WSAR interview with Mike Moran
Somerset, MA
June 27, 2003

WSAR: ...very interesting fascinating music that you're listening to here. It comes from WAH! and she is appearing next Wednesday at The Narrows Center for the Arts and she joins us on the show this morning. Good morning Wah! Your music has kind of a spiritual and meditative quality. Yoga and its health benefits are very much a part of your music and of you. The name: WAH!... where does that come from?

Wah!: It's Sanskrit. It comes from India. I was given it by a yoga master when I was 17. It means, "peace" "ecstacy" or "wow"

WSAR: Well I kind of said, "wow" when I listened to your album, which we were just playing. The album is called OPIUM. (now there's another unusual name) Your music is calming and very peaceful and yet it's also trendy. Music is usually one or the other. You draw from a lot of different musical influences. Tell us about them.

Wah!: I think you can't take the meditative quality out of my voice. When I'm singing pop or singing something in a yoga center, where I'm going with my voice stays constant. We worked with Macy Gray's band on this album, and also some of Alanis Morrissette's bandmembers, so there's a lot really great tracks and also my voice is a little more smokey than it has been.

WSAR: The first song on the album is Open and in fact it is the opening song on the album. It chants in a way, and has a calming spiritual effect. Is that what you strive for at all times?

Wah!: One could only hope...! A lot of music these days - electronica and even pop - uses loops to create their songs. Repetitive loops is where chanting comes from, the repetitiveness is crucial to the effect. I'm trying to get between the lines and get to a meaningful vibe.

WSAR: You're performing at the Narrows Center for the Arts, this Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm. Can you tell us your origins? What influences do you draw from musically? What other artists or styles did you listen to?

Wah!: I studied voice at Oberlin Conservatory- everything from Gregorian chanting to opera to Indian music. What I took from my studies at the conservatory, I added Bob Marley to that. For me, anyway, Gregorian chanting and Bob Marley are all coming from the same place. (laughs)

WSAR: Sure, and as I listened to the album (OPIUM) it seems that (because of your varied influences), it defies a category. Most music can be put in one category or another. It seems that WAH! defies categorizing.

Wah!: We're categorized as "New Age" and we're trying to cross over into pop. But the music industry is changing these days and even the larger labels are having a hard time pushing their pop artists. Basically OPIUM is just part of the eclectic mix of CDs that I've put out. OPIUM is more poppy, who knows what the next CD will be.

WSAR: What will the folks who go to your performance at the Narrows be hearing?

Wah!: They'll hear a little of everything - some Sanskrit chanting, some pop songs from OPIUM - it'll be a mix. Lots of stories and I try to share with people where I'm coming from with the music. It's a good time.

WSAR: Fascinating. Well I hope people come out to hear you and I hope you'll be selling some CDs there, so people can take WAH! home with them. It's been a pleasure talking with you.