherhood with her life as an artist. Forrest said becoming a parent had made him more conscious of the vulnerability and sensitivity his children need from him. The couple connect these experiences with their interest in writing songs that reach beyond the recovery themes of their earlier records.
“Young Soul” offers one example of that wider approach. Its central subject is the relationship between work and the rest of life, an issue the musicians place alongside the pressures of family responsibilities and making a living through music. Nevada has said that collaboration remains important to how the duo judge their new songs, describing the goal as creating material that reflects both of them.
The release also marks a new relationship with Ram On Records, an independent Edmonton label founded earlier in 2026 by Olivia Street and Jesse Northey. The company works with Canadian musicians on recordings, release plans and long-term artist development; its roster also includes King of Foxes, Starpainter, Dana Lee and Alexandria Maillot. Ram On lists another North Sound single for February 1, 2027. The title and any subsequent album plans have yet to be announced.
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