I am launching my first Kickstarter campaign! Finally, after years of building up a good amount of music projects and presence, as well as searching for the right time to reach out to folks, my producer and I decided that this month of May in 2024 was the best moment to start our crowdfunding campaign. I am thankful for all of the support I have received, from friends, family and colleagues, enabling me to put in the work needed to get this off the ground. From caregiving for my three children (all of whom I homeschool), volunteering to play acoustic versions of my songs, filming performances and the Kickstarter video in support of my advocacy efforts… I am deeply grateful to everyone’s willingness to help me. I need a Village, and will always need one.

The Kickstarter campaign I am running is providing another space where this Village can grow. The practice of asking people to support the arts through contributions has a long history, dating back to the 1700’s (according to Wikipedia). The more modern version of “crowdfunding” started in the late 1990’s when music bands began raising money online. I learned about it from my producer, Kevin McNoldy, who has a lot of experience with both record labels and crowdfunding. He says that the music industry has evolved away from the studio executive board room and towards the artists themselves going straight to the music fans to invest in their art. The golden example of this method lies with Amanda Palmer, a musician who, after working and failing with a record label, raised $1.2 million through her Kickstarter campaign. She has described how the record label told her how unsuccessful she was after their promotion of her music did not have the rate of return they had wanted. After she struck out on her own and asked all the supporters who she had connected with through her touring and personal fan interactions, she found true success. Her Village showed up for her, and continue to do so to this day.

The way Kickstarter campaigns work is firstly, by creating a page introducing your project to viewers and potential contributors. With an appealing video, a basic story of the artist’s journey to fundraising, and a list of rewards for different funding levels, the viewers can learn about how they can help achieve the artist’s vision. When a person chooses to donate a certain amount, the artist will deliver to them the reward that goes along with that monetary level. For example, for my campaign, if someone gives at the $500 level, I will not only give them an early digital download of the whole album before its public release, but also a signed CD, a personalized gratitude video addressing them, a Lavender Peace Set (a future blog will describe this gift), a Companion Booklet, an Album Launch invitation, and a customized Cover Song production made from their request! I have enjoyed using this platform because it allows me to deliver such packages of thanks, as well as invite friends, family, and colleagues to join me throughout the whole process of music production, becoming part of my creative family. I am continuously learning how to grow as an artist, and so I want to keep learning from others, as I believe we all have creative insights and tools to share with one another.

Together I hope we can create a beautiful album of New Age music! I appreciate any contribution you can offer towards this objective. Sharing the info of this project is just as important, because the more eyes we can get our project in front of, the better. I look forward to creating music that can accompany us all on our healing journeys, as I feel I am constantly healing from past and present wounds. Our world suffers so much right now, and I want to do my part to help with creating spaces and experiences to calm down and be nurtured. As a Mama Bear of a sweet transgender child, I will continue going out into the arena to fight for her rights…and so I need a place to regenerate my spirits, and a Village to uplift me when I’m feeling crushed. I hope to build that with this Kickstarter Campaign. With you. Thank you!

Tags: new music

How to Self-Love with Colonial Mentality

I am still growing up, and I want to continue growing up with Self-Love. In this current stage of growing up at the age of 46, I would love to take a vow. A vow to be dedicated to self-love. What is self-love? I define it as being compassionate, kind, and validating of oneself, as you would a friend. Now, as a Filipina-American, the idea of loving yourself can be challenging for a variety of reasons. An over-arching reason lies in the historical legacy many Fil-Am’s wrestle with... colonial mentality.

I studied anthropology and international development, focusing on the developing world and education. My passions lie with doing my part to recover, reimagine, and reclaim our indigenous pride after the brutal history of colonialism. Colonial mentality refers to the norms, traditions and beliefs we as Fil-Am’s (and many postcolonial cultures) can still espouse (consciously or unconsciously) which posit that Filipinos are inferior to Western peoples. This terrible mindset was planted in us by the white supremacist power structures forced upon the Philippines (P.I.) first by the Spanish colonizers (who colonized the Philippines for nearly 400 years), and then by the U.S.A. (who colonized the P.I. for 50 years) up until the Philippines independence in 1898. Such messages continue to block self-love growth within my culture.



I heard messages like... our native language makes one “cringe” or that there is no reason to keep our language because it’s not useful anyway. Family would get almost raging angry if I expressed interest in learning about the ancient Filipino script baybayin. There was always a derogatory tone when mentioning the Manobo indigenous roots of my great-grandmother. Discussions about the American ways consistently ranked them superior to Filipino ways... and one would be reprimanded almost meanly if you questioned this.

I have done a lot of work on my Fil-Am psyche so I don’t adopt or embody any of these colonial mindsets. I am proud of my Filipino heritage, and I am not going to let any colonial history or current systems degrade who I am. With self-love, I do not want to stand in anger at colonial mentality. I want to help it heal from the poison that was injected by a power structure that was poisoned itself. We all need to take the antidote to all of this postcolonial poison and do the life-long work to eradicate such mental messages and concrete structures from our minds and societies.

Tags: colonial mentality

The Songbird Supper Club

One day in the fall of 2022, I searched #musicianmoms on Instagram, and I found Cashavelly Morrison.

