SASHA MARIE ➔ EXCLUSIVE MIX
Los Angeles based pluridisciplinary artist & SASHA MARIE delivers her singular and exclusive mixtape for our community. She blends 70s’s latin, hip-hop, batida, alternative house, amapiano, african beats to refresh your ears and feelings.
Hi Sasha , how are you feeling ?
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I’m feeling pretty good and mellow right now. I’ve just been working away this past week. Just trying to stay balanced and focused.
It’s been a long time you’ve part of the Soulection team. What do you bring to each others ? How it nourishes you on spiritual, cultural, artistic aspect ?
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It's been such an incredible journey since I joined Soulection. I've been with the collective for over 8 years, so it's been amazing watching everyone grow and flourish in their own ways. Everyone brings their own unique talent and energy to the table.
I love the work y’all do on 10_high_design. Such a nice aesthetic. As a creator of audio & visual poetry, I am curious about the kind of teenager you were. Were you already keen on image, sound and world ?
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Thank you so much. It’s been such an honor studying design under Skyler from 10High. I’ve been learning so much!
In my early teenage years I didn’t have much of a social life so I spent a lot of time alone. During this time I really used music and imagery as a form of escape. It was an outlet from my reality at the time. I loved getting lost in my dad’s records or my mom’s cds. I feel that my curiosity for music at this age really helped develop my palette for the years to come.
To be creative often comes with a taste for necessary solitude. Enjoying our own company is important ,yet many people still feel uncomfortable with it. What advice would you give ?
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I learned a lot about the art of solitude through my favorite poet and philosopher Rainer Rilke. Here are two excerpts from the book, Ten Letters to a Young Poet that really resonated with me. It might resonate with you too.
“And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it. This very wish, if you use it calmly and prudently and like a tool, will help you spread out your solitude over a great distance. Most people have (with the help of conventions) turned their solutions toward what is easy and toward the easiest side of the easy; but it is clear that we must trust in what is difficult; everything alive trusts in it, everything in Nature grows and defends itself any way it can and is spontaneously itself, tries to be itself at all costs and against all opposition. We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us; it is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it …”
“And to speak of solitude again, it becomes clearer and clearer that fundamentally this is nothing that one can choose or refrain from. We are solitary. We can delude ourselves about this and act as if it were not true. That is all. But how much better it is to recognize that we are alone; yes, even to begin from this realization … We must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it. This is, in the end, the only kind of courage that is required of us: the courage to face the strangest, most unusual, most inexplicable experiences that can meet us …”
70s’s latin, hip-hop, batida, alternative house, amapiano, african beats and a zest of the great MNDSGN.. What’s the best context to listen to your mix ?
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My mixes are made to be listened to when you want to feel something or if you want to escape. I just want my mixes to be the soundtracks to peoples lives.
What’s the best daily ritual you use to rearrange your mind
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I’m still working on finding a consistent ritual that I can carry out each day. I jump around a lot mentally. My moments of calm and clarity exist when I’m in solitude, hanging with family or creating.
If you could only listen to 5 same tracks for a whole month, what would you need to choose ?
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Currently:
Eddie Okwedy - "Happy Survival”
Hiatus Kaiyote - “Red Room”
Amanaz - “Khala My Friend”
Barrington Levy - “The Vibes is Right”
PinkPantheress - “Just for Me”
As a really creative, inspiring, spiritual individual, what is your favorite leitmotiv ?
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I often try to remind myself to take a step back and take in all that I've experienced and accomplished. It's so easy to get caught up in this daily hustle and grind that you forget to appreciate the journey itself.
