Eliyora Entertainment™
About Eliyora Entertainment: It’s entertainment with intent.™
It’s timeless music designed to awaken your love and joy. Whether you’re remembering or discovering, join us on a journey beyond space and time to 186,000 Velocity Street™ where music is the universal language.
It’s common sense advice to improve your life.
It’s heartfelt advocacy for reciprocity.
It’s fun and serious social commentary on why.
It’s also a Renaissance & a Revolution.™
All concepts, personas, performances and original music by Sherese Chrétien.
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Ziyna™ interviews Sherese Chrétien:
Ziyna here. I’m sitting with Sherese in her studio in Aspen, Colorado (just over the mountain from where she grew up in Paonia, Colorado). We’re enjoying some of her freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. Mmmm! They are still warm right out of the oven. I need a minute to enjoy this heaven….mmm. Okay, let’s get to it!
Ziyna: Man, Sherese, these cookies are AMAZING! I can’t wait to talk about the dessert part of Eliyora Entertainment! But, first, let’s take a bird’s eye view. Well this all is a pretty ambitious undertaking! Where do we start? Let’s start with the music and how you got here.
Sherese: (Laughs with a mouthful of cookies.) Okay, yeah. I started performing when I was three — so music has always been core to me. It’s like breathing. The music muse came and has never left me. But I assume if anyone stops, you can feel a hum in the air and if you allow yourself to get quiet enough to really listen you can hear songs trying to get your attention, trying to get you to bring them through to whomever is meant to hear them. They are trying to get you to be their conduit, their vehicle, their messenger. For me, they can get quite insistent and it’s a constant conversation and negotiation — “okay, okay, can you wait until I can get to a pen and paper or get to a recorder or until I am not driving or at least until I wake up?” (Laughs.) But I really do feel so blessed that they fill my ears, my heart and my dreams. I can remember when I was five, getting up everyday before everyone else and I’d go out and swing with the sunrise, singing “You are my sunshine.” (Laughs.) Wherever I was, I was always singing, always singing. Except for performances, I always sang acapella. Over the years I’ve had some amazing opportunities to sing and now I finally get to give it my all with Eliyora Entertainment — with a twist of intent mixed in.
Ziyna: So who were your earliest influences?
Sherese: (Laughs) Well, when you’re already performing in your earliest memories I suppose there isn’t a sense of having a particular influence. I was taught all the songs and I was too young to know where they came from, though I now know they were from everywhere and every era. When music is your earliest memory I think you’re influenced by everything you hear — I know I am.
But there is a funny story — when I was five, I remember I heard Jazz great Nancy Wilson on the radio and I BEGGED to go see her. I was certain that she was just right over at the radio station and was standing there singing into a mic and I could go and meet her. When I was told she wasn’t actually there in person — I was crushed! But then when it was explained to me that the radio was playing her records like we had at home, I realized how she could be all over the world at one time that way — then I was very happy. And, of course, there was never a question in my mind that I could do the same thing. I was quite precocious! Nancy Wilson is probably the first singer I remember that made a definite impression on me.
Ziyna: Wow — Nancy Wilson, what a great first impression to have. Such a classy lady and certainly no one ever told a story with a song quite like Nancy Wilson. But, now with Eliyora Entertainment, you’re doing, what, 9 or 10 different genres with as many different “personas,” you call them. How in the world did that come about?
Sherese: You know Ziyna, I suspect I’m doing with Eliyora Entertainment what every artist WANTS to do, but they don’t figure it out until after they’ve mined all the gold from their first pursuit — or they don’t “dare,” or they don’t think they will be “allowed” to. It is in our nature to constantly create, evolve and grow as artists. I’ve stood back and observed how these things go and made sure I have ample room to constantly morph like a kaleidoscope from the very beginning. Each of the personas is a piece of me. They each sing a song or convey a message that I hear and feel – that moves me. At the same time, I cherish my audience and want to make sure I consistently deliver the song they came to hear because I never want them to leave! I want them to trust that they can always count on me. I’m also poking a little fun at the current state of the entertainment business and it’s “celebrity worship,” trying to remind my audience it’s all about the art — it’s entertainment and a message designed to bring them love, joy and remind them to PLAY!
