With her brilliant lyrics and enchanting voice, Lyra Brown's debut album, The Language of Eyes, creates images that dance through our heads and send swirls of inspiration soaring through our hearts.

With the latest issue of OPALUS Magazine being themed, The Colorful Mind of a Surrealist, we found this album to be so fitting with the concept. OPALUS Magazine's Creative Director, Malorie Shmyr, had to ask Lyra to show us inside her colorful mind in this exclusive artist interview.

Lyra Brown's cover Album Art, by Stacy Fahey

OPALUS -

Lyra, Thank you for showing us your imagination through your music!

What color is most inspiring you at the moment?

LYRA BROWN -

I'm very inspired by blues, turquoises, indigos and purples lately - which are also the colours on the cover of my record!

OPALUS -

Please tell us more about the following lyrics found in your album.

1.) “Somewhere there’s a tin girl in need of an oil change”

LYRA BROWN -

I was really inspired by the tin man from The Wizard of Oz and felt that I could relate to him in many ways when I wrote this song. I was really taken with the idea of not having a heart and needing badly to get it back, but being unable to because of being stuck or paralyzed by something beyond your control. It's about desperation and powerlessness. I also thought about how when he is exposed to tears or water of any kind, he seizes up and rusts. I attributed that to my own life in a lot of ways, and that line is almost like a smoke signal in hopes to call out to all other girls like myself who feel stuck and alone and like they are in a need of a change yet feel blocked or incapable of making one.

OPALUS -

2.) “Lover without lover, friend without a friend, Pay attention to the signs at every dead end. Nothing is as it seems, and yet everything is”

LYRA BROWN -

This lyric I wrote as a kind of consolation to myself. I find myself very influenced and inspired by paradoxes, because there is always so much truth to them. I was thinking about how when we think we know someone, we may have no idea who they are at all, including ourselves. The person that we show to the world is most often not the person that we are behind the scenes. I think that's a lonely thing to realize, and it's easy to feel like you've hit a dead end with no way out in sight. But because we are human, we are flawed, and we don't always think to look or pay attention to potential solutions at the times when we are at our most hopeless. I think this lyric is a reminder to be present, especially when we find it most difficult to continue on living. There is always, always hope - we just have to make the choice to see it.

OPALUS -

When you sing the songs in your album, if we could see the colors of your sound, what colors would they be?

LYRA BROWN -

I think the colours change for each song, for example on "Cheek and Bruise" I think there are a lot of bright oranges, reds, and yellows. I think the colours change with the lyrics and the melody. I definitely think that on the album as a whole, you could see the whole spectrum of the rainbow. But I also think that depends on how you interpret the songs too - one person may see green when another person sees red - and I think that's the beauty of art. Everyone sees or feels something different, because we don't always interpret things in the same way.

OPALUS -

Where do you feel the most inspired?

LYRA BROWN -

I can feel inspired everywhere, I think it just depends on what's going on around me that inspires me. I feel most inspired when I'm around other artists and creative people, when I'm listening to my favourite artists or reading poems and books from my favourite poets and authors. Nostalgia has always been a big inspiration too, whenever I am confronted with thoughts or memories from the past. I am also inspired when I'm around nature.

OPALUS -

Do you have a favorite song on the album?

LYRA BROWN -

This is a difficult question! It changes all the time. If I had to narrow it down, I think I would pick "As It Seems". It's the newest song on the record, I wrote it right before going into the studio. I just really love the lyrics and melody - I think it's one of the most honest, hopeful and vulnerable songs I've ever written. I'm really happy with how it turned out.

OPALUS -

What do you hope we leave feeling, or pondering after listening to your album?

LYRA BROWN -

I hope you leave feeling changed somehow. I hope you feel like you've walked through a desert wearing only snowshoes and that the pool of water you thought was a mirage, isn't a mirage after all. I hope you feel less alone in some way. I hope you feel hopeful and strong. I hope you feel real.

OPALUS -

What beverage do you most often have when creating?

LYRA BROWN -

It alternates between hot water with lemon, and coffee. I am an avid coffee drinker, a "pure-bred caffeine fiend" I like to call it. I love it way more than I should! "Death before decaf" is a motto of sorts.

OPALUS -

Where can we buy the album?

LYRA BROWN -

You can buy it from various different places, but the best place to get it is from my website: lyrabrown.com

OPALUS -

What can we look forward to in the future from you?

LYRA BROWN -

More songs, pictures, poems, shows and collaborations! Laughter and love. Gratitude.

As a visual arts magazine, we could not ask for a more visually stimulating album than "The Language of Eyes" and we can't wait to be transported away to her magical land at the official CD release party tonight!

Lyra will be playing her full album along side Murray Alexander Wood on bass, Shea Connor on drums and Alex Vissia and Aleisha Raquel on back-up vocals.

Opening the show will be Eve Foote, followed by Consilience!

See you there!

When: Friday, January 23rd, 2015
Where: The Artery - ALL AGES
Price: Tickets are 15$ available NOW at Blackbyrd Myoozik AND at yeglive.ca:

http://yeglive.ca/events/lyra-brown/jan-23-2015/artery