Alan: Hello Pontus, what shall we talk about tonight?

Pontus: I think the subject has something to do with Angelina Jordan.

Alan: Right, shall it just be the two of us or shall we invite a special guest?

Pontus: Yeah, why not? Hello, Christi.

Christi: Hello gentlemen. Thanks for having me.

Alan: Our pleasure.

Pontus: That sounded really, natural. Haha!

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Alan: So Christi, tell us a bit about yourself. You’re a vocal coach?

Christi: I am. I have been teaching voice since 1990 and singing also professionally. It’s kind of one of those things when you are in music and I’ve always been a worker bee musician, a studio musician. So it’s a hustle. You just do a lot of different things to make bank, as it were. And so teaching’s always been part of it.

Alan: And what kind of genre do you specialize in?

Christi: Well, I’m a jazz vocalist, by training. And I’m married to a jazz musician also. So that would be our first love, probably – musically. But I did a lot of commercial music and I have a kind of a chameleon like voice. So I was able to just do a lot… It helped me a lot in the studio. I was able to do a lot of different styles.

Pontus: I actually saw your reaction to Billy Jean the other day. So you said something about that you were a little bit jealous of Angelina doing that cover.

Christi: Yes! And I’m not ashamed to admit it. She just killed that song. Oh my gosh. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. I just thought it was so much fun and just a great vehicle for her voice. I love the way it was recorded. There were so many things about it that I felt like she really could shine. I thought it was fantastic.

Alan: the more you talk Christi, the more we realize that you are an ideal guest to have because, being a jazz musician yourself, AJ is right into your wheelhouse. We want the part to discuss, which is not so well vocalized, and that is, Why we react the way we do and how she makes us feel and to elaborate on those feelings? And all of the videos that you have on YouTube, you are very articulate with your feelings, as well as with, the voice itself. There’s so many people out there who have these feelings, which either, they’re not near the surface, or they can not put it into words. So we want to use this podcast as a vehicle to help people understand the language of what we’re talking about.

Christi: well, I just love that. It’s very much a part of how I teach. It’s very much a part of how I experience music. To me it’s almost spiritual. You have to be in your body to really be able to do what you’re talking about, Alan. And I think a lot of people don’t live there. I see it a ton when I’m working with students, they’re just not connecting at a heart level with a heart fully alive. And my goal in life is to help people get to a space where they are healthy enough emotionally and mentally to be able to live out of that fully alive place. That’s my passion for sure.

Alan: What you’ve just said, Christi is really, really interesting because I have just heard that maybe we could and should have a dual track podcast where we half talk about Angelina Jordan and we half talk about psychology and being connected. Because that is a great dual way to approach the subject.

Christi: Oh, absolutely. I totally agree. I am in complete agreement with that. Yes.

Alan: I have to walk such a tight rope with the type of videos that I make, because on one hand, I’m trying to publicize the strength of what Angelina does and the sheer talent while at the same time, not really being too invasive in her private life. Having said that, I think one of her great assets, which is unsung, is she is extremely connected. I don’t think she could sing the way she does without being extremely connected. If you want to know what connected is, look at a baby, a one-year-old baby they’re continually connected without interruption.

Christi: Exactly, they’re connected at a soul level without any hindrances to making their needs known. They’re not ashamed. They’re not embarrassed. They’re just themselves in the fullest way you can be. I think that Angelina, she’s an old soul. There’s this knowingness about her, inside her that is just beyond her years. It’s really quite fascinating to me, to see her in action, to see the way she moves about in the world and the way she approaches music and the way she’s making music. It’s so fascinating. And I do think she is coming from the soulish level with everything she does very intentionally.

Alan: What strikes me is there are many other people who are old souls. There are many other people who have great voices and great singers, but what is different about Angelina? I mean, if there are many, many old souls around, why is her old soul different than what we’ve experienced before?
How’s that for a difficult question?

Christe: That’s a tough one. How do you… What do you think?

Alan: I think the answer is so complex. It’s like an eight part answer. I think a lot of it has to go back to the ancient Persian culture, which has sort of gotten into her marrow. she’s almost like a Persian queen in her disposition and her outlook. And, you know, she has a type of royalty to her while being humble, which is a wonderful combination.
A humble royalty.

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Pontus: Her message is such an honest sort of thing that you can take into your heart and, and not only take it into your heart, but you want to share it. That was what I felt anyway. That’s why I started my YouTube channel because this is somebody that has this message and this sort of, vision that I want other people to have.

Christi: I think too, that it takes a certain kind of person to notice that. You got to be in a certain space in your own heart and life, to be able to see how special she is. There needs to be an honorable mention for the fans, because I do think they operate at a higher vibration, if that’s not too woo-woo a term. But I think that you’re just… to see how people can see her, can truly see her and appreciate where she’s coming from and speak the same language almost if that makes sense. Because it is such a, it’s a heart connection that I’m hearing you talk about with her.

