The Certainty That Life Is Changing
Interview With awakened souls
Some days ago I did a feature about "Keep The Orange Sun" by awakened souls and From Overseas. Now I had the opportunity to talk to awakened souls about the record. Cynthia and James also told me what a great surprise they have in store for us next year.
Anne: Hi! Thank you very much for taking the time! How are you doing today? You just released your new album, "Keep The Orange Sun" together with From Overseas aka Kévin Séry. How is the feedback so far?
"The feeling when they played our music on the radio for the first time was magic"
Cynthia and James: Hi! Thank you for taking the time to interview us. We are doing well! The feedback we have received from friends and the community has been positive so far! We are incredibly grateful to Alex Ruder and his Pacific Notions Show (KEXP, Hush Hush Records) for his support leading up to the release and after. It is a magical feeling to wake up early on a Sunday morning and hear your song being played on the radio. Each time a piece was going to play, we texted with Kévin and got excited about what song Alex would choose.
Anne: How was working with Kévin? How did you guys get to know each other?
Cynthia: I reached out to Kévin shortly after his album, "Home", came out in 2020. I started by mentioning that I love reversing guitar too. Soon, our shared love of Radiohead became apparent, and I knew our friendship was off to a good start. Then, James entered the chat, and it became inevitable that a unique collaboration would happen. We have become close friends, and James and I are both inspired by Kévin's attention to detail, passion, and drive.
Anne: What distinguishes the new record from the ones you made before?
"We all have unique musical backgrounds"
Cynthia and James: All three of us have unique musical backgrounds, so we knew this collaboration would be different. We wanted to go to more genres than ambient, which brought in the IDM, shoegaze, and neoclassical elements that hadn't been showcased in any of our music before. New forms of expression naturally showed up in the creation process, and we were all open to the shifts.
Anne: Your combination of elements from the electronic, shoegaze, and the ambient world leads to a very harmonic and unique kind of style. Did you have that in mind when you started recording it? Or is it more like a coincidence that the three music genres the three of you call your homes fit together so well?
James: We absolutely had the intention of combining all of those genres! With the song "Keep The Orange Sun", it took a journey of its own. After hearing Cynthia's guitar parts and main vocal idea, I heard shoegaze drum and bass parts right away and decided to go with it. Our fragments of the song came together over the course of one night. In my mind, there is a crossover with some shoegaze and ambient. Kévin's additions solidified that link with his signature guitar textures and tone. I think we all surprised ourselves in a good way when we finished the song, and it is definitely one of my favourites on the album.
Anne: The song "Certainty Of Tides" is about the certainty that life changes. How did you come up with this topic?
"'Keep The Orange Sun' is our interpretation of the stages humans go through"
Cynthia: As we began talking about what our concept was for the album as a whole, Joseph Campell's Hero's Journey came to my mind and soon, we realized that KTOS was our own interpretation of the many stages we go through as humans. I had been reading Maya Angelou during this time, and her classic poem, "Still I Rise", became the origin of this song's name.
"Just like moons and like suns
With the certainty of tides
Just like hopes springing high
Still I'll rise."
This passage acted as a source of comfort for me during some pretty uncertain times. This poem definitely had an influence on our song title "Rise" as well.
Anne: Some of the songs on the album are pretty meditative. Do you meditate? Is music your personal way to ease your mind?
"Music is our meditation"
James: Music has always been my way to ease my mind. Back in the early 1990s, when I first started composing music, I was going through some heavy moments in my life, and music became my only way to work through the complex parts. I would write songs and listen to them on repeat all night to help me sleep and calm my thoughts, and that hasn't changed. A lot of musicians I know don't like to listen to their own music. For me, that is the reason I make it. To listen to and meditate to.
Cynthia: Yes, I meditate. I don't follow the exact same schedule every day. Still, I always find time to sit and take in the present moment, whether on my cushion, in nature, mindfully sitting/laying down and listening to music, through guided meditation, or walking meditation. Creating music is another way for me to directly link up with the present moment - I get fully immersed, and time stands still. It is such a beautiful contrast to go to that land of creation while the rest of my life is so much about being there for my large family, which can feel fast-paced and filled with varying emotions of having five teens.
Anne: When did you start awakened souls? Did you always want to make music together?
"When we first met we knew we wanted to jam together"
Cynthia: James and I met online back in 2014. In our initial communication, he asked if I "wanted to jam sometime, dude." I could tell he was an odd bird right away, and so am I, and we did happen to jam the day after we met and created our first EP within six weeks of meeting each other. We called ourselves Syntillas back then and were more indie electronic. I have somewhat hidden that first album of ours, "Sparks", from the conversation because I dislike the pitch correction James did on my voice a few moments of the EP, but there are still some songs I love on it and am reaching the point of acceptance as part of our musical path. We also did a single after that: "For You" somehow sounds close to the genre of "Any Of Those Lies".
Our band name awakened souls started in 2017 and came from our connection to Buddhist thought and especially the teachings of Pema Chödron, who talks about the path of awakening. So we knew this project was a direct way for us to use music for healing and processing.
Anne: What's up next for you? Do you have tour plans? Are you already working on new songs?
New album in 2022
Cynthia and James: We have a lot of exciting projects coming up within the next year, with an album coming to Past Inside The Present in the first half of 2022. We are also finishing up our solo albums, and we will see what happens with releasing those in 2022. Our goal is to play some shows here and there locally in 2022! It would be a dream to play live with Kévin as well!
Anne: Thank you very much for this sympathetic interview! It was nice getting to know you guys!
Read my review on "Keep The Orange Sun" now.
You can find my interview with Kévin Séry here.