Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Alicia Angel
174 Plays5 years ago
Alicia Angel is a New York City based songwriter, singer, visual artist, and activist. She has co-written over 35 songs for Emmy nominated and award winning hit preschool shows including Nickelodeon’s “Dora the Explorer" and "Dora and Friends: Into the City" as well as songs for “Sesame Street,” Sesame Studios, and Universal Kids’ “Snug’s House.” She has written songs for artists in China and Taiwan via Universal Music Publishing Group, including the song “Girls” performed by Rainie Yang and Cyndi Wang.
Alicia's paintings have been exhibited in NYC art galleries. She’s used her music and art to raise awareness of, and money for, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, Myasthenia Gravis, and COVID-19.
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction and Background
00:00:00
Speaker
You are listening to Something Rather Than Nothing, creator and host Ken Volante, editor and producer Peter Bauer. This is Ken Volante with the Something Rather Than Nothing podcast. In this episode, we have Alicia Angel, who
00:00:25
Speaker
is a songwriter and artist and activist and somebody who I came in contact with being a speaker for a TED Talk that's going to be coming up with Princeton Women. Alicia, Angel, thank you so much for joining the podcast and welcome. Thank you. Thank you, Kane. Thank you for having me. Yeah.
00:00:53
Speaker
The first question goes back and was just wondering if when you were younger, what you would like when you were younger, did you do you see yourself as artistic into songs, into art in general?
Empathy, Animals, and Songwriting
00:01:09
Speaker
You know, when I was young, growing up, I was a lot like I am right now. Some things never change. You know, my I was very much
00:01:21
Speaker
into art and music. My favorite things to do were, you know, draw to write songs and, you know, sing.
00:01:31
Speaker
And I mean, as early as six, learning to read and write, I would write songs. And before I could write and knew how to write words, I was always kind of coming up with melodies. And lyrically, they weren't so sophisticated. I evitated what I heard on the radio and what I thought love was based on TV and things like that.
00:01:58
Speaker
you know, the lyrics would be like, oh, baby, I love you, things like that. But, you know, I was always I was always into that. And it was always just a part, such a big part of who I am and who I was then. And I was always interested like I am today in learning about people through their personal storytelling. And, you know, I would sit as a as a young kid with my aunt and my grandmother and they'd have
00:02:26
Speaker
friends over and they'd play cards and they'd have a few drinks. And I remember just listening to their stories and imitating them. I was always trying to find humor in situations and I was always a mimic. So I would imitate their accents and their stories and
00:02:48
Speaker
you know, pretend to be an old lady, you know, I, I just, you know, loved all of that. And I've loved even as a kid, some of the stuff, I didn't understand necessarily the way I thought I did.
Impact of Illness on Art
00:03:00
Speaker
But I loved just hearing about people and their stories and, and finding out what made them interesting and made them who, who they are. And some other things, you know, I would try, I traveled as a kid, because I flew for free.
00:03:17
Speaker
My mom was, she worked for an airline growing up. And so I did have the opportunity to travel and I always wanted to, I'm the same way, I always wanted to spend my money on that. My first job, I booked my first acting job when I was six and I used that money, I wanted to go to the Dominican Republic. So that's what we did.
00:03:46
Speaker
You know, I, and I guess other than that, just as a person, I was, you know, I, I always felt a really intense empathy for people and for animals. And so that also hasn't changed. Um, and I was also always trying to start a business or solve a problem. Like I was a little, a little entrepreneur. Yeah. And, uh, one of the, I noticed that you said there's kind of, um,
00:04:13
Speaker
empathy for animals. And is that something that's come along in some of the songs that you write? And can you let the listeners know about where some of your music shows up? Sure. So I haven't written about animals yet. I should. I have painted.
00:04:36
Speaker
some animals. So they, you know, have shown up there. But yeah, I've always had an empathy, empathy for animals and for, for people. I've always connected with animals. I've always, you know, I've always, I always felt like, you know, especially dogs and cats, right? Like I always felt like,
00:04:52
Speaker
here they are, you know, they can't speak, you know, they're kind of held captive by a family and, you know, it becomes their family but, you know, they're not always treated right and, you know, there's so many without homes and I just always, it always just is so painful for me to see any being suffer. I mean, it's the kind of stuff that keeps me up at night. So yeah, there's that. As far as my music,
Art as Healing and Expression
00:05:20
Speaker
Right now I actually so I released a song actually in 2017 called anchor and you can get that on YouTube you can there's a music video that I made about domestic violence and It had includes a little PSA at the end about female gender discrimination and I did that to raise awareness of both issues and
00:05:43
Speaker
and money for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Equality Now, so both organizations that work to end both forms of violence.
