Muhsinah: Independently Driven

“Money comes and goes and you can rip it up and it won’t be worth anything, but what do you have that’s yours?”

So much of what we do in life is driven in the end by the all mighty dollar. How many of us can actually say we do it for the love and really mean it? There’s no problem with eating but when that is strictly the end all be all then where is the love? Washington, DC and Philly native Muhsinah which stands for “Doer of Good Deeds” is here to do as many of them as possible and take whomever wants to join her for the journey. Before you read any further please scroll all the way to the bottom of this piece and click on ‘Millions’ you have to scroll the mediaplayer to the bottom and whatever you do in life after hearing this track you shall hopefully be inspired to take whatever fears you have and realize that in that end it’s not all that bad.

Scheme: What does Muhsinah actually mean?

Muhsinah: It’s Arabic it means doer of good deeds.

Scheme: What was your childhood like growing up in the District?

Muhsinah: I was born in DC but I spent babyhood in Philly. I went to Duke Ellington here in DC and started playing piano and going to Duke was a distinct experience. It was very cool growing up in DC I was always exposed to art and different people.

Scheme: What about the music here in DC?

Muhsinah: My parents were really into jazz, soul music and 70’s stuff. As far as DC there was Chuck Brown and there were certain underground people. As a kid I was listening to the Boys and New Edition. I really didn’t have this big artsy childhood I was chillin.

Scheme: Did you find your love for music at Duke or was it before that?

Muhsinah: It was before that, I put myself in dance classes (tap) when I was three and I did ballet but it was too rigid. I started taking piano lessons when I was eleven and before that I was singing in school choirs. The moment when I really liked music was when I had a friend who played the piano and I would sit and watch her and think damn I could do that. So the next day I went home and told my mom I wanted to take piano lessons. Two years after that I was accompanying choirs after school, playing classical music and being in competitions-my background musically was very classically based.

Scheme: So when did you start getting into the drum and what equipment do you use?

Muhsinah: I use the MP2000XL.

Scheme: What was the first piece of equipment you used?

Muhsinah: (Laughs) I had a muppet babies keyboard, I wasn’t making beats on it but I was playing keys like I was making beats, I wasn’t sequencing but I was jamming. I always had pianos at the house, I had a digital piano that had a sequencer on it and it had drums on it so I would mess with the drums. I didn’t start making beats on the MPC until recently.

Scheme: When did you start getting recognized for your craft?

Muhsinah: Probably around the same point that I put up my Myspace page. Myspace is a great outlet for people who otherwise wouldn’t be known or heard. So I put that up in with in a few months people were hitting me up.

“…sometimes I might not listen to anything for a few days so I know what it is that I want to say. Sometimes as a musician it’s very easy to take from a lot of different places.”

Scheme: What is your process in making your music and where do you get your inspiration from?

Muhsinah: I listen to a lot of different kinds of music as many different kinds as I can get. As far as making music, sometimes I might not listen to anything for a few days so I know what it is that I want to say. Sometimes as a musician it’s very easy to take from a lot of different places. I try to find whatever that place is and mess around. Sometimes I start out with drums and sing stuff over the drums and sometimes I start out with the piano, and it also depends on how much time I have and what the facility is.

Scheme: What is your schedule like because you just came back from India, so what are you currently in the process of doing?

Muhsinah: I’m actually a freelance sound editor and I get hired for movie projects to do sound. If I do I’m either at home or at their place doing sound. For now I don’t have a project so I’m just doing music.

Scheme: How long do you find yourself in the room or in your house making music when you have time like this?

Muhsinah: I try to do it everyday, even if it’s something I might not keep. Lately I’ve been doing it more and I’ve had time while I was in India to do it more and I learned a lot more about myself. My style has changed a bit so don’t expect the same stuff (laughs).

Scheme: Besides India where else have you traveled to?

Muhsinah: I went to France as a teenager with a Jazz band in high school, I went to Venezuela while in college and I’m so thankful for all of that.

