Shamana Electrona talks about Cyoakha Grace
Shamana Electrona found her tribe of wild music makers in Portland, a gypsy hippie tribe of risk-takers! 3 critically acclaimed CDs later, Shamana Electrona, (Cyoakha Grace), singer-songwriter- witch, moved to San Francisco to further her Magica, but still works & plays with members of the Blind, 20 years later, while adding new amazing Shamans of Sound in SF, touring the world, continuing to produce 2 more CDs as Blind, getting smaller & smaller until her tribe now was herself alone, looping in the woods. The journey of these 5 CD projects as Blind, & now new solo CD, is a powerful dream. Organic World Trance meets PaganWitchChants while flying thru the funky Faerie forests. It’s folky funky & looping into deeper layers of ecstatic joy.
Unratedmagazine: Tell me about your background?
Cyoakha Grace: I started singing in church choir as a child, then graduated to choir in high school. The first inclination that I was meant to be a lead singer not a choir member, was my high school choir director always yelling to “not stand out” so much. My older sister played guitar & so somehow, we ended up performing covers in strange bars in Santa Barbara, where we both were in college& I believe our duo got fired from the Red Lion due to always running late!
I moved to Los Angeles from Portland, to follow my acting dream, hated Hollywood & sexist auditions so deeply that I started playing music with the 2 musicians I roomed with, just for balance and joy. We created our own strange 80s space music & played all the major clubs in LA. I felt the world of music was a little kinder than acting. I have always loved music so deeply, since my father introduced me to classical at age 7, I just never knew I´d be lucky enough to end up creating it for an occasional living.
Any education in music?
I took vocal classes in Santa Barbara but was so frightened of singing in front of the class, I used to get
Cyoakha Grace
sick. I have the kind of personality that whatever scares me, I force myself to do. I also studied with an amazing opera singer in Portland & she encouraged me so much, telling me I was a Mezzo Soprano with a possible 4 to 5 octaves. I hated math in school, so I was never able to learn music theory well, mostly I am a self-taught singer, songwriter & musician. Every person & group I recorded with, every friendly engineer who allowed me right over their shoulder, every project I took on that was over my head, taught me more than any formal education. I want to thank the famous engineer Billy Triplett, who worked with me on 3 CDs, who is now mixing in the sky. He once told me “Cyo, I made a lot of albums but now I feel I have created art”.
You are a solos artist now. And I see you use Sonic bids to help you promote yourself. Do you use anything else to book your show?
I self-book or I work with friends who also are touring professionals & we share tours.
I am finally at the point in my career where there are two reasons for me to perform; 1. it’s well paid or at a festival that treats me very well or it’s high profile. 2. it’s being held somewhere I always wanted to go. (I love to travel!)
Tell me about Land of the Blind?
Land of the Blind was a project formed in Portland, Oregon with my former partner from Los Angeles.
Cyoakha Grace Land of the Blind
Both he & I were influenced by some avant guard songwriters like Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush, so we started with covers & added lots of backup vocals. We both also loved world bands & started to add exotic sounds & instruments. Gary Irvine was a fabulous drummer (3 Leg Torso) but also his composing was influenced by being part of the group that performed the music of pioneer Harry Parch.
Blind made 5 total critically acclaimed CDs, plus we toured up & down the west coast, we were a real tribe & I love all those NW road warriors. We also did a cross-country tour with a band from Pittsburg, which was great fun but rather crazy taking 8 people on the road in 2 cars! Eventually, I felt hemmed in as a singer with such a large band & then moved to San Francisco to join the band Azigza, but I finished the last Blind 2 CDs on my own, traveling between SF & Portland, recording with the best musicians in both towns.
Explain to me what are exotic ethnic world instruments?
Blind was one of the first bands to mix rock with world using ancient & ethnic instruments. We used hand drums from around the world instead of drum kit (and this was when everything from Seattle & Portland were doing the post-Nirvana grunge thing!), we used a one string African instrument instead of a guitar, we used marimbas instead of piano & yet somehow still created alt rock songs. We used didjeridu instead of bass or with bass as lead instead of guitar…I wanted to shake it up.
Now as a soloist on tour I play Celtic melodies on the ancient Indian reed instrument, the harmonium & live loop with a German melodica, Native flute, Asian bamboo flutes. I hope to mix at least 5 or 6 countries while trying to create another country entirely. I love to mix sounds, cultures, countries & feels. Regular rock; drum kit, electric guitar, bass & singer just felt so old school to me, boring even. I love the music of the 60s, some amazing forerunners but since then, it’s been that same rock line up for everything, rock, hard rock, blues, folk etc….there are so many amazing instruments in the world, why limit yourself for the last 60 years?
How did you discover that you could mixed old world instrument with a modern beat?
I had a four-piece band at the time, a San Francisco Blind, so to speak, a fantastic hand drummer, a cellist who also played the Indian violin & bass, the didjeridu player & me…. we had booked the summer for big hippie festivals like Oregon Country Fair & suddenly the drummer pulled out with all the festivals already booked! The cellist, who was his close friend, then backed out with him. There I was, a brand-new CD & brand-new song & a new feel…and virtually no band. So instead of canceling the summer, I got myself a looper, made my beats (since by now I was writing 90% of the songs) & off I went.