00:06:00
Speaker
And that song is not on iTunes anymore actually removed everything and I am releasing a song this week Called ring another round which is about or actually I think I'm changing the title to another round which is about my experience with MG my senior gravis which is a rare
00:06:24
Speaker
incurable autoimmune neuromuscular disease that I was diagnosed with last year. So I'm releasing that and it'll actually be played in a documentary premiere about MG called A Mystery to Me. And that is on November 17th.
00:06:48
Speaker
And if anyone's interested in that, in hearing that song for the first time, you can go there to mg-united.com. And that will be November 17th. You can find the info to RSVP. It's gonna be a really cool documentary. And, you know, I'll be releasing the song this week, and I think I'm gonna put Anger back up. And so, yeah, it'll be on all of the, you know, everywhere you get music. iTunes and, you know,
00:07:17
Speaker
Google, all of those, Amazon, yeah. That's wonderful to hear and thank you for that. How has, have you found as far as within your creative process and, you know, your illness that it's, has it created a strong impact on your process, number one? And number two, as far as what you're creating for art, do you see it significantly impacted by
00:07:48
Speaker
by your illness? You know, it's definitely my ability to create art is definitely impacted by my illness, for sure. It's come out in my art, just in this song, for example. I was planning on making a painting about my experience with MG. I haven't done that yet, but I will.
00:08:17
Speaker
Other than that, it's really, it has impacted my, my ability to make art. I mean, you know, I used to, I used to be very quick. So I used to, you know, spend maybe, you know, several hours, you know, a day, you know, one day or maybe two, and I'd have a whole, you know, painting done.
00:08:39
Speaker
Well now, my body needs rest. With MG, you can't go too hard. You can't push yourself. So basically moving any of my muscles, my voluntary muscles, makes them weaker. So it affects things like moving my arms and legs and breathing and swallowing.
00:09:05
Speaker
speaking, chewing, all kinds of things like that, my voice. So because it affects my voice, it's become difficult to record, and I still do. I have it in a while because of the pandemic. So basically, I have, I'm not really, I can't be around people, I'm a little high risk for that. But I, so I haven't been able to record, but you know, I do sing at home and I write,
00:09:32
Speaker
been writing some songs. Other than that, as far as the painting goes, you know, it takes me longer. The paintings used to be quicker. And now I have to, it could take me a week or two to do one painting because I have to wait for the days that I can actually function enough sometimes to sit there and paint. And I have to sit to paint now instead of standing, which I used to do. I just have to do it for less,
00:09:59
Speaker
for shorter periods at a time. Singing too, you know, I have to just, I can do it, but it'll take me longer to, when on a good day, you know, it'll take me longer than it used to. So it's definitely been impacted. Yeah, and thank you Alicia for your obviously perseverance through that and, you know, creating art for others, but also I'm sure as an internal process
00:10:27
Speaker
for yourself. We're speaking with Alicia Angel, a songwriter out in New York City. And Alicia, big question, one of the big ones, what is art? What is art? Well,
00:10:45
Speaker
For me, art is expression. It's healing. It's a way for us to experience the world through another person's lens. And that's something that's going to breed empathy. And so typically, hopefully. So that's art to me. I think that's the short answer.
00:11:10
Speaker
Art is everything to me. Art, you know, there's so many ways to answer that question. But what is art? I just I would say it's an expression, you know, and and it connects. Yeah. Yeah. And thank you. One of the things you had mentioned, Alicia, about about about painting. I adore painting and I was just wondering how long, you know, I'm familiar with some of your music.
00:11:39
Speaker
But with your painting, how long have you been, how long have you painted? Well, I've been painting since 2013 and 12 or 13. And the way that that came about was a childhood friend of mine, Monique,
00:12:00
Speaker
She She has a daughter who was born with a rare disease or the rare liver disease and she knew that she'd need a transplant soon So she wanted to make her room special. She wanted to make her room Have you know that all the Disney princesses on it and so we grew up together so she knew what she always knew I could draw so she said hey, you know, can you please paint the princesses and
00:12:23
Speaker
on Michaela's room. And I'm like, Monique, I don't paint. She's like, you can paint. Come on. I'm like, no, Monique. And then she's like, you can do it. I'm like, you know what? You're right. I'm just going to do it. So I decided to just do it. And I was like, hold up. Wait a minute. I can paint. So it was kind
Art as a Connector
00:12:40
Speaker
of wild to do that. I remember I was painting Pocahontas, one of the princesses for her. And she said,
00:12:51
Speaker
Okay, that's just nuts. And I'm like, what? And she said, you're mixing all of these colors together and getting her exact skin tone. I mean, how is that? You're not even barely even looking at it. You're just kind of like putting random amounts. And it turned out I have kind of like a natural sense for those things. And I don't know my father. I've never met him.
