Gina Lenee Interview - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

Had a great conversation with Gina Lenee about her life and upcoming release, Bloom.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 0:14

Hello everybody, this is Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck with the Final and Vinyl Podcast, and today we're with Gina Lenne, and I had the opportunity to listen to Bloom, and I'll be covering that soon. And previously I had covered Red Diamonds from uh 2017 and revealed in 2019. So uh welcome aboard, Gina. I don't think I've had the opportunity to speak to you before.

Speaker 1 0:38

Hey, good morning, Keith. Thank you. It's so nice to finally connect.

Speaker 0:43

Yes, good to hear a person's voice.

Speaker 1 0:46

Mm-hmm.

Speaker 0:48

So um the album Bloom as a gorgeous cover. Um did you take that picture?

Speaker 1 0:55

No, I didn't. Um I in, you know, it's always um an interesting thing to create an album, um, not just the music, but visually, how are you going to pick a cover that really conveys the message behind the music? And uh I love flowers. Um that magenta pink is my very favorite color, and I just thought, you know, what it represented. I thought a flower on the front cover uh would be a great choice. And so I worked with Matt Strebly and kind of shared my overall vision, kind of the gave him some ideas of what I liked. And he actually picked that out. It's the Magnolia Bloom, and um I just I'm really happy with the way the cover turned out. I think he did a really great job.

Speaker 1:50

It is very nice. Um and bloom, obviously, to me that feels like something um that's happening to you personally through your journey in life, obviously by the track titles. Uh you just take the listener through a journey through your fingers on the piano, and uh you get to the the end there and you're blooming like a flower. I mean that's that's kind of what my thought process was when I looked at the cover and listened to the music. I don't know if that was something you were trying to project or not.

Speaker 1 2:23

Yeah, it absolutely was, and I'm you know, I'm happy to hear that that you did get that um from listening to the music and also reading the titles of the songs and also the liner notes. Um the music for Bloom absolutely uh was shaped by by my real life. Um my adversity um just over the last year went through some very deep personal trauma and um really was faced with the process of having to rebuild myself, you know, my life emotionally and spiritually, physically, and you know, as I'm sure that is very common, and you've interviewed a lot of musicians over the years, and you know the deep connection that musicians feel um with you know their life experiences do shape their music. And um my piano has always, for me, my entire life has has been a place of refuge for me, you know, that I go to and and a release. And you know, the beginning of the the album as I started creating the music in that time in my life, you know, it it definitely had more of a feeling of reflection and stillness and probably surrendering to the feelings that I was going through. But in creating that, I really decided that rather than letting the experiences define me, the trauma, the loss, the pain, and the hurt, I decided, you know, I had an opportunity, I could transform them and maybe create something that uh could become hope for a listener and and just a reminder about um resilience and transformation and moments in our life where we feel that everything's been stripped away, you know, but then sometimes deeper can come underneath the surface. And you know, in in just all those those thoughts, I pictured seeds of a flower, you know, and as we know, flowers don't bloom all year. Sometimes those those uh seeds, they sp or bulbs spin seasons unseen. They're they're deep in the ground and sheltering until it's time for them to bloom. So uh it was, you know, also a visual representation, I think, of that transformation that I experienced in my life and and really wanting the listener to feel that and to experience it as as well.

Speaker 5:17

Well, definitely all goes together. And just so you know, and I I try to let all the artists know, I do not read liner notes or look at other reviews before I listen to the music because I believe even if you say you're not going to be influenced by it, subconsciously something's there, and you'll be influenced by whatever was said or whatever you read, you know. So yeah, that's that's the way I do it anyway.

Speaker 1 5:45

Hmm. Well, I I think that's a a great way to do it because that really leaves leaves it open to your interpretation and and gathering the feelings that were conveyed through those notes. So yeah, I think you definitely have something. Well, I know that you've interviewed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of artists through the years. And uh, you know, we appreciate as an artist, we appreciate the time that you take to listen to our music, the music that comes from our hearts, and and also to share it with your listeners. So um, on behalf of other independent artists like myself, um, I know we really do appreciate what you do for us, Keith.

Speaker 6:34

Well, it works both ways. Yeah, you're you folks, all of you are inspirational, and I have learned over the years just how much goes into creating this music and how important it is for each artist when they put themselves out there like that and lay their souls on the line and and just say, you know, this is me, here, listen. It's it's not an easy thing to do. And it doesn't matter how many times you do it, it seems like you go through the same process each time, you know, uh am I gonna be accepted? Are people gonna like it, you know, and go through all of that? And uh I totally get that.

