Highlights from Doc Radio interview with Isabel and The Whispers Transcript from April 24th, 2007
Doc: [After playing the song "Josefina," on the air] ...Yeah, you are of course listening to Doc Radio and yours truly, Doc Martin, sitting here in our studio live, coming at you around the world, courtesy of Tribeca Network. And my guest this evening is...Isabel of Isabel and The Whispers...Let's imagine...come with me, now, Isabel on a flight of fancy...if you were to hear this music [Josefina] on the radio, you are cruising down the interstate, up the West Coast, up to wine country in California, the hood is down, the wind is blowing in your hair, this music is playing on the radio, what kind of music would you say this is? Break it down for me...
Isabel: I'd say it's kind of dreamy. You used a good word once, "ethereal." ....iit wants to lift you up somewhere far away, that you didn't know was inside of you. It's kind of influenced by bossa nova music...meant to serenade you into some state of mind.
Doc: Is there a particular gender that you think might more or less enjoy this music?
Isabel: I think it could appeal to both ...both men and women have said they liked it...maybe some androgynous figures too [kidding around]
Doc: ...I think your music speaks to a very tender part of us...that can be very touching and very moving.
Isabel: That's the goal...well, it sounds more meditated when I say "goal" than it really was...it was a way of soothing myself and in the process it might soothe others...
Doc: ...This is to me, in a way, very accepting music. And one of the things that causes a lot of conflict is that we engage in a lot of the difficulties of being alive and being conscious by shouting back, we're reactionary... Somebody comes in and they're violent, and we're violent back...we draw the line. But there's another whole school of thought that's being embraced a lot in the Western 21st century, now, that says "embrace the tiger." It's essentially a Chinese concept, I guess...interpreted in many religions, but this [your music] seems not to challenge or resist, it just seems to flow and ebb back...
Isabel: It's kind of floating...I was influenced by Erik Satie, the French piano composer of the early 20th century definitely in that piece.
Doc: ...Let's listen to some more, I like it...what else have we got?...
Isabel: I'm...excited about a heartbreak song I've written, and I'll love to give listeners a preview, it's off our album, and it's called "High Horse..."...It's meant to be a kind of call to women who've had hurts from relationships... who've "fallen off the horse," to tell them that they don't need to ride that horse anymore...
Doc: Have you had your heart broken?
Isabel: Oh, yes...
Doc: Many times?
Isabel: Sometimes...one decisive time amounts to a thousand times...it brings you to your knees when it does happen...
Doc: [After playing the song "High Horse," on the air]...That's some stuff...We so want to be intimate and open and vulnerable and yet we keep trying to think "How can I do this without getting hurt?