An Interdependent Interdisciplinary Artist -
A Storyteller offering a Songwriter's Sojourn -
seeking to be a healthy creative person:

Aliah Selah was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona where she started piano lessons at 7 - but then at 9 she opted out of lessons to play piano and find her own songs. She kept her poems in a shoe box under her bed... and when no one was around - she took her poems to the piano where she would just play... exploring her voice and the piano and listening to what came.

Aliah’s involvement in performing arts first began with her dancing as young as 3 in Creative Dance classes. She loved to dance and grew up taking classes in ballet, tap, and jazz and this lead to being known in high school for her conceptual dances that she choreographed to
FRANK ZAPPA, YES, and PINK FLOYD songs. When she choreographed Dark Side Of The Moon's "Time" - it was described as "poetry in motion" and she began to be seen in a new light around her high school. Especially when the year book printed this hauntingly cool solo dance picture that had somehow - in a spontaneous instant - captured her special spark.

She was naturally funny and even at times the class clown while performing in musical comedies from age 7 to 13 - but after hearing Janis Joplin at 13.. she she opted out of more musicals - to write her own songs. She was into finding what was real - and discovering how to express it.

In her singing studies, she wanted to sing the gospel wailing of "The Great Gig In The Sky" (off Dark Side Of The Moon) - so she learned it - note per note. She was mesmerized by how much emotion was conveyed without words and knew that was the place that she wanted to sing from. And she turned from dance classes to Yoga - this grew her strength to ergonomically be in touch with her body feeling it get stronger each day.

This realization caused her to change deeply inside - she became a vegetarian, a pacifist, and started doing yoga.

#1 LIFE CHOICE: Self Care & Living Healthy are the foundations
to any dream. Yoga is a way of life and Aliah has said that it saved her from unhealthy dance classes and the typical life of a touring musician. Yoga has been a natural guide to her wellness lifesyle that has allowed her to have lots of energy to be creative. Listening to the body, she finds creative ways to make good tasting, easy to prepare finger foods, salads, soups, stews, and deserts - eating middle path organic vegetarian health foods. Her understanding of nutrition has allowed her to be into the latest whole food nutritional supplements to add to her optimally healthy "live-it", she calls it.

Being IN EASE & FOODCOOL from the book BEING IN EASE & FOODCOOL
is her new podcast in pre-production that came from the book
FOODCOOL & FOODCOOL KITS
she gave to many known touring musicians.

Aliah feels that ALL conditions have a nutrtional element,
then there is our heirity, and support or lack there of.
We have a choice by how we live. If we are attracted to what is healthy for us and choose happiness then all the sensitivity of the soul can be channeled through our art form. And clarity comes in time as we observe the ping-pong of the yes and no in our head. The Inspiration vs. Disappointment dance. As we can we begin to enjoy the game and learn from both the ups & down. This is what life is about and it can help to feed our creativity so that we are able to make the best of whatever happens -
through our art.
If anyone has told you to take psychological drugs... please read this:
YOU JUST MAY BE AN ARTIST - CHOOSE TO BE A HEALTHY ONE.

#2 LIFE CHOICE: There are no mistakes... everything is how we respond to what happens and making the best of it. So use your high sensitivity to be creative - EXPRESS YOURSELF. There are many shades to the images we see
- what view helps you to keep your center and be your best?


Aliah's songwriting awakening...

One day... Aliah dared to share a few of her intimate songs on piano with her chorus teacher after school. As a songwriter himself, he was blown away and began encouraging her singing & songwriting. He was so moved with how deeply she looked into things with her poetic lyrics. Yet mostly, how she let every experience inspire a poem that lead to a song about something she learned - from each experience.

He told her to save all her poetry for future songs.
So she kept her poems a secret “in a shoe box under her bed”
as referred to in the chorus of the title track
“Shades Of Images”.

The chorus of
"Shades Of Images"
was in that Shoe box.

   "Shapes taking form,
and forms making sense,
senses getting felt -
feeling taking shape
in Shades of Images
inspired by... mistakes."

In talking about her early years
of development Aliah says,
"I am eternally grateful to the
artists and teachers
who taught me to believe it...
when you can see the invisible."

Her continuous devotion to songwriting paid off
when the prestigious
Boston Berklee School of Music
gave her a rarely given out vocal scholarship
reserved for unique singer/songwriters.