00:13:17
Speaker
There are no issues with that for me. I actually feel that I dodged a bullet, which is a whole other story, but not the best person I could have grown up with. So I'm glad for that, but he was actually a painter. So it's fascinating to me that it reminds me there must be some genetic component in some of us with that.
00:13:42
Speaker
Yeah, and I know in painting myself, just seeing different painters and sometimes the moments of envy, particularly on what you had said of getting the color right. Yeah, yeah. So that's obviously a fantastic skill. We were talking in general, of course, about art. I was wondering,
00:14:13
Speaker
another big question about art, and it's really about its role. Say in a, you know, tumultuous year, 2020, we've seen a lot of art being maybe created out of and within social movements in things that are happening in society.
00:14:34
Speaker
We see a lot of art being produced, consumed, et cetera, because of change and, you know, patterns with people at times being home even more so, or might be home more extensively. What role do you think art has in a pandemic? You know, as an artist, I mean, do you feel you have to create more art?
00:14:59
Speaker
or would try to create more art or does art still have the same level of importance it does during unrest? I think that art has more of a role in a pandemic. Some of the things you mentioned, you know, people are staying home more, so we're further apart physically. And again, I think that art really is a connector and
00:15:28
Speaker
where would we be without artists? Where would we be without art? I mean, think about the way that so much of us spend a lot of our free time. It revolves around art, you know, from watching movies and TV shows and, you know, reading books and all of these things that we do when we're not working or doing the things we have to do. Those are the things we want to do, listening to music. I mean, how many times
00:15:57
Speaker
Um, has music gotten us through something? Um, you know, so I think that that's, that is so important, especially in a pandemic and, you know, it, it helps us connect with each other and ourselves and it, um, you know, it promotes awareness, um, expression. So I think it's really necessary. Yeah. And thanks. Thanks for that answer. I know it's been, um,
00:16:27
Speaker
throughout the pod and doing the podcast over the past few months, it seems like there's just been no really different impacts over time. And I find it, you know, just to see at different periods of time and with different artists, you know, how they see themselves engaged. I wanted to ask you about Alicia had mentioned early on in the episode about
00:16:54
Speaker
a talk event that's going to be going on,
TEDx Experience and Influences
00:17:00
Speaker
Princeton Women, a TED Talk event. Could you talk a little bit about what that event is in your TED Talk as well? Sure.
00:17:17
Speaker
I am going to be delivering a TEDx talk in the TEDx Princeton Women event. I was invited to be a part of it by the organizer. It's a good friend of mine, Kyle. He asked me to be part of it.
00:17:46
Speaker
He needed more women and that's what I know. If there's anything I know, it's women. I know a lot of really cool women and he actually asked me if I could produce it.
00:18:02
Speaker
he actually asked me if I could produce the event. And unfortunately, with this, you know, dealing with my Zannie Gravis, that's a really, that's a hard thing for me to commit to. I mean, I can't, I can't work for a reason. There's a reason I'm not working right now. You know, I can't, I, every day is different for me. And some days I just, I can't function enough. So I couldn't commit to all of that, but I did want to help with, you know, comment, finding other women for him.
00:18:28
Speaker
to help carry that list of women to speak at the event. And I saw it as an opportunity to help give a platform to women of color. So there are only three white women out of 16.
00:18:46
Speaker
you know, that are speaking at the TEDx event. And all other women are women of color. And it's a very diverse group in terms of, in terms of race, in terms of gender. And it's just really gender. I mean, they're all women. But I mean, it's, you know, we have a trans woman involved. We have
00:19:11
Speaker
We have someone talking about fat phobia, someone talking about mental health. A few people talking about mental health. We have someone talking about COVID. She's in an infectious disease.
00:19:28
Speaker
doctor. So there's just such a great, just really incredible group of women. And I am just so honored to be among them, you know, to be a part of an event with some of these women. They're just really exciting. One of them is Nikki Lynette. I don't know, you know Nikki. Yes. Nikki is just
00:19:50
Speaker
Oh, I just worship Nick. I mean, Nikki is like, you know, the work she's doing, the person she is, the artist she is, you know, both visually and then musically, she wrote a play. I mean,
00:20:06
Speaker
You know, Nikki is just a force. And I am just so excited to hear her TED Talk because I just know it's going to be powerful. So yeah, if anyone's interested, you can you can check out TEDx. Probably the easiest way would be to go to Instagram or Facebook.
