Mystikana – das sind Juliana, Ariana und Kristina aus Kanada. Gemeinsam kreieren sie sphärische und mystische Klänge, die sofort einhüllen und berühren. Das Singer-Songwriterinnen-Trio beschreibt seinen Musik als „musikalischen Ausdruck eines Gemäldes, einer Vision oder eines Traums. Während sich die Erfahrungen und Gefühle unbewusst entfalten, wachsen sie zu einem symbolischen und poetischen Wandteppich heran“. Zauberhafte Klänge – und wir freuen uns, dass wir euch Mystikana als unsere Band der Woche vorstellen können.
Who is behind Mystikana? How did the project come into being?
Mystikana is a whimsical journey embarked upon by three spirits looking to spread inspiration and healing, bound by a shared desire to tap into the mystical reservoir. We, Juliana, 32, Ariana, 26, and our mother Kristina are a trio of singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists, which include guitar, viola, violin, piano and of course the voice. Mystikana has become the creative vessel by which we can each express our different mysterious, dreamlike natures within a shared manifestation. We came together with a simple desire: to capture the raw essence of our souls‘ untamed vision and infuse it into our music. We often stay up late at night trying to find some privacy to record while others are sleeping, or brave the insatiable bugs deep in the forest for a quiet space. Although it has been very challenging to find time to record and work together, the creative flow of music is impossible to block. With over a hundred songs waiting in the wings, we’re akin to a dam ready to break! We would love to incorporate more sounds and instrumentals for the ultimate vision of Mystikana to take shape, but for now we are content working acoustically with what we have.
If you had to describe your music in terms of not music … What would you say?
To us, our musical expression is that of a painting, vision or dream. As the experiences and feelings are unfurled subconsciously, they grow into a symbolic and poetic tapestry. Sometimes our creative process is lucid and other times it is unconscious. The core is of a spiritual nature, the passage being our healing process. We alchemize our darkness and pain through our ability to channel our inspiration, and illuminate our shadows. Our music is also an ocean. It can be deep, mysterious, flowing, chaotic, cold, hungry, reflective, peaceful, and even supernatural. When we create, we feel a connection to a mystical story-like world, playing with ebbs and flows, through melancholic reverie. We believe in the transformative power of music to heal, to awaken, and to transport listeners to realms they’ve never dared to dream possible.
What are your first musical memories? At what point did you discover music as something that you wanted to be involved with?
We can’t remember life without music! We were listening to music in the womb. Hearing our mother play the piano, guitar and violin opened our hearts to these powerful sounds. We remember our mum singing us to sleep with her original acoustic songs that she had written before we were born. Her songs awoke something inside us, as if her voice was searching for a lost thread or dormant seed in the depths of our souls that needed to find the light. Our Grandma was raised in a world of music; they would have weekly jams playing the piano, guitar, mandolin and singing and dancing into the night. Our Grandma played us every kind of record under the sun from Beethoven, Fado and the Gypsy Kings to Leonard Cohen and Janice Joplin. Our mother, Kristina, is a music teacher, and we were raised in the classical conservatory world. We started tinkling the ivories at around age 4 and playing the violin shortly after. It was never a question about being involved in music. Music was foundational in everything we did, be it instruments, choir, dancing, theater, and just day to day life. When many kids were outside playing, we were practicing! We performed a lot as children, which in turn made us question our love for performing. To this day we still grapple with wanting to be in the spotlight. However, if enough people come to enjoy our music, then we would be happy to step into the light!
What are you looking for in music? What are the boundaries that you look to explore with music?
Music is the language of the soul. And that’s what we hope comes through in our melodies and harmonies. Many of our songs come from this desire to bring magic back into life and rediscover the power that lies at the depth of one’s soul. We dream of awakening these hidden places inside people that they often forget are there. Where they can connect to that part of themselves that is beyond the physical world. The part that is felt, but often misunderstood. We’ve had people express to us that our music evokes a private place within them, that they feel vulnerable when listening to our words and harmonies. Music opens us. It is our hope that we can inspire people to connect to the lost parts of their souls as well as heal their love and connection to the natural world. We seek to take the many challenging or ‘ugly’ aspects of life and attempt to create a space where they can be felt and perceived from a new, more beautiful perspective in order to heal, and bring others into a space of love, peace, and inner freedom.
