Churchill band Days on Land is releasing its latest single “Wide Open Land” on Oct. 30 in response to the economic buzz around the Port of Churchill.
“We’re telling the story about what’s happening on the ground here in Churchill with so much growth and promises and opportunities in the papers and on the street for Canada and for the North,” said singer-songwriter Roy Mexted. Mexted is originally from Australia and has lived in Churchill, Man. for the past decade.
Described as a “folk-rock anthem,” the single features Mexted’s vocals and crunchy guitar riffs on the forefront with Joe Stover, Jeremi Lesage, Eric Robb and Anthony Cenerini on backing instruments. Mexted came up with the riff while walking around the muskeg with his banjitar. This is “a banjo with six strings […] you play it like a guitar but [it] looks like a banjo,” he described.
“My songwriting process is not so much to sit down and write what I think. It’s about starting to listen around me about a certain subject and talking to people directly about it and researching it,” the musician explained.
The Port of Churchill has received considerable attention in recent years. The Manitoba and federal governments announced investments totalling over $200 million dollars into the port and the Hudson Bay railway throughout 2025. Some proposed projects include an all-season road, an upgraded rail line and “marine ice-breaking capacity.” In a news conference, Manitoba premier Wab Kinew cited the need to strengthen Canadian presence in the Arctic and diversify export markets as motivations behind the expansion.
Mexted expressed the expansion has brought more jobs to the northern town, and the activity is “creating a real buzz” reminiscent of what the town was like before the 2017 railway washout. Now, he sees new structures, piles of potash and zinc as well as grain cars waiting to be put on container ships.
At the same time, he also voiced environmental concerns, noting that year-round shipping might impact beluga whales. The development might also change the fabric of the community.
“You can look at it through a few different lenses. [One is it’s] absolute amazing opportunity and jobs and prosperity,” Mexted said. “The other one is, is that going to jeopardize the beauty and the very reason why we all love to live here?
This place has got less than 1,000 people in it, and people come here for a reason and they stay with intention. It’s because they want this lifestyle. So, if this is all going to change, how are we going to work together so that we move together with intention and listening to both sides and making sure we don’t ruin this community and we don’t ruin the tourism industry?”
“Wide Open Land” makes a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Manitoba Premier with the lyrics “Who’s gonna save our town? / Me and you, or Wab Kinew?” This is inspired by Kinew’s visits to Churchill, according to the singer.
“It seems like [Kinew] has put Churchill front and centre on his to-do list […] and we’re just reciprocating that attention,” he said.
“People [are] coming and telling us how great our lives are going to be, and we’re just sitting here wondering what that’s going to look like in reality.”
The band is also releasing “Track Shed” written and sung by bass player Stover on Oct. 30, a more lighthearted song with a traditional swinging country sound. The song revolves around the story of a lover being held up at the track shed, where workers load grain onto container ships at the Port of Churchill. “[Stover] worked there for years,” said Mexted.
“Working at the port has to take precedence over everything because when they’re loading up that ship, that’s the only thing that matters in the universe,” he added.
“You’re part of a huge, big working machine. That grain has come from a long way away, all the way here on the train, and it has got to get on that ship.”
The band has enjoyed a fruitful run since the release of their debut album Tales from the Shallows a year ago, performing in the Harvest Moon Festival, Killarney Lakeside Festival, several northern communities and the Times Change(d) High and Lonesome Club in Winnipeg. They will also play in Winterruption Churchill in February next year.
For his future songs, Mexted hinted at investigating the “Churchill River cowboys,” or people who captured beluga whales for aquariums in the 1980s.
To learn more about Days on Land, visit linktr.ee/daysonland.
