Lucie Lynch

Honolulu based singer-songwriter Lucie Lynch is the lead vocalist for her band Lucie & The Perfect Wave but outside of music, she has a diverse range of interests from musical theatre, sound healing, to live-music yoga. In addition to her band, Lucie is a solo artist who has regularly performed in many of Hawaii’s favorite venues.

Lucie has achieved success as a playwright, having written, co-produced and performed in the award-winning two-woman musical, “Money Talks, But What The Hell Is It Saying?” with Marcia Zina Mager.  Her accomplishments include writing a very successful one-woman musical called ‘Gabrielle’s Universe’ which she also produced and performed for many years throughout Germany.  

She cites Joni Mitchell, Ben Harper, and Joan Baez as influences on her solo work.  “They also taught me to sing about what moves my heart, about what is going on in the world and to never be afraid to speak up about what I see.” 

Lucie & The Perfect Wave released their new EP in June 2018.  Lucie describes their unique sound as Pacific  Alternative, “a blend of Canadian slack-key guitarist Michael Tanenbaum’s mystical Celtic sounds, Swedish heavy-metal guitarist Nick Gertsson’s unique melodic voicings, and her powerful vocals.”

Currently, Lucie has a long list of projects she is working on. She and the band are in the process of mixing and mastering a live full-length album, creating songs for a new EP, looking at a small European tour combined with her two-woman musical tour, and there’s a possible opportunity for the band to represent Hawaii with other local bands in Tokyo at the 2020 Winter Olympics, to name just a few of these projects.

I recently interviewed Lucie in-depth about her musical journey, her band’s new EP, solo projects, her successful one-woman show, her adventures as a TravelPoet, and much more.

Congratulations on Lucie & The Perfect Wave’s new EP, Alive.  What is the theme or concept behind it?

The theme of our EP “ALIVE” is really an exploration of what it means to be human. It is about returning back to our hearts, to allow ourselves to feel all the emotions, and uncover our truth and shine as bright as we can while we choose to be grateful.

This EP is meant to support people on their journey of life. I am inviting the listener to choose gratitude as a way of life, I am encouraging them to let go of the old story of the broken heart and move forward into the light, to break the walls inside their minds and create a new way of looking at their life.

You wrote the title track “Alive” during the time when you lost 6 friends in the space of about two months. It’s a surprisingly warm, upbeat and beautiful song of strength, hope, and promise amidst the grief of losing someone. How did you approach writing during such an extremely difficult time?

For as long as I can remember I have always used writing poetry, stories, and music as my medicine – it soothes my soul in a way nothing else does. I remember when I was 13 years old and suffering from an eating disorder, feeling so alone, misunderstood and hopelessly lost, I started singing out my pain. The only way for me to release my pain was to sing it out loud. It was a very intuitive process. That was the moment when I discovered that I had a voice and that I needed to sing.

What was interesting about this was, that there was a certain pattern that I could see. It was almost like receiving a message through my songs. I never had to sit down and write a song while looking for rhymes and ideas. The songs just come to me. They usually pick me up right where I am and by the end, they bring me to where I need to be if that makes any sense. Even to this day, my favorite thing is to ask the audience for an emotion, a feeling, and a word and let the song emerge right there in front of everyone’s eyes and ears.

When our community lost all these beautiful vibrant beings last year it was hard to believe. They were all so young and positive and energetic and great world changers. After quite a while of processing and reflecting, I went from shock and disbelief to a very peaceful state of mind. That was when the song came through in one of our rehearsals. My guitarist was improvising with some chords on his electric guitar and the words just came to me. I am very grateful that we recorded the session on our phone and were able to capture that special moment. The message of this song is so soothing and calming and gave me great comfort during that time of uncertainty and loss. It also encouraged me to live life NOW and stop waiting for a tomorrow that might never come – to let your beautiful light shine NOW.

What plans do you have for making music videos for forthcoming single releases off the album?

We are actually in the process of creating our first two videos! One of the videos will be a tribute to our friends that we have lost. A gift for their families and our community, using the song ALIVE. The second video we are working on is a walk in the woods with MISSING PIECE – we’d like to create a video for each song on the EP

The band’s music has been described as “the perfect wave”, a new, original sound. Can you expound on that?

There is a local music legend in Hawai’i named John Cruz, and the first time he saw Nick Gertsson and Michael Tanenbaum play an acoustic set (at a small cafe in Kailua) he described their instrumental music as “the perfect wave” – so when the three of us started playing together the band name just kind of stuck!