00:20:25
Speaker
and go to TEDx Princeton Women and they're posting the links. I don't know exactly what the link is, but they're posting the links to the event and you can go on RSVP and it's free. Yeah, there's an RSVP link there and you have a lot of great speakers and it's great that you get the opportunity to
00:20:54
Speaker
be involved with that as well. I very much look forward to it and encourage all listeners to sign up and listen to a lot of the great women speakers at the TEDx event. Alicia, got another big question, a little bit more psychological, just as far as your perspective. The question is,
00:21:21
Speaker
Who or what made you who you are? Women. Women made me who I am. Now there are actually a few different things that made me who I am actually, and I'll get into a few of them here. But women
00:21:38
Speaker
I grew up raised by my mom, my aunt Judy, who died when I was 18, my grandmother who died when I was 15, and they raised me. I was raised by women of older sisters, a lot of women in my family. Then I started volunteering when I was 17 for a domestic violence hotline and met women who were all older than me, who were all
00:22:02
Speaker
you know, just, you know, they taught me the way, you know, they just I learned so much from these women and my friend Elaine, who actually she died in 2013. And I miss her terribly, but she had learned so much from Elaine and, and I started volunteering also with
00:22:23
Speaker
movement to end violence against women called V-Day when I was 18 and learned a ton from those women. So yeah, it's been mostly women. That's what made me who made me what and who made me who I am. But also therapy.
00:22:39
Speaker
That helped me a ton. It helped me grow and become more self-aware. I think that's really important for everyone. And so did a training that I did in 2012. It was like this, I don't even know what to call it. I don't know what it's officially called, but it's this life training.
00:22:58
Speaker
like shook me to my core and it was four days and it was intense and it taught me so much about myself and so much about who I am. It's really an experience where you can kind of figure out who you are versus
00:23:14
Speaker
who you think and say you are and really get in touch with that. And it was, so that had an impact. Travel had a big influence on me since growing up, flying free. I mean, seeing, I think it's just so important for young people to see how big the world is and how different the lifestyle is in every place and how different the needs are everywhere. I mean, especially American kids.
00:23:44
Speaker
I think in this country, that's not encouraged enough. And I really think that people would have more empathy for others if they really got a chance to see people for who they are and see other human beings in their environments instead of
00:24:12
Speaker
and telling their stories and experiencing their stories the way other people want them to be experienced, as opposed to what you see in the media. You can see people in a different country on TV, and it's just not the same. So that was a huge impact on me. And then I guess the last but very important thing I want to mention is
00:24:39
Speaker
You know, I grew up in a racially mixed family. I am not mixed myself, but I grew up in a family where, you know, my vocal coach used to come over when I was 14 and he used to be like, every time I come over here, it's like, he said, I feel like it's like the United Nations, you know, because my house was just, you know, like, you know, my family. So,
00:25:04
Speaker
Yeah, you know, we just have all kinds of, you know, ethnicities in my family and races. And so it was genders, you know, gender identities, things like that. And, you know, sexuality and just all kinds of people in my family. And so growing up in that was really important. And it was it made it so that
00:25:27
Speaker
I didn't want to be in groups of just white people. That would make me very uncomfortable growing up. And the reason for that is that, to be honest, being white, I've had a lot of people, and this has happened recently. I even had a nurse come to my house, and she thought she could just say whatever she wanted because I was white. So I've had experiences where I've had people
00:25:54
Speaker
assume that they could say racist things in front of me and You know, I'm just not the one so so then I have to get into it with them You know to a certain extent and kind of let them know why that's not okay So that was something that I dealt with growing up and you know, my family experienced racism and in certain ways like my niece she we grew up like sisters she's three years younger than me and she's black and you
Diversity and Identity
00:26:20
Speaker
know, she
00:26:23
Speaker
She, you know, we absolutely experienced that as kids, you know. And so seeing that being part of that was just, it made me want to be around all different kinds of people. And so I went to high school in Newark, New Jersey, intentionally, because I wanted to, because it was an art school, but also because I wanted to make sure that I was exposed to all kinds of people, you know. So that's definitely had a big impact on me as well. Yeah.
00:26:53
Speaker
And that experience, it felt New York too, right? From the East Coast. There tends to be some big differences on the coast. And one of the things I'm out here in Oregon, Oregon is deeply lacking in diversity. And it's changed over time, but
00:27:20
Speaker
When I go back out east, it's just a lot different just as far as how people interact with each other and move about with each other.
