Growing up, Vylana enjoyed the performing arts rooted in her Polynesian culture, quickly becoming a competitive Tahitian dancer from the age of 4. Though she currently lives in Austin, Texas the scope of her work as a medicine woman continues to pioneer spaces for the divine feminine collective worldwide.
In reflecting upon her life until now, Vylana openly sings to her own darkness with the desire that a song is more than a track, but an invitation to experience and act as an activation.
“Phoenix” is the first single from the forthcoming project, “Goddess Rise”. The setting of the track is established by the ancient future tribal rhythms of breakout producer Savej, and opens with a rising wave of Laura Escude’s cinematic violins, setting the tone for the gentle ferocity expressed by Vylana’s powerful vocals. Vylana’s versatility and performance dances between singing and spoken word, pulling from elements of world music, trance, tribal, and mantra. The story of the track follows the arc of a great ceremony, celebrating the alchemy of pain into liberation. Guiding the listener through a journey of invocation, “Phoenix” can be described as climactic, inspiring, and undeniably activating.
Today, Vylana represents the rising goddess within the feminine collective. Be it in the world of music and sacred healing arts — her power is a call for union of the self and the highest. To champion a journey that highlights women empowerment, reclamation, and remembrance of the sovereign expansiveness — waiting to be uncaged and liberated.
MUNDANE: What’s your story as an artist?
VYLANA: I vividly remember being a little girl dreaming of singing on stage and hearing my own songs on the radio. Something in me knew when I was 4 years old that that’s what I would be when I grew up. With everything I did in life I held that vision. I even went to college simply as a backup plan in case I didn’t make it as an artist.
Until I finally got my shot and spent a few years in LA in my 20s recording with renowned producers in the industry. The people I worked with were wonderful, but they couldn’t really see me… because I honestly didn’t even know myself then. The more I tried to fit into the container of a pop artist singing songs that I didn’t write, the less passionate I felt about getting in the studio and trying to make it. And eventually, under the crushing weight of disappointment I let my dream die and walked away.
Just like the lyrics in my single Phoenix, my old dream and all the ideas of the artist I wanted to be had to burn into ash to be transformed and birthed anew.
Through my discovery of sound healing, I began to use my voice again. First to heal myself and then to help others. My passion was reignited like a wildfire and I felt like singing in this way was part of my soul’s calling. For the first time in my life I found a channel where I could really express myself and be of service – a double win! And that magnetism began opening doorways I never thought possible.
My desire to continue to expand my voice and the audiences I could reach led me to the creation of my upcoming album, Goddess Rise, and these very words: I am living my wildest dream. With my first single on my first solo album dropping 8/19 I am finally stepping into the world as a true artist. I am telling the story of my life through music.
Somehow, after everything that I have been through, I look back on my life seeing how everything makes perfect sense. It took me all of it to get here 🙂
MUNDANE: What inspired this last release?
VYLANA: Phoenix is a song I wrote about my journey from pain and self-rejection, to a greater acceptance of radical self-love. It’s a song I wrote to my darkness – a sonic representation of the acknowledgement, acceptance, and gratitude for how pain has forged my spirit like a sword pulled from the fire. It expresses the willingness to meet the full spectrum of our human nature, which I believe is the key to true liberation.
I was inspired to write this song because I can see my story in so many others. When I didn’t have the tools or the support to make it through my own darkness, I wish I had a song like this to help me remember the truth of who I am.
MUNDANE: Do you get inspired by other art forms?
VYLANA: Dance is as much a part of my being as sharing my voice is. I grew up Polynesian dancing so give me any kind of rhythmic drums and you can’t keep me from getting after it. I love being in my body and allowing music to dance through me.
MUNDANE: Any funny anecdotes from the time you were recording or writing this?
VYLANA: Unfortunately no. I wish I had something better 😉
MUNDANE: What’s your favorite place or environment to write?
VYLANA: Outside in nature. Nature is my sanctuary and the place I feel most at home. I wrote Phoenix out on a blanket in my backyard beneath a live oak just listening to the birds and the wind. Something about feeling the earth beneath me and the energy of life all around me helps me get out of my thinking mind and into my heart where the muse likes to dance, in my experience 🙂
MUNDANE: What’s a record that shaped your creativity?
VYLANA: Beyoncé’s Lemonade album. I actually traveled to watch her perform it live in three different cities because impacted me so greatly. Her authenticity and willingness to speak to the pain and anger of her personal struggles was beyond inspiring. Her art, both musically and visually with the visual album, was an invitation for women to feel like they weren’t so alone in their suffering. In an interesting way it made me feel part of something. “Me too,” was the thought I had as I moved through a spectrum of emotions. I had never been so moved and activated from an album before that. It was a story. And I believe in a big way it seeded the inspiration for my album Goddess Rise before I had any idea I would create it.
MUNDANE: Who is an artist or band you look up to today?
VYLANA: I appreciate everyone who is truly excellent in their field, but if I had to pick a vocalist I really appreciate both Peia and Kat Factor from Gone Gone Beyond. From a style standpoint I think Kerli is unbelievable, like a living piece of art.
MUNDANE: What excites you the most about what you do?
VYLANA: What I love most about what I do is being a permission slip and an invitation for others to walk more fully in their truth. There’s a depth to my music. The upcoming release of the full album, Goddess Rise, is a ceremony that guides you to meet the full-spectrum of yourself, where all of you is welcome – your grief, your shame, your anger, your boundaries, your power, your radiance, and your truth. My hope is that my art is moving, cathartic and wildly inspiring to the listener. The idea that something I created could truly impact somebody’s life for the better is incredibly exciting to me.
MUNDANE: What is your view on genres and music styles since you mix a lot of them in your music?
VYLANA: If something feels in resonance with my body, I love it! I don’t care if I can understand the words or if it follows any kind of construct. If I feel it, I feel it.
I don’t focus much on genres because I don’t like the bounds of containing living art into category. Although it is practical to categorize music so that people can find the music they gravitate towards, there’s a bit of a sacred rebel in me that wants to break the boundaries and forge new paths by whatever sounds light my soul on fire. I want for worlds of sound to collide – for the cinematic strings to ride over the top of some dirty, heavy bass, sprinkled with the indigenous sounds of organic instruments. Multi-faceted pioneered sounds are exciting to me.
MUNDANE: What does music and art mean to you?
VYLANA: What is life without music and art? I think it’s one of the greatest gifts of being a human– to create art that is simultaneously meaningful to you and to those who behold it. Music and art when at it’s best, points at something more than just the facts of reality. Almost as if it is illuminating a higher perspective of truth.