We combine open tuning and slack key guitar elements with electric guitar, vocals and even added crystal singing bowls recently. It is something that we haven’t really heard before, and after puzzling so many bloggers and music experts with samples of our music we finally decided to call what we play “Pacific Alternative”.

There is so much happening at the same time with our music that it works best in a theatre or concert setting where people can listen deeply and receive the message. We tend to get lost as background music in a bar – I am not saying it does not work, we do that as well, but in a live concert setting at the Blue Note, for example, it works much better.

You also have a successful solo career and play at the most popular venues on Oahu. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a solo artist and in a band simultaneously?

To be honest I mostly experience the advantages and I am very grateful for that. In all of the projects that I am involved in there is a core message that kind of stays the same – I want people to know that they are priceless treasures, that they are beautiful creations and are so much more powerful than they know.

All of my projects seem to cross-pollinate with this message! People who see me solo usually also want to come to see my band and my 2-woman show that I am also involved in. All the projects really support each other and lift each other up.

The only challenge for me is to honor and find my downtime. I sometimes have a hard time to stay focused and feel pulled in too many directions and to relax, take breaks and get enough rest in between all this excitement. That is why lately I have been focused on building a strong core team to help us with marketing, management, and PR.

Explain your experience with your very successful one-woman musical called ‘Gabrielle’s Universe’ that you wrote, produced, and performed for years throughout Germany.

It was a wild ride, to say the least. I learned so much! It all started in my last year of Theatre School back in Germany in 2001. One of my teachers gave me a famous song that was sung by a secretary who fell in love with her typewriter, part of a popular musical at that time. It was “Without You” from Mariah Carey with German lyrics and it ended in a very comedic manner where the secretary orgasms with her typewriter on stage. I chose to do the song as one of my graduation presentations and it became a hit. I got invited to do the song at several occasions and events.

Shortly after I had an inspiration to take all of my favorite songs and see if I can write a story around them, including the Mariah Carey song. It seemed like the story wrote itself. I used my frustrations about growing up, going through puberty, falling for the wrong guys, going through therapy and trying to make the right choices on a daily basis and I channeled all of that into the story. What came out was a very honest, vulnerable and hysterically funny story about a secretary who falls in love with her typewriter, trying to figure out this thing called life.

I started performing the show in very small venues in my hometown Hamburg and it kept expanding (initially it was only me and one piano player). What was very unique about this show was, that it was never ever the same. The main story stayed the same but I always included real-life stories that I experienced into the show.

Sometimes we had 3 people in the audience and other times 700. It did not matter, I always played like it was a full house at the Thalia Theatre.

After about two years of touring and performing, we needed a follow-up and I wrote part two, where Gabrielle actually meets an American guy and her life and her relationship with her typewriter change forever. Part two was all about being courageous to step out of your comfort zone and go for your dreams and live life out loud. I had guest actors and singers appear in this show and we started being part of bigger gala and VIP events.

So there I was motivating people to be themselves and follow their dreams but I was not really happy. I got tired of being the comedian with weird secretary glasses making fun about my pain and disappointments. So I slowly started to burn out.

The venues were getting bigger and my self-confidence was getting smaller. Gabrielle was traveling and experiencing adventures on stage and I felt stuck in my own life. And then it started dawning on me that there was a message hidden in this story. So in summer 2005, I decided to quit and follow my own advice. My management was shocked and disappointed, my fans were sad and my friends and family were not sure what to think of it. It was not an easy decision but I had to make it.

I wanted to travel the world and follow my own heart. I was done hiding behind a costume and ugly glasses to speak my truth. I wanted to break free. And I did.

You won Best Actress at the Hamburg Film Festival. Tell us about that experience and what it felt like to win the award.

This really sounds bigger than it was. It was around the same time when “Gabrielle’s Universe” started to form. A very young and upcoming director and actor cast me for his short film. A very intimate conversation of a couple in a restaurant where the woman wants to test her partner in pretending that she is actually pregnant and it escalates in a very unpredictable way. It was obviously very exciting to be part of this project.

I love being in front of the camera and on set. To this day it just makes my whole being smile and glow. I remember when we went to the festival and watched the “best of”, ours included on a big screen. It was a wonderful feeling. And when I got my “best actress” shout out it was really flattering. I recall that I really had high hopes in getting discovered or picked up for some more projects because of this. But nothing really happened. It is interesting how moments like that are so fleeting. I was also not really competitive enough to pursue a film career I think. I always felt like I had my own stories to share and so I went with my musical show.

