Michelle Qureshi Interview # 2 - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

Another great talk with Michelle Qureshi about her most recent release, Journey By Starlight! 

Transcript

Speaker 0:14

Hello everybody, it's Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck of the Final on Vinyl Podcast, and today we are with Michelle Qureshi. Uh this is my second interview with Michelle. Um we covered the last album and the new album is out now, Journey by Starlight, beautiful ambient new age album. And uh welcome back to the show, Michelle.

Speaker 1 0:36

Hi Keith. Thanks for having me again. Great to talk with you.

Speaker 0:40

Yes, it always is. So let's talk about this new album. Uh you definitely took a different direction this time. And um just interested to know uh how this all came together. It must have been very complex for you with all the different things that went into it, uh, including uh Native American flute, your guitars, of course, piano, singing bowls, koshy chime, synth, and vocals. Mm-hmm. Where the heart was more uh guitar oriented, so that's why I'm asking these questions.

Speaker 1 1:17

Right, yeah. And if you look back on my catalog, I've always, you know, always kind of tested out different genres and kind of trying to collapse the idea of a genre, but yes, this is definitely definitely in that one camp where I do the multi-layered kind of ambient and uh very you know, bringing a lot of different instruments versus the solo guitar or even just the layered guitar. And I've been playing with this kind of palette for kind of from the start, you know, like my very first album in 2012. It has only two tracks that have guitar on it, even, you know. And then there's some of these albums that are um completely just guitar. And as you mentioned, the most recent one you reviewed, Compass of the Heart, uh, is um just guitar. So I kind of have this uh split personality that and this imagination that needs to be fed all kinds of uh you know, it's just the way stuff comes through me, you know, and that's yeah, I wish I just want to capture it. Yeah.

Speaker 2:23

I think it's a great way to work. And uh what you're doing is bringing in a real large cross-section of listeners by doing that, I would believe.

Speaker 1 2:35

Probably, yeah. I mean, there might be fans who just want to hear my guitar stuff, or vice versa, but I also think there's a fans that who are just like curious, okay, what's Michelle up to now? You know, because it kind of comes from whatever the source, it's the same source. And it's just many different ways of um expressing that, uh, that creativity and that inspiration.

Speaker 2:59

So is it your intention to re you know, put a new recording out every year or or do more than that? What are your plans going forward?

Speaker 1 3:10

I don't plan like when things are going to, you know, when I'm gonna have the time, and uh, but I will tell you, anytime I have space to create, I do. So I have a lot of stuff um like on the ready at any given time. Um and after after 2020, when I had a little bit of a restriction after I released uh Within, I was exclusive with a a label, then everything just kind of halted. And once I got that exclusivity removed, I kind of just went crazy with all the all the releases. And even this year, um it's I think I've already had 10 singles and now I've got this album. And of course I'm working on a couple other albums at the moment too, you know. So there's it's just uh the yeah, it's just I'm prolific, but I don't put a schedule out. Um and uh when you just follow your creative desires, it's not, you know, it's not a schedule kind of thing, you know.

Speaker 4:12

So well, you've had a lot of flexibility by doing it that way, by you know, being with a label that does have advantages, but also I think it's disadvantages like you just mentioned, being exclusive and then having some control over what you're doing.

Speaker 1 4:31

Right. Yeah. My lesson here is to um always maintain some independence or in primary independence. Uh I can still do work on other labels, uh, but um I'll never step into that exclusivity clause again. You know, lesson learned. And because it's just, you know, it's it's also uh uh interferes with your creative flow, you know. So I gotta bring that up.

Speaker 4:59

You're reading my mind here. I'm thinking, yeah, and it must really be that. Yeah. Because uh, you know freedom is a very strong word and and holds a lot of meaning for most people, I would think, and different aspects of their lives. But when it comes to creativity, you know, there can't be any walls. It has to be an open path, and the artist needs to decide which path to take, right? Exactly.

Speaker 1 5:27

Yeah. And even that path, I feel like sometimes I just have to listen to um an inner voice, an inner direction to know what to do. And it's hard because sometimes you let external factors dictate. Anytime I'm like anxious about data or something like that, I have to kind of ground myself and say, wait, that's not why you're doing this, you know, because there's enough stuff out there for artists these days, there's a lot of stuff you can worry about, but there's nothing you should worry about. And I have to remind myself that sometimes.

Speaker 6:02

Interesting. Well, you know, from from where I sit, I I kind of go through um some kind of uh ritual, I guess that you would say. I know when I'm ready to listen in and write as I'm listening, so I know right off. It's like, okay, I I'm not gonna be able to get into this. The head space I'm in right now, I'll wait. Or push it out a day or a few hours or whatever. You have to be start it starts in the head, and from there it it goes to the heart and the soul, I think. And anyway, that's that's the way I I feel with my creative process. I don't know about yourself.

