Chasing Artists with Xenja

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with designer Sarie Gessner about journey in western style clothing design and starting her design business Jukebox Mama. Guest Bio Jukebox Mama is run by designer and maker Sarie Gessner. She primarily specializes in the design and making of vintage style western wear, drawing inspiration from the 1940s-1970s. Sarie lives and works in Nashville, where she makes western wear for all genders on sewing and embroidery machines from the 1930s. Everything from the patternmaking, construction, and chainstitch embroidery on Jukebox Mama designs is done in house. Sarie revels in the unique details of custom garments, and the sky's the limit for details like hand cut genuine leather fringe, appliqué, rhinestones, and signature chainstitch embroidery. Links to Guest www.jukeboxmama.com @jukebox.mama - instagram Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with actor Ian Ruskin about his three solo shows on the lives of Harry Bridges, Thomas Paine, and Nicola Tesla. Guest Bio Ian is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He founded The Harry Bridges Project in 2000 and has written, performed and produced many plays and radio and film documentaries, including From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks about labor leader Harry Bridges. He has performed the play over 250 times to approximately 50,000 people, including the English and Scottish Houses of Parliament. The film version, directed and shot by multi-Academy Award winner Haskell Wexler, aired nationwide on PBS for 4 years, making the film available to 150 million Americans. He has completed a new radio documentary A Wild Woman Sings the Blues about the life and work of Barbara Dane and is working on a treatment for a feature film based on the 1934 San Francisco General Strike. His play To Begin the World Over Again: the Life of Thomas Paine continues his mission to present the stories of forgotten and misunderstood heroes from American and European history. Performances have included The American Philosophical Society, Harvard Law School, Conway Hall in London, the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American Historians and in Boston’s Faneuil Hall. NETA distributed the film of a live performance, also shot by Haskell Wexler, and 180+ stations aired it in 2017 and 2018. He has also completed and began performing his new one-man play about “the man who invented the 20th century” Nikola Tesla. Magic and Lightning: into the Mind of Nikola Tesla. Venues have included The American Philosophical Society and Theatre West in Los Angeles.  Links to Guest http://www.ianruskin.org/  http://theharrybridgesproject.org/index.html http://www.thelifeofthomaspaine.org/ http://www.theteslaproject.org/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysfz71XihXQ&t= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uKn37_WPoY Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with composer Shaun Chasin about the composing process for Film/TV & Video Games. Guest Bio Shaun Chasin is a Canadian composer for film, TV, and video games. Most recently, he scored the comedy feature Domino: Battle Of The Bones, starring Snoop Dogg and David Arquette. He has also written the music for dozens of games including the online battle royal shooter Ring Of Elysium, the virtual reality hit Quell 4D, and the family adventure Apple Arcade launch title Way Of The Turtle. In addition to video games, his music has been featured on dozens of networks including FOX, Disney XD, and CNN, as well as streaming services such as Netflix. He contributed music to the crime investigation series Killing Fields on the Discovery Channel and the survival reality show Alone on The History Channel. Shaun also wrote the theme song “Our Time” for the anime Beyblade Burst, airing now on Disney XD. The song has gone on to garner millions of views on YouTube, as well as inspire dozens of fan covers! Shaun studied at Berklee College of Music, where he majored in Film Scoring with a minor in Video Game Music. Upon graduating Berklee, he attended the University of Southern California’s Scoring for Motion Pictures and Television graduate program. There, he studied with composers such as Bruce Broughton, Garry Schyman, and Christopher Young. Shaun currently resides in Los Angeles with his cat and studio assistant, Bogie. Links to Guest www.chasin.ca www.instagram.com/shaunchasin https://www.youtube.com/user/shaunchasin https://www.imdb.com/name/nm3917725/ https://open.spotify.com/artist/1JnTuwS0XfOqNhN8XFY4hs Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with creative business coach Sarah Mac about entrepreneurship, burn out, and money mindset for creatives. Guest Bio Sarah Mac is a Creative Business Coach who supports creative entrepreneurs to hit 5-figure months in fun ways in their dream business. She helps her clients to share their unique gifts through powerful storytelling that magnetises dream clients to their offers with ease. Originally from the UK, Sarah is now based in New York. She's also a songwriter and performer. Links to Guest Free Meditation: Creative Money  Free Template: Social Media Post That Sells Withsarahmac.com  Sarah Mac on Youtube Sarah Mac on Instagram Sarah Mac on Facebook  Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with Will Coeur about lighting design and the virtual lighting rig he designed during the pandemic! Links to Guest www.coeurdesigns.net Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with singer/songwriter and music producer Mike Green about starting guitar lessons at four years old to touring in over 36 countries to performing for Mick Jagger and John C. Reilly. Guest Bio Mike Green is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and producer. Since graduating from Berklee College of Music, Green has garnered attention in the music industry, having performed in front of artists such as Mick Jagger, John C. Reilly, Wyclef Jean, Maroon 5, Jamie Cullum, and more. Green has had music placed in film and television shows, performed in 30+ countries with international events band The Phly Boyz, as well as provided session guitar