Finding out that modern Burning Man type beats underneath my folky funky songs & strange instruments, melded together quite cool, was a revolution. I did not have to work around other musician’s schedules, I could just go out & tour, wherever and whenever I wanted! I still had tons of big band collaboration in my life, as my prog-rock-symphonic-world band Azigza was also touring & doing very well. I felt free & from then on did not let anyone hold me back. I eventually learned to live loop, laying on top of my own beats, layer by layer letting songs grow right in front of the audience. It’s always scary with looping but also you can instantly create something amazing. And since no song ever sounds exactly the same twice, it gives me so much freedom to change live.
You were the first one to mix world fusion organic grooves with loops. Is there anyone else doing
Cyoakha Grace
anything close to this in music?
Well, I’m sure there might have been but usually, most bands stick to a formula. If they are a World band they don’t mix rock in too much, if they are a Rock or Folk band they don’t play world instruments. If they are an organic band they do not like electronica, & pounding dance rave beat groups or DJs, never come down in volume or energy to allow a single flute to stand out, or a whispered vocal line. Loopers tend to be solo acts, mostly guitarists looping their lines, or vocalists looping their vocals only, playing looping their instrument. So, although there are many bands out there doing more fusion & tribal feels now, I really don’t know any that are mixing what I do. Pioneers in this area were Dead Can Dance (a stellar duo sounding like a full band) & Afro-Celt Sound System. Currently, Delhi to Dublin mix live instruments on top of canned beats. What I do is a tiny organic version of my own, I believe.
You also do music for animated movies. Give me some background how you do this from start to finish?
A fan and friend of mine in Portland started up a horror movie production company and my first assignment was H.P. Lovecraft Dream Quest of Kadath….The director told me to create a soundtrack that is a nightmare from long ago….and to please not have anything sound like any instrument anyone has ever heard!!! Plus, the film went from 40 minutes to 90 minutes! I was great fun, dark, creepy sounds, nothing recognizable, old German records played backwards, monster sounds affecting my voice, it was so different, the illustrations from a great artist animated bit by bit, the creepy soundtrack, I recommend watching it!
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Who influences you and why?
The great female composers of the last 40 years, hearing Joni Mitchell´s pure voice as a child, watching her re-invent herself many times. English eclectic Kate Bush was a huge influence with her amazing voice and music, one of the few artists I wanted to see live, a dream which, because of good fans of mine, I achieved in London 3 years ago. Laurie Anderson, her mix of literary ideas with hi tech MIT electronics was also huge! The first time I heard Bulgarian Women´s Choir! A critic once said “CYO sounds like a mix of Kate Bush, Lori Anderson in front of the Bulgarian Women´s Choir” a review I loved. Growing up I was entranced by the shamanic nature of Jim Morrison´s poetry & performances, another huge influence to push all boundaries. I have said my spiritual parents are Kate & Jim.
What genre of music are you?
Female Eclectic Dream World Trance
How would you explain your live performance?
A trippy redheaded hippie chick mixing cultures while live looping strange instruments and singing with a 4-octave voice in order to take a shamanic dream journey together.
If someone was listening to you for the first time, what 3 videos or songs would you tell them to look/listen to and why?
Check out my brand new solo CD, go on Youtube & watch my mermaid video to the song NEPTUNE´S BRIDE, dreamy with Portugal´s ocean. Then watch me dance under a sheet at Burning Man to the Land of the Blind song, WHIRLWIND. Finish with Azigza´s fantastic world symphonic prog rock song YAMAN.
Who is your favorite female singer and why?
Probably Kate Bush still, she is an amazing songwriter with an incredibly pure voice. A true female pioneer that could have sold out with that voice & looks & just done pop songs, but instead always followed her quirky vision & stayed true to it. I saw her in London 3 years ago & the show was stunning, it was like being inside a genius’s mind. She did everything, of course, from writing the show to the songs, to creating bizarre cool sets & effects. I have also always admired Joni Mitchell as a female vanguard of songwriting, who broke the musical glass ceiling & Laurie Anderson, the female pioneer in electronica.
What is on your bucket list?
I am living it. Living in two countries currently, touring in UK & USA, finding peace on a fig farm in Portugal, happy with great friends and fans in Portland, San Francisco, Lisboa, Sussex. Just creating music, being one with the sea and nature, I am truly blessed. I am very proud of my new solo CD, UP SKY HOME….where I played every instrument, wrote every song, engineered it, did the artwork, exactly as I wanted, was a lifelong dream completed. Very personal, dark and light, an incredible journey thru a lot, just like my life.
Anything in closing you would like to say?
If you get tired of the same old formula in music, a four-piece rock band of four males, look me up. Watch my homemade videos & get lost in a dream with me, if you become entranced, email me & book me in your hometown, if you have a couch I´ll come.
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