Speaker 1 6:45

Yeah, I think uh well, let's say, especially if it's if it's guitar, um, it feels like it's just direct to the heart, you know. It's like you're holding that instrument, it's already across your heart chakra, right? And then it just seems to emit, you know, the direction for me. This is why I love um improvising, you know, because I just feel like it's that connection is made. And the, you know, I hear a sound before I find it on the guitar. I don't have to look, I just let the fingers go. And, you know, something like this, this album is, as you say, it's more complex in that way, the in the way that you have to kind of like uh layer tracks, choose what instruments, uh kind of let yourself be guided, what goes so well together to convey, you know, the emotional impact uh of of what you're trying to create. Like, you know, each of these 13 tracks are like their own inner world, yet there's a thread that I can make say this is an album, you know, this is a journey.

Speaker 7:48

Right. And I also noticed um the length of the tracks, uh, some of them are quite long. Almost six minutes. There's like one, two, three, four, five. There's six tracks over five minutes. Um one is Across the Veil over seven minutes. That's not typical of you, is it? To create tracks that go that long.

Speaker 1 8:13

Well, my my ambient and new age things can go that long. It's it's not atypical, but the thing is, like versus guitar, you know, that I'm just guitar is more like haiku for me. You know, it's just very concise and it's you know, usually not a very complex emotion I'm conveying. You know, it's I it can be said, a lot of people uh will say, ah, it needs to go on, but it's done, you know, with when I have a little piece of you know, just even less than two minutes. What what I meant to say was said. It doesn't matter, you know, if it's two minutes or seven minutes. And and to be honest, right now these ambient ones they did need the longer time to evolve, but I'm in another project uh where the the nine tracks are between 15 and 18 minutes long. So now this is somewhere in the midway for me. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And those are those are geared toward uh meditation and and you know it it's an upcoming um, it'll be based on sulfegio frequency embedded in in this very long and uh uh really beautiful um project. That's that's what's coming next. So just a preview.

Speaker 9:33

Oh, okay. Are you anticipating I I don't want to be repetitive, but you anticipate uh when that could be arriving, possibly.

Speaker 1 9:43

Um I can't, but sometime this year, you know. I probably will have uh solo guitar pieces out uh before that, before I even uh launched that, yeah. So but yeah, it's mostly done. It's just like uh other aspects of it to be um arranged and stuff like that, yeah. But yeah, back to this, you know, because they they each piece on there has its own life and it has its own little um well not little expansive world, and that's why they they just needed more time to to evolve and um be expressed. And and I'll also tell you that the variety of instruments is similar or overlaps a lot with what I present live as my harmonic sound immersions, you know, the koshy chimes, the singing bowls, um the flutes, these are all part of what I present when I do these live performances. So it was kind of uh inspired by that as well.

Speaker 10:49

So what's the difference between uh a chime and a kosher chime?

Speaker 1 10:54

The kosher chimes are well, you know, they're so uh they're just so beautiful. They present uh this little kind of like you feel like, oh, I'm in a fairy tale now, you know, and they're they're tuned differently. So it depends what you know uh what kind you have. There's there's many. And there's another version called Zephyr chimes. Uh they they basically have uh a cylinder of bamboo that's open on each end, and these little metal rods that you know working just a lot like chimes, but these have a very distinctive, you know, they they pull me right in. It's just like when I hear uh a sound from a singing bowl, you know, I'm just in another space immediately. So so I just mentioned the koshy chimes because um of their unique sound. Yeah. Yeah, I've turned a lot of people on to them. And when I use them in a yoga studio or in a sound immersion, you know. Uh yeah, I shouldn't yeah.

Speaker 11:55

Now, also uh the artwork is always key, I believe, in presentation. And Diane Garris told me that. Uh it's actually a relative who had taken that picture and presented the artwork to you, is that right?

Speaker 1 12:08

Well, yes. I have a uh cousin up in Michigan who's a physicist uh by by in his career, um, quite a brilliant man. And uh so I had three singles as part of the waterfall release um come out, and of the four of these presentations, each one is um a creation that he has uh done from different, like The River in Heaven is the tadpole nebulae. And um he gave me a little background on how he did these, you know, because we look and see the picture and and um we think, oh, he snapped that. But no, it's like it could be pictures over a series of two weeks in the summer that then he goes and has to, you know, work on uh all kinds of aspects. Uh and even in taking them, he has to plan ahead on weather, on wind, and uh then spend a lot of time setting up the scope to capture that. But basically he said it was during COVID that uh he bought it and started learning about it. And uh he was putting them um some of the pictures out on on Facebook, and I was like, these are gorgeous, may I? And he was he was happy about it, you know, because now a lot of people will see. And and a lot another thing that's so um uh refreshing is and because I've I've used aspects of um uh AI in some of the covers. It sometimes they come out really cool, but these are real photos, you know, and it's real astrophotography, and I think that that is um it's nice to see also someone's work like that. A lot of my covers are um artists' paintings or or renderings, uh, but you know, like Compass of the Heart was not a true painting, so I can tell you that. I thought it was a very cool image that I put together, but it was, you know, having uh um the uh this uh option to put some real brilliant photos out there as part of the album cover and the singles was um I thought a special thing. So um his name is Basit Akar, and um yeah, I want to I want to just mention his name and thank him for that again.

