Part 2

For your current release, what kind of emotions were you looking to get across?

"Could You Lend Me a Smile" is my most important song for this year.

It is a global song, and holds the world record for the 15 languages/versions the single and music videos were simultaneously released in.



It is a song about healing the world of loneliness.

The song is based on the true story of a 20 year old man that passed away and wasn't found until months later. He died what is now called a 'Lonely death." Grammy caliber artists from all over the world helped make that song possible and I hope it reminds millions of people that a simple smile could change someone's life.

"The Bruises Won't Ever Understand" is another important song about my personal journey through domestic abuse. I was shocked to learn that 2 billion people are affected by abuse and I needed to write this song.



What is unusual about this particular song is that I also curated, designed and created the music video.

It is my personal statement to everyone who has experienced domestic abuse that it is ok to leave a hurtful relationship. It is a song about hope.

How do you capture the emotions you want to get across in the studio?

Usually, in most of the songs, you are singing to a person, bei it in the past, present or future. I try to view the microphone in front of my face as the person that I’m telling the story to.

When I sing in the studio I don’t focus a lot on technique, melody or words. Instead, I focus on telling the story right and having the continuous emotion throughout the song so people can stay with me on the journey, going through the ups and downs.

It doesn't matter whether it’s a sad song or a happy song, I just tell the story because in the end that is what I am - a story teller.

What role do factors like volume, effects like distortion, amplification, and production in general for in terms of creating the emotions, energies or impressions you want?

Depends on the song. If it is a ballad, it is all about the vocals. Adding in the right effects like reverb or echo can really help tell the story and give it depth. If it's a rock song then the music, the drums or guitar or even a violin can carry the energy so the mix will focus on them. Then the vocals become the supporting cast.

Mixing engineers are masters at using the correct volume and effects to create the 'vibe' and what they do can amplify the energy of the artist. I really appreciate what they do!

In terms of emotions, what changes when you're performing live on stage, with an audience present, compared to the recording stage?

In real life, I’m a shy person. I'm very reserved in a group of people. However on stage I become someone different.

I've always known I loved to be on stage. I'm not sure why. So whether I'm singing or giving a lecture or an interview I feel the energy of the crowd and that makes me want to give them something back. I like to perform and I like the energy I get from the audience. It is a unique and special connection. I view myself as a storyteller so I want to take them on a journey where they can see, hear and feel themselves in my story.

I don't want to do that with the loudest voice or with attention getting antics but rather I want to command attention like a whisper does. I want to give them a piece of myself, if they are listening carefully, so that we can share a special moment that may change our lives. That's something I can't feel in the recording studio.

In my last album, I also have some dance songs and with those kind of songs it's just a lot more fun to dance with a crowd than by yourself.



How does the presence of the audience and your interaction with it change the emotional impact of the music and how would you describe the creative interaction with listeners during a gig?

Whether a crowd is dancing or crying or laughing is dependent on the performer. But sometimes the direction it takes can surprise you.

A group of people have a life of their own and a sad song can become happy or a happy song can become melancholy. I love that the crowd does that.

What kind of feedback have you received from listeners or concert audiences in terms of the experience that your music and/or performances have had on them?

I had this interesting experience with feedback at my showcase last year.

I write about a lot of serious issues and heavy topics. So at my Showcase, which is a small concert with professionals media and industry experts, I was singing a new song, "Tell Me What You See" which is about a person in a relationship emotionally disappearing.

As I was singing the song I noticed people‘s faces had these very serious looks, almost mad expressions on their faces. Yet afterwards a lot of those same people came up and said how much they loved that song. What I didn't realize was when I was singing the song they were fighting to hold back the tears and emotion so their faces looked frozen, the opposite of what I was expecting.

What I've learned is that the look on peoples faces doesn't always tell me what is really going on inside the audience. I appreciate people being touched by my songs. It validates my feelings and hopefully helps them heal.

Would you say that you prefer to stay in control to be able to shape the emotions or do you surrender to them and allow the music to take over? Who, ultimately has control during a live performance?

I spent my whole life trying to stay in control of my own emotions, which is not a realistic expectation. We’re not designed to overly control our emotions and when we try to do that, it creates other problems and often times we just hide them until there’s too much to hide, then it just explodes in some way.

I tried to do that for so many years so I had a lot of emotions that I kept to myself that turned me into a emotional time bomb. That gave me a lot of stress and I don’t recommend it. It's not a fun way to live.

However, when I discovered music, it was like letting water go from a dam. Not only did it feel safe to fully surrender my emotions in my music. It’s like my emotions knew the direction to go. They needed to come out and they wanted to come out. It is an amazing feeling, and every time I sing a song, it lets go more and more emotions. It’s extremely healing and the more I let go the more healing it is.

You talked about paradoxical effects when we listen to music. It's something that we could experience and I definitely experience it in my songwriting. I’ve visited some very, very difficult subjects from my personal experience, and I have people ask me “wow you’re so brave that you can write about this” but to me visiting those things really helps me heal, helps me process it in the least painful way possible, and afterwards I feel this tremendous release.

It’s quite counter intuitive, it’s like we have to embrace the pain so we are able to be free from it. We have to let it pass from us to really break free from it, so I think it’s a quite paradoxical there.  Yes, it was painful to try to face it, but I think the pain came from the fear of it.

When you’re actually staring at it and experiencing it, not only is it not as scary as it was in our heads, it actually makes us feel a lot better. This is something that we have to just trust the process in and go with it.

The emotions that music is able to generate can be extremely powerful. How, do you think, can artists make use of this power to bring about change in the world?

This is what I do most with music now. I focus on meaningful songs that not only bring awareness to certain issues that are causing disconnection among people, but also suggesting simple, powerful and fulfilling actions as solutions through songs.

Like you said, music is extremely powerful. It is the only thing that can consistently completely change a person's emotions within seconds. As musicians who are given this amazing ability and gift, how we use it is something we all need to think about.

And I choose to use it to help others, using my music as a tool to encourage people to do 15-second actions that can change our world and offering a gentle reminder that these actions are not new, merely forgotten habits that remind us of our humanity.