Story 03: Quinn Christopherson
Quinn Christopherson is an Ahtna Athabaskan and Inupiaq singer and songwriter. He was sitting on a chair on the backyard deck he built at his home in Anchorage. With his guitar he was practicing songs he’ll perform for an upcoming summer tour where he’ll be opening for Samantha Crain, a Chocktaw Nation songwriter, producer and singer. “I tell my stories through music,” he said on a sunny day with his mini poodle, Taylor Moon, sitting on his lap.
Quinn became known in 2019 when he won NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest from his submission “Erase Me” recorded at the Anchorage Museum in front of a painting of Mount Denali. In the video he wears a blue suit from a thrift store. You can tell he enjoys singing and performing. Back then he was working with youth at Cook Inlet Tribal Council, the Tribal nonprofit organization serving Alaska Native and American Indian people residing in the Cook Inlet region of southcentral Alaska. Back then singing and songwriting was a hobby he took up with a borrowed guitar. Today, Quinn is a full-time artist, writing and recording original music, and performing and going on tour. He also writes songs for other bands, other musicians, and even entities and organizations.
Recently, he wrote a song for Portugal. The Man, the Alaska rock band. He also collaborated on a song about a glacier in Alaska with YoYo Ma and the drag queen Pattie Gonia. He’s written a song about America’s first people for Sesame Street. The song is now recorded and sung by kids. “It’s really cute,” he said with a big whole-body smile.
Being a full-time artist in Alaska taught Quinn to go into what he calls “commercial mode.” Creating songs for others gives him the opportunity to share his perspective as an Alaska Native who was born and raised in Anchorage. Perhaps, just as important, the work allows him the freedom to write his own songs while remaining in Alaska where there really isn’t a music industry. “True freedom for me in music and in the arts is being able to express myself and also get paid. To express things for other people,” he said.
For Alaskan Natives and nonnatives, alike, Quinn’s songs can often feel like home. With lyrics like, “Your boy needs some sun,” and “grandma told me that I should get out once in a while. She said this our land, you come back when you need,” and his song Hot Dog on a Stick that features natural sounds “recorded from my home, Alaska - glaciers, water, snow.” And like many artists, Quinn, through his lyrics and often-soft musical style, creates safety by example. He gives people permission to show up as their authentic selves.
Quinn was a 2024 Aywaa Creative artist fellow. “These fellowships gave artists unparalleled freedom to bring into being Alaska Native art on their own terms while also having the opportunity to join other Alaska Native artists in sharing experiences and creating together,” Cathy Tagnaq Noland said. Cathy is the Aywaa Creative Project Manager who’s developed artist support projects for Alaska Native creatives and artists. One of those projects is the Artists Fellowships where nine Alaska Native artists from across mediums shared experiences, built community, and made original pieces around three culturally resonant themes.
“These fellowships gave artists unparalleled freedom to bring into being Alaska Native art on their own terms while also having the opportunity to join other Alaska Native artists in sharing experiences and creating together,” Cathy said.
Quinn wrote a song titled, “Memory” that reflects on gifts passed down by his great-grandfather Frank Hobson, a luthier. Though he created roughly 60 violins that are coveted by collectors and are hard to find, the family didn’t own a Frank Hobson instrument. Quinn hadn’t even seen one and learned that one of the Hobson violins would be featured at an auction. “My whole table of these really powerful Native women,” Quinn said, “they made sure I won the violin. I won the most beautiful birch violin with my great grandfather’s handwriting inside,” he said.
The song Quinn wrote during the Aywaa Creative Artist Fellowship is “a celebration of finding our way back home and gratitude for these gifts. Family gifts,” he said. His friend, Heidi Senungetuk, an Inupiaq violinist and ethnomusicologist, plays the violin in the song.
Quinn said he felt a sense of freedom when creating the song “Memory” that he doesn’t normally feel. Because he didn’t need to create a song that would sell on an album or think about the marketability of the piece, he simply created a piece of art, tied to his family’s gifts.
Quinn Christopherson’s tour started June 12 in Kansas City. He’ll open for Samantha Crain until July 2nd in Colorado Springs.
