Deepvision Interview with Tonya and Alexandrah
by Scott Pausal aka Rubox

Deepvision: How did you guys get in the group?

Tonya: I moved from Ithica, NY. Not too long from moving down here, I met Divinci and Swam at Bodhisattva where Swam and Charles were having an open mic event there. I started hanging out with them and then they started having meetings at the shop. I started to get more involved with that. They invited me to go to Chicago with them and that’s when I met Alexandrah.. As soon as we met, just felt like we were family and Alex moved down to Orlando because she really missed us. As soon as she moved down, that’s when it started. I wasn’t really gonna be a part of it because it wasn’t even thought of. It was just them and them doing their thing. Then Alex was singing something in the bathroom which sounded like she was singing ‘me oh my’. That is what I thought she was singing and she like that idea, and then we recorded. I then recorded my own song and that is how I became in the group.

Alexandrah: I've been living in Chicago since 1997. I met Swam at Columbia College and we became friends instantly. He moved down here to Orlando. I graduated in 2000 and was teaching at the college there and he and I were always keeping in constant contact. He started his group which was every Sunday and then I started my group up in Chicago which was called New Group. He focused on teaching people in large groups through meetings and person to person interaction. Mine focused on holding events which were all ages events and we used to having them in this place in Chicago at Wicker Park called Square One. It was a 3 floor building and the bottom and the very top were for performances, food, and massages while the middle floor was a vegetarian restaurant. The group that I created was a multimedia event touring group. There were bands, poets, deejays, singers, graphic artists, massage therapists, and chefs. Absolutely everyone. What I would do was gather all of my friends. It was ironic because everyone I knew knew someone who was in every aspect of the arts whether they were a graphic artist, photographer, videographer, whatever. I got them together and wanted to throw events where they could showcase their art and make money by selling their products or just by promoting together. The first event I got together we had 250 people there just by word of mouth and pre sale tickets alone. No emails, no flyers. It was amazing. We started doing that monthly. Then Swam said he was going to bring 8 people to Chicago. So I set them up with 4 shows in the course of 3 days. One in the afternoon and 3 show at night while they were there. That is when I met Tonya, Divinci, Mad ILLs, Lizzie and X. The day that they left, Swam and I were talking about me moving to Orlando. I was telling them to give me 3 to 4 months to save money and make sure that I knew what I was doing, which was not really me because I’m usually someone to do whatever I just feel. It’s just that moving across the country is something that I never really done before. The day that I left, I took Tonya, Divinci and Lizzie to the airport last and on my way home I was thinking, ‘Oh my god, I have to be around these people’. Just them being up and hanging around for a couple of days was like knowing them for 30-40 lifetimes. On my way home I was thinking that I got to get to Orlando as quickly as possible. In 4 days, I gave away all my stuff and drove down. That was in 2002. Since then, the fullness of Sol.illaquist of Sound has been in effect and we have been doing this ever since.

Deepvision: Tonya, what is your ethnicity?

Tonya: I have alot. I’m a mix of Spanish, native American, black, white, a whole bunch of stuff. But I fell more into the native American side and Spanish too. Pretty much native American side. The Native American Indians are into peace of being together as a community in art and eating together. Though growing up, I never really did feel that way until I got into the rave community which is very into love and being together as a community. Finding this family is totally the same thing. It was just heightened from what I was learning in that type of culture.

Alexandrah: Because we do what we wanna be doing all the time,we just naturally flow into the culture. People would call it a culture, but I believe that is just how life works when you give it enough respect to tune into its vibes. I don’t think people would naturally would want to be alone all the time. I understand solitary and wanting some solitude once in a while but I think that, honestly, when you are working with music and sound it’s so imperative to have people with you. The only types of true powerful sound comes from groups of people. One person, like and opera singer, can break a glass with a certain note, certain pitch, or certain resonation, and a group of people together making one collective sound, one collective vibration can build pyramids.. When you recognize your own individual power, it makes you want to group up with people because you realize that everyone has the same power in them and that force together creates….What is impossible to actually imagine until you experience it. I have imagined all my ideals in the world, but to actually be going through it with this group, traveling, meeting so many people around the country is sofar beyond any ideal utopian imagination that I could ever have. So I know that it is not only crucial to have people involved, but it’s bigger than just me and I need other people to be involved. That is what our culture is based on.

