Mar 9

Mar 9 Stephanie Carlin And Her New Album Reclamation

PRESS RELEASE FROM STEPHANIE CARLIN

“We have forgotten our power. And there’s nothing more important to me than people getting how powerful they are,” shares Stephanie Carlin. The musical sage presides over a multi-dimensional platform as a speaker and singer-songwriter, kids record label founder, and life coach for artists. She’s on a mission to empower people to shed self-doubt and discover their truth. And she happens to be an expert at it.

“After a half dozen years of being told how to run my music career by a bunch of men who I thought were smarter and better than me, I’ve shed it all - my management team, my self-doubt, and my resentment towards the patriarchal and myopic music industry machine. I’m reclaiming my voice, my art and myself.” Stephanie is championing her message with a bold new album titled “Reclamation.” The album is a stylistic mosaic infusing rock-n-roll, folk-jazz, and neo-soul. Check out her ‘Lokah Samantha Sukhino Bhavantu’ single HERE.

“Reclamation” fearlessly mixes ancient Sanskrit mantras with Stephanie’s rebellious nature that defies the typical new-age genres. “I am asking the questions ‘what does it take to be happy and truly free?’” she says. The 4-song EP entitled Reclamation - A Collection of Mantras boasts an in-the-moment electricity seldom experienced with devotional music. The track “Lokah Samastah” simmers with touches of Afro-beat, chiming guitars, dreamy harmony vocals, and slow-burn soulful vocals. Here, set against traditional texts, Stephanie challenges what it takes to be an enlightened spirit. Her rendition of “Hare Krishna” is like no other. Stephanie brings the otherworldly composition to street level with brawny rock guitars, and surging and passionate singing. Other tracks favor ambitious arrangements with mesmerizing ethereal touches, sweetly soulful vocals, and forays into majestic rock epic territory.

Stephanie’s vocals are richly dynamic, spanning woozy sensuality to soaring emotionality. Lyrically, Stephanie is unafraid to make traditional texts resonant in today’s world with her own insights and commentary. “I hear all these yogis and gurus and spiritual teachers saying, ‘Just be free! Just take a deep breath and let the day go, RIGHT NOW!’ What does that even mean?” She continues, “I’m really looking at our triggers, our resignation, our cynicism, to actually release what stops us from being free. That’s what I write about. The scary work of looking, acknowledging, and if we have the courage, transforming it all.”

Since 2012, Stephanie has fueled her music career as the founder of Free Spirits Music, an international songwriting school with thousands of students across 9 countries. Based in Brooklyn, Free Spirits Music trains artists to be leaders and emphasizes breakthroughs in self-expression and self-doubt through music. The school has blossomed to boasting sold-out semesters, presenting annual rock shows, and, in 2018, becoming a kids record label. As a result of her flourishing curriculum, Stephanie was commissioned to create the curriculum for the John Lennon Real Love Project, a songwriting program for children afflicted with cancer. The program has been endorsed by Yoko Ono since 2015. Stephanie was the Associate Producer of the Annual John Lennon Tribute for 8 years, and it is the only Lennon tribute in North America endorsed by Yoko Ono.

Given her valiant vulnerability, it may come as no surprise that Stephanie came up something like a punk with a mystical goth streak. She led a 10-piece band called Oliver Lankard at just 16 years old. By her senior year of high school, she had convinced her principal to give her a half-day schedule so she could catch an afternoon train from her hometown of Hampton Bays to New York City. She was commuting to record her debut EP, the Agony and Ecstasy of (2008). This is where her career truly began.

Stephanie went on to release her debut LP Tree Of Series (2012) under the band name Avidya And The Kleshas. She’s garnered accolades in such venerated press outlets as MTV, The Deli Magazine, and The Southampton Press, among others. Stephanie honed her craft at Long Island University in Brooklyn where she graduated with a degree in vocal jazz performance. “Even though my shows were packed, it felt like nobody was listening. I needed so much courage to wake up every day and keep writing music,” Stephanie explains. In 2015, Stephanie had the honor of performing at an international United Nations Conference in South Korea with thousands of delegates in attendance, including the UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. There she saw firsthand the power of music to transform lives at a global scale. She adds: “And while all these delegates wanted to change the world, they were struggling with changing themselves.”

Now, Stephanie performs exclusively in yoga studios and at yoga festivals. “It’s a whole ethereal experience. The listeners, the yogis, are in sync with the pulse I set. People are breathing with the music. It’s a shared experience in this whole other way than a conventional show.” Coursing through her work in all mediums is her lifelong dedication to yoga, spirituality, and self-growth. Currently, Stephanie is a focused practitioner of Jivamukti Yoga, a program leader at Landmark, and a certified ThetaHealing® practitioner.

Stephanie Carlin is guiding a new generation of artists to deal with the conditions of their lives to self-actualize dreams -- or at very least, start to discover them. Reclamation is a statement of rebirth. “It’s liberating and terrifying,” she acknowledges, “but it’s so much better than being chained down by fear.”

To learn more about Stephanie Carlin visit: stephaniecarlin.com. Check out Stephanie’s single ‘Lokah Samantha Sukhino Bhavantu’ HERE.