Music

"I believe that music is the bridge that brings us together. Music is the first place we start celebrating each other's cultures. When I integrate sounds from another culture, I feel like I am embracing it" declaring our oneness." ~ Larisa Stow

YM: What do you love?
LS: Experiencing the divine in myself, others and life around me, feeling my heart opening, seeing people open up to their light,  Ah-ha moments, pushing past my comfort zone, growing, learning how to be more of service, tribe, transforming my heavier denser energies into creative self-expressions i.e.: a beautiful song that inspires me and others.

YM: What kind of music do you play/sing?
LS: For the most part, our band, Shakti Tribe plays Sacred World Pop/Rock Fusion.  However, when we play festivals, jails, prisons and other institutions we play some of my original pop-rock songs too as they help create a bridge to our more sacred music.

YM: Please tell us your story, how did you get here?
LS: Up until 2001, I was a pop-rock singer-songwriter with a wonderful band. I wrote and sang about my own personal journey and was fed by sharing my musical revelations. In 2001, two major life events happened that changed my relationship to songwriting: giving birth to my daughter Aria, and the tragedy of Sept. 11th.

Both events forced me to turn from being so self focused to being world focused. I was drawn to create and sing songs about the divine and about the world religions’ peace prayers.  Once the band and I started working on these songs many opportunities to share them began to present themselves.  What started as an inner call to heal myself became an outer expression of this healing to share with others.
As for how the band was formed…that’s a long story but here it goes….I teach yoga and Marti Walker, who plays percussion and sings with the band, came to one of my yoga classes.  I liked her instantly.  I found out she was a musician and invited her to play with my pop-rock band.  Kimo Estores, who plays guitar in the band, was dating Marti at the time and started to hang out with the band…helping us carry our gear to gigs, doing sound for us.  I heard him play guitar on the New Year’s Eve of 1999 into 2000 and was impressed… so when a spot opened in the band, I asked him if he wanted to play with us.  He reluctantly joined as he had been a heavy metal fan but when I made the switch into Sacred World music, was right there by my side.  We met Benj Clarke, who plays bass for us, through a dear mutual friend who recommended him after hearing we were looking for someone.  She thought he’d be a great match for us….her intuition was right on.  Onyay Pheory who played with us for years saw us perform at a gig and knew right away that she wanted to play with us.  She told us she played violin (I love violin) and that she loved our sound.  She was a total sister and great personality fit.  When she began to follow her passion for social activism and traveling to different sacred sites around the world which conflicted with our schedule, she brought us Richard Hardy, who now plays flute and sax with us.  Richard is the newest full time band member, but has really infused the band with a whole new level of energy and heart.  And then there is Christo Pellani who played drums and percussion with me in my pop-rock incarnation and has played with us on and off in live situations over the years and has played on all my albums since 2003.  When I heard his percussion-based CD, I knew we would play together.  Angie Tabor, who also plays drums, started playing with us this past year.  Benj had played with her in another band and loved her style and personality.  We brought her in to bring up our percussive energy for festivals and larger rooms.     

YM: What does the music mean to you?
LS: The music is an opportunity to open to the experience of God/Love.  It is an opportunity to surrender my mind and insecurities and let the light pour on in through for myself and for those we share it with.  It is the fastest track I have experienced to the Divine/Love. 

YM: What kind of yoga do you practice?
LS: Daily Nada Yoga (the yoga of sound…mantra) and Kundalini yoga--however, I am not a purist…I incorporate other yoga disciplines into my practice as well…pretty much anything and everything that opens my heart and connects me to the divine.

YM: Why do you make music?
LS: I know that we are given a choice as to where we focus our energy in life, but when it comes to music I don’t feel like I have any other choice.  I am happy and connected when it is singing through me.  I feel sad and disconnected when we are apart.  It is a love affair of sorts; making my heart beat faster, bringing tears of joy to my eyes.  It opens me more to God than any other practice.  I also think of it as a roto-rooter of sorts.   It clears me up and cleans me out which almost always brings me back to center.

YM: Explain the process of creating a song from start to finish.
LS: There are so many different ways that a song comes through.  It can start with an undeniable melody that either myself or a band member may create that haunts my consciousness until it is given a voice.  Sometimes it’s a mantra or lyric that comes first and it’s a matter of finding a melody that expresses the energy of the mantra. And sometimes the band will write a song together that may be inspired by a riff or chord progression.  Most of my/our songs are never truly finished even after they are recorded.  It is common for us to change an arrangement from time to time.  Each song, like us, is living and breathing so it may have many incarnations in one lifetime.  If you listen to Amba Amba on Reaching In and then come hear it at a show you may have a hard time recognizing it.  I think the evolution of a song and its expression is an insight into how the energy is evolving in the individuals of the band and the overall band consciousness.  I find that our arrangements are becoming more and more expressive with time.   

YM: What is your favorite part of your job?
LS: There is nothing more exciting and heart opening than a “transformance” where the band and the audience become one.  Many times I can feel one coming on before it happens.  It usually starts with a feeling of deep vulnerability that allows me to feel my heart, the heart of my audience and my band.  In this vulnerability it is easier to surrender “my stuff” to the light.  As I start to let it go I have found that it gives others permission to let it go and the energy starts to build as the band passes it to the audience and then the audience passes it back to the band.  It becomes a big transformational wave of energy that cleans us all out so we can feel who we truly are…love.  This is the greatest gift I have experienced on this path.

YM:Who is on your i-pod?
LS: While I have a loaded i-pod, I listen mostly to music in my car or on my computer.  Right now I am listening to U2, Cold Play, India Arie, Dave Matthews and still after all these years, Fleetwood Mac. However, U2 is my number one staple.  I love their ability to bridge the spiritual with cutting edge soundscapes.  I have been known to listen to U2 24/7 while in the car. 
 I believe the time is coming where our genre of music will be mainstream like yoga.  

YM: Please tell us about the Shakti Tribe Foundation.
LS:  In early 2007, we gave a special peace concert to women incarcerated at the Lynwood Women’s Jail.  It was such a powerful and empowering experience that we realized that this is a huge piece of our soul’s work…so we formed a non-profit foundation to help pave a way to grow and expand this work to include other jails, prisons, juvenile facilities, ½ way houses—basically taking the program anywhere that people are at a crossroads in their lives.  Currently, we go in and give a 2 hour program that uses our music as a foundation to introduce mantra, yoga and the concepts of personal responsibility.  We’ve recently brought a grant writer on board, held a benefit concert earlier this year in San Luis Obispo and will be holding a special benefit concert with Tina Malia on August 9th at Seaside Church in Encinitas. 

YM:What is next?
LS: We would love to have more opportunities to share these messages of love and transformation with people at a crossroads in their life.  Shakti Tribe is committed to doing as much service outreach this coming year as possible.  Our dream is to do a national prison tour.  We are looking for sponsorship to make that happen…we already have some amazing support that is helping to create this possibility.  We have set our intention and are leaving the rest to the divine.

YM: Where can we find out more about you and the music?
LS: First of all, thank you for giving me the opportunity to share about it here.  To find out even more about the band and our music you can visit our website, www.shaktitribe.com, or visit our myspace page, www.myspace.com/larisastow.  However, the best way to experience the music is to make it out to a live “transformance”…that is where the real magic happens…as we all open to the moment by moment transformational energy that opens and amplifies as it moves between the band and the audience.  People can sign up to receive newsletter outlining where we’ll be performing by going to our website.



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