Asleep at the Wheel: The Journey Behind Regina Swarn's New EP

What happens when the wheels of your life suddenly stop turning? Regina Swarn opens her heart in this deeply personal episode about the inspiration behind her upcoming EP "Asleep at the Wheel." Far from a cautionary tale about drowsy driving, Regina reveals how this title perfectly captures the paralysis she experienced through 13 years of devastating losses.

With raw honesty, Regina walks us through the succession of profound losses that brought her life to a complete standstill - her father in 2007, her pastor in 2012, and then the most devastating blow: her sister Lora's death in 2020. "I thought we would always be together," Regina reflects, her voice carrying the weight of shattered expectations. "Die old or whatever, die together..." This vulnerability provides a rare glimpse into the grief journey that temporarily silenced her music.

While some assumed Regina had simply stopped creating after Lora's passing - and some even hoped she would - she reveals she's been quietly working in the background through her darkest moments. The EP represents her triumphant return to motion, each song telling part of her story of relationships, spiritual growth, and finding God's purpose even when life seems to have stopped. "The wheel is turning again," she declares with palpable relief and determination. For anyone who has experienced loss, depression, or felt their life come to a standstill, Regina's journey offers a powerful testimony that forward movement is possible again. Connect with Regina directly at swarnregina@gmail.com and be sure to check out her previous podcast "Life is a Vapor."

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Chapters

• 1:48 Welcome and Gratitude
• 3:06 Introduction to "Asleep at the Wheel"
• 5:25 Personal Loss and Life's Standstill
• 7:37 Moving Forward Again
• 10:21 Overcoming Depression and Criticism
• 13:08 Closing Thoughts and Contacts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:55

Hello and welcome back to another episode of Regina Sworn Audio Series Presents. How are you today, or I should say tonight? Hope all is well. I feel pretty good. This is my first recording of April. This is my first recording of April and I hope everyone is making out really good. Making out really good With all that yellow stuff out there the pollen and the rose buds, the flowers and all of that. I hope all is well with everyone. I hope that's not making you guys too sick, because I know a lot of people are getting super sick with all of that the pollen in the air, so they have to get a shot.

Speaker 1: 1:44

I do want to thank everybody who is a part of this podcast, meaning if you share this podcast, if you support it monthly, however, you participate in your support for me. I truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. I recently recorded a podcast called Life is a Vapor. Just put it out today, so if you haven't heard it yet, I urge you all to go out and check it out. It was some very important words that was laid upon my heart and I wanted to speak about it because people complain so much. I just get tired of people complaining. I don't like to be around people who complain a lot. If someone is complaining a whole lot, then I'll get away from them very fast. So I'll give you a place that you can contact me. Contact me at swornretina at gmailcom.

Speaker 1: 2:55

I want to talk a little bit about my new EP that I'm still working on. Actually, I just got one more track I want to put down, or two. I would have have my nephew, um minister antonio for it to. You know, come in and lay some tracks. You know he did trouble orders with laura and I. He did heaven. Um, he's worked on quite a few songs with us in the past, so I'm excited to have him work on this project with me as well. So, yay, and that's what I want to talk about today.

Speaker 1: 3:34

My ep and the name of it is Asleep at the Wheel. A lot of people are like I get asked the question so often were you asleep at the wheel? Did you fall asleep? Now, that's happened before. Yeah, I've fallen asleep before driving. Yeah, yeah, but that is not what the EP or my album is about. My album is about the will represents the wills of life and the turning, you know, will turn right. So think about what I'm saying here, the name of my EP, the name of my song Asleep at the Will and the will turn right, and I'm talking about the wheels of life.

Speaker 1: 4:22

And for the past 13 years, my life has taken on drastic measures, drastic events. I've been involved in some really major things some good, some bad but through those 13 to 14 years, I've lost people who were extremely close to me. Like it started with, you know, when you know, my dad died in 2007. Now that's a different story, but in 2012, I lost my pastor, mother AB Jackson, and then I had to deal with the fact that Laura had moved away and started a life. That was really hard on me. I talk about it in my book, but I'm also talking about it through the podcast how hard that was for me, and eventually she realized it was very hard for her as well. I don't want to focus on that too much. This is very negative, so I don't want to focus on that too much. This is very negative, so I don't want to focus on it.

