Ilka de Gast Interview - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

A fascinating interview today, featuring some great experiences discussed with new age vocalist and overtones singer Ilka de Gast.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:14

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck with the Final on Vinyl Podcast. And today we are with Ilka DeGast and she's getting ready to release a new single uh called Angel. And uh Tommy Craven is on guitar and Native American flew on that cut and uh thought it was quite beautiful and um I've been working with Ilka Off and uh over the past few years, I believe, right? Welcome aboard. Yes.

Speaker 0:43

Thank you, Keith. Thank you. Yes, uh this past year I've been working with you, and thank you so much for all your your work and your reviews uh of my music.

Speaker 1 0:58

It's been my pleasure. So with this uh recent release, um and as you release your singles, and I see artists are doing that a lot more lately, um how many singles would you normally release prior to putting out a f a full album? Or are you just going to release some singles and and wait till you have a full album ready to go, or how are you gonna do that?

Speaker 1:27

Yeah, so um what I was doing is I was releasing singles because I'm I'm pretty new to the uh music recording um world. Um so what what I've been doing is creating singles and then releasing them, and then in February I released my first album, Ocean of Light Music to Soothe the Soul. And then since then I've released the single Talking to Wales in May, and then now Angel uh on Friday, the 8th of August.

Speaker 1 2:03

Talking to Wales was great. I enjoyed that as well.

Speaker 2:07

Thank you.

Speaker 1 2:08

Also, your album, Ocean of Light, I covered that in February, so we're right up to date. Yes, yes.

unknown 2:16

Yeah.

Speaker 1 2:17

So from what what I understand with the uh vocalizations that you do, um it's an ancient art of overtone singing. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 2:29

Sure, sure, because that's actually how I started working with sound. So overtone singing is uh it is an ancient technique, and it's where one person creates two notes at the same time. So you have a fundamental sound, and then you have the sounds that come up out of that fundamental, and they sound a little bit like bells or um high uh high flute-like sounds. And it it when you actually watch someone create overtones and create do the overtone singing, it almost looks as if it's not coming from a person. It almost sounds otherworldly, but it is a technique that can be learned, and I learned it about 25 years, 30 years ago. Um I work yes, so I worked with uh Jill Peirce in London, and she had gone to Tibet and learned it with Tibetan monks. And um so I loved working or still do love working with overtone singing just in how it affects people and animals. Um I know that uh measurements have been taken and research has been done, and it actually slows the brainwaves down of the person who is uh singing them and listening. So it brings the brainwaves down from high beta to where we can be in stress, to lower beta where we are just regularly doing our life, to then uh alpha and even lower to theta, to deep relaxation and meditative states. So it's uh a beautiful practice to work with, and so I've been weaving that into my songs, into with my regular singing voice and and instruments.

Speaker 1 4:25

So prior to that, you had been involved in the healing arts right along. And how did how did that happen for you? Did you find somebody that was actually doing that and thought that, geez, maybe I should do that too and create some music?

Speaker 4:39

Yes. Um so it's it has been a very organic process where my first love was working with sound and seeing how it affected people, how it helped people to get into these relaxed meditation states. But then actually I I um stopped working with sound in teaching it and being actively involved in research, and then I went into studying psychology. And um so psychology uh I I studied and received a doctorate, and then it's been in the past five years that I went back into working with sound, and then in the past four years only recording music and using my singing voice.

Speaker 1 5:31

I see. So originally you're from uh the Netherlands and you came to California, is that correct?

Speaker 5:37

Yes, yes. I uh I arrived here when I was 27 and I didn't actually have any intention of staying, and then you know, as life happens, I met my um husband to be James, and uh it's actually being with him and and what happened in that relationship that really uh shifted my life from a focus on international business to then psychology and working with sound. Um my first husband um he actually passed away when we were both 31. And it was a yes, yeah, I know it was just uh, you know, an incredible, very, very difficult life experience, but it completely shifted my life. So looking at it now, I could see what it did and what it meant for my life, but at the time it was very, very difficult, and he was very sick for several years. Um but when he died, um I had what they now call a shared death experience. So I went with him to this uh beautiful place of light and what they talk about in near-death experiences, and so I was there in that beautiful light with James uh as he as his soul passed on. And that opened me to, yeah, it opened me to a whole other understanding of what life and what this world is about, and um uh absolutely no fear of death since then, and realizing that there's so much more to life than just the physical. And so that ha started my search into looking for in looking at all the uh other ways of of working, um, and looking at the metaphysical world and uh studying that.

Speaker 1 7:42

Yeah, sometimes in life we get more than a nudge to take a certain path, and it's a prolific thing that happens to you and you're there, and then after you go through it, you understand it more and you understand the reasons why. But when it happens, it's like, oh my god, what am I gonna do now? Why is this happening, right?

Speaker 8:01

Yes, exactly. Yes, or or can I how can I deal with this? This is just way too much. And then you you go through it and you have to, and then later you realize, ah, okay, this is what I experienced, this is what I learned perhaps, and this is now my new direction in life, which is much more uh uh much more than I than I expected, much more nurturing and nourishing. And um my brother used to always say to me, Ilka, um I feel that I've been living, he was talking about he'd been living his life in black and white, and then he said, when I listen to all of your experiences, it's as if you've been listening you've been living your life in color, in full color. And that's what the the near the shared death experience and other things, I guess, did for me, did for my life. Yeah.

Speaker 1 8:58

I've never heard that explained to me, a shared death experience. What do you go into? A deep meditation and and focus on one thing and it happens? I mean, how did that work for you?

