Artist Bio/One Sheet
Meagan Chandler’s new album “Sensual” wins Top Pick for Santa Fe, NM 2013
In May of 2013, Santa Fe, NM based artist Meagan Chandler released her first original album after over a decade dedicated to performing music from around the world. Her new album “Sensual” won one of santafe.com’s top picks for albums of 2013.
“Sensual” is built on poetry exploring archetypal relationships and the vast terrain of the senses and bodily wisdom. Its playful and dark storybook themes range from Peter Pan and The Garden of Eden to mythological Grecian heavy hitters like Persephone and Daphne. Its virtuosic vocals, soulful, wild and tender, reflect the strong influences of Jazz, Spanish Flamenco, and Arabic music that form part of Meagan’s broad repertoire. Compositionally, “Sensual” draws on a colorful pallet of influences, including Arab and Indian scales on Oud and Gypsy violin, Spanish Flamenco and slide guitar, Latin horns, jazz harmony, groovy bass lines, and is unified by a mix of pop electronic and dub production.
The varied sounds of “Sensual” are rendered cohesive by producer Jeremy Bleich of Grasshopper Music, and brought further to life by a long list of talent, including John Rangel on piano, Scott Barkan on slide guitar, Joaquin Gallegos on Flamenco guitar, JQ Whitcomb on Trumpet, Paul “Featheicci” Groetzinger on drums, Sitara Schauer on violin, and many others. The album was funded by popular crowd funding platform Kickstarter.com.
“In this day and age, a whole new paradigm for music is blossoming, one that transcends genre, embraces vast cultural diversity, and digs for the soul beneath it all, our nature and our place in the larger picture. This album is my mission statement, and a call to every one who will listen to dig for their deepest potential and find a way to give their authentic gifts to the world.” -Meagan Chandler
A native of Boulder, Colorado, Meagan’s style traces back to her passion for travel and exploring things mysterious, both out in the world and in the human psyche. As a girl she lived in Dubai, and went on to adventure in such places as Spain, Morocco, New Zealand, India, Japan, Costa Rica and all over the United States, gathering food for her poetry and musical inspiration. She also pursued studies in ecstatic dance, martial arts, contemporary rites of passage, dream work, anatomy based vocal training, and many global music and dance forms to bring rich perspective to her creative endevors.
Through her twenties, she devoted herself to professional Flamenco singing, touring the U.S., as well as developing a vocal teaching style to appeal to a wide range of ages and styles, providing Flamenco Arts Education, and team leading contemporary rites of passage. She worked with such prestigeous American Flamenco artisits as Maria Benitez and Carlota Santana, as well as Mid Eastern artist Souhail Kaspar. She took part in many experimental world music projects, composing and recording with such groups as Medjool, Trio Andaluz, and Ojaleo. She also played the lead in the debut performance of Love and Emma Goldman: A Rock Opera.
Now with the release of “Sensual”, Meagan has launched into the terrain of original composition, with style and content authentic to her experiences and passions. With the album’s release and enthusiastic reception, she has now turned her attention to creating her first music video for her song “Merciless Flowers”, to feature a short story with themes of elemental super heroes in the making as the city is left behind and the wild is unleashed.
“Blending a whimsical pop sensibility, eclectic global tastes and a passion for performance art, Meagan Chandler has achieved a triumph with her debut solo outing, “Sensual.” Throughout the album, Chandler switches nimbly between styles as diverse as jazz, salsa, disco, dub reggae and electronica–sometimes, as in the case of “Eve’s Song,” within the same track. With Santa Fe’s own musical mad professor Jeremy Bleich (of Grasshopper Music) behind the sound, the album proves itself as cohesive as it is eclectic, not an easy task. “Sensual” is a veritable orgy of sonic bliss.” — Todd Eric Lovato, Santafe.com
Hear Meagan’s music on Bandcamp: www.meaganchandler.bandcamp.com/
Connect with Meagan on Facebook: www.facebook.com/meagan.chandler.3
See Meagan’s videos on Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/MeaganChandlerMusic
More on Meagan on her website: www.meaganchandler.com
Contact Meagan at thrueyesofruby@hotmail.com or call (720) 436-1332