A divine gift. This is how the singer and composer Aish Divine defines art. A divine gift, something which is precious and invaluable, useful to open new paths, to better understand the reality that surrounds us. And, why not, to mend some painful wound. Il Grande Colibrì interviewed him.
Could you please tell me something about you?
I’m Aish Divine. I’m a classically trained composer and singer and I write and produce pop music. I live in New York. My upcoming album’s called “The Sex Issue”, a confessional about modern love and sexuality. The next single from the album, “Jungly”, comes out Wednesday [September 16; ed]!
Wow! Music is surely an important part of your life… When did you realize that it was the perfect way to express yourself and your feelings?
Art is a gift I was born with, a divine gift I’m forever grateful for. This gift has been a means to express myself since I can remember. I would paint a lot as a child, before I turned to music. Migrating between continents, moving from place to place growing up through traumatic experiences… music was the only constant. It became my refuge, a means to communicate with the world, a way to understand the world and find myself.
Who do you get your inspiration from?
I grew up with Whitney Houston and Pink Floyd. Later I took to Nina Simone, Mahalia Jackson, Billie Holiday and, during college, Tchaikovsky, Erik Satie, Debussy became my staples. Since I’ve started making my own music I’ve admired Björk, Anhoni, Asha Bhosle, Prince and David Bowie. These are artists I admire, but my musical inspiration is the world around me. As Nina Simone says: “It’s an artist’s duty to reflect the time we live in.”
In your single “Promise me”, you talked about motherhood. It’s a very thorny, fascinating topic… Could you please tell me more about this interesting, intimate choice?
My first album is called “Mother” because through the album I was working out my earliest relationship with the feminine, the nature of attachment, the idea of identity as being passed on by a mother, a motherland and how you find homeland. It was also my first metaphorical child… I know, very meta. The “Promise Me” video portrayed my relationship with the feminine which was wrought with loss and heartbreak.
These are hard times for people all over the world: racism, intolerance and discrimination are painfully breaking up our existences. You’ve lived in the USA for several years now. What are your feelings about the difficult situation in which your nation’s getting through?
We’re living in the midst of multiple crises: probably the worst we’ve ever seen. We live in the midst of wars, genocide (like of the Uighurs), extreme wealth disparity, a pandemic, crisis of leadership, social injustice, loss of trust in facts and science and, greatest of all, the climate crisis. It’s terrible. It’s bleak. The Whitehouse is occupied by a narcissistic, sociopathic, opportunistic criminal. He needs to be eliminated from leadership, democratically or otherwise.
The intergenerational social and economic trauma suffered by Native and African Americans cannot be undone in one presidential term, but a national apology and financial reparations should be an immediate first step. There’s no reason why we need fossil fuel operated trucks delivering Amazon packages in non biodegradable packaging, except to sustain unhealthy capitalism which is increasingly becoming a cancer to democracy.
Do you think that the upcoming presidential election could change the current state of affairs?
I don’t know if the elections or the Democratic Party coming to power, which I hope they do, will change the state of affairs, but it sure will reveal the health of democracy as a sociopolitical system and whether capitalism and democracy can coexist without fundamental reform. In any event, democratically or otherwise, the bum in the Whitehouse must be eliminated.
Queer community should be a safe and welcoming place for all LGBTQIA people, but unfortunately it is not always like that… sometimes we face discriminations and we suffer prejudice…
It’s one thing to be discriminated by others but it’s much more painful and heartbreaking to face discrimination from your own. As a queer person I know this first hand. I could care less about lack of acceptance from strangers, their prejudices don’t matter, but not being accepted by your own people, your own family just breaks you in a way you can never be the same again.
I feel very strongly about trans, non-binary, bisexual and asexual people being considered, welcomed and supported as one LGBTQIA family. Even in 2020, we still see “No blacks, no Asians” or “No fats, no fems” on gay dating profiles and use of the word “tranny” or “dyke” as a joke by gay people. It’s simply unacceptable. Our otherness can only be undone by undoing it for others.
Did you faced discrimination in any of its forms?
Yes, I have faced discrimination, ranging from violent attacks to micro-aggressions for being queer, brown, immigrant…for simply being different, but it doesn’t bring me down at all, it only makes me more committed to use my privilege to lift up anybody who has ever felt othered.
Nicole Zaramella
©2020 Il Grande Colibrì
image: @Aish Divine
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