- Hello, and welcome to the Homegrown Music Concert featuring creative performances from the WVIA studios.

I'm George Graham.

This time it's an electronic musician, singer, songwriter, and also graphic artist from Scranton, Brenda Fernandez.

(light pensive music) (light pensive music continues) (light pensive music continues) (light pensive music continues) (light pensive music continues) (Brenda vocalizing) (audience applauds) - Thank you.

- Yeah, so, I am recording my fourth album right now.

I'm in the process of doing that, which is really exciting because every time you get to record something new or over the years with creativity, you never know what you're gonna get.

And this album is inspired by the word faith keeper, which is what I'm gonna title the album, and we'll get back to that faith keeper idea a couple songs in.

But this next song is called "Strangely Serene."

(soft calm music) (Brenda vocalizing) ♪ It's so quiet and soft ♪ And it feels warm ♪ I'm at easy with what is ♪ And I'm grateful for all ♪ It's so quiet, so quiet and soft ♪ ♪ And it feels warm ♪ I'm at easy with what is ♪ And I'm grateful for all ♪ All the courage ♪ And the willingness that I put in ♪ ♪ That I forgot about ♪ Brings miracles a thousand fold ♪ ♪ Something only felt ♪ It feels so simple, quiet and soft ♪ ♪ And I'm at ease with what is ♪ Is, is, is ♪ And I feel strangely serene ♪ And I feel strangely serene ♪ Mmm (soft calm music continues) (soft calm music continues) (Brenda vocalizing) (soft calm music continues) (audience applauds) Thank you.

I decided tonight to play all new songs.

It just felt right to do so, even though I have quite a few songs and many of them I just love singing and playing.

But the new material that's come out just feels really great, feels right.

And I wore red today for everyone because of Valentine's Day and because it's such a great color.

And...

So anyhow, this next song is called "Show Me."

And a lot of the material or lyrics that I write, it's sometimes a mixture of poetry, sometimes I throw in mantra or maybe like a small story to tell.

And this song definitely falls into the category of a prayer.

And it's titled, "Show Me."

(gentle music) ♪ Most holy wisdom ♪ Here is my hand ♪ As I reach beyond the Land of Shadows ♪ ♪ To join with you instead ♪ Of appointing myself ♪ Truly ♪ Only wisdom ♪ Knows ♪ The way ♪ Follow its guiding light ♪ In the land of dreams ♪ Follow its guiding light ♪ In the land of mind ♪ In the land of dreams ♪ In the land of the mind ♪ In the land of dreams ♪ Show me how ♪ How to see ♪ Show me how ♪ How to be ♪ How to be kind ♪ How to be free, how to listen ♪ ♪ How to receive ♪ How to be kind ♪ Show me how to be free ♪ Show me how to listen ♪ Show me how to receive (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) When I was first starting out, you know, I just liked your average pop rock, but I also, in my family, everybody listened to something different.

So my father was more of the rock and roll, psychedelic type of music, like Talking Heads and whatever.

And my mom was more into Soul and R'n'B and gospel music, and then my brother was into metal, and my sister was into like poppie '90s, you know, goofy music, and my grandmother was into jazz.

So everybody around me kind of filtered in their own, you know, their own way of expressing themselves.

And I think I took that in as a young person.

But then as I, you know, got older, I really fell in love with listening to music that was calming, like Chopin and Enya.

I loved listening to her, just putting a candle on and burning some incense and just, you know.

And then I started getting into chanting and mantra music and yoga music and stuff like that.

But I would say, over time a little bit here and a little bit there, the most influential things, and lately I've been really interested in listening to something called classical crossover music, which is like this new genre coming out where...

But I mean, it feels good to enjoy it all, you know, from Joe Beam to Beethoven.

I mean there's, you know, it's such a long file folder.

So you could see why it's a prayer.

(chuckles) That's a great prayer to just get yourself out of the way, and let something else really fresh and light come through living in the world.

Speaking of, this next song is called "Infinite."

The beginning of this song does have a mantra in it, which is in the language of Gurmukhi.

And Gurmukhi is used in the Kundalini yoga tradition.

And the mantra is Ong Namo Gurudev Namo, which means I bow to the infinite wisdom within, or I bow to the divine within.

And it's just a marvelous blessing to bestow on oneself before you take a walk or you meditate or you do yoga or whatever, drive your car, you know, just to kind of center in and yeah...

