Buddha Mei: Meidulook

Interview by Jeanne Bransbourg

Photography and Photo Editing by Nia Blankson

Can you tell me about yourself? Who is Buddha Mei?
Buddha Mei is a multifaceted artist who specializes in sound and crystal energy healing. I incorporate different mixed mediums of art and I sum that up in a form of healing artistry so that it's not specifically one medium. It's just art. “Buddha Mei” translates to beautiful buddha in Cantonese; Mei is my Chinese name and my middle name. I've been going by Mei for the past year now, and it feels more at home for me. My grandma named me Mei when she immigrated from China, and it was the name she wanted to carry out for me, but I was given an English name when I moved here (New York City). My grandma passed away when I was ten, and her energy is still very present within me, so it's very important for me to carry out her lineage and carry that culture within me strongly. I'm also mixed, so within that dual identity it’s important for me to carry that name out. We aren’t in China anymore, we're in America, and now that I have this Americanized name, and as a first generation immigrant, it feels very important to keep Mei. Mei just feels right.

So you call yourself a “healing artist.” What does that entail, what does it mean?
I specialize in Tibetan sound healing bowls, gongs, tuning forks, and other percussion instruments. I tune the frequencies to my voice – as I've gone through vocal training for decades – tapping into spiritual wisdom, and I allow myself to be the vessel for healing frequencies to emanate from. I connect with these instruments because the meeting of the two enhances the overall vibration that you will be experiencing when you come to receive a session from me. Also, in other forms of my artistry, it is a reflection of my healing journey, as well as our own respective journeys. I feel that my art has been a way for me to express myself throughout the challenges that I've been going through. It's been my way of breathing. Art is healing.

How long have you been working at your craft?
Art and performing arts, my entire life. My mom, since we immigrated here, has put me in every art class she could, which I’m so grateful for. She wanted her child to be exposed to a world that she never got to experience. I got to dabble in all these different mediums, and I grew to really find so much passion in my voice, in singing. I grew up in a church, and I was in the church choir, always singing and doing performances. On top of this, I also did ballroom dancing for over seven years, so I was competing. I love dancing and I love music. It was not until a year and a half ago when I really dabbled into finding instruments that paired well with my voice. I played the guitar in high school, and I tried to play the piano, but discovering singing bowls was when I really connected my voice to a frequency that I felt I could build off of and grow from.

How did you get into singing bowls, sound baths, and that realm in general?
I’d heard about the singing bowls previously from friends and peers that tried to introduce them to me, but at the time, I wasn't ready. When something hard happened with my mom, it was then that I was ready energetically to accept this change and healing. Once I had connected with my first bowl, that was when that entire journey began of me opening up my akashic records and my ancestral knowledge, really fine tuning ways that I could self-medicate, because of how hard that particular time was for me. Connecting to these bowls and frequencies, I couldn't have done at any other time. That was when I needed it the most. It felt like I had done this for lifetimes, and everything came so effortlessly, and rapidly, as well. Me dropping out of school and stopping my part time job allowed me the space to find more of a connection with myself and find ways that I could share that with my mom, because throughout this journey I was doing as much as I could to share these frequencies with her and see what worked. I've used crystals since I was ten, but not at this capacity, where I've found a way to incorporate crystal energy healing with my sound therapy sessions. The way that they both interact; I've delved into the Book of Stones and the Himalayan Book of Sounds. Those two books had a very big impact on me, because it felt like I knew all of this, like I'd read it somewhere, just not in this lifetime. The synchronicity that came through once I started opening this door showed me that I was truly walking the right path. Nothing was in my way, and everything was opening up so that I could fully pursue this. I’d finally found my calling and a meaning to all of this.

Where do you draw your inspiration from? For music, art, film, and lifestyle?
I really admire Greentea Peng, an artist from the UK. I admire her because of how she expresses her medium as medicine. It reflects on my own artistry because of how I state that it is healing arts, and it is medecine; we are both of the understanding that our gifts are here to be given to the collective. The way that she also visually approaches her sonic pieces gives off this introspective, psychedelic, self-journey appeal, which is something that I feel very paralleled with as well. It's all for the greater good, of good vibrations! Another artist that I really look up to would be Willow Smith, and her new album Empathogen. The way that she has cultivated this project really resonated with me, because it was her form of expression through her healing journey. The overall feeling was truly translated through how she had stacked her vocals and done her visuals. I also really admire the way that she spoke so eloquently of her journey. I was in awe listening to her project, and I have been for other projects of her’s, but in this one, she’s been diving into healing modalities, her culture, and learning more about other spiritual influences that can alleviate certain pains within. These two women are really powerful to me.

What has been your favorite project or song that you made/produced up to now? Why?
My favorite song that we’ve made (Victor and I) is “Brewin’.” “Brewin’” was purely a jam session. Victor and I will just start our sessions pushing buttons, saying random things, until the music flows out of us, which is exactly what “Brewin’” was. Last year, a few days before my birthday, I was writing that my solar return was coming, that something big was brewing. I kept writing, “Something big is brewin’ / it's all in my book / just take a look.” The song was so funny. We had so many sonic layers, and I was playing with recording different sounds; eating blueberries, scratching the walls, and sampling all of these. The song was just a playground of electronic, techno, dance, and jazz music. I wanted to incorporate all of these different mediums, make it avant-garde, break it up into all these different sections. That song was the first song that we fine tuned to be in three sections. You'll see that in a lot of different songs that we have produced, that they’re broken up into three sections, making a story. February was when we revisited “Brewin’,” because I was ready to release it as a track in March. It wasn’t mixed or mastered yet, just a raw file, and so we started consolidating the elements. As this started shaping up, I knew that a film would come out of this, and it was going to be really big. When we had completed “Brewin’” that night, I had also written four other songs, which we also recorded. It was the most that we had ever done, producing this much art, at this capacity. It felt really rewarding. What I first saw it as, back in July, is so much bigger now; divine masculine, yen energy, and so in touch with my culture. I incorporated the Chinese rice hat, and fan dancing, which I hadn’t done since Chinese school back when I was younger. “Brewin’” inspired me to go back and re-learn Chinese fan dancing. I picked up the fan, I did it, and the muscle memory came back. It felt right, to be expressing my culture, and combining Chinese culture with this heavy techno, 808 beat. It’s something you wouldn’t expect. It’s different, it's cool, and it's so authentically me.

