Q&A: Vylana is Fearless as She Shares Her Feminine Journey With Debut Album ‘Goddess Rise’

Q&AMusic

Nov 8

☆ By Shellsea Lomeli☆

DETERMINED TO HONOR FEMININITY AND INSPIRE OTHERS TO EMBRACE THEIR AUTHENTIC SELVES — Vylana harnesses her vulnerability to share her personal experience with the release of her debut album, Goddess Rise. She is certain that all women, regardless of background or experience, have a goddess within them and hopes to use this genre-breaking project to encourage those on their own journey of self-discovery.

With this independent release, Vylana is in complete creative control. Acting as artist and label has allowed her to pour her entirety into both the music and the accompanying visual album, which takes the themes of Goddess Rise to a new level of immersion. This dedication is showcased through the emotional strength of her vocals, as well as in the encompassing soundscape she has created through combinating her voice with strategically arranged string-led instrumentals.

Vylana is an artist who refuses to be defined by one thing. A singer, medicine woman, sound healer, Polynesian dancer, and more yet, she takes the most pride in her role of reminding others that they have permission to love themselves unconditionally, including the good and the challenging.

Learn why Vylana is fearless about sharing a project that goes beyond the barriers of pop culture and dive deeper into her journey through womanhood so far with our conversation below.

LUNA: Congrats on the release of Goddess Rise — you must be so excited! Can you walk us through how you’re feeling about finally being able to share this part of you with the world?

VYLANA: I've been working on this project for the last year and a half and I've never poured more of myself into anything in my life. It literally felt like a birthing process, the creation of a baby in my womb. Just finally able to put the full journey of it out into the world. I'm wildly excited, ecstatic. The thing that I feel more so than anything is a lot about what the purpose of this project is — calling women forward into their full power.

LUNA: Can you share a little more about that purpose?

VYLANA: The arc of the album goes into a full journey, and what I'm feeling is [in] perfect alignment with what's happening in the global scale of this, literally. You know, revolution of the feminine, like what's happening in the Middle East. The timing of it feels so perfectly aligned. There's a part of me that wishes that this would have been out three weeks ago because there are elements of it that are actually tools for the feminine. Like how to work with the energies of emotions of rage and grief and how disempowered women have felt for thousands of years along with what's awakening within all of us right now. My heart is deeply, deeply excited and deeply knows that the timing of this could not be more perfect for what's happening in the world.

LUNA: You described this project as something you wish you could have listened to when you were younger. What do you hope resonates the most with listeners when they take this work in?

VYLANA: Along my path of becoming the truest expression of myself, I went through a lot of darkness, hardship, and heartbreak and trauma. This music is showing the embodiment of what it is to be the full spectrum of the feminine so there is not any rock left unturned or any part that isn't welcome. There’s power in knowing our emotions are valid and that we don't have to reject aspects of ourselves because society doesn't deem them as pretty, acceptable, or lovable. My own journey has included calling back all parts of myself that I have exiled, like the part of me that has been afraid of my own anger or the part of me that hasn't felt fully safe in my sexuality and my sexual expression.

I hope people see that all of you is welcome if you give yourself the full permission. In my opinion, the definition of beauty is the true authenticity of the fullness of who you are, and sometimes that is chaotic and messy. All of your expressions are beautiful. And to anyone who looks to me through my music or my social platform, this work that I'm doing in the world — what it took for me to get here — is to call back all those parts of myself that I made not okay or not beautiful. I would not have been able to create any of this music had I not gone through very, very dark times in my life. I hope that it's [the album] inspiring and activating. I even hope that it may be triggering for some people because that's also medicine. My desire is for women to stop looking to the external world to validate that their path is sacred, beautiful, and necessary for them to awaken to their natural gifts and to awaken to their own inner goddess. I'm not unique in this. This is available to all women. We all have our own inner goddess that is waiting to be expressed but the source of it comes from this deeply intimate relationship with the self where we feel comfortable and permitted to be all of what we are.

LUNA: Goddess Rise is accompanied by a visual album, as well. Why did you feel the need to really be able to embody this music visually as well?
VYLANA: I saw Beyonce’s Lemonade album and I felt like she was speaking to a really deep feminine wound that is so common, and women don't really know how to heal in a way. They feel like they're alone in it and to see this powerful woman who’s an artist so many people look up to just really put her heart out on the table and be like, “Me too.” I was so inspired by that because it was so real. So when I was creating this project, I was in a space of deep listening and could feel that people could visually experience the transmission of the story arc through very raw and cinematic art. It's almost like it hits all the senses in this different way.