Tell us about your award-winning two-woman show, “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?” that you produced and performed with Marcia Zina Mager.

In 2002, my mother gave me a book in Germany titled ‘Das Feen Geschenk’. It was a book about faeries and nature spirits, and how you connect them. It really touched my heart and impacted me. During that time, I had the dream where I flew around the head of the Statue of Liberty and she said: “Lucie, it’s time to come home”. After resisting that crazy message for a while, I finally found myself at the airport on the way to the USA.

I ended up in Hawaii where I met my husband, whom I still love & adore to this day. Then in 2012, a friend told me I needed to meet this very creative professional writer named Marcia. Turns out that same friend told Marcia that she needed to meet me. So, we had our blind friendship date at a café in Honolulu. I’ll never forget the moment when this short, Jewish woman, my mother’s age, approached the table, proudly presenting her international best-selling book – the German version – titled ‘Das Feen Geschenk’.

I nearly fell off my chair! She was the author of the book that brought me to the United States. We looked at each other and immediately knew that we were destined to do something together.

So we started meeting weekly and discovered that in addition to our many creative talents, we also shared something else: We were both very confused and screwed up about money. We were both trapped in the “starving artist” narrative. But instead of going down the road to despair about our financial demons, we decided to channel our frustrations creatively – we pretended that we had a million dollar budget – and began writing a Broadway musical about money called ‘KaCHING’.

For 18 months, we met twice a week at the same café and made up music and lyrics, singing our songs into our iPhones, having the time of our lives. But we decided we needed a professional composer to take our music and create lead sheets and sheet music. So we put up an ad on Craigslist: “Wildly talented Broadway-style composer wanted… for no pay!”

Believe it or not, we got a reply from a professional composer living in Los Angeles who was willing to jump on board the project. But he didn’t want to hear any of our original music. He wanted a good first draft script and then he’d compose the music from beginning to end. We worked hard for months, finally sending him a first draft, excited to hear what he’d have to say. His feedback devastated us. “It’s too predictable. Go back to the drawing board.”

We actually stopped writing for months, deeply depressed and discouraged, until we stumbled across an ad in the local newspaper about a theatre competition. The Oahu Fringe Festival. The requirement to enter was $400 and a 60-minute script.

We called it “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?”. To our shock and surprise, we ended up breaking the box office records, received standing ovations, and we were on our way.

Why did you and Marica Zina Mager decide to write a book about the play? What did you want people to get from the book that they couldn’t from seeing the play? What did you want them to learn about the play’s creation and yourselves?

We did a performance of “Money Talks” for all 300 inmates at a small women’s prison in Hawaii that really inspired the book. We wanted to leave the women with something more than a performance. So we sat down one weekend and wrote a short inspirational book called “What’s My Worth: Discovering the Priceless Treasure of You”, and launched a GoFundMe fundraiser to raise the money to print/publish 300 books.

The fundraiser was a grand success and we donated the books to the prison. After that, we were really inspired to tell our full story and wrote our second book called “ MONEY TALKS: But What The Hell is It Saying?! 6 1/2 golden rules for making friends with success, failure and self-worth”. We wanted to invite people to look behind the curtain of our show and participate more intimately in our personal growth journey with Money Talks. We wanted to articulate the lessons we were learning – and continue to learn – for ourselves as well as our readers.

For instance, one of the chapter lessons is called “Surrender to the Chaos” where we describe the intense challenges… and blessings… that we continually faced throughout this creative partnership. We redefine the concept of surrender as a deeply spiritual and powerful stance for anyone wanting to transform their lives. Another chapter called “Follow That Impulse” talks about how important courage is when it comes to listening to your gut feelings and your own guidance. Our intention is to encourage more and more people to go out and do what they love, to follow their hearts desires and to be courageous enough to take risks, to trust and to seize the moment.

The songs for “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?” is a compelling mix of music genres/styles — Broadway, jazz, power ballad, even a good rap tune — and all sung to the accompaniment of just a piano. Explain your process for creating this lively, entertaining soundtrack.

When Marcia Zina Mager and I decided to write a full-length Broadway Musical “KACHING”, we learned pretty quickly to do it “the right way” you have to know how to use the correct format and program, how to rhyme in a distinct Broadway style and how to be as unpredictably predictable as possible.

