1. Sena, how did it all begin with you and the music?
2. Who influenced you the most as a musician?
3. What made you transform from an Actress to a Poet and Spoken Word Performer to a Songwriter and Singer?
4. Is there a difference between writing poetry and writing songs?
5. What do you like the most, acting, writing Poetry or writing Songs and Sing?
6. How do you manage all your tasks? You also create Fashion, a whole other business, how much can you accomplish altogether?
7. Speaking about dreams, what are you up to, any plans?

2. Who influenced you the most as a musician?

From childhood on every Band that had rhythm. Rhythm is dynamics and is the most erotic for me. The very first time I was out of my mind was when I heard the Beatles, I had no clue what happened with me. I was 9 or 10 years old and desperate because someone had sold me and some friends false tickets, and so at the entrance of the concert hall they sent us away, and as I could not see their show, I went in front of their hotel the next day and happened to throw myself in the grass in front of their windows, - very embarrassing for my mother who accompanied me , because right at that moment when I was totally out of control some of her friends passed by - I could not care less, I screamed my brains out like all the little girls you see in these old TV features. (I even cut off an auburn lock of my favorite doll, put it in a little plastic wrap and went to school with it, pretending that Paul had given me his lock.) It was a highly sexual feeling to listen to the Beatles; I think all little girls had orgasms. Later I had these parallel spiritual awakening experiences like the Beatles, just that I was much younger than them, and when they had their hippie phase with the Indian Guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and the LSD I started my Indian and LSD phase too, got inspired by John Lennon's and Bob Dylan's lyrics, listening to "the fool on the hill" or "all along the watchtower", the Moody Blues, Moondog, Quintessence, all the psychedelic music... Pink Floyd "Dark side of the Moon"... See, the lyrics have to be good...if the lyrics are stupid even the baddest music is torture for me

Later, when I started to take singing lessons I listened to tons of vocalists ... a wild mixture: Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Marilyn Monroe ( yeah, she had a sweet little voice), Maria Callas ( the biggest and most courageous voice), Eartha Kitt, Judy Garland, Edith Piaf, Ella Fitzgerald, the young magical erotic Peggy Lee, Grace Jones, all these singers worked with lyricists who really could write songs on a high level, Sinatra, even Elvis, (in fact they all learned and copied from the African Americans, even The Stones... basically all white folks - do you know how many black people wrote songs for white people and never got paid for it? Let me tell you!) Ok. There are so many good artists and they are all so different and so amazing; as poets and lyricists I was thrilled by listening to Gil Scott Heron, Bob Marley naturally, Sting, Annie Lennox before she got bitter, its impossible to even try to name them all, there are so many; the musicians and composers from Duke Ellington to Carol King, Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Charles Aznavour, Sly and the Family Stone , Prince naturally and Genius Stevie Wonder, Joe Sample, Markus Miller and this fabulous drummer Poogie Bell who is just incredible, Sade, Indie Arie, Erykah Badu, Laureen Hill, they are all wonderful, Man, I love them all, then listen to the African Musicians like Salif Keita, Youssouf N'Dour , Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Fela Kuti,just to name a few, from the Caribbean the amazing Singing Sandra, they are all so special and there are so many more that need to be heard... and all my love to those countless musicians who build the carpet on which a singer can walk, who are the net in which a singer can fall, instrumentalists who create the bath of notes in which I can dive and soak my soul ...., not to forget the last poets, the first hip hop artists that had really something to say, there are some young Spoken Word Artists out there, some Rappers and Reggae artists who are soulful and political and educate the people, because that's what needs to be done. Educate the People so they do not fall into the mass manipulation and weapons of mass deception ...

I grew up reading, Germany has amazing mind-boggling poets and writers, Goethe, Schiller, Heine, Rilke, amazing, I had the honor to play in some of their plays, don't let me get started here. They were my first real inspiration, they are music too ...

My first big concert was Frank Zappa, he was a rollercoaster, he mixed theatre with intelligent lyrics, and to listen was a hell of a musical trip; then I saw Santana, and he made me dance and laugh and cry. He always had these Latin percussion players and the sound of his guitar still makes my soul melt. There exists one guitar player who can touch my soul the way Santana does, his name is Roykey Creo and there will come a time where you all will feel him. 1989 Roykey introduced me to the music of Miles Davis and I was mesmerized and saw many concerts with Miles until he passed on.

Oh and not to forget the Indian Music, when I was living in India for 5 months I heard amazing Sitar Players, they were masters and one of them sounded like a rock guitar player and he never made a CD... Indian music is so refined, I took some Indian singing lessons, very interesting, a whole new world, and I listen a lot to Middle Eastern Music, but what I really need are the African drums, without serious deep African drums my body does not want to move; I took African Drum Lessons from Arsene de Souza, who's mother gave me my name Sena, and I danced to African drums in Africa which is another story to be told , they really dance over there, not like in the western world where people stand cramped up in a dark club with these uncomfortable high heels trying to move "seductively ", in Africa they move their bodies archaic and real, barefoot, and that is what I love, keep it real. That is where I feel at home

As you can see I love music from all over the planet, music comes first, when I have the most serious conversation and there is good music in the background I cannot listen to the conversation any more I must listen to the music, its terrible, I am addicted to rhythms, that is why I cannot write with music in the background, when I write I need silence otherwise, if there is a drum my brain does not want to create words, even when I create lyrics I do it in complete silence, I wait for the rhythms and sounds to hit me from inside, and they always come unexpected, I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, or when I walk with my dogs or sit in the subway , its amazing, suddenly a melody strikes me out of these surrounding rhythmic sounds, it is a wonder, as much as I think it is a wonder that we can think, man, where is the thought coming from? Who is thinking? I think I am just an instrument and if I have nothing significant to say I prefer to stay quiet, that is probably why I start just now with my own music ...I was too busy listening to the songs of other people... now I start dancing to my own drum