Instrumental Voices — Geminelle
I've always been fascinated by the influence of music on the mind. The way it can shift your emotions or control a collective mood. Our voices are vessels, instruments and tools while the words we speak & sing guide our reality. These beliefs and curiosities inspired this series, “Instrumental Voices”.
Meet Geminelle, singer-songwriter and vocal arranger. Discover how her journey as a musician and evolution of inner dialogue led her to create music to heal us all.
When Geminelle sings “my success is inevitable,” I believe her. On her timeless album Mantra Loops Vol. 1, the singer-songwriter, producer and vocal arranger repeats affirmations like “I invite ease and joy” to soothe and energize her spirit. The simple, memorable mantras invite us to come home to our bodies and reconnect with our power.
While learning to speak to herself in kinder, more loving ways, she sought out meditation challenges and pre-existing practices, but nothing stuck. In an effort to find a healing method that felt authentic and accessible to her, she turned to music. The mantra loops were created to answer a question Geminelle kept coming back to: “If I was starting out on my healing journey, what would I need to support that journey?”
The massive impact the project has made since its debut is a reminder of the ripple effect that occurs when someone intentionally tends to the healing of their own heart. By focusing her energy on unearthing exactly what she needed to hear, she created medicine that’s been resonating with people from Atlanta to Australia.
Mantra Loops Vol.1 album artwork
I asked Geminelle about the inception of Mantra Loops Vol. 1, her musical inspirations, and the deep healing power of music.
How has music healed you?
“Music has given me a space to process out loud. It has given me an opportunity to feel without judgment of others and to connect with people who are experiencing similar trials and lessons. Music has helped me to see myself and music has been a reminder of what I’ve learned.
Music has given me a space to be myself in a world where I haven’t always felt I can be authentic in my expression.
For that I will forever be grateful for music’s place in my life.”
What inspired you to first start creating mantra loops?
“Toward the end of 2018, I received my first sound bath. During that time, we were asked to set an intention for what we wanted to resonate with during this collective healing session.
I set the intention to bring forward a project that would connect with what the human collective needed to hear.
At the time, I was hoping to increase my engagement on Instagram and was also looking for something simple that I could share on a weekly basis. I was writing a song a week and found it to be incredibly taxing. I knew I needed to create something simpler if I wanted to maintain my pace. During this season, I had just started saying mantras to myself and was working on changing my inner dialogue. Dots started to connect and I realized I could sing mantras on a loop to begin my Instagram campaign and become more consistent about putting out content. In the process of creating this campaign, I started to realize that by singing these mantras I was gaining so much more than just a way to push and share my music. I started to feel myself transform from the power of the words I was singing on repeat! People started to respond asking where they could stream the music and claiming that this is what they needed and I realized that the intention that I had set during that sound bath had manifested through Mantra Loops. At that point I decided it was time for me take the music I was singing on IG and turn it into an album that people could listen to on any platform — from there, Mantra Loops Vol. 1 was born!”
Past or present, who inspires you musically?
The musician collective, Soulquarians, including Erykah Badu, Mos Def, Common, D’Angelo, J Dilla, Roy Hargrove, Bilal and more.
“I am inspired by all of the Soulquarians! Not only because of the quality of music and the new sounds that they brought to life but because of the power of collective effort that they’ve brought to the forefront of music. Seeing them collaborate to help each other’s music grow is super inspiring.
Present day, I’m inspired by the circle of friends around me who are experiencing success in their music, Sol Development, Iman Europe, D Smoke, Fat Ron. These people remind me to continue forward with authenticity, vulnerability and pure motivation.”
Finding home in hymns to celebrate ourselves, I’m moved by Geminelle’s musical offerings. What music artists help you return to yourself and your power?
(Piece co-written with Britt Boland.)