But this was not the way we approached this project at all. We were simply channeling all our struggles and frustrations into our characters, story, and songs. There was no shortage of ideas. We created a quirky Mount Olympus and called it Mount Coin, where money gods and goddesses watch over the financial destiny of humanity. Our main human character Lilly experienced a major transformation throughout the story and the lyrics just kept flowing.

We would spontaneously leap up in the middle of the cafe where we worked twice a week and sing our different ideas into our iPhones. Marcia is an amazingly talented writer, slam poet, and rapper. So naturally that became part of our show as well – it would depend on what mood we were in at the given day – if we felt sorry for ourselves and our screwed up relationship with money, one of our characters would most likely throw a pity party with a really sad ballad.

If we felt encouraged and motivated on another day, one of our characters might experience some sort of breakthrough with a more upbeat Fred-Astaire-tap-dance kind of number. We really did not want to limit ourselves to just one style.

Little did we know that the characters we were writing songs for were really us and the message that came through each one of the songs was really a message we needed to hear the most.

Any updates on your plan to take this show on a North American tour in 2019? What states do you plan to go to? Will this be an East Coast or West Coast only tour or combination of both?

We’re excited to announce that “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?” will debut in June 2019 at the Historic Ute Theatre in Southern Colorado. In addition, we are in talks to bring the show to Hamburg, Germany, plus we are exploring other cities including Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, and New York City. (Touring information will be posted on www.ilovemoneytalks.com)

But that being said, it’s not always about what we want. In fact, it never really seems to be about what we want! We’ve learned over and over that we are only the stewards of this show – of this important message that celebrates our divine nature and inherent value. So if the show wants to dance across the country, followed by a documentary film team, we are delighted to grab our tap shoes and follow along.

In these talks, we always sing a few songs from the show which makes for a much more interesting presentation.

We were recently invited to be the featured speakers at the University of Hawaii’s Schidler School of Business Pacific Asia Center for Entrepreneurship! Our presentation is part of a global women entrepreneurship week being celebrated at schools and universities around the world.

Explain what a Travelpoet is and what inspired you to live as one and travel the world. What countries did you travel to? Did you have any memorable experiences you want to share?

Since I was a child I always thought in order to really know a place or a country you have to go see it. It was not enough for me to read about it in a book or watch a documentary on TV. At the same time, I was too afraid to travel. That changed when I got invited to teach English in Africa on Zanzibar for 3 months right after I graduated from Theatre School and I had just started to create “Gabrielle’s Universe”. The timing of that invitation was not the best, but I had to follow my curiosity. It changed my life.

Being immersed in a different culture, living as the only white woman in a village on an Island in the Indian ocean and trying to learn a completely new language from scratch (Swahili) gave me the opportunity to see myself in a new light. I felt capable, I felt strong and I felt like I had a purpose. When I returned to Germany I had a hard time staying put.

Between getting my show on the road, working in a coffee shop and figuring out what I really wanted to do, I used every chance I had to travel to different locations and do something that I was afraid of.

So I decided to overcome my fear of waves by learning how to surf in the south of France, followed by several trips to Spain, Portugal, and Morocco where I went paragliding, hiking and sleeping alone under the stars.

One of the most memorable experiences was when I got lost in a red sandstorm in Morocco on my way back to the surf camp. The bus driver had dropped me off at the wrong station and I did not know which way to go. The wind came up and out of the blue, I found myself in a raging sandstorm, losing all senses of direction. I remember how I just stopped, closed my eyes and just listened.

In the distance, I heard bells ringing and they were coming closer. It was a shepherd with his goats trying to cross the road. It was really hard to see. But together we managed to bring the animals to the other side and he offered to bring me back to the surf camp. We would choose a path off road behind the trees so we could escape the flying sand. Thanks to my still pretty intact french and my unbroken trust in humans we made it back to the camp. It took 2 hours. I was exhausted but happy. What an adventure. I felt like I was part of a Paolo Coelho novel.

When I had that dream about flying around the statue of liberty and her talking to me, one week later I booked a flight to New York City without any idea where to stay, where to go or what to do. I just followed my intuition and guidance. I ended up staying with a group of very sweet Turkish guys that I met at the Central Park, I made wonderful new friends, I sang “Hallelujah” in one of the biggest Churches on Broadway and I visited John Lennon’s Strawberry Fields where I connected with some amazing musicians. And I wrote about it. And what came out was a mix of German and English free flow poetry.