So I'll start the song "Infinite."

(light dreamy music) (light dreamy music continues) ♪ Ong Namo ♪ Gurudev Namo ♪ Ong Namo ♪ Gurudev Namo (light dreamy music continues) ♪ As the sun rises ♪ In the morning ♪ The quiet ushers in ♪ And opens me ♪ And I bow to the infinite ♪ Bow to the gifts that love gives ♪ ♪ I bow to the infinite ♪ To the gifts that love gives (light dreamy music continues) (light dreamy music continues) ♪ Ong Namo ♪ Gurudev Namo (light dreamy music continues) (light dreamy music continues) (audience applauds) - Thank you.

Thank you.

So, as I was saying before about the word faith keeper and titling my new album that, I wrote down two definitions of faith keeper that I wanted to share with you.

The faith keeper's role is to maintain or to remain peaceful and calm and to maintain understanding no matter what they or the world around them may endure.

And then the second one is faith keepers help someone to stay in faith, remind them of their true purpose, and to keep the flame lit even on days when things feel bleak.

And yesterday, as I was kind of going through my little set list, I was thinking about those words, you know, faith keeper and just how settled in my life I feel like, now it's time for me to do that, to be the anchor in my life and in the people in my life to take on that role, to just show the portal that there is another way, despite the turmoil that we all know very well.

It takes a lot of courage and it takes a lot of integrity and willpower, you know, like steadfast dedication.

But the more and more that you cultivate peace and the more and more you cultivate that garden of kindness or authenticity inside of yourself, it does get easier and it gets really fulfilling.

And you just notice little miracles along the way within the mundane of life, you know?

But then in the mundane, there's the simplest things that are just so beautiful and so amazing, you know, just to be able to see or smell, taste, touch, to laugh, to cry, to do anything, like emotions.

And I don't know, it's just being human is pretty crazy.

It's like a whirlwind of an amusement park.

(laughs) So, I'm gonna play the instrumental "Faith Keeper" for you right now.

And then, when I was playing this yesterday, I thought to myself, the piano is my faith keeper.

When I sit down and play and I hear it, especially if it's a real piano, it just comforts me and it and it sends me to a place that is just quiet and lovely.

So here we go.

"Faith keeper."

(gentle heartwarming music) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (gentle heartwarming music continues) (audience applauds) I'm a fan of WVIA for many years, and I first heard about it when I was very young.

And my father, he would listen to, you know, classical music on the weekend when he did his bills on a Saturday.

And I always knew to not go into the kitchen on a Saturday morning when classical music was playing, because my father was, you know, writing checks and getting aggravated and whatnot.

But then that led me to listening to some of George's programs and jazz programs.

And then I started many years ago coming here as a audience member and coming to see friends of mine perform alive.

And I just thought it was like, so amazing and cool, and what an opportunity.

And then as I was setting up tonight, I was like, whoa, I'm doing this!

(laughs) And it's just feels really cool.

It feels really great.

And even so, when I was really young, and I talked to Erika Funke about this, when I was about 12 or 13, I had a fake radio station in my bedroom called 99.63.

And I wanted to be, you know, a DJ.

And that led me into other worlds of sound and, you know, voice and stuff.

So I just wanted to tell you that little story before I move on to the next song, which is titled "Shut Down."

It's not about the shutdown that we all experienced, it's about an emotional shutdown that kind of happens sometimes with maybe friendships or relationships where it's kind of hard to let that person just be as they are.

And then you finally learn, oh, I should just love them as they are.

And things kind of fall into place a little easier.

So here's "Shutdown."

(airy anxious music) ♪ I'm so sorry ♪ For shutting down ♪ And hiding up ♪ On you ♪ It's what I do best ♪ An oblivious fool ♪ How many times have I done this ♪ ♪ Without even knowing ♪ I can't even see ♪ What I'm doing ♪ Until you pointed out to me ♪ So I run ♪ But you've already caught me ♪ You found what I wanted kept hidden ♪ ♪ So I shut down 'cause I don't want to be found out ♪ ♪ The story in my head seems so right ♪ ♪ But the truth is I'm mistaken ♪ (airy anxious music continues) (airy anxious music continues) ♪ This so tired ♪ Till begins to make no sense at all ♪ ♪ Together or not at all ♪ Is what the wise people say ♪ But it gotta have guts ♪ To look at what it done ♪ My default is to run ♪ But I'm looking at the pain I caused ♪ ♪ 'Cause I was just too scared ♪ To love ♪ I was just too scared ♪ I was just too scared ♪ To love ♪ To love ♪ I was just too ♪ You found me out ♪ And not gonna shut down ♪ You found me out ♪ But I'm not gonna shut down ♪ No, no (airy pensive music) When my first album that I made, I had a little harmonium, which is like a reed organ.

