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THE HEALER IS THE MUSIC
An Interview with Flash Silvermoon
by Diane Saarinen, August 2005
Flash Silvermoon is one of the leaders of the Womanspirit movement, and a Pagan musician unique in that her music crosses the genres of blues, rock, reggae, funk and worldbeat. In addition, Flash is an astrologer, a psychic, an animal communicator and a vibrational healer who works with homeopathic remedies. Diane Saarinen recently spoke with Flash to share some of her memories, discuss her dreams, and talk about the holistic dimensions of her music.
D.S. Flash, you're also an astrologer and you've said that - let me get this right - you have a Pisces sun and moon exactly conjunct 27 degrees in the 10th house with Uranus on your Cancer ascendant. Do you think this has made you a born healer?
F.S. Yes, it certainly has. Everything I do is about healing
D.S. So you mean in your music as well.
F.S. Yes, I started piano lessons on Halloween when I was 8 years old. I was so insistent I wasn't going to take piano lessons unless I could stay and watch "Fury - it was a show about a horse - and that was the beginning of my love affair with horses. I could ride before I could walk! I have my priorities - no "Fury, no lessons. Fortunately, everyone saw I was very determined. Music and magic sort of grew up together with me. The music had the early lead.
D.S. You learned to play the piano first... and now what about this whole story about the drums at school?
F.S. My connection with drums was my first feminist act at 4 ½ year old! I was in my kindergarten class, where there was a rhythm band. I patiently went through all the little instruments and the next day it was my turn to play the drums. I was so excited I couldn't even sleep the night before, which added to my total devastation when my kindergarten teacher told me only boys could play the drums and I would have to go on the back at the end of the line. I wasn't raised to think that way. There was some real cognitive dissonance there.
D.S. Well, you showed them.
F.S. I said to them that if I can't have a turn, it's not fair and could I have something else to play. The teacher said "well, you could fingerpaint. Well, I did just that - for the whole rest of the year in the corner during rhythm band time! This continued until about 6th, 7th or 8th grade, when I had a band leader who said "no girls allowed in the percussion section. At the time I went I went to high school, I knew they would not make me carry a piano in a marching band. I had it all sewn up by then -- and I was also a pretty good drummer by then. Lo and behold, when I went into the first day of high school, they had moved the band leader to the high school and when he saw me by the drums, he said "Whatta ya doing over there?! Basically, I had to play other instruments for four years. Occasionally, I got to play drums when no one else was around. I entered college as a piano major and percussion minor. I finally got to play the drums!
D.S. And now they say few woman drummers can match your African drumming.
F.S. Not bad for a white girl!
D.S. You've played with Kay Gardner and Ubaka Hil. What was that like?
F.S. I did a lot of playing with Kay in the early 70s. The first track on my CD Flash Silvermoon, "Persephone Rising was inspired by Kay when she taught me the Sarasvati Raga, a scale that she used pretty liberally. As I went to bed that night, I heard a deep voice with the words "I speak through my heart, silent words that may find you. I heard that and said "Whooaaa, Kay, and I went to the keyboard and had that fresh in my mind. And out it came. Most of my songs get written through me real quick. Later I played with Kay and Nurudafina Pili Abena. We used to play with Kay in her apartment in NYC all night sometimes. One night, we were so carried away, I fell asleep playing on Kay's upright piano. I woke up and I was still playing.
D.S. Would you say you were possessed by the Muse?
F.S. Oh, yeah! Kay always said that I brought out her wild side. Z Budapest reminded me in a circle, a woman's gathering, about the first time she met me. Her description made me laugh! She said we were all up at Kay's Gardner's apartment and she walked in, and I was sitting at Kay's piano with hair flying everywhere, naked, banging the hell out of the piano. That was her description of me. That was the night I got initiated.
D.S. Now you are preparing for your own 3rd annual Wise Women's Festival. What have you got have planned for that?
F.S. This year we will have a belly dancer, the drum circle and the Lakota sweat lodge.
D.S. You will be performing, of course.
F.S. Yes, with the Blues Sisters and Kat WhiteStar and the Band of Angels.
D.S. What direction do you think your music is going in?
F.S. I have always endeavored to play uplifting high-energy music. I am doing more of it and exploring different ways to give that message. Messages of hope, really.
D.S. You explore a lot of different genres. The blues, rock, world beat - is any one your favorite?
F.S. I would say I probably have a real soft spot for the blues. I like to play it all because I really like variety. When I go to a concert and I listen to someone, I like a variety of sounds.
D.S. You've designed a matriarchial tarot deck. Tell us more.
F.S. That is called the Wise Women's Tarot. That was a mere 25 year project! I wanted to create a deck that was about intensity and power, which I found missing in the illustrations of other feminist decks. I wanted the images to match the text. I wrote a book that was full of very potent stories, of images of goddesses around the world. I finally got an artist who I felt could match my vision. Ironically, I'm an art major. Again, I went from music when they started to bully me, music to fingerpainting, music to fingerpainting. I didn't give a damn what I graduated as, I just wanted to get a degree and do something creative.
D.S. And to you, the creativity seems married to healing?
F.S. Yes, it fits with the job description of the shaman. I didn't understand that the two things could be, even though for me they were. The music is what has healed me. Now, after the tarot deck was completed, I was ready for more music. I hauled butt into the studio and recorded Phases of the Silvermoon in three days. They were long three days, partially because I recorded most of the parts myself, and also I work fast! Once, I was writing another song, and all of sudden, my hands started playing the chords for "Dancin' with the Snake. It literally possessed me until I finished it. I was making up the words as I went along. It just came out of me. Someone who heard it actually thought it was a Jim Morrison song.
D.S. Maybe you were channeling it.
F.S. I actually thought I might be. I did wonder, after I started singing that, who was working with me. Even though my ancestor of choice is always Janis Joplin!
Flash performs live in the Florida area, often accompanied by The Blues Sisters, Denise Burnsed and Omi Aladora Ajamu. For more information about Flash, including how to order her CDs, visit her web site at www.flashsilvermoon.com
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