Peeling back the layers... In this second part of Ryan's interview with fast rising star Amy Walker, she shares more about her amazing accent skills; what it was like to record with singer Jack White, and the services provided by 21Accents.com. To The Peace Dimension, Amy is a soul who works from the heart and generously shares from the heart. In this second part, she also talks profoundly about going through testing times; frequency, perceiving fear and the lightness of being. RS: Do ever use your acting and accent skills to help you in everyday life- I mean have you discovered the potency of certain accents for certain situations? Can you give us some examples? AW: I have before. I don't tend to anymore just because you never know and someone has seen your stuff! But I certainly use them as an actor- all the time. But I think yeah in everyday life, I used to and I sometimes still do, particularly with clothing shopping ( Amy effortlessly moves into a British accent). I'll be English because... you get better service in the US, in my experience! RS: Do you find Amy that your understanding of voice and the attention to detail, that accent mastery requires, helps you to read people in interesting ways? AW: Yeah. I've spent a lot of time and continue peeling back the layers that keep me thinking I can only be a certain way. And I'm still doing it and still finding them. But all of those, you know when we're born - when we're tiny, we aren't taught how to learn; we just absorb, we taste, we try things on and it's fun! We don't really have the same boundaries of outside and inside. We learn those and we pick those up and we see what's effective to get us what we need to help us survive and be included. All of those things are included in survival, when we're little, because we can't feed ourselves. So, as we learn those things and we hear things and we absorb, we start deciding what we're allowed to be and what we will allow ourselves to be; who we allow ourselves to be- how we sound, how we look. This is me; that is not me. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you want to do something that other people don't do- you have to be willing to be weird. (Amy springs into lively accent) Fortunately, I am willing to be totally inexplicably very, very weird!! RS: That's super fun also. I love the way your whole persona transformed then! It's also so interesting how you keep peeling back layers. AW: I will go do Runyon- (we say do Runyon) - go for a hike in the Hollywood Hills, with my script, working my lines, so that I get that extra time in and get the exercise I know I need and get the fresh air. And feel it differently in my body. (Amy now moves into an Australian accent). I was, you know, willing to go to Australia and give myself permission to blend in. I got to really feel what that was like a hundred percent. I got to be somebody who just was perceived as Australian because I allowed myself to be perceived as Australian (Amy switches into a New Zealand accent) and Kiwi as well, when I lived in New Zealand. RS: Seems you get to perceive a lot by seeing how people perceive these different 'versions' of you. AW: I do coach all sorts of things in between gigs, and I'm able to see in people some of the key ways that they are holding energy- holding tension, not allowing a full spectrum voice, or not allowing themselves to be certain ways. If they come to me and ask for it, I can certainly help open those doors - open those layers back up. And then it's just continuing to recognize that I don't know everything. It is sometimes hard to turn off when I see somebody's whole potential, and certain ways that they're being locked, which - I'm still working on my own! I could talk for an hour on any one of these things. RS: Yes, I see that and it's great. I can see that you really are an inner journey traveller and you share your findings with others. Now in one of your YouTube clips where you are interviewing people in Nashville in various accents, Jack White makes a special guest appearance! Can you explain more about your encounter and recording work with Jack? AW: That was actually his video that I made a guest appearance in! Yeah, he's a phenomenal human being and artist. He had emailed me from his personal email that I was like, um, what back when my video 21 Accents was going viral. He just has always been fascinated with accents and called me up and said: "Hey I'd love to bring you out to my place in Nashville. I'm doing this spoken word series. I've got Conan O'Brien doing a record and would you be interested?" I was like "Yes!!" I'm a long admirer of his art and integrity as an artist, in just the way that he's so his own person and brand and really supportive of so many artists. So, I flew to Nashville and I went in and he really didn't want to plan the record. He didn't want to plan what we were gonna do. He has this beautiful studio and he said: "Okay I have a newspaper why don't you just read it in a bunch of accents?" So, I read this random article flipping between different accents. Then he set up these two gorgeous mics and said, "Do something." I improvised a conversation with my selves as I call it - going back and forth between these two mics and then we did an interview. We just have an interview- a talk which was really fun. RS: I must say Amy - I love the improv angle to all of this. AW: Thanks! So that