Solbird Sessions is made possible through viewer contributions to the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

Musical expression has saved lives.

And I'm a witness.

Whether you create it or just listen.

Music gives light and gives voice to what's been silenced.

Jimi Hendrix called it “a safe high”.

I am TiffanyJ, Your host for Solbird Sessions, where melody becomes a remedy.

♪ I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess.

Somehow, I need to free myself Starting with my mind, then I'll heal the rest.

I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess.

Somehow, I need to free myself Starting with my mind, then I'll heal the rest.

I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪ From South Carolina ETV Studios.

This is Solbird Sessions with TiffanyJ, Backed by Rod Foster and Company.

♪ A moment of transparency, Crown's heavy, need clarity.

Music can be your therapy.

Melody's (the remedy) you need.

Inhale, exhale, unveil, expel toxicity with symphony Inhale, exhale, your truth set sail Mentality, be healed, be free.

Breathe.

Release.

Breathe.

Be free.

Breathe.

Release.

Breathe.

Be free.

Breathe.

♪ Some of us have mastered the art of holding things in, smiling through chaos, shrinking how we really feel, silencing ourselves when we're unsure.

As a songwriter, I've learned that the things I struggled to say out loud often found their way into my lyrics.

In fact, I believe that for just about everything we're going through, there's a song for that here at the intersection of music and mental health.

We unmute, we celebrate self-expression when emotions find a home and language and rhythm and voice.

And for many, like me, in music.

Joining us is a South Carolina artist Blending genres creating a sound rooted in restoration, honesty and beauty.

Allow me to introduce to you Kayla Joy.

♪ Oh ooh Oh You are beautiful.

Beautiful.

Love me past beautiful.

Feel all the hurt and void.

reveal the enemy.

Cause that's what I'm searching for.

I look in the mirror and I see this broken soul.

All the mistakes I made.

Wish I could let them go.

See all my tears as they fall on my pillow of shame.

Look, my mascara it stained color like blackened rain.

I just don't know where to go.

I'm so confused and afraid.

Just wanna break free from me.

Yeah.

Love through the hurt and pain.

See through my tears and rain.

Know that I'll overcome.

Love me past anything.

Hold on to my hopes and realize my dreams see past the scars and flaws.

Love me beyond beautiful.

You are beautiful.

Even though I'm tired of the fight No one else should ever dim your light.

I was drowning in sorrow rain.

I just want things to change.

I just want to change for the better.

Would this change would be forever?

Now I am choosing me.

To be a better me.

Oh, Now I am choosing me.

to be a better me.

You are beautiful.

Ohhh You are beautiful.

You are.

You are so beautiful.

Don't let anybody dim your light.

You are beautiful.

You are So beautiful.

You are so beautiful.

♪ Thank you, Kayla Joy for that beautiful performance.

Now let's see how music and wellness merge and what we call the Remedy Room.

So we talked about how the steady beat is the foundation of music, and music has so many layers, so we can express ourselves with sound and music in many ways.

We can use an instrument, we can use our voices.

So we're going to create some sounds and create some music together.

So often I think when we're kids, we're happy to sing and play and dance around.

And then as we get older we think, oh, well, I don't sound like the person on the radio.

I shouldn't sing or I can't sing when everybody pretty much can sing.

If you're able to use your vocal apparatus, you can make a joyful noise.

And so first, thinking about happy sound.

What does happy sound like to you?

Laughter.

Laughter.

Yeah.

Birds chirping.

Chirping.

Oh, like the birds chirping in the tree.

How about anger?

Yeah.

Screaming.

Maybe stomping somebody.

Slamming the door.

So we have all these context clues that we pick up on in our hearing and what's going on around us, and picking up on other people's moods and then also communicating our own.

Sometimes we're aware of that and sometimes we're not.

And I create some, some music with the loop station.

Next.

All right.

You like to try?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Who would like the tundra.?

The sounds of connection.

Let me get that in the microphone.

Yeah.

So we got those joyful souls, the laughter in there.

More upbeat.

More.

You know, major key sounds was playful.

Yeah.

So thank you all for being playful.

So, Kayla, I do not want to start at the beginning of your journey, right?

You are exceptionally educated and I want you to hype yourself up on this platform.

So tell us all about who Kayla Joy is.

Okay, well, Kayla Joy.

I am Kayla Joy.

I normally start and say, I'm a daughter.

I'm a sister.

I'm an auntie.

I'm a "gommy" of seven godchildren.

<Okay.> An auntie, a cousin, a sister, a friend.

a creative professional who is focused on structure.