Which person, artist or incident inspired you when you first started making music?
It’s really hard to pinpoint which person and/or artist because there’s tons of influences! To try and pinpoint some we would say: Loreena Mckinnet and Enya inspire our ethereal sound, but the melancholy of Leonard Cohen, Lana Del Rey and Tamino helped to awaken our darker side and inspire us to step out of our shell and share our poetry with others. We have been writing poetry and music individually since our adolescence, but there are some experiences later in life that truly fueled the fire to create more and actually share our compositions with family, friends, and then the collective. Back in 2017, we took the chance to live out a lifelong dream. We abandoned our lives, bought a small sailboat and traveled down to the Caribbean. While we were weathering the storms and uncharted shores we found solace in the Ukelele and the drink as sailors do. We spent many nights gazing at the sunset, strumming and humming to our hearts‘ delight, praying that we would not lose everything we worked for. Although it was a very ‘ungrounding’ experience, singing helped to recenter within ourselves and transmute many of the stressful and perilous situations we encountered. In 2020 whilst walking through the forest, I (Juliana) was crushed by a tree. I suffered an NDE and communed with the spirit world where I gained a new found connection to the essence of mother earth. My neck and spine were fractured and it took months to regain full mobility. During that time, laying down while playing the guitar and singing was one of the only things I could do, which forced me to relive forgotten memories and heal the darkness of my past that continued to seep to the surface. Music was a beacon, guiding the healing journey.
What impact do your surroundings have on your art? How important is nature to you? What role does nature play in your life and in your art?
Our surroundings not only influence the content of our art, but also the way we are able to portray it. Currently, we live in an old log cabin, surrounded by nature. The forest has become our haven, creating a safe, sacred, solitary space allowing for our emotions and inspirations to come through with ease. Being amidst nature enables us to film beautiful scenes, but it can present its challenges, from unpredictable weather and insects to limited recording space. Although we enjoy being isolated and having full reign over our creative process, living farther from cities creates a disconnect from others and the music scene which is peaceful, but also makes it hard to get support and exposure. If we were living in a city, our music might reflect that climate, and perhaps one day it will; however, the beauty of the natural world will likely always be reflected in our art. Ever since we were kids we were enamored with nature. We spent summers canoeing the wild lakes, under the pines, listening to loon calls and sunbathing on the raw granite shores. Our mother had written a song called “Lake in the woods” , a very haunting song that seemed to stir something inside us. As if the Lake was summoning the listener to its depths. Her nature-inspired music deeply influenced and nurtured our own connection to the natural world within our compositions. Sometimes it feels as though nature is where some of our music lives, just hiding within a tree or the wind waiting to connect.
Recently your single „Hades“ came out. How does the birth of a new composition happen for you? How does your compositional process work?
Our single “Hades” had been brewing beneath the surface for some time. However it was after meeting Tamino (one of our favorite musicians) after his show that the creative process was really triggered. He inspired us to step into our power, and share our souls‘ longing. It was in the following days that the bones (melody and initial lyrics) were channeled, but then the process became more collaborative. As we delved deeper into the writing process, we felt a profound connection to a lost part of our souls — an almost transcendental thread tying us to a distant forgotten past. We spent weeks crafting and weaving harmonies with the viola and then trying to find time to record. Though we recorded a bunch of versions, we ended up using the first raw recording as the official track. What can we say, the creative process isn’t always linear! Compositions can come out at the most random times, when cleaning, walking, or driving and you just need to stop what you’re doing and write down a lyric or hum into your phone. Because we appreciate poetry and melodies so much as separate art forms, our words and musical elements sometimes do not come through as one. It is usually when we start strumming or plucking on the guitar that they emerge together as a lyrical song. Some songs or portions of lyrics and melodies get left in the dust for years as the newer inspirations take shape. It can be fun to go back and see them from a fresh perspective and merge them into one like a puzzle or mystery to be solved. Recording, and getting the music out, that is another story. The journey of creating is much more fulfilling than the process of working with technology, and trying to assess how we feel about our art being out in the world. We are all perfectionists and have had to work very hard to accept that in our current circumstances, our art will not be in the ultimate form that we envision.
How does the visual aspect relate to and reflect your music?
