Contact Radio KKNW - 1150 AM is hosted in Seattle, Washington by Cameron Steele and Lucia Monetti-Steele. You can listen to this interview on the archives page at the radio station's website: www.contactradio.info   Monday January 20th, 2003 Evening...

CONTACT RADIO: We have with us, WAH!... She has a spent a lifetime immersed in music, studying in the US, India and Africa. She's accompanied the Arthur Hall Dance Ensemble to Ghana and Nigeria, lived in a shaman temple in Africa, composed and danced for the Angela Caponigro Dance Ensemble in NYC... You've also opened up for Courtney Love, headlined the Cultural Arts Festival in Yuba City and appeared on Vancouver Morning Television which is actually where I used to live... So we're here to talk about OPIUM. Tell us about OPIUM...

WAH!: It had always been a dream of mine to create a more mainstream CD. I lived in an ashram for about 15 years, and have been out of the ashram about 7 years and I always wanted to make a mainstream CD with a spiritual intent to the lyrics. I met Herb Graham Jr. who has worked with Macy Gray and he agreed to do the project. He brought in some of Macy Gray's musicians and writers and he also brought in two of Alanis Morrisettes's bandmembers who were on break from touring with her. So it was just a lovely group of people who worked together to create this hip sound. I took care of the lyrics and the intent of the project to make sure that it was aligned with things I thought were interesting.

CR: Your previous albums are more along the lines of meditation, mantra and chanting and yet (Opium) is really not far cry from what you've done, from a sense of the energy that's gone into it. Even though it's more mainstream, it brings you to a sense of euphoria as you listen to it.

WAH!: It's all those years of meditation... Now you can't take it out!

CR: That's right. (laughter) So why "Opium"? Why the name? Euphoria?

WAH!: I also teach yoga. I don't teach yoga as my public image, I just do it as a service in my community. And everybody was getting stoned from the energy from the yoga classes. They were teasing me, "WAH!, you know, you're better than drugs!"

CR: Maybe they're all on drugs, so they know? (laughter)

WAH!: No. You know it's the breathing... and you start cleansing the liver... And if you've ever done drugs, the breathing releases (stored) drug (toxins) into the bloodstream... it's a whole trip. Right around that time when my students were joking with me, I was asked to write some more songs, and so I wrote Opium about being in yoga class. And then I thought, you know, that is really the essense of my name. It is that kind of joyousness or euphoria that comes through the drugs... except it's the 24 hour drug.

CR: The 24 hour life drug. Yes!

CR: You have also performed and managed Krishna Das. How was it performing with Krishna Das?

WAH!: Basically it was a wonderful experience for me to travel around with him. I toured with him and managed him for about 2 1/2 years. It originally started as a collaboration and we were going to write together and perform together and for various reasons it just ended up not working. There wasn't enough time in the evening, and basically Krishna Das just wanted the whole evening to himself. So, he took away my mic and I sat in the back and played bass and violin. At first I was kind of upset but then it turned into a deeply meditative experience for me because there was nothing to project. I had been in the limelight for a long time. When I started touring with him, he took away all the projective roles that I was used to. It put me in a really meditative place. I actually benefitted a lot from it.

CR: We're going to open the phone lines and we're also going to play track 4, SHOW UP & BE HEARD. For those of you who like what you hear, call in, because we're giving away free tickets to her Saturday night concert in Seattle.

(music: SHOW UP & BE HEARD)

CR: I just love that. We were talking with WAH! earlier and we were taking about Jadon (our 2-year old son) and how he has been our music critic. He listened to track 1, OPEN, and just said, "Wow!" The music blew me away and it felt like it blew him away too. It's very divine music. Creatively, you've certainly tapped into a source that brings out the essence of life, about living and being real with each other.

WAH!: Well that was definitely a process for me in making the CD. Sometimes if you're involved in meditative life, you can get caught up in the techniques and technology of it. But these guys levelled all that. They said, "We don't want to hear about that stuff (meditation and yoga). We want to hear about LIFE." It was a real challenge.

CR: Being authentic in this lifetime is really what we are striving for. To give a voice through music and give a level of authenticity to that... It's really a service to us all.

CR: I want to ask you about SHOW UP & BE HEARD. It felt like a process to write that particular song. Was there something there, in the process of writing that song?

WAH!: I'm sure when you talk to most songwriters, you find out they throw out so many songs. I wrote that song at the point after 45 songs had been tossed out the window. I was just thinking, God What am I doing? I was thinking, Damn, I'm just trying to show up at this point! (laughter) It was that kind of feeling... I was looking back over my life and wondering, "Have I done anything?"

CR: Yes, but what a feeling to have accomplished this album and knowing the amount of work that went into it.

WAH!: It took a year and a half. And I almost quit 3 times!

(laughter)

CR: But you know, you have to admire it. You stuck to your guns. We're going to play another song... LOSE EVERYTHING. Is that a good one for you?

WAH!: That's a great one.

CR: Let's listen to LOSE EVERYTHING. First caller in gets a free CD.

(music: LOSE EVERYTHING)

CR: Thanks for being on our show, WAH!