Soul Songs

I always remember loving music. My mum was into pop and my dad listened to classical western music, my Grandma played piano, violin and viola, my uncle played the cello, my aunt the violin, my cousin the violin - we were a musical family. I started music school on Saturdays when I was really young, having fun with percussion instruments and singing in the choir. After a time trying out the clarinet and flute, I stuck it out with the violin reaching Grade 5 standard and also learned the viola in those final years of musical study. 

I loved taking part in school musical performances the whole way through my school career, and when I left school and had by then quit studying music and playing in the East Berkshire Youth Orchestra; my attention turned more to indie music gigs, raves and nightclubs. I spent around a decade dancing my way through life, surrounded my DJ's, but not making any music myself.

 

Fast forward to the spinal injuries and subsequent burnout and I found myself singing mantras and learning kirtana with my then yoga teachers in Southampton, where I had relocated to in 2010. That reignited my love for singing and making music and eventually I started to learn the harmonium. By 2017 I was living in Austria and had set up home in Dornbirn in Vorarlberg, and was sharing mantra singing anf kirtana with new friends from my flat living room. That expanded into the now MitEinander Zentrum in Annagasse until I moved back to Lechtal in Tyrol and Covid/Corona times hit. I studied a little under the great Indian musician, Manish Vyas, but decided to focus on my hatha and kriya yoga studies rather than completely immerse myself in Indian classical music.

 

Since then I've spent a lot of time among Vaishnava friends from the Bhakti Yoga tradition and have been hugely inspired by their devotion and musical abilities. My harmonium playing has had little focus since I've been planning and building my house, but I start almost every yoga session with mantra and/or a bhajan. I am by no means a decent harmonium player, but I love it and I'm learning by myself, playing mostly western-style.

In 2024, after I completed 6 months of Grail Priestess training with Tara Brading, I started to learn some Proto Celtic, an ancient language from the land of my ancestors: England. My heritage is English, but with some Welsh, a little Scottish and a touch of Icelandic came down from my grandfather on my mother's side. Proto Celtic, which has been brought back to life by the amazing Carolyn Hillyer and introduced to me by Tara simply resonated with me through to my bones, just like the ancient Indian Sanskrit language does. Since then, I chant to the ancestors and to the elements in this ancient tongue. My beautiful and powerful custom made frame drum came to me via Joshua Shanti @shantijoshua in Dartmoor and I am slowly learning how to play her.