Back in Germany, I finally quit “Gabrielle’s Universe” because I wanted to take my adventures to the next level. I wanted to travel without a guidebook or maps. I wanted to jump into the unknown. But in order to do that, I needed to make some changes. I reduced all my belongings to a minimum of one backpack and my guitar, said goodbye to my apartment in Hamburg and applied for a job as a singing tour guide all over Europe.

where people would let me stay at their home in exchange for me giving a concert. I hosted Karaoke nights in a bar on Sardegna in exchange for free coffee and pastry all summer long. I started reading my poetry to Hotel Guests and they wanted to buy it from me.

That was when I took it even one step further – I decided to travel from New York City to Hawaii, using my music and my poetry as a tool for exchanges and connections. I wanted to become a “Reisepoet” – a “Travelpoet”. It was an amazing journey. 2 months. With bus, train, hitchhiking and couchsurfing.org I said yes to the adventure of a lifetime. Landing in Hawai’i was like coming home. When my feet touched the earth on Hawai’i I knew I was home. It still took some time before I was able to settle though.

I decided to do my Yoga Teacher Training on Kauai and give myself 6 months to explore the Islands. I fell in love with the people and the rich culture. I fell in love with who I was being here. And I fell in love with a wonderful man. With him, I went on the road for another 2 years where I started to put all the German poetry into a book. I recorded my first (self-produced) album “It goes without words” and started performing house concerts in Australia and Germany.

In 2011 we decided to move to Honolulu, back to the island where my husband was born; we are still here. I feel very blessed. In my heart, I will always be a traveling poet. Traveling through all the many aspects of life, sharing my ups and downs through music, words and sound and opening peoples hearts one song at a time.

Tell us more about The Power of Voice and Sing Your Soul sessions that you currently teach in Hawaii.

Since I moved to Hawaii people have been asking me if I could teach them how to sing. Most of the voice teachers I had worked with over the years were very technical and came from the classical background of singing. And even though my theatre studies included classic singing studies, I never really resonated with that. It felt like my voice got put in a cage.

When I was about 24 I met Ida Kelarova, an amazing roman singer/songwriter who uses a much more holistic approach. In her workshops, I learned how to include the whole body, mind, and spirit into my voice. It opened another world. Singing was always something that came so natural to me and I thought it would be hard to create a container for intuitive techniques until I met her. For me singing is healing. Singing is expressing what needs to come to the surface. Singing and sounding is what goes far beyond words and really harmonizes the body and the spirit.

“The Power of Voice” is a class that activates peoples voices. I guide the participants on a fun and interactive journey through heart and soul to discover the true potential of their voice. We practice the ideal body postures, face stretches and simple voice exercises. They learn how to use and project their voice, how to warm up and protect their vocal cords, how to speak from the heart in front of people, how to speak up for themselves and how to use the full capacity of breath. This class benefits a lot from my theatrical background and it usually lets people forget their insecurities about their voice pretty quickly.

We sing, we move, we play and we get out of our comfort zone. This is a great class for anyone who is involved in any kind of public speaking. Teachers, actors, singers, or individuals who just want to be able to speak their truth.

“Sing Your Soul” is much more connected to the healing aspects of sound and singing. I believe that everyone has a song to share. A song from the soul. I use crystal singing bowls, guided sound meditations, and harmony exercises to get people in touch with their own heart and intuition and to meet them in a state of deep peace and relaxation.

From there anything is possible. With journaling, affirmations, and poetry we start creating music together using our vocal harmonies. It is a wonderful session for the soul.

I am so deeply grateful for this work. There is nothing more fulfilling than seeing someone connecting with their own voice from a place of love, compassion, and curiosity. The glow that shows up on someone’s face who just gave their voice wings to fly. For me, it is not about being in perfect pitch. It is about being in harmony with ourselves and the world around us.

How specifically has Joni Mitchell, Ben Harper, and Joan Baez influenced your solo work? What is it about their work that draws you to them?

To me, what these 3 amazingly gifted musicians all have in common is their authenticity. I got introduced to Joni Mitchell’s and Joan Baez’s work very early in life through my dad – he is a very passionate music collector. Both of their voices are very unique and crystal clear. You recognize them when you hear them. That is something that both of these women taught me. It is ok to sound like me; I do not have to sound like anybody else. They also taught me to sing about what moves my heart, about what is going on in the world and to never be afraid to speak up about what I see. I am also a very big fan of light production and just very brilliant songwriting. I don’t need too much fancy, I simply want to be touched and moved by a songwriters message. Joni and Joan both do that for me.