Speaker 1 7:10

Yeah, definitely. I mean, you do have to get to a place to a certain degree of vulnerability, even if even in instrumental music, you know, and and I think that uh writing instrumental music, uh, it does lend itself to crossing any borders or boundaries that might be with language or cultures or or any of that. But there is definitely, even though I'm not telling my story with words with lyrics, uh, it's definitely conveyed in in the music for sure, and revisiting uh revisiting the emotions that that well up uh during playing and and composing the music, it does take you to those places and there is a certain vulnerability, but I find that for me, my listeners, they they seem to appreciate uh that and I'm the most complimented. I think when when someone comes up to me after a show or sends me a note and something that I've played uh you know reaches them. Uh and you know, for me it's deeply fulfilling to know that the music has had uh an impression, made an impression and whether they're needing comfort at a time in their life or they're needing a reminder of hope, uh, or just just a moment of peace and quiet and calm to bring them serenity in in a time in their life when maybe that is uh it can't can be conveyed in words. I feel like music can definitely do that for a listener.

Speaker 9:11

I hear that. Yeah. Validation does spark energy and creativity. It certainly does, especially in music.

Speaker 1 9:18

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 9:20

So when did it all start for you? Um did you grow up in a household where your your parents were musicians? Were you spinning, you know, vinyl records, and when did you start playing the piano?

Speaker 1 9:33

You know, I was raised up in a very musical home. There was always music playing. Um my dad played the guitar, uh, he and his cousins, you know, would get together and and play. In fact, when they were young guys, they went down to LA and they cut a record, and um his two cousins later became uh evangelists and traveled and performed with their music. So growing up in a really musical home and seeing instruments there, um, as far as the piano, um, my parents were renting it by the month from a local piano store called Venturi's Music in Madeira, California. And they were renting it by the month from my brother Lonnie. He's about four and a half years older than me. And he was taking lessons and and you know, my brother, I think he definitely had the soul of a rocker. So he picked up the guitar and lots of other instruments. But um from what my parents tell me, you know, I came home from school one day and uh set up the piano and started, you know, I'm sure with one little finger, started picking out a melody. And my dad said, Oh, what's that? I said, It's a song that we sing in school today, you know, and so um he kind of said, Okay, maybe, maybe Gina's the the kid that ought to be taking the piano lessons kind of thing. So um, you know, it um as I've mentioned in in other interviews and things like that, people know that I've shared that as a as a child I had some speech difficulties and I was kind of on the shy side. And I think for me, you know, I often say that music was kind of my first language, and I'd, you know, hop up on the piano and bench and and um play something out and and kind of I love the the idea, the feeling that I could express whatever my feeling was that day, you know, and it was kind of a secret language, if you will, you know, so and as life became a lot more complex as it does, you know, and I just kept kept playing, you know, the music became uh and the songs became more complex. And then I actually started, you know, I I we'll call it writing. I'll tell you a little more about how I don't write music in a bit, but um putting together songs and and so probably by junior high high school, what I would consider I actually wrote an entire piece that was worthy of calling it a song, you know. Uh so I took I did take some early piano lessons, but gosh, reading music just it it just was tough for me. And I I just didn't catch on and I gave up on that. You know, I gave up on that and um you know, over the years I've thought it really put me at a disadvantage, you know, where I can't just read sheet music and play with a group, you know, I'd love to be able to do that, but um but I've since found that hey, a lot of great musicians, they're they they don't uh read music either. And so I thought, well, you know what, I I I'm enjoying composing, I'm enjoying writing, and I can sit in with with a group and and um you know kind of ad lib a little bit, you know, improvise, and that's always a good time. Um but yeah.

Speaker 13:20

What's your typical process? Uh do you do you anticipate it takes what, six months to a year to put an album together, or is there another time frame you usually complete thanks?

Speaker 1 13:32

You know, every album is really different. You know, every album for me ends up kind of having a theme like Red Diamond and Red Diamonds and R Revealed. Um the Bloom album came together probably in four or five months, you know, and again, it was really reflective of what I was going through in my life and just my personal growth, my personal journey of kind of reclaiming my voice, reclaiming uh uh you know, putting together a new life for myself. And um, so it came together in a shorter amount of time, I think, than some of the other albums.

Speaker 14:21

So there was a lot of energy and inspiration behind that that pushed you through quicker, it sounds like.

Speaker 1 14:28

Yeah, for sure. Well, and you know, I I I really spent a lot of time at home. I uh kind of uh was in a in a place in my life that I needed a lot of um just self-care and uh found that my my home, the harmony house, really became a place of safety and refuge for me. And uh the piano, of course, always being naturally drawn to that. I spent a lot of time on that piano bench and and throughout the days, you know, I would revisit it different times of the day and you know, and continue to refine some of the the songs that I had started and really developed uh a flow for the album and kind of an emotional arc that that might take a listener through the whole journey, you know, starting with mountain, you know, and and how that that can um resemble or uh symbolize, you know, a an obstacle for us, a challenge that we're faced with. And uh and certainly, you know, I was I was smacked with that at a time in my life when I really thought I knew how my life was gonna go, what my future was gonna hold, and things kind of turned upside down for me. And and so um the you know, the album starts with Mountain and then it kind of goes through to a moment after midnight kind of that was a turning point for me, you know, in a quiet nighttime, midnight, where okay, you know, there is a time of our day when things kind of shift from nighttime and we get that first little glimmer of the next day. And for me, that represented, you know, the first kind of glimmer of hope and excitement for might be what be might be next, even though faced with uncertainty, there was also uh an optimism, an optimism of what my le my new life could bring me. And it might even be better than the old life.