Ziyna: Fair enough! Now you say that Eliyora is entertainment “with intent” — what do you mean by that?
Sherese: Well I have some lyrics that go: “I’m no politician, but I’m on a campaign, I’m no preacher but it’s soul work just the same…” I actually dare to believe that entertainment, that “play” is vital in people’s lives and relationships. This was my expensive conclusion from all of my graduate studies in social & clinical psychology! (Laughs). I believe that stepping outside of ourselves for a song or a play or a painting or a comedy sketch, etc. is not only healthy but vital to seeing a different point of view, is vital to self-reflection, finding clarity, as well as appreciating something bigger than us. It’s a lot more fun than meditating — and meditating off by yourself at the top of a mountain can only take you so far! Then, entertainment that conveys messages that encourage healthy relationships is even better! So I say more, more, more!
Ziyna: Hmmm — interesting, definitely a unique perspective. So that’s what all the advocacy and commentary in Eliyora Entertainment is about as well? Getting people to see a different point of view?
Sherese: Exactly. I’m going to use every color I’ve got in my palette to sing the song, dance the dance, paint the picture, to cause a ripple, to effect positive change. I also have the audacity, I suppose, to believe I might be able to make a difference in the world — enough to be donating 90% of all profits from Eliyora Entertainment to select social change efforts that I care about. From what I understand, you have to be a superstar in the traditional music business model to even make 10% of your profits, so I’ll still be doing great (well, as long as we’re successful at this)! Even these cookies are part of the plan! (Laughs) You want another?
Ziyna: Sure, I would never turn one of these away! Mmmmm…. So have you always felt this purpose for your music? For your life?
Sherese: Yup! This is it. Some days, I admit it feels daunting, and I’d like to just grab my man, run away to a secluded island, stare at him all day and sing love songs to him alone. But there has always been this drive, this gratefulness, this feeling of OBLIGATION to make a difference, and remind people to PLAY and remind people of the magic of reciprocity, the healing power of “love your neighbor as yourself.” Especially for love relationships — it’s a deep, deep need for me to do this. My reason for waking up breathing each day is to see more and more people deeply in love with each other and with life. AND to see them succeed in their relationships! It’s the only way I know how to live. I could never run away from it because that would mean I was being selfish and ungrateful for everything I’ve been so blessed to receive. I couldn’t live with myself as that person. Besides, if I don’t think of what I’m up against, I can just get caught up in the sheer fun of living my mission! Could there be a more delightful purpose?
Ziyna: You’ve got a point there! And how about the desserts, natural beauty and travel/adventure — where do they all fit into all of this?
Sherese: I have no answer except that they are things I absolutely love! Whether I’m baking these chocolate chip cookies or coming up with an all natural facial or encountering a new culture through world travel or feeling the exhilaration of dancing samba or the challenge of learning capoeira, they are all things that bring me joy! I’m simply sharing them hoping that joy is contagious. Perhaps I can also encourage my audience to find things like this that bring them utter joy as well. It’s all playing for me and I’ve told you why I believe PLAY is so important!
Ziyna: Yes you have — and I’ve even gotten to taste it! Thank you Sherese. We can’t wait to see it all unfold — coming soon, right?!
Sherese: Yes, I’m going as fast as I can, and having a blast! Thank you, Ziyna — here take some cookies home! (Laughs).
Eliyora Entertainment LLC. Ever Entertainment® © Paradunai LLC. All international rights reserved. All trademarks property of Paradunai LLC. All personas, concepts and original songs created, performed and produced by Sherese Chrétien PsyD, CPSP, CPPC.