Pontus: And I think that you have to be some kind of, a little bit of a, in lack of a better word, a seeker. And if you’re just going about your business and not thinking about the higher stuff, then you might miss it. And then of course you just feel, “Oh, she’s a very good singer”. But the thing that at least I’m trying to dig a little deeper in, it’s something beyond just being a great singer.
You said it in one of your reactions, there is some kind of special connection between her and the audience.

Alan: So Christi, let me, ask you a very specific question. How does Angelina get such emotion into her voice?

Christi: It’s the IT factor, the thing that, that you hear people sing or perform, and there’s just something… It’s magic. It really is magic. And she has got that without question, her ability to communicate the lyric and to bring across all of everything, all the goodness. It’s such a gift that she carries. It’s something that I don’t know that it can be taught. I really don’t. I think it’s something that you either have, or you don’t.

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Pontus: I think you said in your first reaction, you did, I put a spell on you, right?

Christi: Yes. Yes. That was my first time to ever see or hear her.

Pontus: Yeah. And that is of course, one of the most striking performances, right there. You used the word prodigy.

Christi: Yes, Definitely.

Pontus: Isn’t that word- like we use that word when we sort of, we can’t explain it? I mean, it’s something unexplainable. You said she has the IT factor and you can also replace that with, ”She is a prodigy”. The way I see the world, of course, I can respect people that have different views of the world, but the way I see it, she is not different from me or you or anybody else, she’s NOT from outer space.

Christi: Right, right.

Pontus: She is a human, and that is for me, the most amazing thing. She’s just another human and we have all that potential within us.

Christi: Yes. I love that. Yes, absolutely. And I think that’s why, when you hear her sing these cover songs, I’m thinking of All I Ask, the Adele song. There’s such an honesty in the way she’s able to bring that forward, the meaning and the lyric, even though really it’s beyond her human experience right now as a 14, 15 year old. Right, I mean, you know? But there’s just… I felt like she did it better than Adele. And I think I said that and got in trouble. That’s okay. It’s my opinion, you know.

Pontus: You’re not the first to say that.

Christi: I think that’s what Alan was getting at earlier. She’s coming at it from this place of purity of heart and I love what you said Pontus about that’s within all of us. We have the capability of living at that level and, if anything, when I listen to her music, it makes me want to aspire. It’s like me saying, ”I’m a little bit jealous”. It makes me want to aspire to yeah, to live at that same level of honesty and purity of heart and, the ability to bring forward my gifting. It’s not going to look like hers, but it’s going to look like mine and it’s gonna look like yours, Pontus and yours Alan. And you know, when we walk in that, I keep saying the word fullness, but it is such a place of completion almost, you know, that’s where I feel like she’s, she’s a master. And yet, like you said, once she’s done, she’s able to just be herself and honesty there as well as a 15 year old teenager. It’s just so beautiful.

Pontus: I really love your sign off on your videos, Christi. What is it you’re saying there?

Christi: Well, I’ll probably cry cause it is my life message for sure. ”Keep finding your voice, keep making your sound in the world today because the world is waiting. Somewhere, somebody is praying for you to show up. And remember you are loved.”
And I think that is something that people need. They need to know that they are loved. The ‘I love you’, The ‘I’m proud of you’, that ‘You’ve got what it takes’ -messages are the things that people at a deep, deep level really need. And so, yeah, I think that’s maybe partly too, when I watch Angelina and just think, oh, I just want to have that impact, that same kind of impact where she transforms people’s lives by the sound she’s making. And that’s, I mean, that’s the best, that’s the highest work you could do in the world as a human being. So, yeah, that’s my heartbeat for sure.
And it’s about finding your voice as a person, not as a singer or a speaker, an actor, it’s finding your voice as a human, which is something Angelina… She does, and is such a wonderful example to us all.

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Alan: Do you remember when you were five years old and seven years old, how you felt and how your feelings were in color and how every emotion you had was totally magnified? Well, when Angelina Jordan is seven and eight and nine years old, she has that emotional clarity and emotional strength, but she communicates that.
And that is one of her gifts, that she’s able to capture the strengths and clarity of that emotion. And it’s so long ago that it’s faded from our memory. We’re reenacting almost like a more primeval state of our being of heightened emotion when we hear her.

Christi: Oh, I think so. I love that. I think she definitely is turning something on inside of us that hooks us back into our childlike hearts. You know, when everything was possible.

Alan: One of the main mysteries around Angelina Jordan. You know, maybe her fans can be divided into two categories, the criers and the near criers. Why do people cry?

