Creating Conscious Music – By Singer/Songwriter Debra Gibson

Posted by Contributor _Featured_, Conscious Music Thursday, September 13th, 2012

(By Debra Gibson)

This life we have is a gift so precious and rare. We have the capacity to love unconditionally, give freely, transform our thoughts and emotions, manifest our dreams, discover our greatest potential……….all in this single life! How amazing is that?

Yet how often do we deny ourselves this possibility, this gift, every day?

Like everyone else, I have my own experiences, my own baggage, my own story. I too sometimes find myself being lured by illusions and caught up in my own delusions. I am only human. I am still growing; still learning.

But what little I have learned, the pain of my own history I have transformed, the fear I have walked into, the mountains I have dared to climb, the stories of hope, of peace and universal love I have witnessed…..all of this, and more, I aspire to share in the form of song for the benefit of whomever chooses to listen. I am fortunate enough to live in a time and place where I have the freedom to pursue my ambitions and to freely express myself creatively. This is an enormous privilege. I also realize that while I am only one drop in the ocean, so too are we all only one drop; yet at the same time, without each of our single drops, the ocean would not be as it is. Boundless; full of depth and wonder.

I aspire to make my own drop a valuable contribution to the beautiful depth of all the world’s oceans. I aspire to unveil my greatest inner potential and to live this life I have been gifted with meaningfully. At this point in time, I feel I can make a beneficial offering to this Earth, to humanity, to global peace and to this positive shift in consciousness, through music and song. So right now, this is what I choose to do: Reflect on life, on my inner world and my outer world; express my perspective on how we can all make this world a brighter place to BE; and connect with all living beings through the powerful medium of music. I sing out my songs as a call to peace, to universal love, to oneness, to forgiveness, to spiraling upward, together, hand in hand creating a beautiful world where all of life is respected, revered and honoured.

If you wish to join me on this journey through song, I would be deeply honoured to hold your hand. You can connect with the music of The Rising Lotus via facebook (www.facebook.com/therisinglotusmusic) or at www.therisinglotus.org

I have been recently blessed to create and collaborate with a bunch of amazing and inspiring musicians to bring a collection of songs I have written (with the enormous help of my dear husband, Daniel) to life. Our good friend and band mate, Ralph Franke, on saxophones; Hammond maestro (I’m a BIG Hammond fan!) Paul White; one of the best drummers in the country, Declan Kelly, who flew in from Sydney; master African drummer, Bortier Okoe – who brought highly infectious energy into the studio – Craig Kelly, who is not related to Declan as far as we could tell, but he is a great bass player and one of the nicest blokes you could ever meet; and the powerful, gospel voice of Charmaine Jones and others with some back-up vocals. And, of course, Dan the man with the white van strumming the acoustic and cherry red Gibson 335 guitars.

We spent weeks rehearsing and refining, followed by an intense and highly productive couple of days in a friendly Adelaide recording studio with the most unbelievably clever and hilarious recording engineer, Matt Williams. Over the next couple of months, myself, Daniel and Matt poured a huge amount of love and energy into vocal harmonies and the production phase, where we did fun things like recording ourselves in a circle clapping, and holding a mic to my feet as I crunched over our gravel driveway in high heels! As a post-thought, we even encountered the good fortune of recording the insanely brilliant slide-guitar skills of the legendary Chris Finnen. What a lovely, humble man.

Happy with how each song was sitting, we sent off all the files to the other side of the world to be mixed by the highly sought after LA-based engineer, Danny Kalb. Danny’s agreement and enthusiasm to work on this album was one of those pinch-me-I-must-be-dreaming moments. Having recorded and mixed extensively with blow-me-down musicians like Ben Harper, Beck, Taj Mahal and so on, I’m not sure whether I was more nervous or excited to have Danny’s hands and ears on board! But to my delight he has been extremely impressed with the musicianship, quality and crafting of these songs. As I write this, we are very nearly finished mixing, and it sounds beautiful. In the next couple of weeks, the 10 tracks that will make up my upcoming album entitled “Inner Revolution” will fly over to Melbourne for a final polishing with world-renowned and award-winning mastering engineer, Martin Pullan. The next step is finishing the artwork, pressing CDs and packaging.

I feel so happy about this album. I have deep faith that “Inner Revolution” will make a highly valuable contribution to inner peace, global peace, unity and expanding consciousness. If you would like to contribute to creating greater awareness about the album, the music of The Rising Lotus and conscious music in general, please feel free to share this story with your friends and invite your friends to visit our website or facebook page.

I look forward to journeying with you and to sharing “Inner Revolution” with you in the coming months. Until then, may you be filled with peace, genuine happiness and great love. And don’t forget to shine your own inner light brightly upon all you encounter.

In love and friendship ~ Debra

Debra Gibson is the Lead Singer/Songwriter of  The Rising Lotus. Please visit www.facebook.com/therisinglotusmusic) or www.therisinglotus.org.