Low Leaf is a Filipino-American singer, songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and artist based in Los Angeles, California. Recently she released her new album, the self-produced Palm Psalms: A Light to Resolve All Darkness. Fusing together acoustic instrumentals, ethereal vocals, and electronic ambiance, the album takes us on a journey through transcendent soundscapes. Check out our conversation with Low Leaf below about her thoughts on art, culture, music, and creativity.
Low Leaf是一名菲律宾裔美国歌手、作曲家、制作人和艺术家，擅长多种乐器，目前定居洛杉矶。最近，她推出了自己制作的全新专辑《Palm Psalms: A Light to Resolve All Darkness》。这张专辑结合了原声乐器、空灵的歌声和电子音乐多种元素，带领听众穿越到一个超然的音乐世界。最近我们与 Low Leaf对话，了解她在艺术、文化、音乐和创意方面的一些想法。
Listen to select tracks from the album below, or purchase the full album on Bandcamp.
点击下方链接试听专辑的精选曲目，或于Bandcamp购买整张专辑。
Neocha: What is creativity to you? How do you channel your creativity across different mediums?
Low Leaf: For me, creativity happens when I am flowing in complete harmony with myself and life in the present moment. No matter what outside circumstances are happening, I am constantly processing, releasing, renewing or creating… life is creation. Every day is different, so I have to be open to how creativity is revealing itself to me in the moment, and not my idea of what creativity should look like or be. All I know is that creativity begins with a feeling, and my heart knows it when it feels it. So I just follow that feeling whether it means music, visual arts, dancing, cooking, or just listening to nature.
Neocha: 对你而言，创意是什么？你如何通过不同媒介来表达自己的创意？
Low Leaf: 对我来说，当我和我的生活处于一种和谐平衡时，创意就会出现。无论外界发生了什么事，我都在不断地消化、释放、净化自己和创造新的东西，生活本身就是一种创作。每一天都是全新的，所以我必须以开放的态度，来面对当下涌现的创意，无论它是以什么形式出现的，而不是以我的想法来定义创意是什么。我只知道创意起源于感觉，当创意出现时，我的内心会有所感觉。所以，我只是跟着自己的感觉走，不论它是有关音乐、视觉艺术、舞蹈、烹饪，或者只是聆听自然的声音。
Neocha: How do native and indigenous cultures influence your art and philosophy?
Low Leaf: The biggest common thread that I’ve found that always inspires me from all indigenous cultures is their interconnectedness with nature, and living life with the cycles of Mother Earth. I’ve always felt that connection close to my heart, so naturally I’m drawn to how indigenous people preserve the sacred, create sustainably, and generally have a deeply woven sense of respect for the mysterious unknowns of life. Being Filipino-American has given me something else to identify with that, to this day, is continuously unfolding before me. The biggest influence has been trying to understand my identity through the hearts of all Filipinos around me in my life growing up in LA. We are almost a different breed than those that grew up in the islands, in that we share this longing to return, to understand who we are, and why we are here. So I feel like this longing has inspired me the most to seek truth, seek wisdom, and seek to understand!
Neocha: 原住民文化对你的艺术和理念有何影响？
Low Leaf: 我发现所有原住民民族文化的最大共同点，是它们与自然之间的相互关联，以及他们遵循地球运转规律的生活方式，这也一直是我创作的灵感。这种相互联系一直存在于我的内心深处。自然而然，我会好奇想了解原住民如何维护他们的神明、他们怎样以遵循可持续方式进行创造，以及他们对生命的神秘未知所怀有的深深的敬意。作为一名菲律宾裔美国人，我有了更多不同的文化认同。在洛杉矶成长的过程中，我一直试图通过观察我周围的菲律宾人来了解自己。和在菲律宾群岛长大的人相比较，我们似乎来自不同的种族。也因为如此，我们都有一种回归的渴望，想去了解我们是谁，为什么会出现在这里。所以我觉得这种渴望一直鼓舞着我追求真理，寻求智慧，了解真相！
Neocha: How do you define your purpose in creating art and music?
Low Leaf: I believe the gift of creation given to an artist, is to use art to process and express life. Art and music are one in the same to me. When I’m creating music, I’m seeing visuals in my mind’s eye, and when I’m creating visual arts, I’m listening to how shapes and colors sound. I believe the purpose of these things are to bring us closer to what feels like home, within. To me, that place has been the state of being in complete unity with the Creator inside my heart. So I try my best to create from that space whenever I’m channeling, and in order to do that, I must tune up my body, soul, and spirit like an instrument every day.
Neocha: 你如何定义自己对音乐创作的追求？
Low Leaf: 我相信上天赐予艺术家的礼物，是让他们用艺术来处理和表达生活。当我创作音乐时，我的脑海会浮现一些视觉效果，当我创作视觉艺术时，我会透过画面里的颜色和图案而听到背后的声音。我相信音乐和艺术的存在，是为了让人们在内心上有一种回归“精神家园”的感受。对我来说，精神家园代表着我与内心的“造物主”合二为一的时候。所以，在我创作的时候，我总是努力回到“精神家园”的状态，每一天，我必须像帮乐器调音一样，调整我的身体、灵魂和精神。
Neocha: How do you reconcile the past with the present, the archaic with the modern?
Low Leaf: We have forgotten so much of ourselves as a collective species, and you can see this when you look out into the world and see how much disharmony there is on every level. Generally speaking, those who do “wrong,” know not what they do, because they know not who they are. When people are in complete alignment with their deep-rooted purpose for being on this earth, it’s always somehow in an ultimate act of service to others. After all, we are truly here for each other. To leave behind more beauty than what was here before we came; to create that world we ought to live in, we can only do these things when we do that thing that we came here to do. Technology amplifies the process of channeling forgotten knowledge because it makes all information that I wish was available growing up so accessible. In the world of knowns, anything can be revealed to you, so long as you have the will to seek truth.
Neocha: 你如何平衡过去和现在，传统与现代？
Low Leaf: 人类相对于自然来说，是以一个集体的形式出现的，这也是经常被我们遗忘的一个事实。你看看外面如此纷乱不和谐的环境，就会发现这点。那些做“错”的人并不知道自己在做什么，因为他们还没有认清自己是谁。人们回归至自己内心深处的生存目的时，总是会以某种方式在为他人服务，毕竟，我们真的是为彼此而存在的。我希望我们走后留给世界的东西，能比我们来之前更美好。要做到这些事情，我们就必须要先实现我们降临世界的目的。科技有助于传播那些被人们遗忘了的知识，它使得许多我希望在自己成长过程中可以得到的信息变得如此容易获取。在已知的世界，你可以找到所有的答案，只要你愿意去寻求真理。
Website: creatordiy.com
Facebook: ~/eatlowleaf
Contributor: George Zhi Zhao
Images Courtesy of Low Leaf
