MolinaSoleilShine Flow – title track off Shine Flow EP by Molina Soleil & Aju w/ DJ Icewater (2009)
This was the first track I recorded with DJ Icewater in October 2008. I was a few months into my Up Before the Sunrise tour. I decided to head to the Bay Area and do some volunteer work for Youth Speaks during their Living Word Festival.
I called my friend Jeff Chang and told him that I’d be in town. Could he hook me up with any producers?
Within a few days Icewater and I connected and he sent me some beats. This instrumental was one of the first. It fit like a glove with the lyrics I penned a week earlier on a flight from Seattle to Portland, where I emceed Graham St. Productions’ first major benefit event for Papers the movie.
I was feeling high. I was making moves, making things happen. A little money was coming in and I was proving to myself that I could succeed and be heard on a national level. I had just performed in Rapid City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philly and Albuquerque, and at Cafe Cultura and Cafe Nuba in Denver. I had been contracted to do work with youth in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming. I was contributing to a major film project that would shine light on the lives of young people pushing for immigration reform.
It was time to celebrate.
I put the first version of Shine Flow on MySpace mid-October 2008, shortly after it debuted on Hard Knock Radio. The first version didn’t have Aju’s vocals. Her and I began making music together late in December 2009. You are listening to the final version of the track, released June 9th, 2009.
Celebrate the small victories and remember to do it for you. Fuck trying to prove anything to anybody. The haters breathe, they lurk wherever success breathes. Fuck ‘em.
Shine YOUR light and share it with your people.
Molina
Tags: A.M. Soleil, Cafe Cultura, DJ Icewater, Hard Knock Radio, Jeff Chang, Molina Music, music blog Molina Soleil & Aju, Papers the movie, Retrospectively, Shine Flow EP, Youth Speaks
