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(mellow piano music)

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(♪) ('LOVERS' BY SHAINA SHEPHERD)
You’ve got me (♪)

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(♪) feeling curled up like a (♪)

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(♪) on a Sunday (♪)

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(♪) dream you’re sunbathing (♪)

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(♪) in the rolling stream. (♪)

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(♪) That's mean. (♪♪)

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[SHAINA SHEPHERD] 
I'm Shaina Shepherd.

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I am a human making music
and living in the music arts

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community and just surviving
and thriving.

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(♪) Every time we talk, I feel (♪)

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(♪) inspired. Every time we move

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(♪) it feels like fire. (♪)

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(♪) Honey, that’s mean. (♪♪)

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I grew up in Tacoma,
Washington.

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I was a church girl.

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I grew up a church girl.

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We went to service
every Sunday.

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♪♪

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My dad
is a deacon in the church.

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My mom was a Sunday school
teacher and educator,

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so that was really where I was
when I was growing up.

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Music itself

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was like the home for me, for

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I could figure out how
to communicate my feelings.

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I was very shy, so

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being able
to watch the amazing musicians

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that I got to grow up around,
even though I was quiet,

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I absorbed all of that
and have brought that

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into the way I communicate everything that I,

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everything that I do it’s like
the background music to

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my life...is gospel music.

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(♪) Water works (♪)

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(♪) Let me drown (♪)

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(♪) Let the gates flood, (♪)

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(♪) let my frowning now. (♪♪)

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I started to sing in choir
and within that

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audition process
I started to get recognition.

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I was suddenly like,
“Oh, that girl can sing.”

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(♪) But now I just gotta be ok. (♪)

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(♪) I just got to be ok. (♪)

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(♪) Someday.... (♪♪)

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I had a really challenging couple of years
between when I left

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college and I moved to Seattle
with nothing.

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I was just trying to rebuild
my life

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and I just went to Craigslist

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because that's
where I found my apartment,

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and that's why I found my job.

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And I opened up the music tab
and started looking for gigs,

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looking for opportunities
to audition for things.

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I did meet my guitar player,
Matt Williams.

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He was like, “Yo,
so you want to come hang out

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in this warehouse?

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Me, and my friends,
we're going to start a band.

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We used to be in this band.”

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I was like, “Yeah, dude,
that's sounds great.”

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And within one night
we were a band.

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We just jammed.

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(♪) But in the final faaaade (♪♪)

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And then all of a sudden,
not only was my world

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filled with amazing friends,
but also

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it was just constant
inspiration and exploration

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of sound.

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(♪) Yeaaaahhhh (♪♪)

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When everything
came to a halt,

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during the shutdown,

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I think that there was just

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kind of like an empty, vacant
space of a lot of questions,

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like a big bag of like,
what the f are we going to do?

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I was teaching.

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I got laid off three times

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and I had nothing to do
and no income.

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And then all of a sudden

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my life was nothing
but this piano right there, and me.

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(♪) I try to sleep (♪)

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(♪) through the daytime (♪)

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(♪) keeping your shadow close, (♪)

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(♪) but all I can see is (♪)

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(♪) your movie memory. (♪)

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(♪) Picture perfect pause. (♪♪)

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I think that it was really a
great opportunity to hit that

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restart button for myself
and say “What can be?”

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And I made a decision

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at the beginning
of the pandemic

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that no matter what,

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I was going to get through
this, these challenges,

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and that I would be open
and willing to work

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with anybody that saw
the world the way that I do.

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♪♪

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We went into London Bridge
with the goal of recording

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three tunes; three songs
that I wrote in my apartment

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at the piano.

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And over the course
of that week, we came out

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with three beautifully
arranged, wonderful tunes.

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♪♪

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I'm really excited

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to use this record
as an opportunity

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to be on people's

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shelves for a long time,
because that's how

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the music has come to me.

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It's in my library
of who I am as a person.

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(♪) Oh, that broken heart. (♪)

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(♪) How you gonna manage
when they tear you apart? (♪)

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(♪) Oh that broken heart (♪)

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(♪) How you gonna manage
when they tear you apart? (♪♪)

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There's this thing.

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It's like
when you open up a box,

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like one of those cardboard
boxes,

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you can never close it again.

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That was an experience

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I had during the George Floyd
protests.

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What I would really love
for people to get is

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that the world has changed
so fast for somebody like me.

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You know, I'm 30 years old.

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15 years ago, I was I was fat,

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and I was dark,
and I was useless.

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That's the narrative
in my mind.

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That's what I grew up in.

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And the world changed
really fast.

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All of a sudden, my body type,
my bone structure, my color,

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my hair texture were all
things that were desirable.

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Then the protests happened

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and people were looking at me,
asking me

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what to do, and I'm like,
“I don't know what to do.”

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Apparently you need
my feelings.

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I have been forced
to actually evolve.

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I've been forced

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to actually become the change

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that I wish
to see in the world.

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And it's really hard because
it's happening really fast.

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And I hate it.

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And I hate it because I

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I'm tired and I'm sad a lot,

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but I'm really motivated

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to make this work really
meaningful.

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Music is activism, just like
Nina Simone said.

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I want to learn
how to step into my purpose,

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because I do feel truly that
it is my purpose to make music

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that feels real and reminds

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people
of a sense of the present,

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which means I have
to make sure that I stay whole

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and that I stay balanced
and I stay working.

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And when I'm working
and I'm balanced and I'm whole,

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I'm good.

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♪♪

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Shaina performs with Crowdsource Choir 
on Wednesday, March 8th

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at the KEXP Gathering Space
on the Seattle Center Grounds.

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And watch for Shaina’s

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new record, slated
for release on Juneteenth, 2023.

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♪♪

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Catch Art Zone Friday nights at 8

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and anytime online at seattlechannel.org/artzone.