What is MEIDULOOK?
MEIDULOOK is my experimental short film, which is broken up into three sections. In the first section, I am introducing Buddha Mei, I am speaking about my sound healing journey. I'm also showcasing the tree dress that I handmade. I also showcase the crystals that I work with, and how that has impacted me. After the spoken word in the beginning of my film, it transitions into Crystal Girl, after I've planted all the crystals into the soil. Crystal girl is my divine feminine, she is an empowered woman who plays with the idea of the Roaring ‘20s. In the film, I look like a sexy flapper girl. Now, with this ability to self medicate, educate, and meditate (words in my lyrics) is where I am finding the most empowerment in our womanhood. It’s me being my strongest, most empowered self. The movie then transitions into me going down a slide; I change into a different outfit and character. I walk you into this incredible dance hall, which is where “Brewin’” is showcased, my divine masculine. It's a very outward energy. I like to parallel this film to Michael Jackson, and the films he was making. I heard in one of his interviews that he always wanted to be cast in movies, but he never was, so he decided to make his own. I related to that because I have also never been in a movie, and this film is purely me, with my own meditation. It came through when I was in the deep state of my inner world. I just got news this morning that MEIDULOOK made it as a semi-finalist at the Dumbo Film Festival. I’ve been manifesting this for so long, and I know that I am the winner. This all feels so right. The love that the entire team has put into this, into something that’s new, something that you wouldn’t expect from a short film, a sonic experience under ten minutes. It's empowering, and I feel that it showcases almost all parts of me. The sound healing, the art that I make, the makeup that I do, the performance I bring to the table, the dancing, my culture. MEIDULOOK is a stamp on my life, of this chapter and what’s to come.

Who's your favorite creator that you've worked with so far?
First is Victor Andre, my partner, and the person I created this album with. I had never met anyone that was a divine reflection of me in a way that we could sonically uplift each other. We both understand each other, to a point where the music isn’t just sounds; we’re talking through the music, we’re connecting, and these vibrations that we’re putting out for these people are all connected to an energy center, fine tuned to a frequency, and I've had the most fun getting to know him along this journey. The first day that we met, I had already seen his studio in a vision. Everything just felt so right and so divine. I knew exactly where I was, and while I didn't know that we were going to make this album together at that moment, I knew that we were going to be doing something great. Since then, we’ve just been making music. The music was the foundation that allowed me to let my other mediums of art shine through. I love doing makeup, I love films, photography, modeling, and acting.
Next is the director that I worked with on my music videos and short films, Adam Nino. The chemistry of understanding how to keep the energy so vibrant through the visual representation is amazing. I will come with a full length vision and sketch of how I want each shot to come through, and he executes it perfectly..
I also want to shout out Emily Raes. She is amazing, she was my stylist for my music videos and my short film. The connection with her is insane. She knew how I dressed, how I accessorized, and the energy that I wanted to put out through artistically decorating the body. She spiritually and culturally understood me. She listened to my music, and I felt so connected and incredibly lucky to be working alongside her and to have her supporting me.
There’re so many other people I want to highlight, but those three were truly monumental in highlighting me as an artist and to complement what I had to share. As much as I was expressing myself, it was also their form of expression.

You speak a lot about energy; so what song energizes your morning?
My song “Enerchi” is truly the best to wake up to. I love “Enerchi.” I mean, we’re sipping on green tea right now! In the song, I say “Ah / When I wake up in the morning / I stare right into the sun / Cycling my breath to harness the Chi in me.” I sing immediately, “I been sippin’ on some green tea / With all three of me.” It’s the most empowering awakening song, the frequencies in it are chill, it’s something I can do my Qigong to, my movement. It’s pure flow.

Can you explain your process behind creating?
I have this notebook, which has been with me through this entire journey, where I've sketched out every single scene. I knew exactly what I wanted. Every single film I've done, I come to people with my notebook; each shot with the timing, which lyric it will pair along with. I end up doing an entire presentation and PowerPoint for each video. I have drawings of makeup, too. I also have a seven month plan. I made it in November/December. Every seventh of the month, I wrote a song that I would release that day. Which songs are released has changed a little bit, but the idea remains the same. Every 17th of the month, I would also release the music video for the song. This schedule has kept me pushing through, kept me going, since I have something to look forward to. It may seem like it all happened too fast, but to me, it’s felt so concretely mapped out and masterfully curated that my body has been ready to do all of these things.
Depending on the medium, I always come down to mediation first. I will always meditate on what I want to manifest, and from there, I feel that whatever step I take first will eventually take me to the final puzzle piece. Every step is a puzzle piece, leading me in the right direction.
J: Like Scatterbrain! Our logo is a puzzle piece!
M: Exactly! I know where the step is taking me, I know why I’m doing it, but it’s the journey to the next one that’s the most exciting. It’s what will carry me to the final product, whether it’s making a track, drawing, or singing. It all starts with meditation.

So what’s next for Buddha Mei? What should we look out for?
Something big is brewin’…