Christi: I think that again, it’s getting you in touch with your heart, with what’s real. It’s the thing that so many of us medicate to, keep from feeling, you know? We’re putting in food or alcohol or drugs or pornography or whatever, you know, they’re all these different things that we do to medicate, to keep ourselves from really going there, feeling our feelings.
And so it’s almost shocking when you listen to somebody like Angelina, who’s able to just… it’s like, she’s a heart surgeon. She’s… It’s a blade. Every song is a blade and she’s just doing surgery on those places in our hearts that we’re not willing to go to. And I think that’s where the tears come from. And especially when they surprise us, those are the moments when we need to go deeper and say, ”Okay, what is really going on here?” And so many of us live like that. We’re just, our hearts are hard. So, that’s probably a long, convoluted answer.

Alan: No it’s a great answer. I’m with you because… I had this fantasy, if ever I were a
politician, one of my priorities would be, how can I get people to feel more? You know, that would be a very, very difficult thing to do as a politician. But in order to do that, first you have to make them happy because then they will want to feel the happiness more. This is so underrated and so unspoken about because this is the aspect of being alive. Our emotions are really, really valid signposts of our being alive or not. I mean, we really need to redefine terms, for a man to cry should be considered a sign of strength, not a sign of weakness.

Christi: I agree wholeheartedly. Oh my goodness. Yes, definitely. And it’s the arts that, that will help people do that. You know, you were talking about being a politician. I don’t know that the politicians can do much for us as far as getting us connected to our hearts, but I feel like the arts are the thing. That’s the key. And when you have artists like Angelina, her music just does that, it’s the key to unlock the heart, for sure.

Alan: Yeah, She is very, very clear, from a very young age when she said she wants to bring love through her music. And it’s one thing to say it, but it’s another thing to actually achieve it. It’s almost like what you would get from a spiritual teacher to say that, or a spiritual leader, that sort of vision. Maybe we should have Angelina Jordan become the US president.

Christi: Yeah, we definitely could use someone like her I think as a world leader, I think things would turn around quickly if that were the case.

Pontus: if you’re going to spread a message, there is no better way than to do it through music. Because, I mean, politics. it really fast goes just down to quarrels and, who did what, and you didn’t do that. And what do you call it? We call it, throwing pies at each other.

Christi: Right, right. It’s us against them kind of situation. And music is such a unifying thing. And I’ve seen that a lot on my channel, where you can reach all sorts of different people, different backgrounds, religious backgrounds, political backgrounds, but they all come together around an artist and what they’re creating and making and championing them, you know, to me making sure that I see them and, understand how wonderful they are. And I think it’s just great. Yes, music can be the equalizing factor and definitely can create change.

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Christi: My husband, he is a freakishly talented musician, and I wish that I could just plug into his brain and hear music the way he hears it. He tells me I don’t want to hear it that way because he’s analyzing and, you know, it’s kind of taking the joy out of it. But it would just be so much fun to have that, to be able to experience, how does Mozart hear music? How did these… How did geniuses like Angelina Jordan..? I would put her in the Mozart category, also a child prodigy, you know. It would be fascinating to be able to take a peek into the brain a little more, as far as music is concerned. I would be so fascinated with that.

Pontus: I saw this interview with Michael Jackson and he said… They asked him something like, ”What’s your secret? How did you come up with a music for, for Billy Jean?” And he said, ”Well artists should just stop trying to do music. It will come to you, the music would come to you”. And I think that’s a really interesting way to look at it, that it’s almost like… It’s out there. The music is out there and it’s just for us to sort of be in that, mode so we can receive it.

Christi: Yes, receive that’s exactly the word I was thinking. Yes. To be a song receiver, to be an arts receiver. And even thinking about Michelangelo, who said, ”I saw the statue in the marble.” Like, ”How do you do what you do?” ”I just, I saw it in there. I took away the parts that weren’t it,” You know, it’s a way… We call it genius, I guess. But I think it’s what you were talking about earlier, Pontus. It’s a flow state. It’s a state that we all have access to. Do we? Will we? because it takes, it takes some discipline, I think. In order to receive, you have to be ready to receive. You have to be open and there needs to be some preparation, I guess, of your brain and mind and heart and all of that in order to flow like that. What do you guys think about that?

Pontus: Well, one of the things that always surprises me is, although I’ve listened to Angelina so many times, and I’ve seen so many reactors react to her. I can’t imagine how good she really is until I hear her again. I mean, it’s like when I went through all of your reactions, Christi, I went to the ‘All I Ask’, and I started crying. Again.

Christi: She’s so special. She creates such a special space around you as you listen to her. And it’s almost like ”permission granted”, you know, it’s, it’s a stamp of a ‘Yes’ to whatever needs to be felt. And that it’s fresh every time. That’s the thing, listening to her. What was the song? Goodbye Yellow Brick Road that she did, just in the way she did it. To me there’s just such a soulfulness, a longing to it. Yes, I definitely think that she’s able to help you tap into something really special emotionally.