How did you become a self-produced/engineered artist?

When I was nine years old, I sat down at a piano for the first time and discovered I somehow just knew how to play it. I became involved in the classical music world, but quickly realized my gifts bridged into the realms of inspiration and creation. I was a natural composer, and no matter how many Jr. Bach Festival gold medals I won in my home state of Oregon for my solo piano performances, all I could think about was following this unbidden but wholly consuming inspiration to summon into density what I was hearing constantly in my imagination.

 

I moved to Los Angles as a teenager where I worked with multiplatinum engineers and producers, and a won the Los Angeles Music Award for Composer of the Year with my original songwriting. But I knew from watching Rick Rubin and Derek Nakamoto and Greg Karukas and Craig Burbidge that I wanted to be the sculptor of all. The captain of the sound... not just a songwriter. 

 

In 2011, I set up a home studio and began the arduous journey of becoming my own producer and engineer. I recently realized I'd spent well over 40,000 hours just on the production and engineering elements before I determined I was ready to begin posting my work on the internet. Although it's really wonderful to be honored and acknowledged for my gifts, it's the odyssey of discovery that lies at the core of my journey as an artist.

 

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Where do your ideas come from?

I used to think I was possessed. Ever since I was a little girl, invisible lightening bolts seemed to shoot out of the sky and into my head, and I would instantly be filled with music or poetry or some kind of idea. What some would call moments of divine inspiration I used to call moments of remote infiltration, as my mind and body seemed to lend themselves over to an unseen force tapping in from Elsewhere. "Something writes though me, composes through me, thinks through me. And he's not alone. Method, style, content and even point of view depend on which ghost is holding the remote control," I said once in an interview. Over the years I have come to see things differently: I have a receiver in my head, and I'm receptive to information that comes from the metadata of the universe. I've learned to maintain access to these frequencies where everything beautiful is. Being filled with that is the ultimate state of bliss for me.

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Who are some of your favorite artists?

Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, David Bowie, Elton John, Pet Shop Boys, ELO, Queen, Donna Summer, Chicago, Air Supply.

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What is Microwave Radio Station?

Microwave Radio Station has to do with where the music comes from. Since I like to think of my brain as a radio, tuning into frequencies, I also perceive various stations whence I download there music. Sometimes I have to think about it, and other times it just comes to me complete or in chunks, like information packets. One day I asked the muse, "where is this coming from?" And the words echoed in my head: Microwave Radio Station. I thought to myself, ok, I'm going to use that name for my record label. 

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What does it mean to be a synesthete?

To be a synesthate means I have synesthesia and experience my senses in a multidimensional way. I see colors and shapes for musical sounds and pitches... I taste words. Emotions yield incredibly bright colors (the good ones anyway), and likewise incredibly bright colors yield positive emotions. I thought everyone was like this, but it turns out to be somewhat unique. It shapes everything I do, sonically and aesthetically, because I'm constantly operating on an amalgamated level of perception. When I create my art, not only do I want it to sound a certain way in my ears, I want it to look a certain way in my head, taste a certain way. I want sweet ambrosia that unrolls to reveal itself as a morsel of deep sustenance, a balance between substance and echo, an inspired design with a sense of space and atmosphere. I've always envisioned my music videos as moving 3D viewmaster slides of the dancing rainbows I experience. I am fascinated with colors, prisms, light, shadow, refractions and all things quantum.