Deepvision: Alex, what is your ethnicity?

Alexandrah: Alcerian which is Egyptian and is the culture of Osiris. Egypt is a Greek term so it...Ausarian. They were conquered, moved out of Egypt and moved into, what is now what is called Ausaria. Ausaria is not even a country, but is an area that spans through out the Middle East which is called the Mesopotamia.

Deepvision: What is the misconception other people get about your group?

Alexandrah: That we do drugs…..

Tonya: That we say these things but don’t actually live them.

Alexandrah: That we are just talking a bunch of nonsense. That we are not actually talking from experience. People think that it’s almost as if we are preaching because we don’t live it and it’s too good to be true and we are talking idealistically. They call us philosophers as opposed to people who live their ideal. You talk to people from other generations and it can be difficult for them to understand the fact that when you say I’m going to be doing what I love all the time, I’m going to be making music. Getting that through to people, making a living based on my music, by painting, by sculpture, massage therapy, whatever it may be; they may say “you can’t do that”. You have to be this, you have to be that. Sometimes what people misconstrue about us is that one, we do drugs, which we don’t. Two, that we don’t live the way that we speak, which we do live the way that we speak. Three, that we’re telling people something that we don’t actually know is possible, which is completely untrue. The reason that we can speak about it so strongly is because we live it everyday. We get called hippies a lot too, and maybe it has something to do with the drug thing….

Tonya: The style….how we want it to be, how we are living

Alexandrah: That and the social constructs is even….the vocabulary and communication. People are so afraid to get out of the “box” that we’re put into or taught to maintain ourselves within that if you were to step outside they can only have certain terms for you that basically don’t necessarily mean what they supposed to mean but at their core mean, we don’t understand what you’re doing. So, I’m gonna call it this and blow it off or say it’s impossible or it’s like a dream, it’s idealistic, it’s not real, but it is.

Deepvision: As far as the message you guys get across, what exactly is it?

Alexandrah: Knowing your self….

Tonya: and you know that we are all connected…..

Alexandrah: Because once you know yourself, it is impossible to not know other people. And once you know other people its as though you become, I don’t want to say bigger or more powerful than other people, it’s aware, conscious. The main message is know yourself, because once you know yourself fully, it’s much easier to respect yourself because you recognize how powerful you are and in doing all these things yourself you can do them with other people.

Deepvision: What are your influences individually?

Tonya: Jimmy Hendricks, blues, jazz, just music in general. Hard to really place it because I like all of it and I really got into the rock movement, raves, jungle music, house music. I didn't get back into hip-hop music until I started hanging out with Sol.illaquist. I love all types of music. If it has that soul, if you can feel it, I can't help listening to it.

Alexandrah: What I recently found out is that the music that I like isn't just in one genre. I know people say all types. I thought it was jazz, but it really isn't. I like Billy Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Lauren Hill is on some next level. Fiona Apple, women who sing or can rhyme a way of writing that can reach through and that can relate to me. I appreciate eloquence, I appreciate melodies, harmonies, style in general, rhythm. All those things. Lauren Hill, Jill Scott. All of those "newer women" who would be typically named, I really enjoy. Who I grew up with was Fiona Apple in the beginning, Enya, Sade, and then 80's music I like the Cure, Morrissey, Depeche Mode, U2 and then even deeper like Henry Mancini and Frank Sinatra. I grew up with an eclectic mix. There was never really one genre or type of thing. What I really appreciate is content of lyricism and melodies, harmonies. Something you can move to. Something that can describe some form of an emotion that I've had. As long as its meaningful to me and can relate to me, I enjoy. I haven't found an equation for what I will automatically like, but I've been fortunate to have been exposed to all types and that I just don't like hip-hop or that I just don't like R&B. I also grew up with classical; Tchaikovsky, Bach, Mozart. I played violin for 7 years when I was a kid. Grew up going to concerts and symphonies so I like sounds that work really well together. I appreciate it when there are multitude of sounds, instruments, or different people that are working together to create a sound as though an entire galaxy as opposed to one separate expression.