"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
— Pablo Picasso
Girl Before a Mirror - Pablo Picasso
OPALUS next cover shoot
Our next issue theme is "Dream Travels in the Pastel Sky"...
The OPALUS studio is covered with props and set pieces being constructed for our next shoot....
Our minds are floating in the clouds, our imaginations are soaring through the skies and our eyes are filled with crystals, and shades of lavender, delicate pinks and tangerine.
Exclusive interview with LYRA BROWN
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!
Lyra Brown, photographed by Malorie Shmyr
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.
Lyra Brown, photographed by Malorie Shmyr
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.
Lyra Brown, photographed by Malorie Shmyr
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.
Lyra Brown, photographed by Malorie Shmyr
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
Lyra Brown on CBC Radio One today!
Don't miss Lyra Brown today on CBC Radio One today at 5pm in Edmonton, Canada.
Here is the link to enjoy!
http://lyrabrown.com/event/1133071/115718040/cbc-radio-one-fm-93-9-key-of-a
New Released by Italian Photographer - Marco Barbaro
A striking new series is released today in our editorial section by the talented Italian photographer Marco Barbaro.
There series is about a young boy who adorns his body in colourful dirt to camouflage and protect his beauty in his battle to be accepted by others.
Enjoy this bright and colorful series, titled "His Colors" in our editorial section.
Photographer - MARCO BARBARO
Hair - MARCO GENTILE
Model - NIKITA KUZMIN
Next issue theme is...
Thank you to all of you incredible artists from around the globe who have submitted to OPALUS Magazine in the past year! You're work takes our breath and imaginations away and we wouldn't be able to do this without your support and passion!
We are so excited to reveal the next issue theme, so we can see more of your incredible submissions!
The next theme is:
Dream Travels on the Pastel Sky
Let your imaginations run free with this theme! Let soft, dreamy pastels engulf your imaginations and drift away into the fluffy clouds of your dreams!
Submission Deadline - March 10th, 2015
Issue release - April 1, 2015
Submission Theme announcement later today!
Want to be published with OPALUS Magazine? Watch out later today for our next issue's themes!
LYRA BROWN - LIVE interview on CJSR 88.5FM
We are proud to have the incredibly talented and enchanting Lyra Brown grace one of the pages of our latest issue of OPALUS! Her album dropped yesterday and we can't wait to hear her tell us all about it, live in only 10 minutes!
Tune in to CJSR 88.5 FM at 1pm and listen to Lyra live in the studio with host Rhea March. They will be playing Lyra's new disk 'The Language of Eyes' in its entirety and discussing each track.
http://cjsr.com/shows/it-takes-a-village/
You don't want to miss this!
Editors Note of January Issue
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
No evidence is required in the mind of a surrealist, because everything is possible.
When we set our minds free from boundaries and that which we are taught “makes sense”, we enter a land of endless colors, no rules and limitless combinations, where nothing “should” make sense, yet, all of it strangely does.
Unite dream with reality. Allow the wall which is reason to become a permeable membrane that our fragmented dreams float freely through and blend with reality. It is then that you will be surrounded with limitless, colorful possibilities.
In this issue, themed the colorful mind of a surrealist, OPALUS engulfs you in pigment and juxtaposition with hopes to inspire and expand the color palletes of your mind.
How many color palletes does your mind have?
Malorie Shmyr, Editor
January Issue of OPALUS Released today!
In this issue, themed the Colorful Mind of a Surrealist, OPALUS engulfs you in pigment and juxtaposition with hopes to inspire and expand the color palletes of your mind.
Enjoy is online now, and order your own physical copy today by clicking here.