I discovered Ben Harper at a very important time in my life, the time where I learned to spread my wings. It was right before I moved to Zanzibar for 3 months to teach English. His voice soothed me and gave a feeling of a home on the road. His album “Diamonds on the Inside” was calming medicine on the rocky road of being alone in a country so far away. I fell in love with his very diverse lyrics and his diversity in music. He was the whole package. A little Jazz, some Funk, some Pop, and melodious ballads.

I may have also had a little bit of a crush on him and went on a trip to Lisbon to see him live in concert and managed to leave a CD with a few of my songs backstage for him. Off course I never heard from him, but the idea of singing “ Waiting on an Angel” as a duet with him is still alive today. The week I spent in Lisbon was so magical and has become a very important part of my life as a traveling poet. Without Ben Harper, I would not have had the courage to fly to Portugal and be led by the spirit of curiosity.

Having a band, your solo work, and a musical show, how are you such a prolific songwriter? Is there a specific process you follow or is the creativity organic or inspired?

My creativity is the air that I breathe. Ask my husband about how he wakes up each morning to me telling him in great detail about whatever I dreamt about last night! I am literally a creatively inspired songwriter with my heart on my tongue. I cannot help but write about how I feel, what I see, what I sense, what I am going through, what upsets me, what makes me happy and with that, there are many different styles of music.

I would consider myself a vessel of each moment. This was my biggest challenge for the longest time. To focus on only one path, one style, and one thing and to follow a certain strategy. Only recently I decided to really love and acknowledge myself for my prolific expressions. Who said that I can only do one thing or have to follow a one-way road?

I love the path less travelled, I love the unknown and taking risks, think and sing out of the box. My process is very simple. I am giving my best to be as present as I can in each moment. When I rehearse with my band I am 100% there and committed and I am not thinking of my solo work or the musical show.

Ultimately they are all connected anyways because there is really an underlying core message that I deliver in each of my projects.

I love to surprise the audience and to be a little unpredictable.

I feel such a great yearning for expansion in expression right now. I meet so many people and specifically women who have held back their voices for so long just to fit in and now they are ready to speak up and shine. I feel called to be an example of fearless creation and expression. In my art, my music and my fashion. I am not waiting for Carnival, Halloween or Burning Man to wear and do what I want. I do it on a daily basis. Why wait for a special occasion to be me? To me, life itself IS the special occasion.

Your diverse interests include sound healing and live-music yoga. Can you explain what each of these is and why they interest you?

We all have heard the saying that music is the universal language. Music connects us, moves our bodies and makes us feel. We all have experienced the phenomenon that we love listening to music that either mirrors or amplifies our moods. Interestingly enough most of us love to listen to sad songs when we are sad and to happy music when we are happy. Music has the potential to calm us when we are anxious and to elevate our hearts when we feel hopeless and misunderstood. To me, we are all like living tuning forks resonating in different frequencies.

Music and sound have been utilized in many cultures for thousands of years for therapy and healing. We have for example the mantras that are used by the Hindis and medicine melodies called “The Icaros” of different indigenous peoples from Central and South America. In Australia, the aboriginal didgeridoo was played near sick people and animals to support their healing process and Yogis have used Tibetan singing bowls for decades to move us from a place of unease to a place of balance.

There are many amazing books and courses to find on how it actually works and what’s the science behind it. To give just a brief technical background I am gonna use Michelle Marie Wallace (Yoga Journal) words: “Sound moves in waves and when these waves enter our ear they transform into electrical signals that move into the part of the brain that processes sound. The brain then can trigger emotions and can affect our bodies and our moods in different ways.” The entire science behind the way music works with our mind, body, and spirit in many ways is amazing and absolutely worthwhile to spend some time reading about it!

Creating music has always been my personal healing tool to express myself, to work myself through challenges that life presents and to transform and change my life story. Therefore I am fascinated by the power of sound and its healing effects and the more I read and learn, the more I feel called to proceed the journey and share my insights with the world.

Since I can remember people would come up to me after my concerts and mention that my music was so healing and my voice was soothing their soul and spirit. I thought that was nice, but I did not quite know what to make of it. That all changed when I experienced my first Sound Healing Event. When I heard the crystal singing bowl for the first time, I knew I had to learn more about it and I immediately wanted to sing with it.

