NEUROSIS’ Steve Von Till partnered with students of Browning Public Schools, now dubbed FIREKEEPER NOISE COLLECTIVE, who today unveil a special musical collaboration named “iiyiikǎakimǎan,” released for World Suicide Prevention Day.
FIREKEEPER NOISE COLLECTIVE demonstrates Firekeeper Alliance’s broader approach to suicide reduction through creativity, connection, belonging, and meaningful opportunities for young people. For Firekeeper Alliance, suicide prevention is not something recognized on a single day each year. It is ongoing, relational work woven into the organization’s efforts with young people and families across the Blackfeet Nation. Firekeeper Alliance also tends to use a slightly different word: reduction.
The distinction reflects a broader philosophy. Reducing suicide requires honest conversations about suicidality, reducing stigma, expanding access to effective and strengths-based clinical support, and ensuring people can receive help when they need it. But Firekeeper Alliance believes the work must also extend far beyond moments of crisis. It means intentionally strengthening the things that can help make life feel connected, meaningful, creative, and worth showing up for. On World Suicide Prevention Day, Firekeeper Alliance is sharing a new piece of music that demonstrates what that philosophy can look (and sound) like. “Iiyiikǎakimǎan.”
In May, students participating in the Browning Public Schools Noise Collective collaborated with legendary musician Steve Von Till to create an original piece of music together. The project brought students into a genuine artistic collaboration, giving them access to professional equipment, creative mentorship, and the opportunity to build something alongside an artist whose work has influenced generations of heavy and experimental music.
The resulting piece, “iiyiikǎakimǎan,” (to try hard, to persevere) is being released through Firekeeper Alliance Records and represents the first in what the organization hopes will become a continuing series of collaborations between students in its Heavy Music Symposium programming and artists from around the world. It represents an approach to youth mental wellness that asks a different kind of question: rather than focusing exclusively on what is going wrong in a young person’s life, what happens when communities deliberately create more things for young people to belong to? What happens when they are trusted with real equipment, real responsibilities, and real creative decisions? What happens when artists they admire sit beside them and treat their ideas seriously? What happens when young people have something they are excited to come back to tomorrow?
Those experiences may not look like traditional mental health interventions. Firekeeper Alliance believes they are nevertheless an important part of building healthier communities. Heavy Music as a Place to Belong. The Noise Collective grew from Firekeeper Alliance’s work with Browning Public Schools and the Heavy Music Symposium, an educational program exploring the intersection of heavy music, creativity, culture, careers, community, and mental wellness.
The program is grounded in a simple idea: music that is sometimes dismissed as dark, aggressive, strange, or inaccessible can become an extraordinarily meaningful point of connection for young people who may themselves feel misunderstood or outside the mainstream. Heavy music provides room for difficult emotions without demanding that those emotions be hidden. It can turn isolation into shared experience and give young people ways to create, collaborate, learn technical skills, meet mentors, and become part of a community. The goal is not to tell students what music should mean to them. It is to give them the space, tools, relationships, and opportunities to discover that for themselves.
That philosophy has increasingly moved beyond the classroom and into recording, filmmaking, live production, journalism, festival internships, visual art, and direct collaborations with working musicians. Throughout the process of making this song, Steve’s generosity was central to what made the collaboration work. He created a patient, comfortable, and completely nonjudgmental environment where students could experiment without worrying about whether they were “good enough” to participate. Some had musical experience, while others had never considered themselves musicians or artists at all. The invitation was simply to listen, try something, make some noise, and see what happened.
That willingness to meet students exactly where they were transformed the session from a recording project into something much more meaningful. There was no expectation of virtuosity and no pressure to perform. Students were given permission to contribute in whatever way felt authentic to them — and, in doing so, experienced what Firekeeper Alliance hopes to create more often: spaces where young people discover that they do not need to arrive already skilled, confident, or accomplished in order to have something valuable to contribute.
World Suicide Prevention Day provides an important opportunity for people around the world to speak openly about suicide and recommit themselves to addressing an issue that has affected far too many families and communities. “iiyiikǎakimǎan” is one piece of that work. Keep the fire burning.
Check out Firekeeper’s Bandcamp page to download the track HERE, and head over to their YouTube channel to watch an original video featuring this new song HERE
The collective states, “Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Around the Firekeeper camp, we see every day as suicide prevention day – though we tend to prefer the word reduction. This work is ongoing, relational, and built into everything we do. Still, we’re grateful for a day that brings worldwide attention to an issue that deserves far more care, conversation, and action. We believe that working toward reducing suicide is more than destigmatizing this issue and expanding strengths-based clinical counseling approaches. It is also about building up the things that help make life feel more connected, meaningful, and worth showing up for. So today, we want to share something that shows what that work can actually look like.
“Back in May, our students from the Heavy Music Symposium Class (Noise Collective) collaborated with the legendary Steve Von Till to create a piece of music together. It became a towering example of what we believe in: giving young people access to meaningful creative experiences, building relationships through art, and creating spaces where expression, identity, and human connection can all exist simultaneously.
“This track is being released through Firekeeper Alliance Records and is available today on our Bandcamp page. It’s listed as name your own price, but any proceeds raised from this track will go right back toward purchasing new gear for our after-school club. Our very own @deaddoglake also made a video for this song which is up on the Firekeeper Youtube channel. We’re incredibly proud to share “iiyiikǎakimǎan” with you – the first of many collaborations featuring our HMS Noise Collective and artists we love. Special shoutout to Max and River for outfitting us with killer amps for this project. And to all our relatives we’ve lost far too soon… We love you. All of this is for you. kittsiikǎakōmimmō˝ṗo´wǎ.”
Guitar drones performed by Dyrelle Bird, Auctavian “Doc” Bullshoe-Renya, Gabriel Calf Boss Ribs, Hunter DeRoche, DeAndre DeRoche, Dylan FastBuffaloHorse, Bethlanee Fish, Easton Glaze, Mason Gordon, Michael Gray, Alex Hoops, Aurelia Kennedy, John Thomas Kicking Woman, Bowman Klauk, Paul Medicine Horse, Joylynn NoRunner, Reb Pollock, Monique Rivas, Raymond Running Crane, and Jacob Small
Words by DeAndre DeRoche, Dylan FastBuffaloHorse, Haven Heavyrunner, Auctavian Bullshoe-Reyna, Ryan RedHorn, John Thomas Kicking Woman, Alexis Marso, Kaydence Smith, Cam Wolftail, Mallory Kennedy, and Angalina Lee
Blackfoot words and phrases by Rance Champ, Clementine Hall, & imiitāisskii
Various field recordings of wind and water were captured by the students of the Heavy Music Symposium class (Noise Collective) during their Spring semester of 2026.
Drones and spoken word recorded at Buffalo Hide Academy and Red Eagle Campground in May, 2026
Hand drum performed by Nick Rink.
Recorded, assembled, and mixed by Steve Von Till. Mastered by Scott Evans at Antisleep Audio.
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