And I set up with that and a drum machine, because I didn't have a full band.

So I was just trying to get something together with writing my own baselines, electronically and everything.

And then I've always had a few keyboards laying around.

And then I would show up at a gig and I would have a hard time remembering, okay, like...

I would be more nervous about get hitting the right buttons than blah, blah, blah, you know?

And then last year I found out that you could plug a Strymon guitar pedal into a synthesizer.

And I was just like, I gotta get that.

And so I started fiddling around with that.

So I think every year, every loop around, I try to dip into technology in new ways.

And the last couple of months I have been exploring arpeggiation and doubling and layering and going into the mechanics and the computer system of the keyboard itself, and just having fun exploring different avenues of sound.

I think I have time for two more songs I'll do for you guys.

And it's just been so wonderful.

And it also feels so wonderful to be singing live again after being in my little room at home for many years, all alone in four walls, 'cause I don't have a band either, so I'm just like, wah-wah-wah, like Jack Nicholson in "The Shining."

(audience laughs) Oh God.

(laughs) Now, you know.

I think that would probably be a good lead into this next song.

So, many of us dream at night.

I have a very active dream world.

And sometimes I wake up and I'm so exhausted, 'cause I'm all over the place.

But this song is about a reoccurring dream that I used to have about being a vampire.

And I'll go into the details of it once I sing the song, but I decided to kind of psychoanalyze the dream and see like, if I keep having this dream, like what's it all about?

But when I was younger, I got really into vampires.

I think it was the movie, "The Lost Boys" that started it all.

I love the idea that they could fly, that they were strong, you know, they had fangs and they were, you know, really sexy and suave and pretty much just had a superpower.

So, I spent a couple of years in my youth wearing trench coats and dark makeup and lots of all that gothic stuff.

So then, as I got older, I was having this reoccurring dream and I thought, oh no, here it is again in my psyche.

So I'll sing this song for you.

It's called "Keep Dreaming."

(dark dreamy music) (dark dreamy music continues) ♪ This recurring dream ♪ Keeps haunting me ♪ I'm a vampire flying ♪ In hopes to feed ♪ I look down away ♪ In search of prey ♪ Then find you, I entice you ♪ Right before ♪ I bite you (dark dreamy music continues) ♪ Who even wants to see ♪ The parts of self that leave you in the ease ♪ ♪ The troubling disguise ♪ Caught off by ♪ The whole of everything ♪ So I keep dreaming ♪ I keep dreaming ♪ I keep dreaming ♪ I keep dreaming ♪ A dream show me what I ♪ What I'm afraid to see ♪ I would feed off the others ♪ Hidden in my thoughts ♪ Behind a curtain ♪ And this is what we do ♪ We use and judge 'em, feed off the others ♪ ♪ And oh, how it takes ♪ Forever to see ♪ I am the others ♪ I keep dreaming ♪ I keep dreaming ♪ Oh ♪ Oh (dark dreamy music continues) (audience applauds) Thank you.

Thank you.

One more?

I'll do one more.

I thought I'd do this song.

It's called "Om Rahu" and the gist of it is a mixture of a mantra and a little bit of English.

And when I sing this song, it just lightens things up.

Sometimes I do some music for meditation classes or yoga classes.

And this one is one that I like to do just to kind of create a ambient soft space for everybody.

So thanks again.

And here's "Om Rahu."

(soft deep music) (Brenda sings in foreign language) (Brenda sings in foreign language) (Brenda sings in foreign language) (soft deep music continues) ♪ The light of the Universe ♪ The pure truth removes ♪ All suffering ♪ And all pain ♪ The light of the Universe ♪ The pure truth removes ♪ All suffering ♪ And all pain (soft deep music continues) (soft deep music continues) (Brenda sings in foreign language) (audience applauds) Thank you.