Starwater Interviews : Erin Breech

We're so happy to feature Erin Breech and her beautiful music on this next installment of Mantra Music Stars ! Erin and I have been fellow Kundalini students for over a decade and we've all been blessed to hear her music playing in many classes over the years. I was thrilled to finally get an opportunity to learn more about her and her work as I've been a fan for a long time ! We know you will love her music and her story.

Tell us a little bit about how you got in to singing mantra music?

My father is a musician so I grew up in a very musical household. After college I traveled the world for a couple years. At the end of that journey, I started, quite literally, to hear Los Angeles calling me home (even though it had never been my home). I landed in the City of Angeles at 23 and soon through a series of serendipitous events and meetings, I started writing songs and playing the singer songwriter circuit throughout the city. The same year I landed in my first Kundalini Yoga class and signed up for teacher training that week. That was 2004. About a year later my teacher, Harijiwan who knew I was a singer songwriter told me to should start writing mantras. And that’s how it started.

What is your favorite mantra and why?

Wow, I’m not sure I can give an absolute favorite because for me each one has such a fascinating power all it’s own. There are a few I have gotten to know and communed with on a deeper level and one of those is Ajai Alai. This was actually the first mantra I ever wrote a melody to and recorded. I feel like I have carried this mantra with me for lifetimes. I still remember the first time I ever heard it I knew the entire mantra. Which is quite a trip since it’s rather complex. I have heard Guru Jagat recount a similar experience. Ajai Alai was given to us by the 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. It is a radiant body technology that literally can make you glow from the inside out. If you are suffering depression or opposition it can give you the energy to be victorious. I find this mantra to be very peaceful and powerful at the same time, which is ultimately what I’m looking to have an experience of in this life. In Yogi Bhajan’s words, “Whenever you are in trouble mentally, or are being attacked in one way or another, chant these words and opposition will dissolve in your face. Once you recite this mantra correctly, it will give you the power that whatever you say must happen. When you chant this mantra, you have the power to surpass anything.” That sounds like something worth doing to me! You can get 11 recitations in, in 5 minutes.

Everything is made of sound.. how does it feel to create reality is such a primary way with your art

It makes me feel grateful to be alive during these interesting times! I’ve always been drawn to the occult. We are living in a time when these ancient hidden teachings are becoming available to the all of humanity to give us a large push in the upward evolutionary direction. No doubt the power of sound will be studied further and deeper by the scientific communities and ever more profound powers will be revealed. We are inside of a great remembering.

Is there a mantra you have recorded that you feel is particularly helpful for people right now?

Adi Shakti is such a powerful mantra for our times as we navigate the changing of guards and the fall of the patriarchy. I meditated every day to this mantra while I was pregnant with my son and became deeply acquainted with its power. Adi Shakti is the divine feminine force that gave birth to us all. Right now we are witnessing her waking from a long dark slumber. This mantra can help all of us, men and woman, get on the right side of the divine feminine’s rise to grace and reclamation of her power.

I also know there are a lot of people simply struggling right now. I lost a dear friend to suicide in December. Ardas Bhaee is an extremely powerful mantra if you feel hopeless and/or need a miracle. The answer to the miracle is offered through this mantra and you can be lifted into more positive possibilities.

 If you need healing or wish to send healing to someone else put on Ra Ma Da Sa. This is another one of my all time favorite mantras.

Are there any other art forms you practice and what are they?

Yes! I write poetry, and also songs in English and Spanish. I play guitar and piano and am learning how to play the nyckleharpa, which is a Swedish folk instrument. I have a particular affinity to folk, Celtic and blues music. I also love to paint but have not done so much of that in quite a few years. I have been having visions in my head of a painting that is begging me to get back to that.

How does your kundalini yoga practice effect your art?

In every way imaginable I would say. I know I am not alone in this feeling but my whole life I always felt I was looking for a doorway to the unnamable. Kundalini Yoga has given me a safe direct way find union with the G O D force where all ideas and art exist. It makes me feel safe to be alive and to create and feel comfortable knowing (from experience) everything is possible. Kundalini yoga and magic are one and the same in my eyes.

What is your favorite Kundalini Yoga set and meditation and why ? What do you practice regularly?

So many favorites, I could honestly list 50 for you. Perhaps my absolute favorite is 2.5 hours of Long Ek Ong Kars. I absolutely love the way that meditation makes me feel; strong, aligned and attuned to the subtleties.  

One of my favorite yoga kriyas is Master Set 1. I have a lot of 8s in my tantric numerology, which correlates to the pranic body (actually I have only 8s, 9s and 5s) so I need a good healthy dose of Breath of Fire everyday to set myself on the correct rhythm. I find set actually sets the naval point too, and the best part about it is its only 11 minutes.

My personal sadhana is an adapted version of Guru Jagat’s Immense Grace sadhana. I’ve been a part of this group for the last three years and have, for the most part followed the sadhana. I have whittled it down a little, as the mother of a toddler, I know I must keep my sadhana around 45 minutes or I will drop it. Right now I do 3 minutes each: cat cow, sarabun dundays, ego eradicator, fists of anger, and miracle meditation. 11 minutes each: money manifestation meditation, Gyan Chakra, and Jupiter finger meditation. Many days I save Gyan Chakra for later in the day when my son is awake because I like to tune in with him. He loves to sit and do this particular meditation for a short time. It’s good for the kids to see us meditating everyday but I also prefer to do the bulk of my sadhana alone so I can really use the time to recharge. That is a great balance for us. I also get these recitations in each day, 11 times each: Ajai Alai, Ray Man Shabad, 30th, 24th and 25th Pauris. I keep mantras playing all the time in my house too.

If Starwater Yoga mats have supported or inspired your practice, please share in what ways?

Starwater Yoga mats inspire to me because they remind me, much like mantras, of doorways into the unnamable. The images make me feel at peace and expanded. These other worlds that exist within us and in other realms are accessible to us through deep meditation. I feel like being reminded of beauty, possibilities and other dimensions is always a uplifting, in yoga, meditation and life in general, which is what Starwater images invoke for me.

Thank you so much Erin for a peek inside your beautiful and inspiring world! Have a look at our commercial above featuring her Wah Yantee she so generously shared with us. I highly recommend checking out all her music, Ajai Alai and Guru Ram Das are classics and her new album Adi Shakti is transcendent.

Find Erin Breech on itunes , spotify, soundcloud + follow her on instagram