To Aliah, it was more than just music - it was a quest for the real authentic spirit of social justice and peace activism, while unfolding the mystery of real love and the meanings to life. She had played solo piano for a while when at 15 her vision of a band came to her as she picked up the sax. She had started Sax pretty late compared to the kids at her high school - many who started their instrument in the 2nd grade and had been playing since. She was told that she had progress very fast and was good but not good enough to play in the Jazz band at her High School. She practiced all summer and then joined the Phoenix college Jazz Band next to the top player at her high school last year. She proved to herself that every no is a yes somewhere else - that's better for you.

#3 LIFE CHOICE: Every no becomes a yes and we learn to say... next! Cause each ending is a beginning somewhere else if we have the strength to go for it. Anyone who has accomplished anything - wanted to do it just a little more than not do it. And at moments it was really hard to know what is best.

The teachers at Phoenix Collage were gifted at giving the next step to their students and after studying Bach corals, 2 & then 3 part inventions, she challenged the class to write a fugue. She was the only one who did it. She recorded it with flute and harp as a spoken word dance piece that she later choreographed. Then, after going to ASU where she took a Multi-Media Performance Art class for the summer and starting leading Full Moon Gatherings with songs at the Gentle Strength Co-op. At ASU each performance art class was in opposites part of the campus and did not recognize interdisciplinary artists combining them. So she moved to San Francisco to go to NEW COLLEGE OF CALIFRONIA - an alternative school where she was able to study with the best teachers in the Bay Area as part of her self directed curriculum. They had one class that was required - "Compared To What?" Where they were told to make short term, long term and life time goals and had everyone's support in looking at them with them. The final was your short term goal. Going to this amazing school was perfect for a budding artist to explore the path of being an artist.

Aliah's rock sax awakening...



Danena, a bass player &
totally crazy fun, inspired lady was
Aliah's new best friend.
Above everything else -
she totally obsessed
with rock music.
Danena's brother Don -
lived for rock concerts & beer -
and having a good laugh and
later became Aliah's boyfriend.

One day, after Aliah found Don's sax
collecting dust up in his closet.
He looked at her excitement and said,
"A girl play sax, never!"
That was it - the sax was coming down
and she was gonna prove him wrong.
He said if she learned to play it,
he'd give it to her.

So at 15, in the middle of sophomore year,
she switched her theater class for
band class and started playing sax
all the time.

By the age of 16, she was playing Sax in the
Phoenix College Jazz Band
and he gave her the sax.

CHECK OUT ALIAH PLAYING SAX ON SONGS:
"Fridge Poetry" & "Star Child" off the
Living In The Shade CD that will be featured
in the Rockaholix movie.

Aliah's courage to perform her own songs paid off big time when she was playing at an Arizona Singer Songwriter's Showcase and the host was a popular Radio DJ who called her "The next Joni Mitchell". This meant a lot to Aliah who loved & respected how Joni was an artist who continually took her art deeper - growing and changing through following her muse. And like Aliah, Joni was also a painter - in addition to being a folk songwriter who dipped into Jazz. Joni had given Aliah permission to explore & express who she was as an artist fully - as a way of life.

The DJ's comment and the Songwriting groups reaction to it - encouraged Aliah to began playing her songs in the Lunch Concert Series at Phoenix and this started her gigging. And even through she has stopped focusing on dance for music for the time being - she won 2nd place in a Phoenix College Talent Concert with a solo dance piece. She found that the yoga had actually made her dance even stronger. She loved how yoga focused on the sacred connection to the body she had always felt with dance - it was why she became vegetarian at 13 and she kept learning about being healthy and healing.

After a life of dance, yoga came really easily and made total sense to her as a way to appreciate the body each day. From her yoga class, she met new friends who were into health and she went with her new friends to Living Love Workshops and began studying Self-Hypnosis Visualizations and meditation.

After being an Anti-nuke protester... she wanted to focus on what could help instead of what was not working. She wrote SONGS OF ALTANTIS - music for a presentation to help promote OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion). This choice rippled in ever part of her life. Walking towards Solutions and away from arguments with nay sayers.

