Featured Artists & More
The Legendary
Laraaji
“With all praises be, to this one, within this one, for this oneness, as we are eternally this united channel of the infinite presence of our most beloved spirit soul.”- Laraaji.
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The Legendary Laraaji is a quintessential ambient music pioneer, one of the best humans out there, and the optimal artist there is to mediate to. I recommend: The 11:14 minute version of Unicorns in Paradise, to take you to a brand-new level of elevation, spiritual oneness, and wonder of what is possible.
His name should be a verb “To Get Laraajied” because it is a state of peace, a state of bliss, a place of higher being- when you listen to his music and feel the higher meaning of existence…
Future lexicon of America: To be Laraajied (V) Used in Conversation:
Question: “How are you feeling?”
Answer: The weight of the whole world was on my shoulders; I was so stressed with severe muscle tension, felt like my whole head was going to explode! But I’m actually doing a lot better now, and it feels like it’s healing. I just “got Laraajied.” (See Also: Laraaji Laughter Workshop video above + send it to all your friends this holiday season. If that can't cheer them up, I don't know what can!)
Love +Gratitude to Laraaji!
-Becca Joseph
His name should be a verb “To Get Laraajied” because it is a state of peace, a state of bliss, a place of higher being- when you listen to his music and feel the higher meaning of existence…
Future lexicon of America: To be Laraajied (V) Used in Conversation:
Question: “How are you feeling?”
Answer: The weight of the whole world was on my shoulders; I was so stressed with severe muscle tension, felt like my whole head was going to explode! But I’m actually doing a lot better now, and it feels like it’s healing. I just “got Laraajied.” (See Also: Laraaji Laughter Workshop video above + send it to all your friends this holiday season. If that can't cheer them up, I don't know what can!)
Love +Gratitude to Laraaji!
-Becca Joseph
Best New Indie TV Shows
(By the Light in the Dark Cast)
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Emma Swift
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In a future world, Emma Swift is on top of Taylor on the charts, and more poets like her have broken into the top 40. Emma could make it happen, she embraces the roots of old classic folk and rock alongside the coolness of the modern age.
“The red hats and their money-ed friends are coming for us all, they hate the way we don’t like guns and they hate the way we talk. Outside on the bloody streets the fireworks light the sky, the 55 arrested, it must be the 4th of July.”- Emma Swift, The Soft Apocalypse. Want more Emma? Read the Interview and check out her new Dylan cover album Blonde on the Tracks...out Today!
“The red hats and their money-ed friends are coming for us all, they hate the way we don’t like guns and they hate the way we talk. Outside on the bloody streets the fireworks light the sky, the 55 arrested, it must be the 4th of July.”- Emma Swift, The Soft Apocalypse. Want more Emma? Read the Interview and check out her new Dylan cover album Blonde on the Tracks...out Today!
Interview with Emma
Becca: We both share a huge passion for Bob Dylan. How old were you when you first started liking him?
Emma: I don't remember the day I got turned onto Dylan, he always felt as much a part of my world as the sky and the clouds and grass. Growing up in the '90s, the music of the '60s and '70s seemed ancient and still just close enough to touch.
Becca: What do you think it is specifically that separates him from so many other artists?
Emma: I don't think of Bob Dylan as being separate from other artists. He's a magnetic presence and a fabulous poet, mysterious and vital and important, but I don't consider him to be a lone wolf. He's more like the leader of the pack.
Becca: What is your favorite Dylan quote/lyric and why?
Emma: Being a mutable person, I am reluctant to commit to a favourite! But I am in a terribly romantic mood today, and so I'm going to run with this one:
I've traveled from the mountains to the sea
I hope that the gods go easy with me
I knew you'd say yes, I'm saying it too
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Becca: What upcoming projects are you working on?
Emma: I'm about halfway through an album project called "Slow Dancing With Ghosts". These are my own songs, mostly ruminations on loneliness and loss and longing and love. For a while the songs came thick and fast, and then I paused to focus on the Dylan project, but now I'm back in my own lyric universe. It's much harder for me, writing my own songs, so I am taking my time.
