The Sasha Marina Show: Interview w/ @ShaunaBurns on #TheSashaMarinaShow #BlogTalkRadio

Shauna Burns is a Las Vegas based singer-songwriter who blends ethereal vocals and sweeping piano runs who has won over audiences across the United States with her Celtic style.

From her 2005 debut Every Thought and 2006 follow-up EP Desert Tune she has evolved and grown as a musician and a performer. The year 2013 has provided Burns to express her fresh ideas through storytelling. The new album, titled Violet, showcases her music that continues to flourish.

Her debut release unlocked the door to an exhilarating career as one of the most promising multi-talents on today’s indie music scene—a spiritually driven journey that blossomed on her breakthrough 2008 recording The Moon and The Fire Circle and continued on her 2009 EP Anamnesis.

The Moon and the Fire Circle, a richly thematic and ultimately healing work that offered an emotional bridge between darkness and light, met with similar success. Its first single “Around You” reached #7 on the FMQB AC Chart, was one of WCH Radio’s “Top Songs for 2008” and hit #1 on “Song Vault Radio.” The collection was selected “Best of 2008” by Collected Sounds and The Promise Live. Radio Crystal Blue also chose Burns as one of the “Top Recording Artists of the Year 2008.” Conceived as an extension of the music on The Moon and the Fire Circle, Burns’ follow-up five track EP Anamnesis included songs that relate in some way to each of the five senses (including “Smell”).

Burns had developed her captivating vocal and playing style while growing up in Miami, where she was inspired by her mother’s love for the piano and groundbreaking pop/rock artists like Sarah McLachlan and Tori Amos.

After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Anthropology at the University of Utah, she spent a year in Europe preparing her debut album. Burns’ music has long been inspired by many cultures and ideas that surround the world as well as the landscape of the deserts and mountains of the Western U.S. Drawing metaphorically upon her passion for Anthropology, she sees every phase of her career as a new opportunity to dig into herself to uncover the next musical adventure.

“It’s heartwarming to receive messages from people who discover and connect with my music and it’s gratifying to know that what I created in solitude has the ability to touch people emotionally,” she says. “I use anthropology as a songwriting tool all the time. It’s the study of human development and cultural identity and relationships between people. I feel the need to cultivate and nurture these little seeds of inspiration because they can grow into big ideas if we take care. It makes me question: What’s next for all of us in the world? What is the universe trying to tell us? I’m listening.”

Over the past few years, Burns has enchanted audiences across the U.S. and in the U.K. with songs from her four original albums and her 2011 holiday release A Winter Gathering, which is a collection of newfangled, holiday carols and original songs.

“I view these performances as if I’m holding a conversation with the audience,” Burns says. “I’m communicating with whoever chooses to listen in that moment, and like to visualize my music embracing whoever wants to embrace it. Just as it’s a friend to them, music is my friend as well. There’s also a time travel element to the experience as well. A lot of people say my songs remind them of things they haven’t thought about in years. They help them recall the innocence of childhood that they had forgotten about. That’s what music does for me, too. I have a huge respect for the power of music and just how spiritual it can be. That’s why I take it so seriously.”

Burns is proud to announce her brand new album entitled Violet. The direction taken for this project is focused on a female love-inspired freedom. Continuing with her Celtic flare, this upcoming release will have positive messages of understanding and show that women are capable of being the heroine and uplifting to those around them.

Violet was released October 22nd with a total of 14 songs on the album and is available on most digital retail outlets.