It’s about being present.
When Slocan Valley musician Gemma Luna performs, whether she’s dancing or beatboxing or looping multiple layers of vocal harmony over her guitar chords, she needs to empty her mind of distractions.
“It’s about not having anything mentally in my way so I can access that musicality and just do it without thinking,” Luna told the Star.
And once she gets to that place, quite often she’ll be surprised by what happens. Having spent nearly 20 years here, she’s participated in a whole variety of musical and artistic projects, doing everything from belly-dancing to making jewelry.
And one of her favourite memories is of performing alongside Kootenay DJ Adham Shaikh at the Shambhala Music Festival.
“Adham’s really open, and he’s always inviting people to come freestyle — he’ll pull three or four people from different projects into his set. So he invited me on to the beach stage with this amazing trumpet player, and we were going back and forth,” she said.
“It was so epic, because we were really in the moment, improvising and freestyling, and the crowd was so huge.”
Since then Luna has produced an album, started a jewelry business and performed in venues all across the Kootenays. But sometimes she can’t believe she’s actually doing these things — if she were to travel back in time to tell her younger self about her experiences, she would have trouble believing it.
“I think I would be surprised that I’m up on stage making up words on the spot. I always knew I wanted to do that — maybe it wasn’t especially clear, I didn’t know I wanted to freestyle lyrics in front of people — but I knew I wanted to liberate my words.”
And she’s also looking to explore her body’s potential, a process that has been emotionally hefty.
“I think dance has been the scariest. The beginning of my life had some gnarly stuff in it that really affected my ability to feel like I belong here, to feel like I’m acceptable and worthy and safe.”
But she’s figured out how to embrace herself.
“It’s amazing to be able to step forward and be beautiful, be scantily clad, to do these sensual movements and think ‘I can do this’. The first times were so scary — I would get on stage and forget my entire choreography in the first five seconds.”
The thing is, she’s shy.
“I’m naturally pretty introverted, so all of this performing in a way has been my soul’s journey to liberate itself so I don’t have to be afraid to be seen and terrified to say what I think. It’s an ongoing process.”
She wants to inspire other people to take those risks too. And when people come to see her perform at the upcoming Kootenay Music Awards on March 10, she hopes they walk away feeling like they could follow in her footsteps.
“One of the best things about being an artist is hearing someone say you inspired them, or moved them. Maybe they just bought a loop station because of your show.”
That gives her faith she’s doing the right thing.
“It’s easy to not doubt your path when you don’t have a specific linear plan but you’re just following your creative impulses. How can you doubt those?”
Her advice: don’t.
“The world is just waiting for you to be yourself, and to be here. It’s waiting for whatever’s inside you that’s ready to come out. There’s a red carpet waiting for you.”