Speaker 14:29

Excellent. Well it sounds to me like you're always in a state of evolution with your artistry and and all different aspects, and um a a lot of times people feel that that's the way it has to be, to feel like you're driven and and you feel that energy all the time. Is that the way you feel you need that to just to keep going? Because if you stop you might lose that flow.

Speaker 1 14:57

Um I'm not I'm not sure what you mean. Like, are you saying that like I have to keep creating because I'm afraid if I don't it'll go away?

Speaker 15:07

Yeah, that kind of thought, yeah.

Speaker 1 15:11

I don't know, I don't I don't have that thought. Um I've yeah. Whatever I'm tapped into is not something that that's gonna end until I until I end. That's my feeling. So, you know, I I create every time I have space to do that. And um it's it's part of it is like picking up the guitar or flute just every day and and discovering something new. I mean, there's always ways to, you know, look at something different, constantly change your perspective, you know. Um and so it's not it's not something I worry about. In fact, you know, like this whole kind of concern about people using AI for music, like if you need the help of AI for music, why are you even making music? You know, you shouldn't need it for your creativity or your inspiration. Maybe you're in the wrong business, you know, if that's what you're doing, the wrong field. Yeah, yeah. Right. So yeah, yeah, no, I'm just I'm just kind of grateful for being with my muse and having this flow that's you know, it's it's kind of part of like how I live. I think that's it's not compartmentalized to, oh, I'm in the studio, I need to get creative. You know, it's like my my husband can tell you like when I fix dinner. I'm creative about whatever ingredients and I'll create something from nothing. Um sometimes it works for him, sometimes it doesn't. But you know, it's just kind of a way of being, you know, I'm like constantly kind of rearranging our our homes and our our gardens, and just because I just like living in that creative space, you know. Yeah.

Speaker 16:59

What's it like what's it like for him as your partner? Does he know enough that you know, if you're in the studio to to leave you alone and only you know approach you once you come out, or are you okay with him coming in and listening? How does that work out?

Speaker 1 17:14

Oh no. Yeah. Well, when I'm recording, I really have to wait for that um that moment when I'm alone in the house, you know, and with re a lot uh oftentimes remote working, it's it can kind of be tricky. But then, you know, there's also the aspect of you know, if I'm out on the back porch playing guitar and he's sitting out there, he usually has AirPods on, and I'm like, this guy doesn't know how many people wish they were sitting here listening to me play. You know, so but I guess it's just too familiar, you know. So but we we we manage and uh we've evolved on some of this um pretty well. Yeah.

Speaker 17:53

So do you have a lot of hobbies outside of music besides being outside and gardening and things like that? Or is there something in your life that's you know totally disconnected to everything that's involved with your music and your artistry?

Speaker 1 18:09

Um let's see. I think the things that are outside of music still inspire music. Like um, you know, we we love we love to travel. I love nature, I love being out and absorbing everything I can from different uh places and then and spaces in in the world and the sky, you know, and the night sky. I mean, I just uh got a hold of some celestial binoculars, which I didn't know existed, and I've been using them. Yeah, yeah, and especially with this uh Artemis uh uh space launch, you know, kind of seeing the moon. Like I I got up in the midnight to in the middle of the night to view the moon, and it was it was pretty cool what you could see. And then you see these photos on this uh historic uh um moon trip uh being named after uh the goddess of the moon, which is really cool. So I like the energy behind that, you know. And I'm very uh I'm very excited about uh kind of the a lot of the things around new age thinking and uh open to a lot of uh these um experiences and these ideas.

Speaker 19:27

Yeah. Are there any journals or periodicals that that you read that you could recommend?

Speaker 1 19:36

Um gosh, everything is so much just like online. I I'm plugged in to uh the Gaia.com, which is a subscription of lots of um video interviews, courses in kind of in the new age phenomenon and things like that. And then of course I also do the um yoga and meditate. And like uh this week when I was in yoga, um the one of my pieces came on. Uh I think it was River in Heaven, and it was just it really felt nice to to be able to uh do yoga to something like that, you know. But yeah, I don't really have a lot, no, the like printed journals and stuff. It just yeah, it's everything is kind of online or just your in-person interaction with with other people.

Speaker 20:28

I see. Well, Michelle, it's been great talking to you again. I really appreciate your time and your music, your artistry. And uh just as a reminder, today, Journey by Starlight by Michelle Kreshi comes out, and uh everybody should give it a good listen and support Michelle and her endeavors.

Speaker 1 20:50

Great. Thanks. Yeah, it's on not just the streaming platforms, but on my bandcamp page and of course on my official website, and uh it'll be presented on on your review page as well. So there's plenty of places to get it. Um if there's a premiere tonight um of uh one hour, six-minute video uh where I have the soundtrack along with a lot of space imagery on my YouTube channel, and Sunday night there's a bandcamp listening party that anyone's invited to as well. So hopefully it's a good weekend for Journey by Starlight.

unknown 21:27

Yeah.

Speaker 21:28

All right, Michelle. I look forward to your next project. Thank you again for your time.

Speaker 1 21:34

Okay, thanks, Keith. Take care.

Speaker 21:36

You too. Bye-bye. Bye bye.