About Me
"When you're born Maori, you sing". That's what they say at least. I grew up in the Southern most city in Aotearoa, the daughter of a musician and niece to one of Polynesia's most well-known songwriters Tommy Taurima. Music was always in "da blood". I sang and danced in local Maori cultural groups as a young child, and made the transition to music as a career in my late teens. I was "discovered" in 1995, and set sail for America, beginning a long period of my own "discovery". I spent the first 9 years in the mountains, balancing a music career with a deep desire to be around nature, writing, playing (and driving) anywhere from San Diego to Santa Barbara. After years of solo gigs, and enough Bob Marley and Joni Mitchell infused originals to placate the "born to be wild" crowds, I decided to "just sing". In 2001 SoulFlower was formed, an LA based soul-fusion-funk-jazz group that allowed me to develop as a co-writer, in the atmosphere of a band I moved back to LA in 2005, as we played anywhere and everywhere, from BB Kings to block parties, selling cd's from Sunset blvd to the UK (thanks cdbaby). But something was missing, and in 2007 I branched out again as a solo artist, this time from a deep desire to write from a spiritual space. I began studying under the Mystic Rev. Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith, and attending Agape International Spiritual Community, the only man-made place I've ever found the Presence as it is in nature. With a deep meditation and service oriented practice, my life, and my music, has transformed incredibly, and I'm grateful to everyone along the way, those that cheered from the sidelines and those that encouraged from the finish.I'm currently working on a debut solo album, dividing time between that and providing BG vocals to support the many inspirational albums of local artists, as well as recordings for motivational speakers such as Jack Canfield, Lisa Nichols, T. Harv Ecker, Marci Shimoff and Mark Victor Hansen. In addition I am a member of the Gospel quartet New Thought, lead by the incomparable Tim McAfee Lewis, TNT for short :) See upcoming shows for details...I always wanted to use my voice to uplift and evolve the consciousness on the planet, it's nice to see that unfolding...
