Johanna Beekman is an internationally acclaimed singer/songwriter, chant/kirtan artist, yoga teacher, vocal teacher, recording artist, and event producer. A voting member of the Grammy Recording Academy, Johanna is loved for her rich, soulful voice, radiant spirit, and inspiring songs. We had the pleasure to catch up with her and discuss her interests, music career, and latest project with Ben Leinbach, titled Yoga Soundtrack Volume 2.
Thank you for agreeing to catch up with Occhi Magazine. For readers unfamiliar with your background, what drew you both to a career in music and becoming a yoga teacher?
I’ve been singing since I could speak. I wrote my first song when I was nine; I always loved the idea of being a performer, but had stage fright. My desire to sing and the benefits of my doing so were stronger than the fear. Through my teens, I studied with songwriters & improv singers, starred in musicals, and wrote songs that I would take into coffee shops, which turned into bars and festivals.
I continued to tour as a singer-songwriter through my early 20s in Portland, Oregon. I quit drinking out of college, so the venues (bars, restaurants, and parties) were leaving me wanting a deeper, more profound, clearer experience. So I quit music & became a yoga teacher, something I had been introduced to as a child. I found that singing and yoga had the same calming effect on my nervous system. So I went deep into the limb of yoga called “Bhakti” or chanting, also something I had the opportunity to be exposed to as a young songwriter.
I was hit by a drunk driver early on after Power Yoga teacher training and this focused me even more deeply on the healing power of chant and mindful movement, healing myself from the inside out when the doctors said I wasn’t going to practice yoga again. I called this kind of Restorative Yoga with Sound Lullaby Yoga. A kind of yoga anyBODY could enjoy the benefits from.
Who were your early influences and how did they impact your career?
Rewind before I was born, I was blessed in the womb by spiritual teacher and chanter Ram Dass, and as a teenage songwriter got to take two week-long Kirtan Chanting immersions with the guys that popularized chanting in the west, Krishna Das and Ram Dass.
My father, also a musician, was doing sound for the teachers and brought me so I could be exposed to more forms of world music, something he had a passion for. During my teenage years, my dad and I were also in an African drum-based band, a classic rock band, and explored the roots of Gospel with another teacher I wouldn’t be the same without, Rev. Isaiah Jones, who taught us to have “Faith” and sing with “Soul”.
Though I had been exposed to so many forms of music, I didn’t understand the Chanting music at first, it was less melodic, harmonic, and hook-filled than my pop-gospel-soul and folk roots. My ears were confused by the new language and melodies, something happened in my heart and it planted a seed. In my late 20s, as I embraced the yoga path, I learned that there were all sorts of STYLES of chanting. With varying levels of fame, the “famous” chanters quickly became my friends and collaborators, and this community has been my touring grounds for almost 10 years now. We are a family who welcomes each other all over the world.
Johanna, during the pandemic you brought together singers and dancers from all around the world in a beautiful video promoting healing and supporting children in Nepal. Please tell us more about the initiative and its origins.
Mantra Sangha: Health and Healing was my first audio production project with me in the production chair. We were all stuck at home, and I had made friends all over the world in the chanting community who I was missing. I had made a living out of touring festivals, other chanters’ communities, and gatherings where we were all presenting. Suddenly a year of “reunion” was canceled, and so I decided to invite my friends to sing on this collaborative track.
I had been isolated in a cabin near LA when the pandemic hit and I found a Mantra by Sri Shakti Amma in Southern India and practiced with it until a melody came through. It was a more traditional melody than my usual “Gospel of the East meets the Gospel of the West” flare, and I kept hearing my friends who sing more traditional melodies normally sharing in the song.
I invited 24 Bhakti Yoga Chant artists, all of whom said yes, to singing this healing mantra for Nepal, a community which we had all learned so much from, and who were struggling more than ever at that time. Mitrata Nepal is an organization I’ve been working with for some years that provides medical, emotional, and psychological support in addition to education for the underprivileged kids of Nepal.
Your collaboration, titled Yoga Soundtrack Volume 2 is currently available. Can you walk us through the process of composing the album and bringing it to life?
Ben Leinbach, my collaborator on Yoga Soundtracks Vol. 2 was one of the 24 Bhakti artists who brought Mantra Sangha to life. During the Mantra Sangha project, our friend Hans Christian (also an extraordinary producer) told us he loved the way Ben and I collaborated on 3 albums of original music and said he would love to hear an instrumental version.
Ben and I have been working together for about 10 years, and we knew we loved collaborating, but our strength is strong melody, vocals, harmony as well as instrumentation.
I’ve been feeling the call to move back to my English language roots, after touring in Kirtan for 3 albums, we decided to include English reminders of our nature throughout the project. From Rumi Poems to one-line repeated hooks, the messages are positive, the flow is graceful, and a beautiful soundtrack for anyone’s spiritual practice.
Do you think society’s appreciation and understanding of yoga and the harmonizing of mind, body, and soul has matured over the last couple of years, particularly in light of the increase in cases involving mental health and well-being?
I’ve been working in the schools a bit and noticing that mindfulness is becoming a more normal part of our everyday society, and I’m grateful. These tools are more important than ever now that the world is struggling more as well. Mental, emotional, and physical health are proven to be increased with the practices, and I’d like to see them even more front and center in mainstream culture.
What other projects are you working on?
I’m in my second year producing a Yoga and Chant festival in Cali called Bhakti Love Reunion this October, so I’m focused on bringing that real-life reunion back together. I’ve also been working for other yoga festivals and gatherings to bring people together in positivity.
I’ve also got a whole album of English affirmation music I co-wrote with a friend in NYC over the pandemic we would love to complete soon. Lullaby Yoga is still online, and I’d love to lead a Teacher Training to help others share the practices of sound and movement.
Where can our readers find out more about you?
- www.johannasings.com
- www.instagram.com/johannabeekman
- www.facebook.com/johannabeekmanmusic
- YogiTunes https://music.yogi-tunes.com/albums/16738
- cdbaby.com
- AppleMusic
- Bandcamp
Images, courtesy of the artist. Main by Sally Yeich, Feather headshot by Brian Mcdonnell.
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