Memphis singer-songwriter Valerie June released her fifth solo record this month, The Moon and the Stars: Prescriptions for Dreams on Fantasy Records.

June recently connected with Mary Lucia to lead a meditation and play a few songs from her catalog. The two discussed channeling light in dark world, finding her voice, and spending time along the Mississippi River. Watch the full interview and performance below.

Interview Highlights

Do you use meditation to enter a space where you might be more receptive to hearing new lyrics?

Oh, yeah. That's really what I try to do with it is, like, go to this world, this other world within this world. And that's one of the beautiful things about it is that we can be here on Earth experiencing all the things we experience and still get to visit that space. I don't even know how to describe that space. But what I want to do is figure out how to bring that with me in every single moment. How do you do meditation in action? What does it look like to have it be a lifestyle, you know, not just sitting practice, but Cina Khan has walking meditation that I love to do. And mantra meditation, song meditations, different ones. So how do we live it?

Your voice is so singular and it's like a sort of like a fingerprint in that it really is so your own and I want to know, when did you find your singing voice?

I wake up and I'm trying to find it every day, even as you go throughout the day. I wake up in the morning and I can hit some super low like Barry White notes, and then in the middle of the day, I'm getting a little bit more open. And by the end of the day, I'm like, I can hear some Carla Thomas notes by the end. But yeah, like I have to walk into the voice every day and just be like, Okay, what is it? Because I know is not. It is what it's gonna be. It's wild, it's a beast.

External Link

Valerie June - official site