The year 2025 brings big change for northern B.C. artist Jeremy Pahl, who has long shared his brand of Tsimshian folk and rock music under the stage name Saltwater Hank.
But now, he said, it’s time for a change.
“It feels right. It feels, you know, like the shoe fits,” he said.
The new name: G̱a̱mksimoon (pronounced Gum-ksi-moan). In the Sm’algyax language, it refers to a weather phenomenon.
The change, Pahl said, comes two years late — as his music has changed through the years, but the name Saltwater Hank stuck.
“I started in metal and then [moved] into the Saltwater Hank project, which was more focused on folk,” he said.
“Moving into G̱a̱mksimoon, we’re moving into a whole different era where all of the songs are in Sm’algyax language, and we’re playing rock’n’roll now. So this should have happened two years ago, but it’s happening now. Better late than not at all.”
He spoke with CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk about the change and what it means to him.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve said this should have happened two years ago. What was it that delayed this process for you?
People already know the Saltwater Hank name and have seen me perform under that moniker for quite some time, and I was gaining a lot of momentum once the pandemic restrictions were lifted and people were performing in festivals and stuff. I didn’t think it would be good to change the name then. I did think about it briefly, but I thought it would be a foolish move because then suddenly, people would be searching for me, and they wouldn’t find me.
Why is it important for you to do this, to put yourself out as you say, new name, new you, the sound that you have now and the person you are now?
I think the last remaining bit of English language that’s in the musical project has been in the name. And it’s not something that I intend to do with this project at all. I want to continue using Sm’algyax language for the duration of that and in my life and with this music.
What does it mean?
So G̱a̱mksimoon is something that you see. I’ve seen it in the harbour sometimes. Well, there was that time that the big container ship ran aground because of the storm. There was some G̱a̱mksimoon out there where you see big, huge gusts of wind hitting the ocean and then starting to swirl upwards, and you get these little twisters.
Moan is what we call salt. Ksi is outward. It translates loosely to, like, salt spray. G̱a̱mksimoon is that weather phenomenon.
How did this name develop?
It was really organically, as folks say, I was searching and searching and thinking and really trying to do it the hard way. I was asking elders, I was asking my friends, I was asking myself, I was asking the dream world and nothing was sticking, nothing was coming. And then I went to hang out with elders at a Sm’algyax language community gathering that we have … and one of my uncles sits next to me, and he says, how come you’re called Saltwater Hank? And I said, well, I mean, I don’t know, I’m not really into it anymore. He said, ‘You should be called G̱a̱mksimoon.’ He was joking when he told me that. And I thought, yeah, maybe you’re on to something, and then that stuck.
What’s that going to be like to start introducing yourself on stage with your name and putting Saltwater Hank into the past?
I think it’ll feel good and I want to make it known that the project itself, that’s another thing why I wanted to change it. I wanted to call the project something because Saltwater Hank is the name of a person, and I don’t really want that. I want it to be like an entity in and of itself. So the band and the musical project is called G̱a̱mksimoon, and that’s what we’re gonna be introducing ourselves as.
One thing I’ll never get bored of is singing in Sm’algyax language. So that’s going to be the mainstay. Whether we stay in rock’n’roll is up for debate. We might move heavier. I’m starting to listen to heavier music again a lot more. So that could be the direction that it goes. Who knows?