Welcome to a very special holiday edition of Hyphenated.

As it's the season of giving, we're dropping a new episode featuring Yuka Snell of the band Mitsune.

But in return, you have to give something back. So how this is working is that I'm inviting you to click on the link in the show notes below to make a donation to Doctors Without Borders.

CLICK HERE TO DONATE! (https://tilt.fyi/6rNeZ6p5hf)

Once you've done that, you will receive via email a link to a Google Drive folder where you can listen to and/or download the episode and also a PDF of the episode transcript.

If for some reason you are unfamiliar with Doctors Without Borders, they are an organization of doctors and healthcare professionals who volunteer to go to areas of conflict, disease, outbreaks, natural and human-made disasters. Since their founding in 1971, they've helped tens of millions of people and grown from a group of 13 doctors and journalists to an international movement of nearly 70,000.

Please give what you can.

So let me thank you in advance for your donation as well as your continued support of this project. Meanwhile, Hyphenated will return in the new year with new episodes of artists exploring the boundaries and frontiers of music and their identity. So as always, please like and subscribe to ensure you get the latest episodes in your podcast feed.

Happy holidays.

EPISODE SUMMARY:
Youka didn't really consider what it meant to be half-Japanese until she reached adulthood. As she says, she was just busy “doing her thing and growing up in Australia” and training as a violinist. But once she began to explore this side of herself, she found herself “magically” drawn to the shamisen, the traditional Japanese lute instrument. And now based in Berlin, she and her bandmates in Mitsune are making shamisen music for our not-so-traditional times.

Please like and subscribe. Also, consider buying some of today's artist music or adding them to your streaming playlist. Or better yet, go see them play live. A playlist of music in this episode, transcript, as well as links to more information about the artist, can be found at our website http://www.hyphenated.eu. It's also where you can find other episodes and discover more hyphenated artists. And if you'd like to support this series, please tell a friend.

Just a quick note.... We'll be taking a break for the next month as I settle into my new apartment and record some new episodes. Be sure to subscribe so you will be alerted of the latest episodes. See you soon....

Carmen Souza was born and raised around Lisbon, Portugal, while her parents had both emigrated from Cape Verde. Just out of her teens, she auditioned for a gospel choir and there met her soon-to-be producer, Theo Pascal, who turned her on to jazz. And for the last quarter century they've been mining an original blend of jazz and Cape Verdean music they've created. But growing up, Souza quickly became aware that in Portugal she wasn't considered to be "true" Portuguese, regardless of what her passport said. Mostly based now in London, Carmen often taps in to these conflicts of identity and acceptance in her lyrics, which she mostly sings in Creole. But she believes the world can get past prejudice and that music serves as a border-busting means to that end.

Please like and subscribe. Also, consider buying some of today's artist music or adding them to your streaming playlist. Or better yet, go see them play live. A playlist of music in this episode, transcript, as well as links to more information about the artist, can be found at our website http://www.hyphenated.eu. It's also where you can find other episodes and discover more hyphenated artists. And if you'd like to support this series, please tell a friend.

Laíz likes to say "she carries many nations on her back." And what she means is that she has absorbed influences from around the globe which has helped her build a wide and all-encompassing worldview. However, she began her life boxed in a very restrictive relgious culture within Brazil. But then at an early age, she was given a choice to change that, and it exploded her worldview. Moving to Berlin as a teenager, she began meeting other immigrants, and started adding pieces of each of their cultures into her concept of "world." These experiences found an expression thru music and rap. Culture became her new word for "god." And when it came time to record her first album, the musicians that came calling, aka the New Love Experience, represented all four corners of the planet. Her mission is to spread what she has learned from others to us, that we should never stop learning, and never stop expanding our understanding of the world, ourselves, and others.

Please like and subscribe. Also, consider buying some of today's artist music or adding them to your streaming playlist. Or better yet, go see them play live. A playlist of music in this episode, transcript, as well as links to more information about the artist, can be found at our website http://www.hyphenated.eu. It's also where you can find other episodes and discover more hyphenated artists. And if you'd like to support this series, please tell a friend.