Becca: I saw you describe The Soft Apocalypse as “one part confession, one part pantheism, one part protest.” Can you tell us a little bit more specifics about what it is about?
Emma: I wrote this song during lockdown in Nashville, TN on the 4th of July this year. It's a piano ballad that fuses my real life with my imagined life and then the life of the outside world. It's a love song but it's also a protest song. In a way it's about the way 2020 has shattered my illusions about myself and my illusions about the world.
Becca: Lately I’ve been thinking Dylan and the Beats have so many parallels. What do you think a modern Hippie/Dylan-esque/Beatnik/ or other counter-cultural movement would look like today? What would you like to see happen?
Emma: I don't really know what this might look like today. What would I like to see happen? Free healthcare. Free college education. Free love. Equal pay. Equal rights. Equal representation.
Follow her on Instagram @Emmaswiftsings. It will be one of the greatest things in your feed!
-Becca Joseph
Emma: I don't remember the day I got turned onto Dylan, he always felt as much a part of my world as the sky and the clouds and grass. Growing up in the '90s, the music of the '60s and '70s seemed ancient and still just close enough to touch.
Becca: What do you think it is specifically that separates him from so many other artists?
Emma: I don't think of Bob Dylan as being separate from other artists. He's a magnetic presence and a fabulous poet, mysterious and vital and important, but I don't consider him to be a lone wolf. He's more like the leader of the pack.
Becca: What is your favorite Dylan quote/lyric and why?
Emma: Being a mutable person, I am reluctant to commit to a favourite! But I am in a terribly romantic mood today, and so I'm going to run with this one:
I've traveled from the mountains to the sea
I hope that the gods go easy with me
I knew you'd say yes, I'm saying it too
I've made up my mind to give myself to you
Becca: What upcoming projects are you working on?
Emma: I'm about halfway through an album project called "Slow Dancing With Ghosts". These are my own songs, mostly ruminations on loneliness and loss and longing and love. For a while the songs came thick and fast, and then I paused to focus on the Dylan project, but now I'm back in my own lyric universe. It's much harder for me, writing my own songs, so I am taking my time.
Becca: I saw you describe The Soft Apocalypse as “one part confession, one part pantheism, one part protest.” Can you tell us a little bit more specifics about what it is about?
Emma: I wrote this song during lockdown in Nashville, TN on the 4th of July this year. It's a piano ballad that fuses my real life with my imagined life and then the life of the outside world. It's a love song but it's also a protest song. In a way it's about the way 2020 has shattered my illusions about myself and my illusions about the world.
Becca: Lately I’ve been thinking Dylan and the Beats have so many parallels. What do you think a modern Hippie/Dylan-esque/Beatnik/ or other counter-cultural movement would look like today? What would you like to see happen?
Emma: I don't really know what this might look like today. What would I like to see happen? Free healthcare. Free college education. Free love. Equal pay. Equal rights. Equal representation.
Follow her on Instagram @Emmaswiftsings. It will be one of the greatest things in your feed!
-Becca Joseph
Ahomari
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Ahomari is one of those artists that when you watch/hear them perform you all know they have that epic legendary quality. Few artists have more pop-potential than Ahomari. Ahomari should be a universally recognized name. Catchy hooks, sing-a-longs, powerful unique vocals, ya know those songs you dance to. Top 40 meets the indie underground. We love you, Ahomari. Need more convincing? Next time you’re in a bad mood just sing, “still it hurts me so bad, when I think of all I never said and I want you so bad, but I hate myself...”
Meet Ahomari: Interview with Ahomari
Becca: What are your Top 5 Movies?
Ahomari: Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Stigmata, Teen Witch, Fifth Element but like these are my faves currently
Becca: What are your Top 5 Musical Influences?
Ahomari: Janet Jackson, Arthur Russell, Brandy, Missy Elliott, Fefe Dobson ...Lil Kim
Becca: If you could change one thing about the music industry today what would it be?