LUNA: Are there feelings of fear or uncertainty that go along with releasing a project that is so personal and special? How do you work through those emotions?

VYLANA: Surprisingly, as vulnerable as it is, I don't feel afraid of sharing it because I know that this is so important for women to see and for them to feel that spark within themselves. I feel that it will be inspiring and activating for people who are really ready for this. And for those who are not — who potentially feel threatened by my message or sensual expression — I simply feel compassion for where they are and that this is not part of their unique story at this moment in time. Ultimately, even if it is triggering, I feel that it is an invitation. Whether I take lots of arrows or am totally celebrated, it is bigger than me. I've lived my whole life to be able to bring this album through. This is the medicine that I can offer the world in the greatest way that I can — by using my voice. I trust in how I’m guided by greater forces that are unseen and I'm going to act on it. So yeah, I don't feel any nervousness. I feel like I've never been more ready to put my art out into the world.

LUNA: Let’s talk about the cover art. Why did you choose this design to visually represent your work?

VYLANA: This is actually a shot of a painting that was commissioned by my husband by an extraordinary artist. Her name is Hannah Yata. It is her visualization of the expression of the goddess. This particular image represents a very strong connection that I have had to a particular Hindu goddess, Kali Ma. She has been an ally of mine and was actually part of the birthing of this entire project. Her energy represents this wild, fearless ferocity. Her archetype is meant to devour and destroy darkness through the love in her heart. But she's sort of depicted as this warrior goddess so her expression is something that … for women, can be a little bit intimidating, a bit scary. The image expresses the aspects of creation and destruction that are required for the cycle of life. Another goddess in Hawaiian mythology is Madame Pele, which is very similar to the Hindu goddess Kali Ma. She's the goddess of the volcano, which destroys and incinerates everything in its path but, within days, is giving birth to the richest new life, which amplifies the importance of the cycles of how we move through our being. I feel like they have so many different expressions of the goddess, so I wanted to depict something that was showing creation, birthing, beauty, and all these feminine aspects of nature and of the earth.

LUNA: Can you share a little about your music journey so far? Who were some of your musical inspirations in the early stages of your artists development?

VYLANA: The little girl in me, since, like, four years old, knew my dream was to be a singer. I really idolized Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Celine Dion, and all these just really powerhouse vocalists that have so much depth and rawness and power to their voice. I grew up trying to sing like them but that was not how my voice was necessarily so I was really, like, you know, blowing up my vocal cords. Really only within these last couple of years did I stop trying to emulate other people's voices and really discover my own.

LUNA: What artists do you feel inspired by now?

VYLANA: At this point, I feel inspired by the artists who are visionaries. Their depth is beyond what pop culture would deem as what’s really exciting. One artist, Pia, is actually a dear sister of mine. I did a little vocal apprenticeship with her. She's really connected to her Irish lineage and singing medicine music. Her voice is literally just so angelic, it will make you cry every time you hear it. Brazilian artist Cara Lee has the same thing. She sings about darkness and really edgy topics and she's also a visionary. She's just packaged into this highly artistic expressed woman and artist. Another one that's a little bit more mainstream is Billie Eilish. I think that her music is so authentic and unique. You can tell that she doesn't change it for what potentially a producer would be like, “This is a better way to do it.” You can just tell she really stands in her truth and I really, really love and honor that. And Beyonce is still just … one of my favorites. Her message is just so deep and so intricately aligned with what's happening in our time. I really look up to her.

LUNA: What would you say is the biggest thing that you learned about yourself during the production of Goddess Rise or even throughout your music journey so far?
VYLANA: I think the biggest thing that I learned about myself — which makes me really emotional — is really my own sense of my power and resilience. With this project, I'm ultimately acting as a label and artist. I’ve had a really beautiful brother of mine, Jesse Brady, and his label who has been consulting for me so I can check all the boxes. But the creation of everything has really been my vision along with help from my life doula, who's essentially been my producer. I've had to put on so many different hats simultaneously like finishing up mixing and mastering, submitting to playlisting, and just being the project manager of everything. In moments, it's been quite overwhelming with not really understanding the intricacies because we chose to self-release and all the resources have been personal ones. So I've really learned my own ability to face a lot of adversity as well as a lot of things crumbling and not going how we had envisioned it. I just really found the part of me that believes in this so much and I was able to make it through.

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