Scheme: If you had your choice would you keep your day job or would you do both of them?

Muhsinah: I think I would try and merge the two. I always had a dream to be a film scorer. When I was in college (Howard University) I studied orchestration.

“I’m not out to change the world but I’m out to add to the movement it that’s what you want to call it, if there even is a movement.”

Scheme: What was Howard (University) like for you and has the core of who you are mixed with Howard changed you in anyway?

Muhsinah: I think the fact that I met so many people from different places had an effect on how I handle different situations and that really taught me how to adjust. Howard is where I heard a lot of the music for the first time that I listen to now, which made everyday a new day. That’s what I feel like now, that everyday is a new day when I’m making music.

Scheme: Why do you make the music?

Muhsinah: I do it because I feel like I would be sad if I didn’t. It’s real simple, I would be sad; I’m not the only one that does it so if I can add something to it, than that’s cool. I’m not out to change the world but I’m out to add to the movement it that’s what you want to call it, if there even is a movement.

Scheme: Who were some of the artists you looked and look up to?

Muhsinah: Thelonius Monk and all jazz piano players. Vocally I would say Bjork, she helped me open my mind up with her use of different sounds, sounds that weren’t even drums and using them as drums. Radiohead and Go-Go influences me a lot but its sub-consciously. I may be programming something and it sounds like Backyard (Band).

Scheme: What made you go to India?

Muhsinah: My father is a leadership development advisor and he does classes on goals planning and managing your time and a company hired him to come. I was his assistant while he taught classes for four weeks at this Youth Leadership Program.

Scheme: When I travel overseas I sub-consciously tend to compare. Has American culture affected Indian culture?

Muhsinah: Since I’m dealing with teenagers, they like Rock from here but from about 10 years ago, a lot of stuff they get late. Eminen, 50 Cent all the stuff on cable MTV etc. A lot of their television is in Hindi so they have a lot of Hindi music. What a lot of people don’t know is that most of their music comes from a movie. They put out thousands of movies every year in each state. India has 25 states and each state has its own language so even if it’s a derivative of another language it’s still its own language. So with the movie scene each state will have its own language so they have to have their own movies, which forces them to have their own music that is in certain languages.

Scheme: What are the major things that you remember from that trip?

Muhsinah: Just that fact that people make do no matter what. If there are weather problems or the crop is down and they can’t eat for the next six months it’s just to make due no matter what. That has humbled me 200 percent. There is no way you can look poverty in the place and come home and complain. With everything in me I love that trip and I’ve made a lot of changes.

Scheme: Yeah because you had locks before right, why was that change made?

Muhsinah: Well, I was reading about health and keeping things that are living and if I wasn’t doing that and hanging on to a bunch of things from the past then there is no way for me to move forward. So I just took that and asked myself how I can embody this spiritually. It’s also taught me a lot of patience because I cut half my locks out and combed out the rest of them to remind me of the journey because if you cut them off and out them away in bag and don’t really tackle the problems…

“I think we need a better representation around the world and I think if there is a way for us to reach more of the world and still retain ourselves than I think that would be the best.”

Scheme: If you are doing the music because you need to release and you would feel sad, what are the things you ultimately want to accomplish in your life?

Muhsinah: I definitely want to get into a lot more instrumental things with acoustic instruments. A catalogue of films that I have scored, I would love to start an orchestra and we could start small with a courtet. I think my biggest goal is to be innovative and come up with stuff and then include them.

Scheme: Will it ever bother you is the mainstream never hears your music?

Muhsinah: I think the industry (Hip Hop) is a product of circumstance. I think as for me in the mainstream everyone has their place and everyday I’m learning what that place is for me. I’m finding new ways to include the mainstream but it’s not something that I’m really aiming for because for me it’s not a paper-chase. For me it’s what I have to do to breathe and if it (paper-chase) was like that for me we wouldn’t be sitting here talking. I think we need a better representation around the world and I think if there is a way for us to reach more of the world and still retain ourselves than I think that would be the best.