Ahomari: White guys that review Black music.
Becca: What is something you want everyone to know about you?
Ahomari: I'm actually not human. I'm just checking out what y'all got going on down here.
Becca: What change do you most think the world needs right now?
Ahomari: I would love to breathe air so before we step further into this cyperpunk novel it'd be great if Covid-19 was tackled. But like in general it'd be great if systematic racism didn't exist. Even without it there would still be alot of work to do. But work must start somewhere I guess. To be honest all I want is DoorDash and a date with Bill Nye. Oh and great health.
Becca: There is so much more I want to ask you, so many follow-up questions! I wish we were in person so we could have an in-depth Q&A! But I guess that’s enough for people to think about for now- "but it hurts me so bad, when I think of all I never said….” Go listen/dance to Ahomari's, That Song We’d Dance To.
…don’t stop there, The Teen Witch crew & Janet also provide some of the greatest dance numbers of all times.
-Becca Joseph
Ahomari: Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver, Stigmata, Teen Witch, Fifth Element but like these are my faves currently
Becca: What are your Top 5 Musical Influences?
Ahomari: Janet Jackson, Arthur Russell, Brandy, Missy Elliott, Fefe Dobson ...Lil Kim
Becca: If you could change one thing about the music industry today what would it be?
Ahomari: White guys that review Black music.
Becca: What is something you want everyone to know about you?
Ahomari: I'm actually not human. I'm just checking out what y'all got going on down here.
Becca: What change do you most think the world needs right now?
Ahomari: I would love to breathe air so before we step further into this cyperpunk novel it'd be great if Covid-19 was tackled. But like in general it'd be great if systematic racism didn't exist. Even without it there would still be alot of work to do. But work must start somewhere I guess. To be honest all I want is DoorDash and a date with Bill Nye. Oh and great health.
Becca: There is so much more I want to ask you, so many follow-up questions! I wish we were in person so we could have an in-depth Q&A! But I guess that’s enough for people to think about for now- "but it hurts me so bad, when I think of all I never said….” Go listen/dance to Ahomari's, That Song We’d Dance To.
…don’t stop there, The Teen Witch crew & Janet also provide some of the greatest dance numbers of all times.
-Becca Joseph
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Megan Jean & the KFB
Interview with Megan Jean
Megan Jean, one of the most bad-ass females on the indie music circuit will expand your mind like the power of Grace Slick with her upcoming surprise debut music video/song for Light in the Dark. Additionally, I checked in with her and the Kläy Family Band to learn more about their upcoming Nirvana cover album and gain some other cultural insights...
Becca: What gave you the urge to make a Nirvana cover album and can you tell us a little bit more about it?
Megan Jean: We both wanted to play around with a more spontaneous and improvised album. We love jazz, but the traditional jazz standards don’t speak to us the way they spoke to the jazz greats of several decades ago. We were both kids in the 90s. When Nirvana was the biggest band in the world we were both discovering music. We have so many feelings and memories tied with that music. It was perfect for us to express ourselves through it.
Kurt Cobain had a very idiosyncratic style of songwriting. He wrote quirky melodies over quirky power chord progressions that aren’t quite like anyone else. All we had to do was add more notes to the power chords and change the feel a little to bring out the lyrics. It allowed us to explore the music in a new and personal way. We also were hoping to showcase these songs in a way that brought out how much depth and emotion has been there behind the distortion and screaming. Some people are turned off by Nirvana’s music because it can be so noisy. We wanted to reach those people too, and hopefully cultivate a newfound appreciation.
We started performing our arrangements live in 2018. In 2019 we had the opportunity to do a live session at the Jam Room in Columbia SC with an incredible drummer named Evan Simmons. Zac Thomas, who we’ve done several albums with, recorded the sessions and added his own brand of music effects to the mix. On our other albums the vocals are recorded separately from the band. But this time we recorded the drums, guitar and vocals together. This allowed us to play off each other and uncover unexpected musical quirks within each take. Byrne and Evan are both good keyboard players as well. Byrne overdubbed some organ and Evan added some piano over the original tracks. Zac brought out an additional layer of musicality in the mixing. The album is really a quartet. All four of us brought something new to the music and we are all really proud of what we were able to do together.