I love structure, but when it comes to my purpose in singing and songwriting, that's where my heart is.

And that truly is my assignment.

So that's Kayla Joy.

That's who I am.

I am a Winthrop Eagle.

Okay, I'll say modest.

I actually studied music performance <Yes, that's what I want.> at Winthrop University and that's where the classical music came in.

After graduating, I was able to dive into acting into the acting world.

So I am a member or company member of WOW.

And so we know that as “Walking On Water” and they have actually merged with a production company here.

called WSO and from there I was able to really cultivate my artistry, music videos and really create have a platform to where I can show my art.

I love that you're modest, but just so the viewers know, she is a national recording artist and is a professional actress that is on nationally distributed movies and plays, is in a series on Tubi and Peacock.

So you talked about being a double major English and music performance and you kind of felt like you were all over the place.

However, that really goes along with the career of being a songwriter.

So what inspires you actually to write music?

Okay.

Well, I was telling someone this story earlier that when I was younger, my mom and dad, we grew up in a Christian home and the music around us was mostly gospel.

So outside of that, we could not listen to rap or watch MTV It was BET Bobby Jones on Sunday morning and that's okay.

But from that, my love of wanting to know other styles of music grew.

Songwriting started probably 7 or 8 years old, and that just came from not really having the exposure, which is okay, but it came from saying, hey, I have a gift, I have a pen, I have paper, and I have a dream.

Write the vision and make it plain.

Absolutely, absolutely.

So I want to bring Chris into this conversation.

Chris is our mental health professional here, and I want to talk about honesty.

So, Kayla, how important is it for you to be honest in your music?

And, Chris, how do you feel honesty plays a part in us having, well, mental health.

When we have gifts, they are not just for you.

They're to share their to give to the world there to have an impact on someone.

So I think it's important that when you have a gift that you show up as your authentic self so that when it reaches it's heard, it's seen.

And if you don't show up as yourself, then the person receiving that gift is not going to get something that's authentic or get something that is real, and they may miss out on what is for them.

So I think it's very important to know who you are, who you are, and always show up as your authentic self because you have something to give and offer.

a lot of times we misunderstand ourselves growing up.

It's only until we've come off age and really start thinking about the processes of how, how we grew up.

Expression is one of those things that is either welcome or silenced.

It's not really in between.

I'm happy that you found your voice, even though at a certain point in your life you were silenced.

I would like to take a different perspective on that because when we know better, we do better.

And when we are not allowed certain things.

I don't think it's always just to be blocked from it.

I think it's just a knowledge thing.

It's just what we know and this is what we give.

We give what we know.

And then when we are out to spread our own wings, we then learn more and we bring it back I am glad, like Chris, that you blossom into discovering different styles because you took the the freedom to become yourself.

And we're going to get into that song free in a little bit.

And I would love for you to share what free is about.

Where were you when you wrote the song that you're going to share with us today?

You start the song off by saying, finally, I'm free.

I'm free to be me.

Finally.

That is literally your first word in the song.

What were you doing in the moment you wrote that song?

Well, I wrote the song in 2018.

It was a moment in my life where there was a major change in transition going on in friendships and my career.

I needed to break free from patterns, because if you repeat the same thing over and over and over again and you don't see change, you know it's time for change.

And so I knew it meant that in order for me to see change, there was going to be a little bit of discomfort.

It's like putting your size 8 and a half foot into a 6 and a half shoe.

It might look cute, but it's not going to feel good.

So I knew it was time to say, hey, break free from these patterns.

And free is that song of a melodic testimony.

Me sharing my truth.

Me going through changes, knowing that everything is not going to be easy.

Things are going to be hard, but that's a part of the process and you have to be okay with being polished.

You have to be okay with, with Breaking and Free is about that moment where you see the light, and that's what it was for me.

So finally, amazingly, I am free.

So I want to play with game with y'all.

Okay.

I have this creative card deck and our music therapist, Alison Hughey is the co-creator of this card deck.

And it has creative expression prompts.

Now, Kayla, read your card and then allow us to know how you respond to that.

Oh, okay.

So it says butterfly hug.

What's a song that brings you comfort as you listen to this song?

Give yourself a hug.

Place your hands at your shoulders with your arms crossed in an X across your chest, alternating your hands.

Tap along with the beat as you listen.

Do I have to sing it?

At least tell us what you.

What you gotta.

You.

Okay.

What song would you put on to, to participate in that prom?

I would think about.

And I would be selfish.

Love me beyond beautiful.

That's a song of reflection for me.