Firstly, I was looking for other women who were like me. Other women who could relate to the longing to create meaningful music. I knew that growing my friendships with such women would be fulfilling, especially since I got to know who of my friends were supportive and who were not as I began exploring my musical passions. I felt hurt and confused at first, but my encouraging friends reassured me that this was like the Universe making space in my life for my next world of friends who want me to be my authentic self (like they do in their own journeys). I am so thankful for these friends, these women, who are on their own journey of abundance and not scarcity. When we can do our work to heal our wounds, we can see others as other souls on a path of dream fulfillment, and we are all here on this planet to positively cheer each other on, not to be threatened or resentful of them. I am not saying I know that these were reasons why certain people left my life... some other friends told me this could be a possibility. I just wish true healing for every human being on the planet.

That same desire pulses through and through Cashavelly Morrison's work. This is a woman who is a monument of female power and communal healing! It was like the Universe answered my wishes as I searched for musical/artistic/feminine spiritual-seekers who want women to succeed. As I dug even deeper into Cashavelly's social media platforms, I grew even closer to her and her mission. One program she leads is called Soulbirthing, and I joined right away...

Soulbirthing is a lab for women to experiment with our innate power, authenticity, and creative expression. We practice clearing the blocks within us to become an open channel for our connection to the unseen mystery, seeing all that we imagine is meant to be birthed into the world.

I reached out to her immediately and joined this group. I also saw that she organizes a monthly gathering called The Songbird Supper Club in my hometown!!! I couldn't believe it! I started talking with her, and she invited me to perform three songs followed by an incredible interview. I am still reeling from this experience I had in March 2023, and I am beyond grateful. Above is a video clip of the time we had together in front of a sweet, intimate Winston-Salem audience. My amazing friends Brandon and Sarah Rose came to accompany me and support me... another set of friends I connect with so well. To them as well, beyond thankful.

I am so excited to continue my musical journey with Cashavelly as a fellow soul-sister, and I encourage all of you to check out all of these programs on her amazing website at The Center for Female Sovereignty.
https://femalesovereignty.org/

Tags: songbird supper club

This past March, I had a wonderful time singing at The Viking Experience festival in North Carolina. I connected with the great festival director Angela Hostetler-Reid during the NC Scandinavian Christmas Fair one year, and since then, she has invited me to sing at her festival for the last two inaugural years. Having attracted around 4,000 people this year, I am so happy for her success! Being surrounded by folks who love this historical era like I do, I am happy to cultivate my community in such a momentous way.

One necessary condition for me regarding each Viking project I do is that it is inclusive. Unfortunately, there is a contingent of this community that holds racist claims to the Viking heritage. Angela makes absolutely clear that this festival has zero alignment with that interpretation and belief system, and of course I am so thankful that she does. Being of a multicultural background, Norwegian being one of them, I along with this NC-based organization espouse the credo that Viking teachings embrace difference, travel, and gaining knowledge from others completely different from ourselves. Odin writes about this in his Hávamal. A lot of the Vikings found in excavated burial sites are of mixed race, as the Vikings traveled far and wide during their summer raids. My 6-foot-tall, white-blonde haired and pale blue-eyed Norwegian-American grandfather first married a Native-American woman; when she unfortunately passed away, he then married my Filipina grandmother who he met when in the Navy during WWII. Vikings for centuries have highly valued multicultural exchange and love, and it continues to this day. The word for "idiot" or "fool" in Old Norse translates to "home-bound" in English - someone who wants to stay in their comfort zone of understanding. Even if you can't travel the world, you can still expand your mind and heart by having multiracial friends, reading books, articles, visiting websites and social media of folks of different backgrounds, and benefit from the Viking practice of actively learning from multitudinous knowledge sources.

Singing for this crowd is a deep pleasure and privilege! I look forward to doing more such events, and if you have info about gatherings where you think folks would appreciate hearing covers of modern Viking folk songs (in my best and humble attempt at Scandinavian languages), PLEASE reach out to me! Thank you!

Tags: viking festival

Creating Calm and Wild in "Unstoppable Garden"

Whenever it is time to create a lyric video for a song, I am still a novice. I do recognize that creating a visual-emotional representation of an audio-emotional experience is an art form and I respect it deeply. Some of my favorite music videos are Björk's incredible ones, as they truly seem to be ripe expressions of her songs. I also love how she has always collaborated with great artists, not only with her music and fashion, but with her music videos too.

I have been collaborating with a video creator named Paul BZ on Fiverr for all of my lyric videos. Before my first video, I did research on Fiverr for a video creator whose style seemed to match what I was looking for with the song. I found Paul BZ and have been working with him ever since. The creative process with him has been pretty great, as it is clear that he wants to deliver excellently towards your vision for the lyric video. For a reasonable price, he will go through as many rounds with you needed to get it right.

The first draft stage consists of me describing in precise detail what I need for the song to be represented well. With "Unstoppable Garden," since I was inspired by the Netflix show Bridgerton, I wanted the backdrop to the lyrics to be of English country gardens, during the day and at night. I wanted to have elements of a curated and landscaped garden, kind of posh... but juxtaposed with a wild and free natural area. This is how I felt with this series, in that there is such a Regency-era lockdown on emotional expression, only to unleash an organic, uncultivated, natively lush experience of love. I had tried to convey this with the song through my vocals, and so I wanted the lyric video to attempt the same, and I think we did. So, Paul and I had 3-4 rounds of back-and-forth digital discussions, and we ended with this final product. I hope you enjoy it, and also enjoy real gardens that are clipped and ones that are overrun with life.

To contact Paul BZ, you can find him here on Fiverr's website.


Song Credits
Written by Kristine Moon and Kevin McNoldy
Produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered by Kevin McNoldy
All vocals performed by Kristine Moon
All instruments performed by Kevin McNoldy

©️ 2023 Kristine Moon / Cphonic Records. All rights reserved.

Tags: unstoppable garden