Music

YM: Who is Robin Renée?
RR: Sat Nam.  But as I identify with the stuff I do day-to-day, I am a writer, a singer/songwriter, and an activist of sorts.  I try my best to live with loving, connected intention.  I am happiest when in balance with and through my spiritual practices – a blend of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Paganism that shows up as my path.  I love the energy of the city and I love to be in nature, especially near the ocean.  I like to be active and am a bit of a gym rat.  I am passionate about music, eros, spirituality, and life as art.  I find these things to be cut from the same fabric.
 
YM: What came first for you? The Mantra or the Music?
RR: Music.  I have been a crazy fan of some band or another since I was about ten years old, and I enjoy finding new music that moves me and I rediscover old favorites all the time.  My parents were both pretty metaphysical, though (A.R.E./Edgar Cayce Foundation), so I was also exposed to things like meditation and chanting as I grew up.  Kirtan didn’t come into my life powerfully until about six years ago.  It is funny – I was at a Devo concert a few summers ago – there was so much energy and everyone was chanting back and forth with the band “Are we not men?  We are Devo!” with such intensity.  It suddenly struck me that perhaps I had been doing something like kirtan all along.  It was a wild moment. 
 
YM: What does singing help you with?
RR: Singing just feels necessary to me.  It’s what I do.  I could be feeling completely off-center, but after a time of singing, joy and a kind of sweet, open-hearted excitement are present.  It’s amazing.
 
YM: What can someone expect from your music?
RR:  I call my music Mantra-Pop.  I have strong roots in folk and various forms of alternative rock.  When kirtan became a necessary part of my life, it naturally found its way into what I do, and the Live Devotion CD came to be.  My music has become an East-West blend, sometimes in sound, sometimes attitude.  You might find me chanting at a festival gathering or in a yoga studio, or playing a rock or singer/songwriter set somewhere, but you can expect that a deep sense of Spirit is in the work no matter what I am singing, because it is my hope and intention that Spirit is present in all I do.
 
YM: Please tell us about the David Bowie vision you had!
RR: Ha!  The Bowie thing.  It wasn’t a vision per se.  I saw him on TV one night when he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live. He was wonderfully androgynous, wearing a dress.  I believe he sang “Boys Keep Swinging” from the Lodger album.  I was depressed a lot of the time as a teenager and had started to feel like life would be too hard if I were to be myself fully, to live against the grain in so many ways that seemed to be emerging for me.  There was something in that moment of seeing Bowie looking so beautiful, avant garde, and confident that it clicked in my head: We can be anything we want to be, and can bring to fruition all that we are.  So in that moment, I realized I was to walk my own path and that I’d be just fine.  Maybe even better.  J
 
YM: How has Kirtan changed your life?
RR: So much has changed since the spiritual opening that brought me to kirtan that it is really very hard to define.  I do feel like my life was very different before—the pre-kirtan part seems a little dream-like now.  I can say that finding kirtan felt like coming home, like I had rediscovered something that I had done many lifetimes before.  One of the things I can say has happened is that I know at least something about Center now.  No matter how stressed out I ever allow myself to get, I know that there is a way back.  I didn’t used to know that.  Kirtan brings clarity, and a sense of living in Love.  It is a lifeline.  It shows how we can get out of our own way and be channels for Love.  I hope I am growing more and more into those realizations.  
 
YM: (If you practice yoga) What type of yoga do you practice?
RR: I don’t do enough asana.  I am working on that.  I like many forms, and am often partial to Vinyasa.   
 
YM: What is your favorite mantra?
RR: I love Krishna, so I especially groove on any and all mantras that call his Names.
 
YM: Who is on your iPod?
RR: Call me a luddite, but I don’t have an iPod.  I can tell you some of the music that is currently on my other various music devices.
 
CDs:  Beloved Chants – Shyamdas, Hourglass – James Taylor, Katy Lied and Two Against Nature – Steely Dan, Thunderstorm/Raindrops – Relaxing With Nature, Morph the Cat – Donald Fagen
 
In the cell phone: Serpent Woman and Faerie Child – Amikaeyla Gaston & Ariana Lightningstorm, Nectar – Jai Uttal, “My Sweet Lord” – Girlyman, “Going Under” – Devo (Frank Panucci Remix), “You Can Do Magic” – America
 
Recent downloads: “Dashboard” – Modest Mouse, “Working A Lot” – Vince Rossi, “Hey There Delilah” – Plain White T’s, “Ha Ha Ha” – Flipper, “Army Girls Gone Wild” – Jihad Jerry & the Evildoers, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)” – George Harrison
 
YM: What can people to do connect to mantra?
 RR: Listen to chanting that moves you when you can.  Go to live chanting events when the opportunity presents itself.  Study whatever seems to speak to you.  It was just something I knew about and did occasionally until suddenly the energy clicked into place and my experience of mantra deepened profoundly.  I think that if mantra is to be a primary pathway for someone, it will just show up when the time is right.
 
YM: What is next?
RR: That is a good question.  I have been writing new songs and have been feeling moved to do more touring and singing on other’s projects.  The experience of recording Live Devotion was wonderful and I am looking forward to the next sacred chant album when the opportunity and energy arises.
 
YM: Where can we find out more about you?
RR: Visit www.robinrenee.com, and be my friend at www.myspace.com/robinrenee.  You can also find me on the announcement/discussion list I moderate called Kirtan-o-Rama! – www.groups.yahoo.com/group/kirtanorama.