Frida “The Freedom To Be - ألني أحب”
Frida Talks Divine Feminine and Surrender on “The Freedom To Be - ألني أحب”
Photo credit: May Arida Werren
Frida’s music is a work of love and art. From one soul to another, she communicates truth in its foremost authentic form. Inspired by Mother Earth, she speaks of freedom, love, and passion in the language of music as she surrenders, allowing inspirations and ideas to flow through her body as they naturally occur.
From Lebanon to Jordan to Switzerland to the rest of the world, Frida and her music have traveled far and further, beyond the boundary and barrier of language.The Freedom to Be offers a transforming and powerful experience where spirituality and divine orchestration are at play.
Purity, love, and inspiration are translated into the lyrical and melodic form are interacted and passed between artists. The album is also the first volume of Here and There Project, a collaborative thought experiment between Lebanese and international artists. In the interview, Frida shares insights on the rebirth and empowerment of Divine Feminine, her own spiritual journey, and how intuition guides her further down the creative path.
Punk Head: what inspired you to speak about female empowerment, strength, and nature? Could you give us some insight into your own journey?
Frida: It was probably my journey to find balance in a world that would not make sense to me until I found it...
You see, I was born and raised in Lebanon, where despite an openness to the world that is quite unique to the region, patriarchy was so deeply ingrained in everything I knew that it was next to impossible to see all its ramifications and implications in my life and on my own psyche. Growing up, I rebelled as I could, walking into roles of leadership whenever called to, operating in highly masculine corporate circles, learning how to be heard and respected, practicing boundaries and how to say no.
At the same time, I wasn't quite what you would call a feminist: at university, as part of my graphic arts program, I had a paper to write and present. I chose to talk about the visual artist Ghada Amer and her embroidery works, where she represents series of women in highly erotic positions which, when seen from a distance, looke like mesmerizing patterns of hypnotic shapes and colors. This lead me to talk about feminism and I argued that it was missing an essential something, as it was using the same old masculine ways to get somewhere new, strengthening the narrative of separation between men and women instead of creating cohesion... I concluded that it could never work.
I couldn't have guessed that the jury was made up of 7 feminist women artists who didn't like what I said very much, but I was 21 and had myself a good round of fun
The true unfolding of all this came with my spiritual journey really. The more I looked within and around me, the clearer it was that some attributes, or energies, were clearly out of balance for us to be living a reality so full of struggle and pain and injustice and all those things we know we could be doing much better. More Love. More Compassion. More Joy. More slowness so we can listen. More creative play. Harmony. And Presence. More Presence is the answer to so much.
These are all attributes of the Feminine in many spiritual schools and to me, the repression of women in the past centuries is first and foremost the manifestation of the repression of the Feminine within us - within our minds, our words, our systems, and our evolution.
So I would say that, rather than Female Empowerment, what I sing is the rebirth and empowerment of the Divine Feminine, in us all.
PH: where do you usually find inspiration and how do you capture these moments?
Frida: Mother nature is the mother of all inspiration. It is mostly there that I go to learn how things were really designed to work: the path of least resistance, the power of surrender, the ability to stand tall and unscathed in the midst of adversity, and the ever-flowing and transforming point of harmony. It is also what awakens my senses and by doing so, opens my channels further and allows thoughts I haven't thought before into my consciousness.
The other big source of inspiration is all the beauty unfolding inside of me and the people around me as we ascend and learn how to create this new reality: I see acts of kindness and courage, bold new ways being born out of love, and master creators remembering the truth of who they are... All beauties that make me want to sing them until it is all there is to sing!
PH: what is the creative flow of this album?
Frida: This album is truly the child of surrendering to the flow. The idea - and shared intention among all of us working on it - was to allow the path of least resistance to decide of everything: which songs go on it, how they evolve and where exactly we're going with it all. There were other written songs that could have ended up on this album, and so many different possible possibilities for each, but the flow was clear and we were listening: these songs, written at different times in different places were going to be it.
They will keep on evolving into something new with every live performance, but their essence is now out into the world, and that's a real joy.
PH: which are the songs that you feel personally related to? Can you tell me more about them?
Frida: It is hard not to feel personally related to songs one writes, composes then sings. The whole process in itself is so intimate that each song becomes like an extension of the Self, a combination that is so essentially true that it says things I probably wouldn't know how to... so there's history and a personal story with each of the songs, a love affair of some sorts...
But if I had to pick one that seems to tickle my spine a little bit more than others, I'd probably say Ssalaat (track 4)... Maybe because the writing process was so collaborative* that I feel it carries a particularly potent energy, maybe it's because it's the first song where I express my devotion so clearly and freely (which makes it a transcendental experience whenever I sing it), and maybe it's because I can't help but dance to it everytime I hear it...
Not sure why, but this one has definitely a special place in my heart.
*a shout-out to Florian Bolliger, Felix Fivaz, Wael Sami Elkholy, Ibrahim Nehme and Nadim Amou Alwan
PH: what do you love the most about doing music?
Frida: That state of being so in love with everything that everything shines ever brighter.