00:27:31
Speaker
I was just going to say, I think when you come from somewhere, like I grew up in New Jersey, but still, you know, I was 15 minutes from the city and always in New York. And so I think when I am in places where it isn't diverse, I'm always kind of shocked. So when I actually shot part of my anchor music video in Oregon and in Eugene, and I remember asking my friend who lived there, I was like,
00:27:58
Speaker
Why are there no black people around here? What's going on? Why are there only white people here? And I asked the same thing to my friend when I was shooting my video and part of it in Argentina, in Rosario, Argentina. I asked her the same thing. I'm like, girl, why are there just, I've only seen white people aside from one person who was in my music video. And she explained that they have a really kind of awful history as to why that is.
00:28:28
Speaker
But yeah, it's always kind of, it's always uncomfortable for me. I love being in diverse populations, for sure. Yeah, yeah. And I do myself, and I've had that kind of, it always unnerves people when you talk about the opposite.
00:28:49
Speaker
the discomfort that doesn't fit into the racial stereotypes, right? So being uncomfortable around a lot of, you know, white people, like, I'll be like, I remember one time I was somewhere and I mentioned to somebody, let's go to the other side of the street, there was a group of white guys like walking, being very loud. I'm like,
00:29:06
Speaker
I just feel safer on the other side
Philosophical Reflection
00:29:10
Speaker
of the street. You know what? I feel you. I totally understand. Yeah. Yeah. It's always a little curveball for people to let you know the experience. So OK, Alicia, big, big, big question again. Why is there something rather than nothing? Come on, Ken. Why are you going to do that? I know.
00:29:36
Speaker
Well, why is there something rather than nothing? You know, when I think about, when I hear that question, what comes to mind first is a blank canvas. And I think of, you know, of course my mind goes to art. And I think about, you know, if there, the fact that nothing begs to be something.
00:30:04
Speaker
And so I don't think even if there were nothing, even if there were nothing, I don't think that would...
00:30:10
Speaker
that's not sustainable. It just begs to be something. And so even when you have a canvas that's blank, I mean, you could say that's nothing because it's blank, but technically it's a canvas and that's art in itself, right? Like that's the canvas. Somebody made that canvas. Someone designed that. That's art in itself. Someone made those materials. And that's,
00:30:37
Speaker
you know, that's something. So even a blank canvas starts
Social Media and Future Projects
00:30:40
Speaker
out as something. Um, and so yeah, I think, I think for me, that's the answer. I know that that's an answer that, um, can be answered in many different ways by different people. But for me, I think it's just because it's just natural. I think nothing begs to be something. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it. I appreciate that the, um,
00:31:02
Speaker
There's a general expression about, you know, like, you know, an ancient principle of like, nature abhors avoid, right? So things must be there. It seems like there is a push towards there being something or space being filled. Sure. Yeah. Oh,
00:31:20
Speaker
Um, so Alicia, um, uh, before we go, um, I wanted you, if you could kind of, I know you mentioned a few different places to find, um, your material, um, throughout, throughout the episode, but I wondered if you could just, you know, kind of take the time here at the end, just to let folks maybe notify where to find your, your, your website, uh, things you want them to find, uh, all that type of stuff.
00:31:48
Speaker
Sure. So you can find me on social media. So on Facebook, just Alicia Angel, you can find me on Instagram. It's Alicia Angel. So I-T-S-A-L-I-C-I-A-A-N-G-E-L.
00:32:08
Speaker
So it's Alicia Angel and that's probably the best way to find me and anything I'm doing I post there and That's how we found each other, you know, so that's that's probably the best way to stay updated with what I'm doing You know, I took some time off because because of the whole You know rare disease thing and then pandemic and all that stuff I've just been focusing a lot on my health and now things are kind of arts finding me
00:32:36
Speaker
You know, I tried to, I took a little break, but we're back. And so, you know, I still need to, uh, do a lot of things like create a new site and all that stuff. Cause what I had before was old. And so, yeah, so there'll be more stuff on the way soon, but in the meantime, I'd say get me on Instagram.
Conclusion
00:32:53
Speaker
Yeah, thank you so much. And of course, you mentioned that that newer track coming out and very much look forward to the TED Talk. And again, listeners at the TEDx Princeton Women later this month, an online
00:33:13
Speaker
a series of TED talks, which look to be incredible and which will feature Alicia Angel and also an upcoming guest, Nikki Lynette. So very much look forward to that, Alicia. Thank you so much for spending time.
00:33:29
Speaker
It's been a great pleasure being able to chat with you and to get to know you better and also to have another thing to look forward to that talk at the end of the month. Thank you for having me. The feeling is so mutual and I loved being here. This was great. Thank you. Thank you so much and I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Bye now.
00:33:59
Speaker
something rather than nothing.