I love poetic storytelling that melts the edges of time and space.

Composing music has always been my greatest ambition since I was a child in Patagonia, Argentina. I spent my entire childhood and adolescence composing unfinished works on paper and in midi format. Initially, I attempted unsuccessfully to focus on Economics in Buenos Aires.  This failure encouraged me to  devote to my private compsition studies with Daniel Montes and later with Lucas Fagin. The audible results of these endeavours are the pieces 'Requiem para Albertine' and 'Faster Than the Speed of Love'. In 2011, having become deeply frustrated by the amount of unperformed scores I had composed, I decided to further my studies at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, where I joined the Bachelor Composition programme. I studied there with Cornelis de Bondt, Peter Adriaansz and Calliope Tsoupaki.  I followed afterwards a Master in Music at the Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp, studying with Wim Henderickx and Luc van Hove. Since I began my studies in the Netherlands my focus as a composer has shifted towards tonal music. It is my goal to now create a personal language, deeply influenced not only by the composers I admire but also through my own musical memory.

I have had the opportunity to perform my music with professional ensembles such as Modelo62 and Slagwerk Den Haag as well as having worked with a group of highly talented students. Since June 2012 I have also been working as composer for the Netherlands-based theater and performance company "Medea73".
My ultimate goal in terms of my musical compositions is to create something so powerful that I am able to elicit similar feelings of enthrallment and love that I experience when listening to late Beethoven's and Bruckner's music, within myself, and hopefully, within members of my audience.

Meshell has changed. So has her music. It’s more peaceful, freer. Her new album, Weather, cloaks itself in the colours of autumn, full of in-between shades and hues and with a certain mildness to it. The singer has let her feelings carry her along. Meshell has never been scared of sharing her most intimate thoughts in explicit or colourful terms that always come from the heart. As ever, she is true to herself. But Weather’s folk sensibility and pregnant acoustic melodies make this a supremely accessible album.

“For a long time I was at war with everyone else. I dug my heels in, I fought hard. That’s all over now. I have my opinions, but they’re no longer a source of conflict with the rest of the world.” On Weather Meshell’s usually deep vocals slip into a register more like a whisper, sharing secrets about subjects that are straightforward, almost light-hearted. She has pared down her style to something like pop. “I started to write this album on the guitar and you can hear it. The final atmosphere’s gentler.”

And then the singer agreed without fuss to put her fate in the hands of a producer. Joe Henry (Ani DiFranco, Bettye Lavette, Allen Toussaint, etc.) helped her reveal a different side to herself. And Meshell went along with this. “I’ve known him since the Bitter album; Craig Street introduced us. I hadn’t called on someone from outside for several albums. But contrary to what everyone thinks, I love getting other opinions, hearing a different point of view and allowing myself to be led by someone with strong ideas. It’s a dialogue. This kind of experience really motivates me.” One might well have imagined her bent protectively over her compositions, her own personal, contradictory and profound world. But she says that she wants to continue this experience in future projects with other musicians. She mentions Brian Eno and Lee Scratch Perry.

She worked the way she likes to with Joe Henry - just two or three takes to capture the spontaneity and freshness of the moment. She is accompanied by Chris Bruce (guitar), Deantoni Parks (drums), Keefus Ciancia (keyboards), Gabe Noel (cello) and guests Jay Bellerose (drums) and Benji Hughes (backing vocals). Meshell recently did some producing herself – for jazz singer Laïka Fatien and rising star Selah Sue. Despite the pop-folk sound of Weather, jazz remains a major source of inspiration. “I love jazz musicians. They’re free; they have no fear. I’ve done pop and there are lots of barriers, lots of holding back. You have to stick to the conventions. Jazz musicians embrace uncertainty and adventure, even in their private lives. They’re more open and often more skilled, both in the studio and on stage.”

On Weather, Meshell sings of the ups and downs of love, one of her favourite subjects. Her heroines are marked by the void left by the loved one (“Object”) or else, like a game of mirrors, pour out their heart about the hurt they have caused others. She does a cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Chelsea Hotel”, dedicated to Janis Joplin, an extremely sad and somewhat sexist song, as well as “Don’t Take My Kindness for Weakness” by Soul Children, a sixties soul band, whose message she has made her own. Her own lyrics are always concise, precise or allusive, full of images and poetry (“I want to be your answer”). “They’re like mantras, some phrases cast to the wind, images that pop into my mind. Then I add the music.” She also talks about the wider world on a few tracks. ‘Oysters’ is about “the change that everyone talks about but never comes”. Meshell explains that “Consumerism is gaining ground all the time. We all live to get a new car or a new computer, but what’s the point?” So, join the great world party? “Not for me,” she replies in Dirty World. “I live two hours from New York. I ran away from all the dirt. There’s a farm where I live, and healthy food. I love cooking – it’s not all that different from making music. You need ingredients, and the greatest pleasure is when you share it share it with others.”

Summer Tour 2018 is happening!

Get tickets at: www.kinagrannis.com

producer/writer/arranger/string player/vocalist
available on iTunes and Spotify. hard copies from fat possum records
Booking requests to kadhjamanagement@gmail.com

Edith is following