#4 LIFE CHOICE: Focus on Solutions and what is possible rather than fighting with those who disagree. And offering your music (or other art) to a good cause gives it good karma and that is what Earth is about. So doing this burns off a lot of old Karma. By having a purpose and goal that serves others we rise our vibrations so we can take on more energy. We may begin to have "instant karma" so that we are able to manifest more easily. And if are going in the wrong direction, we get feedback right away so we can course correct. So do as much service as possible - you will feel the rewards.

SPIRITUAL ACTIVISM
AWAKENS SOUL GROWTH

Several songs for her next solo CD
have already been used for good causes:
        
          Aliah's song “Bless The Water” was used for radio and TV spots to support S.O.S. (Save Our Spring) opposing a developer who threatens the fragile watershed Eco-system in Austin - effecting much of Central Texas. Interestingly enough, the song came to her a week before Tibetan Monks came to Austin to bless Barton Springs. Without Aliah knowing they were coming to do so... Aliah wrote the song "Bless The Water". When the Monks came to bless it - they video taped it and their sand art and put them both in a video that was played in support of S.O.S. on many shows. Aliah’s song “Sweetwater” is the title track of the Austin feature film Sweetwater that showcased in several festivals and plays regularly on PBS. “The Field” began playing on several Austin radio stations in response to the war efforts by DJ's who aligned with it's pro-peace message - along with her Shades Of Images Space Rock Song: “What Is So?” with the same theme. Aliah’s focus is what she calls “Spiritual Activism” and another song on her upcoming CD “Luna Tree Of Life” is dedicated to Julia Butterfly Hill who lived in a Redwood Tree for 2 years to help these ancient trees from extinction. It was Julia‘s love and reaching out to connect with the lumber jacks as people that makes her so special and helped the cause - several acres of the Redwood Forest are now preserved because of her efforts. The song was given to Aliah in a dream where a Native American Medicine Man asked her to thank Julia for her brave efforts. After waking up she sat down at the keyboard and the song came out whole. After years of Aliah's own activist efforts she says, “It’s not just having a dedication to a cause - it’s how we go about co-creating and inspiring change - that will allow a lasting effort. In other words - there's no way to fight for peace... we must be the peace and inspire the change in others to also rise up to the call of empowering a sustainable peace.” Aliah was able to meet Julia and give her a copy of the song when she honored her with a Creative Evolutionary Award for the new TV show in pre-production - where she lives now - one of the birth homes of free speech - Berkeley, CA. The new TV show is being produced by Peacefarm Productions and Spiral On Productions and being called: CREATIVE EVOLUTION. Aliah had an idea for a multi-media show called: Creativity Lives! Then, she teamed up with another producer to combine their ideas and efforts to co-create this ground breaking new Metaphysical/Eco-Tech Evolutionary Comedy Variety TV Show For a Sustainable Peace that is inspired by Jon Stewart, Steve Colbert, Bill Maher, Michael Moore, & Morgan Sperlock... who's brave & eloquent efforts to tell the truth in a funny & creative way. Showing us that Evolutionary Comedy is an idea who time has come.. it is time to rise up peacefully - making a difference with inspirations of solutions for a better world while we laugh at the massive confusion of priorities - until they see that even them - will be effected if we blow it - literally! It will showcase Visionary Artists, Poets, Activists, and Musicians along with Eco-Tech inventors and Intentional Community Builders - all through Evolutionary Comedy while honoring the creativity and originality of peace & Earth activists everywhere.

Now more than ever, in these changing times, she continues to dig's deep with the inspiration that her songs inspire others to be creative as well. Aliah seeks to be an inspiration to others not only with her art... also with how to lives as an artist - as a healthy, spirit centered, continually creative individual who cares enough to speak up when the Emperor is wearing no clothes.

Aliah is an spiritual activist for a kinder world leading us to peace.


Aliah plays at Austin Earth Expo for Earth Day and
has played at Earth Day in different cities every year.

Tired of spending her time looking for songs to dance to - she The depth of their messages about life - solidified in a timeless song - inspired her own songs. It became a way for her to look at everything that happens in life - in a new light- as inspiration for a song. She was into finding what was real - and discovering how to express it by studying the songs that touched her deeply and changed how she thought about "mistakes" and helped her to learn from everything that happens.


#5 LIFE CHOICE: Doing what you love is good for you - if it is not - then find what is - keep looking till it feels good. By gaining the skills to do what we love - we are lead to our calling - that needs all those skills.