and vocal work for many LA-based musicians with world-class credits. His style has been compared to artists like Coldplay, Dave Matthews, and John Mayer, although Green has found a way to plate his sound differently. His music is a dish of versatility, garnished with powerful choruses and head-nodding grooves. Mike’s debut album “Restart" is a promising first installment from an artist who clearly has the writing, playing, and singing chops to get the material out of his heart and into a song. Links to Guest www.MikeGreenMusic.com www.instagram.com/ilikemikegreen www.facebook.com/ilikemikegreen www.twitter.com/ilikemikegreen Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with musician, composer, and performance artist Cellista about her new multi-media operetta Pariah. Guest Bio Cellista is a Los Angeles-based performance artist. Her critically acclaimed stage poems (narrative multimedia works) juxtapose seemingly disparate elements. The works are acts of resistance art. Employing a politically concerned, observant, and revealing voice, the pieces investigate the ruptures of daily life. Cellista posits that creating art is a radical act. An act that illuminates fragmentations, and allows the community -- as witnesses -- to attend to collective wounds, and to transfigure them. Her most recent work, Pariah, is an operatic fairytale with semi-autobiographical overtones. It explores issues of othering and exile within our communities. Cellista explains "I placed myself within Pariahto reflect on (not represent) my own experience as an artist. Pariahha’s allowed me to examine my own feelings of loneliness and othering. Through Pariah, I am confronting myself." Pariah features collaborations from notable soprano Carla Canales and composer Mazz Swift, and is accompanied by a book co-written with philosopher Dr. Frank Seeburger, and a dance film written and directed by Cellista. Cellista’s penchant for performing music in unconventional spaces, and her devotion to collaborating with artists across media, and genres, disrupts the world of the classical performing arts. She defies standard categorization, her sound brims with a dissident voice informed by her classical foundation and her desire to tear that very foundation apart. Fresh off her 2021 Lincoln Center debut, Cellista is a sought after collaborator. She has worked with Grammy-nominated artist Tanya Donelly, producer John Vanderslice, Troyboi, Don McLean, Casey Crescenzo (The Dear Hunter), Van Dyke Parks, Tony! Toni! Toné! and Pam the Funkstress. Her compositions and performances have been heard on film and TV including PBS; and she has appeared as an extra on the TV shows Better Things and Will & Grace playing her cello. Her interdisciplinary exhibit The End of Time premiered alongside renowned visual artist Barron Storey’s solo exhibit Quartet at Anno Domini art gallery in downtown San Jose with her chamber music collective the Juxtapositions Chamber Ensemble. The dual exhibition, created in tribute to French composer Olivier Messiaen’s seminal chamber work The Quartet for the End of Time, received critical acclaim. She is an elected chapter governor of the Recording Academy and a former San Jose arts commissioner. She received a masters in business from the Berklee College of Music in 2020. She is the founding artistic director of House of Cellista in Longmont, Colorado; a microcenter for the arts which advocates and offers subsidized housing to working artists. Cellista was born in Colorado, on February 21, 1983. She plays a Luis & Clarke carbon fibre cello, and an 1885 Czech cello named Chordelia. Links to Guest cellista.net wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellista facebook.com/cellista.music instagram.com/xcellistax twitter.com/xcellistax medium.com/@xcellistax Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with Mookey Van Orden about art, mental health, and the importance of sharing black and female stories. Guest Bio Mookey Van Orden is an educator, writer, actress, director, artist, and mental illness survivor. She is currently working as a coordinator for a child care program and is involved in multiple theatre and performing arts companies. Black stories, female stories, mental illness, and the inclusion of marginalized voices are paramount to Mookey’s process and artistic works. She is currently working on a filmed production of a new work, Kill Move Paradise by James Ijames for the Paul Robeson Performing Arts Company. Black Lives Matter. Black Theatre Matters. Black Voices Matter. Show Notes @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat all things theatre with actor, director, physical theatre artist, and teaching artist Christion Ty Edwards. Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/running-with-wolves/running-with-wolves-music-short-film?ref=project_build Guest Bio Christion Ty Edwards fell in love with theatre artistry at a very young age, before he even knew the true meaning behind those words. An alum of the B.A. Theatre program at James Madison University, Ty finds great joy and fulfillment as an actor, director, physical theatre artist, and teaching artist. He also enjoys dabbling as a writer from time to time. Previous credits include STAGE: Forbes Center for the Performing Arts; William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Equus. Southern Appalachian Historical Association; Horn in The West. FILM: Foreign Mindset Productions; Coffee & Yellow Roses (2021), J. Cubed Productions; Sharp Dressed Men. Links to Guest IG and Twitter - @TyrroTundra FB - ChristionTyEdwards.Actor Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with Ontario based Burlesque dancer and empowerment coach Olive von Topp. Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/running-with-wolves/running-with-wolves-music-short-film?ref=project_build Guest Bio Olive von Topp is an empowerment coach & burlesque dancer hailing from the royal city of Guelph, ON. Self-proclaimed pleasure-slut, Olive empowers women to challenge and change their thoughts, increase their self-confidence, and unleash their inner badass.   