Speaker 1: 5:30

But and then, of course, losing Laura in 2020 was so devastating to my life. It just because I thought we'll always be together. I didn't think that we would ever be apart. I thought the two of us would just always be together. You know, die old or whatever, die together, be together. You know what I mean. I thought that. I thought that I really thought that I wanted that, but I'm not God. So God has plans that we don't. You know what I mean. So, yeah, it was so devastating. Her death was devastating to me, you know, on every level. And then, of course, our mom passed away before Laura, and then I had another sister pass away, one of my older sisters, pearl. So life has been very it's been.

Speaker 1: 6:34

Asleep at the wheel is like turns of events in my life and the wheel is just. It just keep turning. Though a wheel, it turns as long as you're moving. But my life was not moving. That's why I named my EP Asleep at the Wheel. A wheel will keep returning. A car will keep going as long as you're driving it. I wasn't driving this spiritual car, I wasn't moving, I was just stagnant in one spot, which is why this spiritual car is not and these songs are very personal Asleep at the Wheel. It tells about relationships. It tells about my life. It tells about my spiritual life, my natural life. It goes into detail of many things, but through the song I can tell the story and it comes out just victorious.

Speaker 1: 7:28

How the Lord has been with me, you know, through this whole tumultuous time. It hasn't been easy, you know, and I think people have been sitting back thinking, oh, she just don't sing anymore. I wonder why she don't sing anymore. Well, guess what? I've been sitting back doing recordings. I guess people have been thinking I've been sitting back twirling my hair and just looking out into the sunset. No, I've been doing many things in the background, but for a while my life was just at a standstill. I could not function at all because Laura was gone, because Mom was gone, because, of course, of course, dad was gone. It was very hard. So God is so good to me, though, because he has made a way for me in my life to move forward.

Speaker 1: 8:19

So asleep at the wheel is it's just about how my life was at that standstill and I needed to, you know, get going, get driving again, move again, turn that wheel again. And I think it to get going, get driving again, move again, turn that wheel again, and I think, god, it's turning back again now. It's in motion. So I'm really excited about, you know the whole thing. I'm really excited about it.

Speaker 1: 8:42

So I wanted to just come on and do a podcast and explain that, because people didn't understand what I meant by asleep at the wheel. I'm talking about the wheels of life, the wheels of my life, and when I tell you my life has had its moments. If you watch my movie, if there were ever a movie made about my life, if there were ever a movie made about my life, there would never be a dull moment. I promise you. I promise you, there are so many parts to my life, so many events and things that happen in my life, that there would never be a dull moment. So, as I say, if a movie was ever made about my life, then, yeah, it's a a lot of things. I have a lot of chapters, but, um, but I'm thankful because, you know, people sit back and they laughed and they pointed fingers at me, they judged me, they said a lot of things about me that could have stopped me.

Speaker 1: 9:44

But when people were laughing and making fun and saying she's done, they, they're not going to do any more music. Laura is gone. You know, a lot of people wished that we were done because Laura had passed Believe it or not. A lot of people was just pushing against that. They didn't want me to continue to record, but there were a lot of people who wanted to see me record again. But there were a lot of people who wanted to see me record again.

Speaker 1: 10:13

But when you are depressed, it's really hard to do anything because your mind is at that standstill. You don't want to do anything. But I'm so thankful that God brought me out of that very dark, dark, dark place because it was so dark. Trying to explain it to you is really hard because if you've never been depressed before, you have no clue what I'm talking about. But it was such a dark place, but I'm so thankful. I don't care.

Speaker 1: 10:43

People can call me crazy all day and all night, but one thing they can't call me is stupid, because you, looking at this girl, you might call me crazy and that's okay. You may say things ah, it makes me lose my imagination. Or you may say all these different things and that's your problem. Because people sit around and gossip, and some of the Christians, and they sit around and gossip sometimes and I disassociated myself with so many people because we were unequally yoked, even from the people of faith. I had to do that because I was unequally yoked with some of these people, because if you could sit around and talk about other people or talk about me and point fingers, you're certainly not of God, because that's not a spirit of God. So I'm just very thankful for the EP.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Asleep at the Wheel. The wheel is the turns and events of my life and I'm just so thankful that the Lord has given me a new song to sing, a new song, and I'm going to bring that to you. So I just wanted to come on and talk a little bit about that. I do hope I explained it to you guys because a lot of people were asking me. So now you know at least I hope you do I I'm regina sworn. Thank you so much for joining me for regina sworn audio series presents presents. Yeah, you can contact me at sworn regina at gmailcom, and please don't forget to go and listen to some of my other podcasts, especially the one that I recorded before this one, life is a Vapor, and some of the other great ones that I've already recorded at the beginning of the year, january, and at the beginning of my new year, march 7th. Thank you so much, take care of yourself, stay safe and God bless you.