MY STORY
“My musical journey began at age 3 learning Native American Flute and Classical Piano, when I first heard my Grandmother singing and playing the flute and my Great Uncle playing the piano. These two elders inspired me to learn all that is knowable in music.”
CV
“ I looked forward to waking up at 4 o'clock in the morning and Grandma would already be awake cooking and singing. That’s when I realized I wanted to be a musician.”
“I didn’t want to just listen to music, I wanted to play and compose music.
A big influence on my decision to play multi-instruments was listening to my Uncle’s music. He listened to a wide variety of music. When he asked me which instruments I wanted to play, I couldn’t decide on just one, so I tried to learn as many as I could.”
MUSICAL ALCHEMY
“I’ve always been interested in various styles of acoustic music. From about age 9 I started exploring Baroque music and folk music from around the world. My professional career began as an electric guitarist and Native flute player but acoustic guitar was always my greatest love. Combining folk and Baroque influences has helped to forge my personal musical identity.
After learning the basics of guitar and Cherokee style flutes by the age of 12, I taught myself how to make Lakota style flutes, Incan style flutes and panpipes. As a Native flautist my contemporary and traditional cd’s “Thunder in the Canyon” has been nominated for 2 Native American Music Awards (1999 and 2009) and it has received a significant amount of airplay, in the US, Germany, and Austria.
When I turned 13 I joined a heavy metal band, jazz band and country band. These experiences taught me how to use the guitar in different contexts and I released my first cd’s which sold well. I played in various metal bands, finally settling in with Krass Judgement. We recorded several songs together, culminating in an opening slot for Slayer in Virginia, US.
Since then I’ve been exploring different sounds from around the world and focused on the music of Northern Europe, especially the music of Finland, because it has a unique identity. These sounds were very different from what I was used to and I loved the freshness of exclusively acoustic instruments used in contemporary and traditional settings. This inspired me to travel to Finland, Sweden, Germany, Norway, Denmark, Iceland and The Faroe islands to hear my favorite composers and artists. Hearing Nordic vocalists, especially women, expressing themselves in a very powerful way and using their voices as instruments, eliciting a wide range of tonal colors and textures, inspired me to become more melodious and more bold with my own compositions.”
-Lakota