Becca: What is your favorite Nirvana song and why?
Megan Jean: Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle. It’s about a real woman who was victimized by the psychiatric industry. To this day, we treat mental illness as something that needs to be forced out of a person. It’s very convenient for society but not very helpful to people who are suffering from trauma caused by a life of abuse. Kurt Cobain dealt with this sort of problem and he was able to write a truly poignant song about it.
Becca: What is your earliest Nirvana memory?
Megan Jean: I grew up near Seattle. I was about 8 or 9 when they became huge. I don’t have many memories of a world without Nirvana.
Becca: My husband has this theory that large-scale counterculture died with Kurt Cobain, do you agree or disagree with this idea?
Megan Jean: Nirvana wasn’t the kind of band that was supposed to be marketable and yet they were the biggest band in the world. The industry tends to look at it as a fluke. But in the creative arts there is no way to ever predict what will be successful and what won’t. It wasn’t long after Kurt Cobain died that the mp3 changed the way music was marketed and consumed. It’s difficult to imagine how a person like Kurt Cobain could get to such a popular level today. But given how unlikely Nirvana seemed to become the biggest band in the world in 1989, it only stands to reason that it can happen again. Thing is, no one will see it coming. It just has to happen.
Becca: What do you think it will take to have a new arts-based countercultural movement like the Beatniks, Hippies, Punks, Grunge, etc.?
Megan Jean: They happen all the time. The arts bring people together with ideas, feelings, and experiences. But today there’s more access to more kinds of art. There isn’t a dominant counter-culture. But there isn’t really a dominant culture either. It’s all so fragmented now. If we stick around long enough we will see how it lands
Becca: Get ready for their amazing video for Light in the Dark to expand your mind, oh and Listen to their song Martians in the meantime!
-Becca Joseph
Becca: What gave you the urge to make a Nirvana cover album and can you tell us a little bit more about it?
Megan Jean: We both wanted to play around with a more spontaneous and improvised album. We love jazz, but the traditional jazz standards don’t speak to us the way they spoke to the jazz greats of several decades ago. We were both kids in the 90s. When Nirvana was the biggest band in the world we were both discovering music. We have so many feelings and memories tied with that music. It was perfect for us to express ourselves through it.
Kurt Cobain had a very idiosyncratic style of songwriting. He wrote quirky melodies over quirky power chord progressions that aren’t quite like anyone else. All we had to do was add more notes to the power chords and change the feel a little to bring out the lyrics. It allowed us to explore the music in a new and personal way. We also were hoping to showcase these songs in a way that brought out how much depth and emotion has been there behind the distortion and screaming. Some people are turned off by Nirvana’s music because it can be so noisy. We wanted to reach those people too, and hopefully cultivate a newfound appreciation.
We started performing our arrangements live in 2018. In 2019 we had the opportunity to do a live session at the Jam Room in Columbia SC with an incredible drummer named Evan Simmons. Zac Thomas, who we’ve done several albums with, recorded the sessions and added his own brand of music effects to the mix. On our other albums the vocals are recorded separately from the band. But this time we recorded the drums, guitar and vocals together. This allowed us to play off each other and uncover unexpected musical quirks within each take. Byrne and Evan are both good keyboard players as well. Byrne overdubbed some organ and Evan added some piano over the original tracks. Zac brought out an additional layer of musicality in the mixing. The album is really a quartet. All four of us brought something new to the music and we are all really proud of what we were able to do together.
Becca: What is your favorite Nirvana song and why?