And when I wrote that song, I just remember standing in a mirror and I just began to sing the song.

I didn't have pen and paper in front of me, and I sang it from the beginning to the probably to the bridge.

Wow.

No paper, no pen.

And that's because I became comfortable in the language of self.

I knew what to say to me when I looked at my reflection.

So that's what I. That would be my butterfly hug song.

Awesome.

Okay.

So when we started the live taping, we asked the audience member some questions regarding the theme for the episode artistic expression that we're going to direct to you, Chris.

So one audience member said, I lost the love for my artistic expression.

How do I get it back?

First, you need to identify where you lost it.

At what point in life or what moment in your life that you felt like you stopped being artistic.

And then there we can kind of identify what the the layer was and there start your healing process.

Just start pulling those things back again.

I always say go to journaling, write it down right, right how you feel.

Whether it was a month ago or whether it was six years ago.

Right.

What was going on around you?

And then from there, you can kind of we can pick up from there.

before Kayla Joy sets us free on the stage, let's head back to the Remedy Room I'm going to go over to the loop station and tap that tempo.

So we have our pulse rate is our the number of times our heart beats per minute.

And music, we have beats per minute.

So BPM we can look at with music to kind of dial in, to match where we're at, or to slightly alter our heart rate upward or downward.

So often in Western cultures, we associate minor keys with sadness.

So.

Those kind of somber sounding chords and we tend to associate major chords with more happiness, joyful feelings.

So, I'm going to start out with those minor chords as we're making some music for disconnection.

So, disconnection and how that Womp Womp Mmmmm We say so much with our words, but more so with the tone of our voice, with our body language, with our non-verbal communication.

So often we can, especially with people we know very well, pick up on how they're feeling by how their voice sounds.

We tend to hold back, or maybe have a frog in our throat.

When we feel upset.

We tend to raise our voice when we're angry or when we're passionate.

So I invite you to check in with yourself in this moment and what you're feeling, what your current emotion is, and just take a breath and make a sound.

And now let's do that.

But make it a little louder.

You know, open your mouth, let the sound come out, whatever it may be.

So we can make sound to to communicate what we're feeling without even using words.

Suppressing emotions, what many of us call “holding it in” has been linked to increased stress and long term physical health effects.

Many of us were taught to stay quiet, to push things down and just move on.

Most people think they struggle with expressing themselves, but the truth is they struggle to feel safe enough to be honest.

But your voice isn't just what you say, it's what you're not saying, and it's what you are holding back.

Give yourself a space where you don't edit with this journaling or speaking out loud.

Say it exactly how it comes and even if it's messy Because healing often begins the moment you stop trying to sound right.

Start being real.

For more resources, visit SolbirdSessions.com For immediate assistance, You can call or text 988.

♪ Finally, I'm Free.

Happily Amazingly, I'm feeling free to be me.

Finally, I am free.

I am free.

I am Free.

Finally.

Nothing short of amazing My life actually is blazing It's alright, not complicated, I'm free, free, yeah They wonder how I made it Cause I should not have made it, How strong do I gotta be, yeah Makes you stronger I'm built Ford tough and I'm taking everything that's mine That's why I keep smiling Because it's preparing me, I'm finally, yes, I'm free, yeah I'm feeling free to be me, yeah Finally, I'm free I know you are free, yeah They told me my light's too bright Well stand back, it's about to get brighter Cause greater is He that's in me can't you see, yeah Love, light and happiness.

I'm too blessed to be stressed.

Some say I think I'm just bad and bougie, Yeah It makes you stronger I'm built Ford tough I'm coming after everything that's mine That's why I keep smiling because I am free Finally, yeah I am so happy, yeah Oh, I am free, yeah Finally, Amazingly Incredible Cause it's gotta get better It's gonna get better I said it's already better, Oh Hold your head up now Don't you cry.

Cause you're a survivor.

Said it's gonna get better.

♪ Before we go, take this with you.

What you've been holding in deserves a place to go.

Expression doesn't have to be perfect.

It just has to be honest.

So when you feel you need to take a deep breath, remember you have Solbird Sessions, where melody becomes remedy, on South Carolina ETV and Public Radio.

♪ I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪ The energy around is a mess.

♪ ♪ Somehow I need to free myself.

♪ ♪ Starting with my mind then I'll heal the rest.

♪ ♪ I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪ ♪ The energy around is a mess ♪ ♪ Somehow I need to free myself.

♪ ♪ ♪ Inhale, exhale.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Inhale, exhale.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ I feel I need ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ Oh, Somehow I need to free myself ♪ ♪ I feel, I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