Speaker 9:11

Yeah. Well, it's it was very unexpected. Um I was in the hospital room with James, and um he had sent all his family out to the waiting room. He had a huge Italian family, and so I was sitting with him, and I knew it was very close to to his death, and he was starting to see into other worlds, and he was starting to see spiritual beings, and he was pointing them out to me, and I was starting to feel and see them too, just being in that uh that sacred space, I guess, with him. And then when he left his body, I could just feel and I could see and sense his soul leave his abdomen, his body, and then just leave out of the top of his head. And in that moment, very unexpectedly to me, I just went right with him as if my spirit or my soul joined his. And then we were both in this bright, bright light and this incredible experience of love and deep acceptance and understanding, and uh and I wanted to stay there and I wanted to continue on with him. I didn't want to come back, and but then all of a sudden, wham, I could feel my body just hit or my soul come into my body, and it was this palpable feeling of like when a rubber band is shot or it c you know it bounces back. And uh so there I was now, but in this blissful, almost ecstatic place after my beautiful husband had just passed away, so it was a whole different experience of death.

Speaker 1 10:59

That's amazing. I've never heard of any experience like that before.

Speaker 11:04

Yeah. Yeah, it was really uh and I was yeah, I was extremely sad that he had left, but it also f in that moment even felt like, wow, you know, this was almost like a gift in a way of opening my eyes to something completely different. And then I went through the grieving process for for many years actually, as well, as uh that having opened up in the I can understand that.

Speaker 1 11:34

So as far as music goes, uh can you cite any influences that you've had over the years, the people that you listen to?

Speaker 11:45

Um I've just listened to to so much music uh over the years and uh you know I I loved the uh well, the Beatles, I loved Fleetwood Mac, I loved Enya, I loved Jewel, and um and I'd never really I'd used my own singing voice, but I did not really think that I could sing very well, and I just stayed with the overtone singing. And it's only in the last couple of years that I realized that um I do have a voice and that that it's uh it you know, people say it's an ethereal sounding and and beautiful voice, and so I've really enjoyed bringing my singing voice into uh my music with the overtone singing and then creating creating the music, creating the songs. But I think what has really helped a lot too is that uh through a a series of synchronicities when I first started, when I first created my first five minutes of working with the overtone singing and my singing voice, that I then met a number of people who really helped me on my music career. And those were uh Hank Coleen, who um now does a lot of the uh audio mixing and sound engineering. And he happened to be the stepson of a very, very good friend of mine, one of my closest friends. And then the other person was uh my Native American flute teacher, Tommy Graven, who now also does a lot of collaborating on my music with me and also does the uh music mixing and and sound engineering.

Speaker 1 13:42

I see. Now that um you've explained this experience that you had and the things you've gone through, and and listening to your voice, like you said it's ethereal, it's to me it's angelic. It sounds to me like you're the angel. You're able to transition with your husband and then come back. It's you have you have the voice of an angel the way I listen to it, and it's amazing.

Speaker 14:09

Thank you. Thank you so much for saying that. Um Yeah, yeah. I do feel that I I do connect to uh to something, you know, when when melodies come through you and uh I've really been having a lot of fun with with creating music. Uh I usually go to the um Bodega Bay Headlands and I sit on the cliff there and um there are whales and uh pelicans and sea lions and um so I sit there uh uh at the weekends, it's about forty-five minutes away from where I live.

Speaker 1 14:50

I see. And that yeah, and that's I think I saw a picture of you with your friends there.

Speaker 14:56

Yes. I go there a lot. Yeah, that's that because as a psychologist, you know, being a psychologist is can be very heavy work. And the whole thing about vicarious traumatization is is very real because you listen to people's stories and it's hard not to uh or it's hard just to stay in your center. So for me, going out to the Badega Bay Headlands and the Pacific Ocean is very, very soothing, nurturing. Um so I do that a lot. And I also do something called qigong. It's a mindful movement practice, and I teach it and also practice it. It's like Tai Chi. I don't know if you've uh if you know what yeah. Yeah. Oh yes, you do yeah, so qi gong has been that actually really helped me to stay uh in my career as psychologist because it really helped me to come back to center and to um it's a meditation and and uh very helpful. So I teach that three times a week and I love it as well. Yeah.

Speaker 1 16:05

Is is that an ancient Chinese art like Tai Chi?

Speaker 16:09

Yes, yes. In fact, Tai uh Qi Gong is the over uh overarching umbrella, and then under that is Tai Chi and the martial arts, or yeah, Tai Chi and the martial arts. So qi gong is the main the main uh umbrella, and um yeah, it's an ancient art. Um the form of qigong that I practice and teach is called wisdom healing qigong. And um it's it it's very helpful for people to be doing it. I also teach it to my psychology patients and to uh uh I'm teaching qigong in an integrative cancer program for um one of the hospitals in the area here. So I work with Qigong quite a bit.

Speaker 1 16:59

I see. Well, it's been great talking to you today, Ilka. I'm glad we finally had a chance to to speak to each other. And um I look forward to getting the word out about your your single um on uh the eighth.

unknown 17:18

Yes.

Speaker 1 17:19

And this uh interview will also be on that. And uh hopefully we can continue to work together in the future.

Speaker 17:29

Yes. Thank you so much, Keith. And I also just want to say that your um reviews of my work, they have so such sensitivity, and it's as if you really get where I'm coming from. So I very much appreciate that. I just want to let you know that.

Speaker 1 17:46

Well, thank you. That means everything to me. I appreciate that. Okay, okay. You take care.

Speaker 17:55

You too. Bye bye.

Speaker 1 17:57

Thank you. Bye bye.