Megan Jean: Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle. It’s about a real woman who was victimized by the psychiatric industry. To this day, we treat mental illness as something that needs to be forced out of a person. It’s very convenient for society but not very helpful to people who are suffering from trauma caused by a life of abuse. Kurt Cobain dealt with this sort of problem and he was able to write a truly poignant song about it.
Becca: What is your earliest Nirvana memory?
Megan Jean: I grew up near Seattle. I was about 8 or 9 when they became huge. I don’t have many memories of a world without Nirvana.
Becca: My husband has this theory that large-scale counterculture died with Kurt Cobain, do you agree or disagree with this idea?
Megan Jean: Nirvana wasn’t the kind of band that was supposed to be marketable and yet they were the biggest band in the world. The industry tends to look at it as a fluke. But in the creative arts there is no way to ever predict what will be successful and what won’t. It wasn’t long after Kurt Cobain died that the mp3 changed the way music was marketed and consumed. It’s difficult to imagine how a person like Kurt Cobain could get to such a popular level today. But given how unlikely Nirvana seemed to become the biggest band in the world in 1989, it only stands to reason that it can happen again. Thing is, no one will see it coming. It just has to happen.
Becca: What do you think it will take to have a new arts-based countercultural movement like the Beatniks, Hippies, Punks, Grunge, etc.?
Megan Jean: They happen all the time. The arts bring people together with ideas, feelings, and experiences. But today there’s more access to more kinds of art. There isn’t a dominant counter-culture. But there isn’t really a dominant culture either. It’s all so fragmented now. If we stick around long enough we will see how it lands
Becca: Get ready for their amazing video for Light in the Dark to expand your mind, oh and Listen to their song Martians in the meantime!
-Becca Joseph
Sihasin
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Check out their latest Interview
"I've been angry my entire life and I've had every right to be angry, but what comes next?...What comes after anger? Clayson and I decided, hope. It has to be hope and that's where Sihasin was birthed."-Jeneda Benally, Interview from Smudge For Your Thoughts
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Meet Sihasin
Sihasin: Multi-award winning brother/sister duo will rock your mind. Activists and actionists. The sound of the Pretenders meets the Ramones meets the lyrics of Bob Marley meets the Navajo Nation.
Learn and be inspired. Listen to Jeneda and Clayson tell their story, offer inspiration, and discuss topics ranging from "no thanks, no giving" to anti-Semitism. Check out their new feature length video Interview. To get educated further join their new Facebook Social Learning Group. "Music transcends all boundaries."- Clayson Benally, Interview from Smudge For Your Thoughts. "Punk Rock is an attitude, it's not a genre."- Jeneda Benally, Interview from Smudge For Your Thoughts. Visit their website and Follow Sihasin on Facebook and Instagram:@Sihasin_band -Becca Joseph |
Ana Egge
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Also be sure to check out one of her newest and super inspiring songs:
For the Taking (Written by Ana Egge, Alec Spiegelman, and Iris DeMent) 
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This golden-hearted, critically acclaimed angel and activist not only plays a guitar that she personally crafted herself but she marches to the beat of her own drum. She's dedicated to eradicating the deeply corrupt and unjust structural inequities within America and the world, and she also helps correct the superficial/ heartless/sell-out culture just by being herself.
Ana was scheduled to be performing this week in the Dominican Republic with one of the world’s most beloved legends- the late John Prine (whose life along was cut so tragically short due to the horrors of covid) and many other amazing artists at this year's (cancelled) All the Best Fest. She has swooped down from above and into the Light in the Dark to help save the world by raising money for Save our Stages, lowering the covid rate, and helping to fix this global crisis. We are so blessed to have her top-notch talent, enlightened spirit, and incredible values. Imagine all the people living life in peace. And ask yourself, could you be loved? She is loved. "It's so hard to know sometimes if you're doing the right thing, or enough, and I always wonder that. And to wonder that is fine, but don't stop doing the things you're compelled to do if they feel true and right." - Ana Egge, She Rocks Podcast Interview Visit her website for more inspiration and follow her on Facebook & Instagram: @Anaegge. -Becca Joseph |