The visual aspect is integral to the creative process. We often draw inspiration from visions of enchanted fairytale landscapes. Mountains, castles, emerald forests, and waterfalls serve as our preferred settings for creation, elements we aim to reflect in our musical compositions. We love painting with the sounds of nature — birds, waterfalls cascading, waves crashing, and the whispering of wind in the trees — on our musical canvases, weaving them into our melodies. Our journey with ‚Hades‘ took us to Scotland, where we filmed mesmerizing waterfalls and explored ancient caves, including a castle that has haunted the soul for years. It was here, in the dark dungeons and stagnant places, where we were able to commune with the ancient and painful energies of the castle and sing our healing harmonies to guide these spirits to the light. While our visions often outpace our current resources, we adapt and innovate, crafting our visions from what we have at the time. We must rely on our own abilities to record, produce and film everything ourselves, which can alter what our ultimate vision would be. But even in the absence of our “ideal” videos or images, we aspire for listeners to immerse themselves in our melodies and lyrics, painting their own unique visuals.
What artistic influences, outside of music, have had a signicant influence on how you approach your art?
We embody the essence of “Renaissance Souls”, jumping from one creative venture to the next! We inherited our father’s theatrical nature and talent as a visual artist. His fervor became our own, leading us to explore the stage and mold sculptures with whimsy and wonder. Shakespeare’s verses often boomed throughout our home, infusing the ordinary world with a hint of chaotic magic! Our father spun tales of fantasy, nourishing our imaginations with stories of otherworldly realms. ‚The Elves‘ from Tolkien’s ‚The Lord of the Rings‘ also captured our hearts. The idea of ethereal beings, whose voices and words possess the power to heal, deeply inspired us with their enchanting grace and mystique. Our artistic journey has been shaped by many threads ranging from the poetry of Tennyson and Browning, the timeless tales of King Arthur, to the enchanting legends of Celtic, Egyptian, and Greek mythologies. “Hades”, for example, was inspired by that forbidden, nostalgic and magnetic energy that many of us are familiar with. A dark, delicious, seductive power that leaves you wanting; a dance of light and dark, of coming together and falling apart. The Persephone archetype is one we both resonate with; the innocent spring flower drawn into darkness by a force beyond her control. “Hades” reflects the shadow side of Persephone, illuminating her naivety, fears and insecurities. Persephone battles with her love for the God of the Underworld and her desire to keep her shadows hidden. Only when Persephone has nurtured and befriended her darkness can she step into her power and illuminate the shadows. This idea is the foundation of many if not the majority of our songs. Our haunting harmonies reach to convey that sense of loss and longing, pain and passion. “Hades” was the perfect archetype to evoke the healing of many of our scars; the birth from a dark night of the soul. There is so much art out there that we are influenced by whether we realize it consciously or not. From our earliest explorations in dance, theater and poetry to our forays into fashion and set design, our aspirations continue to call us to weave together these once separate threads of our artistic nature into a harmonious whole, ‘Mystikana’.
What has been the most touching moment you have experienced as an artist? What memorable responses have you had to your work?
During our time filming in Scotland at Castle Dunnottar, an unforgettable moment unfolded in the Great Hall. As we sang one of our songs, inspired by the castle itself, a small impromptu audience gathered, listening to our soft, haunting acapella harmonies. It was a profoundly moving experience, connecting deeply with the spirit of the place. Another moment occurred while waiting at the back of a music venue, casually harmonizing some of our songs. To our surprise, a group of girls approached us, expressing their admiration for our voices and expressing a desire to see us perform live one day. These encounters of genuine appreciation and encouragement have stirred something within us. Despite not having shared our music widely, each comment and expression of love for our music reinforces our resolve to step into the spotlight and share our passion with a broader audience.
What’s next for you? What are you most looking forward to?
We never know what’s next. Honestly, we go with how we’re feeling at the moment and what inspiration comes in. What we’re most excited for is the ability to showcase a different side of us. We have so many ideas, so many songs, stories, genres bubbling beneath the surface. We want to use other instruments, dancing abilities, theatrical skills, and costume design to tell mystical stories through our music videos. What is next? It’s a surprise to us all, but we can’t wait to turn the page and see where the music leads us!
Thanks for listening!
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