Through mindset work, movement, and mindfulness, Olive helps women explore their deepest desires, discover what they truly want and go after it, and access the pleasure they deserve.    Her goal is to take down the patriarchy, one self-loving woman at a time. Links to Guest www.olivevontopp.com @olivevontopp [Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter] Course: https://www.olivevontopp.com/self-love-online-course Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with aerialist Charlotte Rigault about starting circus arts at the age of six in France to now teaching, training, and performing in New England. Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/running-with-wolves/running-with-wolves-music-short-film?ref=project_build Guest Bio Charlotte started circus at the age of six in France at a small circus school called "Aux agrès du vent" with Daniel and Martine Vatan. She specializes in aerials, mostly corde lisse and tissu, but she also works on trapeze and lyra. She teaches kids and teens at The Circus Complex in Newton MA, where she also trains and performs. She has also been seen at The Muse Brooklyn (NY), Circus Maine (Portland, ME), Circus Up and other New England circus venues. She's currently finishing her circus teacher training program with the National Circus School in Montreal and has a Bachelor's degree in international business from Northeastern University. Charlotte is passionate about her art and loves to share it with her students and an audience. Links to Guest @charlotterigault Show Notes @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA we chat with Meagan Culberson about writing, being single, and the creation of her business and lifestyle blog Single Girl Club. Kickstarter Campaign Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/running-with-wolves/running-with-wolves-music-short-film?ref=project_build Guest Bio Meagan A. Culberson is writer and the creator of the lifestyle website for single women, SingleGirlClub.com, where she hopes to inspire single women to build better relationships with themselves. She is a graduate of the Los Angeles Film School, an aspiring producer, and lover of classic horror films and sci-fi.  Links to Guest @single.girl.club - instagram singlegirlclub.com Show Notes @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with Loris Anne Jones Randolph about stepping into her own light both within the entertainment industry and life itself. Guest Bio Loris is a diverse and unique performer. She had years of classical voice training, her four octave range is only paralleled by her ability to emote conflicting feelings on film, whether a silent short or a national commercial, she is always ready.  Loris is a lover of improv, creating musical sketches for instagram and quick quips for TikTok. That same love of improv provides her with the opportunity to create improved graphically scored a capella songs for LA based and globally recognized artist Emily Mast. In her off time, she's busy shooting, producing and editing content for a variety of brands and companies, most notably her efforts on the Daytime Emmy Award winning special for PBS' "From Scratch Show."  Links to Guest @boozybushwick BIGO live : ID lorisanne https://www.lorisanne.com https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9812373/ Show Notes @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with actor, producer, and career coach Jodie Bentley about her journey as a multi-hyphenate creative and navigating the business side of acting and creativity. Guest Bio Jodie Bentley is an LA based actor, producer and creative business coach. A graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a BFA in Acting, she’s worked for Netflix, Hulu, ABC, CBS and many more. For the past 13 years, she’s also been educating actors and artists on how to achieve their goals, implement success strategies, become organizational masters, stop the self-sabotage and own their brand.  She has taught workshops on all the above at SAG-AFTRA, Actors Equity, Comic Con  and over 50+ universities and training programs. Jodie’s students have gone on to perform on Broadway, star in films, recur in TV, book commercials & VO, land agents & managers, and live abundant joyful and creative lives. Links to Guest Social Media: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jodiebentley Twitter - https://twitter.com/jodiebentley  Facebook -  https://www.facebook.com/jodiebentleycareercoach/  Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodiebentley/ FB Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theactorsthinktank Websites: https://www.jodiebentleycareercoach.com/ https://jodiebentley.com/ Free Gifts: When you set out to be an actor, you didn’t think “Cool, I just became the CEO of my own business!” Yet, you get to be a proactive savvy actor who understands business principles and how to leverage them to fast track your acting career. Learn my 7 Steps to be a Working Actor in this free eBook! https://www.jodiebentleycareercoach.com/free_ebook/ Links to XENJA @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio

This week on Chasing Artists with XENJA, we chat with fashion illustrator and artist Phoebe Ouma about her desire to share an African experience through her creative works. Guest Bio My name is Phoebe Ouma and I've loved art & fashion from a very young age. It's become an integral part of my life and I'd love to share that world with you.  I specialize in lifestyle, fashion & family illustrations. I grew up in the outskirts of Nairobi, moved to Iowa when I was four and came back to Nairobi when I was ten years old. I now reside in Nairobi Kenya full-time and absolutely love it! My work is inspired by the constant need to live vicariously through my work, relive beautiful moments seen in fashion and real life. I'd like you to have an African experience influenced by a global perspective when you see my creations. I grew up not seeing much of people who looked like me in the magazines I consumed. I'm determined to provide a different perspective for women of color. Links to Guest https://www.phoebeouma.com/ @phoebe_ouma Show Notes @iamxenja www.xenja.org www.xenja.bandcamp.com Produced by XENJA Music by XENJA Audio Editing by High Noon Audio