nordic music

"When I Started to Consciously Put it all Together, I was Forging My Own Path and Creating My Own Way of Putting These Elements Together."

Our guest for this episode of MFM Speaks Out is Haana. Haana is a violinist, vocalist, electronic music artist, visual performer, and entirely self-contained as a one woman orchestra. She played with Kanye West, Alvin Ailey, as well as festivals such as Joshua Tree Festival and Coachella and others in the US, Canada, UAE, and Australia, and other gigs such as Barack Obama's inaugural ball and at Michael Jordan's wedding. Haana has endorsement deals with Ableton, Native Instruments, Even Headphones (manufactured by Blue Microphones), and Realist Violins. She appeared in ads for Intel, Harvey Nichols, Nike, Ferrari, and Apple Computers. In addition, she's experienced as a film composer, does artist mentorship / marketing, branding, and production consultation, and is an accomplished photographer (and used to be a managing editor for photo.net).  

Topics discussed:

The topics discussed include Haana's inspiration to become a "one woman orchestra," her studies of contemporary composition at New England Conservatory and electronic music production at Dubspot NYC, the growing trend among many classically trained musicians to combine the European classical tradition with modern electronic music, how she incorporates her improvisational methods and Nordic and Icelandic elements into the context of electronic music / beats, the aesthetic concepts behind her music videos and her use of dancers and other visual elements in her live performances, how the presence of her skills as an instrumentalist are received among EDM audiences, her practice of yoga and meditation, and incorporate this into her musical endeavors including the Deepsonos by Haana project, her work as a film composer for the Heavy Water and The Cold Life projects, her work with Alvin Ailey performing for festivals in the US, Abu Dhabi, Canada, Portugal, Hungary, Australia, Mexico, at festivals such as Joshua Tree Music Fest and Coachella, her performances with Kanye West when he opened for The Rolling Stones at Gillette Stadium, and at Madison Square Garden for MTV, at Michael Jordan's wedding, and at Barack Obama's inaugural ball, her endorsement deals with companies such as Ableton, Native Instruments, and Realist violins, other ways she monetizes what she does, and her ideas on music activism.

Music featured in this episode:

"Ornate"

"Seli"

"Teardrop"  

(All compositions by Haana Thiem. "Seli" is a collaboration between Haana and Bison Rouge. Used with permission)

Credits
Producer and host: Dawoud Kringle
Publisher: Musicians For Musicians (MFM), Inc. and Sohrab Saadat Ladjvardi
Technical support: Adam Reifsteck
Links
Be sure to follow and tag MFM on Facebook ([https://www.facebook.com/M4M.org/] and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/mfm\_association/).

A special Winter Solstice episode with the glorious medicine singer-songwriter Fia, from Sweden, who has a unique way of weaving music that empowers the listener to drop deeper into themselves and find their own medicine. Since the release of her debut album "Made of Stars" in 2016, Fia has been touring worldwide and continues to touch hearts wherever she goes. 

Fia diligently creates music that bridges the worlds of spiritual healing, celebration, activism, ancestral wisdom, prayer and self-growth.  In this episode, Fia talks about using the voice to direct energy, channelling voice-play from her homeland, singing together to rise our pain and anger into change, living sensitively and rooting into place, commitment to musicianship and meeting our blockages with song. Fia reminds us that we are singing beings and that the healing potential and expressive importance of using our voices authentically is profound.

Fia's songs woven into this episode are Golden Age from her album Waterfall of Wisdom, Gold from Nordic Spirit, I Am from her debut album Made of Stars and Time For Greatness (also from Waterfall of Wisdom).

Fia's instagram.

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Thanks to Mike Howe for his ongoing music contributions.

The lyrical, melancholic and often cautious optimists are a key words to explain what can often be characterized as Nordic. The clean, simple and often pictorial. At the same time, it is a courage and a force to be reckoned with, as can be drawn from Nordic fairy tales, often with a warm humor. Many of these features also appear in other artistic disciplines. How has history shaped us and what can we learn from who we are today?