Speaker 16:49

Yeah, we never know, right? Sometimes you just have to turn the page and um there's a lot of uncertainties in front of you, and those mountains, as you mentioned, the climb, that's exactly how I looked at it too. When I saw Malin, I'm like, oh, he's talking about climbing the mountain and getting to the other side and going through all these stages in life where there's growth and acceptance. You know, and sometimes uh we we resist the acceptance and it's right in front of us, and then we're forced to to make a change, and then we realize that we should have accepted it long ago because that's what was good for us, right?

Speaker 1 17:29

Right, exactly, and trust trust being the unfolding, and it's hard for us to trust, right? I mean, it's it's hard to trust the process of life and and that that we believe that everything's gonna end up working out okay. You know, it's it's not always easy to carry that that hope with us, but um, but again, I think that you know we can be reminded that in life, hey, nothing stays the same, right? What we can be sure of is life is gonna change and bring us things, and and I kind of had to almost picture myself carrying this really heavy load. And I thought I, you know, I came to a point in this journey where I had to lay it all down. I had to just surrender it and say, hey, I gotta put this load down, and and I I can't carry it by myself. You know, I've reached deep into my face. Uh, and and also in doing that, you know, I realized, hey, you know what, my arms are open now. You know, my li my load has lightened. Now I can hold them out and receive good that can come in. Had I just continued to hang on to that, I wouldn't have had space uh to receive the good stuff. So um, you know, I I I I think for me I I needed to I needed to have a tangible way to to bring meaning to a time in my life that I I really couldn't figure out why life had happened to me the way that it did and felt unfair. But you know what? We all have a story. We've all gone through something. My listeners I know have too, and a lot of times they they tap into music, you know, uh to soothe them and and it's music is an expression of all kinds, you know. Um it's probably the best the best way that I can think of that people over, you know, forever have conveyed their their thoughts when when words fail to give the you know the deepest meaning of of that.

Speaker 19:46

So life is transitory and so is music, you know, it does goes hand in hand. That's the way I see it.

Speaker 1 19:55

Absolutely. Yeah. So wonderful frequency.

Speaker 19:59

I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Speaker 1 20:02

Oh, oh, I was just gonna share that, you know, I I would love to invite my listeners, you know, if once they do um once they're able to listen to the album, I would love to invite the listeners to share, connect with me, you know, and maybe share their stories of resilience and that we can all be a support to one another, you know, and we can kind of link arms, if you will, you know, across, you know, states, countries. And, you know, I recently came back from a trip to Spain and I loved being able to connect with the audiences there too. And so I would just, you know, love to invite my listeners if they want to connect with me and um share their stories that we can uplift, we can continue to uplift and inspire one another. That would be wonderful.

Speaker 20:57

That's great. Well, music is the uh universal language, it has no borders, and certainly with instrumental music, uh it makes it even easier because there's not any words to process. That's uh my belief that it's can hold so much more meaning because it's for you alone, the listener, you know, as you interpret it, as you had mentioned before.

Speaker 1 21:18

So yeah, you're so right.

Speaker 21:22

I really I really appreciate your time. Um I just want to remind folks, Gina Linnae's new new album, Bloom, will be out April 24th. And uh thank you so much for your time today, and this discussion was um was interesting, and I really like your energy and you know what you want to do with your music. And you know, I don't very often hear people say what you just said about reaching out to the world like that and hearing their story, so that's that's something I hope happens for you.

Speaker 1 21:55

Thank you. Well, and thank you for sharing um the music. Thank you for spending part of your morning with with me. I wish we would have met in person. I would have made you a great latte this morning, Keith. And uh hope to meet Pete hope to meet you personally. one day and we can sit down and have another chat in person, but really do appreciate your time. And again, thanks so much for for what you do and and dedicating yourself and your work uh to sharing our music. Really do appreciate it. And I hope that you I hope that you know that. And you may not get a thank you every single day for what you do, but I want to tell you today thank you. Appreciate what you do.

Speaker 22:36

Well thank you Gina I appreciate that. You take care.

Speaker 1 22:40

All right you too thanks so much. We'll talk again soon.

Speaker 22:44

Okay. Bye bye.