 

I started integrating the singing bowl into my voice classes and people started booking me for one on one sessions where I would use my voice and 3 crystal singing bowls to harmonize their bodies. It was a very intuitive journey and I started meeting the most amazing sound healers on the way to teach me, support me and gently push me forward on this path. Over time more bowls came into my life and I am now working with 9 crystal bowls, an ocean drum, and a 32’ gong.

Meanwhile, I accompany Yoga Classes with gentle sound, I offer sound baths for Birthday Parties and gatherings and am experimenting with different sound healing tools in my songwriting. I am very blessed to work with a variety of amazing Yoga teachers here in Honolulu. We offer live music yoga classes, where I accompany a Yoga Class with my guitar and vocals and at the end, I use one of my bowls to bring people in a deep state of Shavasana.

In a different class, I play the bowls and the gong throughout the entire Yoga Flow Class. It always depends on what is needed. That keeps it fresh and interesting and it is never the same. Every time I am facilitating a class I am invited to go deeper and listen to the sound of the Universe. Sound Healing has changed my life forever and I will never be the same.

How do you think women can be better supported in the indie music industry?

I have the feeling that there is already a movement on the way. For the longest time, the music industry was mainly dominated by male artists, producers, and publishers, at least on the obvious forefront. Still is. But in the age of the digital world and fast-moving changes in technology things are slowly turning around. More and more artists realize now that they can create, produce and publish music on their own without the help of a big label or record company. That is empowering. We need to learn more from each other how to actually do it.

To me, it all goes back to the roots of feeling worthy, valuable and valid. The more women can support each other to be heard and seen and high-lighted the better it will get. Collaboration versus competition. People like you make a difference. We need platforms where we can share our stories, build community and meet other amazing women leaders in the world of music. It feels almost like a #metoo movement for female artists. It is already happening. Let’s keep it up.

What advice do you have for women thinking about or are actively pursuing a career in music?

I can only speak from my own experience, of course. If you choose the path of music you gotta be ALL IN. There is no “maybe” or “a little bit”. You gotta be willing to commit yourself 100% and more and be willing to think out of the box, to be courageous and somewhat fearless, especially if you want to do your own thing.

If you wanna choose music for the money, I would suggest you better choose a different path. Especially if you want to be an empowered female artist and songwriter. In my opinion, the chances of the “one-hit wonder’ are pretty unrealistic. I am not saying it is impossible, I am just saying you better be in it for the love, the passion and the undeniable flame of creative fire in your heart. Otherwise, it is too likely to become a play ball of a machinery of people who want to make a buck off of you.

Most importantly.

 

What are your band tour plans for 2019?

At this point, we are back in the studio to create another EP with 5 or 6 cover songs and to mix and master our next full-length live Albums “Athmospheres” that was recorded at a performance at a local theatre in late May.

2 of our songs also just got released in Japan as part of a compilation CD and the same project will include a second CD that will be released by the end of November where we translated a famous Japanese pop song into English and Hawaiian, re-arranged and recorded it. The goal is to fly to the Winter Olympics in 2020 in Tokyo and represent Hawaii with a few other local bands together!

2019 we are committing to our regular monthly gigs locally at a few selected venues to keep building our following here in Hawaii. There is a good chance for us to travel to Europe next summer for a small tour in combination with our 2-woman show “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?”.  I am looking forward to it.

What projects other than the show tour are you working on for 2018/2019?

Besides working on the “ Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?” Tour for 2019, finishing our third book “From Faeries to Finances”, doing more inspirational talks with Marcia Zina Mager encouraging people to follow their dreams, performing and recording with Lucie & The Perfect Wave, I am also actively working on expanding my sound healing creations here in Hawaii.

My vision is to expose as many people as possible to the healing frequencies of sacred song and sound. I am also working on a German chanson EP with a German producer that I met here in Honolulu. It never gets boring, that is for sure! In my life there is always something to be present with, to write about and to move towards and with my deeply rooted conviction that this world is a wonderful place, I am looking forward every step I may take. Aloha!

Thank you, Lucie, for the opportunity to interview you!

You can purchase “Alive” on iTunes, Apple Music, Amazon, and Google Play.

Stream it on Lucie & The Perfect Wave’s Spotify Artist Page

For updates on Lucie’s music, go to lucielynchmusic.com

Go to ilovemoneytalks.com for more info about “Money Talks: But What the Hell is it Saying?” 

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