was the record experience and then he had a ton of different ideas for the cover. So, we did this whole photo shoot with me lined up in the same place, but with different outfits and different facial expressions, and ended up doing 30 different covers. They are on Thirdmanrecords.com if you want to check it out, and he wanted to do a video where we go out and I interview random people in Nashville. So, we went out and because he's Jack White, people were coming up and like "What's going on?" He's so gracious, you know- doing selfies with people and signing autographs and all that. RS: Very cool. We will have to try and invite Jack to enter The Peace Dimension for an interview! For actors or those wanting to improve on their acting skills or command of voice can you tell our viewers a bit more about your services at 21 Accents? AW: So, we have several coaches at 21 accents. I drop in when I can and do things, but Alex Brown is a phenomenal coach. Kate who I love - Kate Thurkle is phenomenal. They both teach all the accents at their fingertips. So, they're both certified in the techniques that I developed and that they've contributed to as well. For learning accents, you can go to 21Accents.com and the 21 accents YouTube channel and learn more there. Then I just teach anything at my disposal. I'll coach acting, accents, - helping people open up parts of themselves. I do that when I can. RS: The Peace Dimension as expressed in my book and my interviews goes beyond meditation. It's an energetic place in the present- a place of understanding, potential and tolerance that I hope in 2020 more and more people will connect with and express. Amy what does The Peace Dimension symbolise to you? AW: Well, having not read the book yet but I would love to, what I understand from your explanations- this is a state of consciousness or what I would call just a perspective. We can dilate and focus our perspective - our consciousness - our awareness to any perspective. So,when I'm tuned in to the frequencies, the awareness of the truth- that is peace... that is equality. You know, we were the ones who decided that value was a thing; so, we can kind of un-decide that. And just everything becomes perfect as it is - divine as it is. That's kind of an interesting concept to wrap our minds around, but you know we invented these words and place them as layers upon what we perceive in our reality. So, we can, just the same, peel them all back and just let it be this fascinating soup we're watching or experiencing. I believe that time is also one of those things that we constructed so that we could have a context with which we can share experiences. It's very helpful for certain things, but it's not necessarily any more true than the truth that there is no time. Yes, infinite potential exists, I believe. RS: You have phrased this in such a deep and articulate way. If I write a sequel- you might have to help! AW: In my experience and with my friends and circles that I've zoomed with, a lot of people are using this (lockdown) time to to really explore- to do that self-exploratory work and meditate more or do whatever practice feels resonant to peel back the layers. To clear the dross - the old pain that's been carried down, and judgments that have been carried down. And to really lean into trust - trusting this universe, or if 'God' is a word that works for you or 'love' is the word that works for you - and looking at how we can be living examples. I think that that's happening more and more - certainly for me as well, and it's a yummy place to live. So, what does it symbolize to me? That's what it symbolizes. That awareness is You, really unified in both hemispheres of the brain. It's unified in the right brain awareness that we are all connected and equal and that we are really one consciousness, choosing to work with the left brain, so that we can isolate our experiences and our perceptions. But it's both of those together, so we have the ability to communicate in whatever layers and frequency we need to in the moment. But that we don't lose sight of that larger picture. That we do all of those in a holistic or holographic, some would say, awareness. RS: That's really interesting and good for people to hear in 2020. There are a lot of people out there right now feeling quite concerned and maybe even scared by the events that have taken place this year. Are there any words of encouragement or any insights you would like to share at this moment? AW: Yes. Something that helps me is to see experience, all experiences, as a whole multi-dimensional (but will speak in 3 dimensions) three-dimensional experience. So many of you know, if you've watched my videos, that I had a really deep dark time of depression in 2012. And that experience - how I was perceiving life at that time, how I was perceiving myself at that time, was so dense that it was like I was seeing through a fog. Really of hatred for myself. I was so cruel and everything hurt. Seeing somebody doing what they loved hurt because I felt like I wasn't doing what I loved. And just trying to comprehend people who had a seemingly normal life, it hurt. And I have a whole video about that. That was like the Dark Side of the Moon. So to the extent that I allowed myself to go in there, to the extent that after I was coming out of that, that I allowed myself to really look at it - feel all of those parts, all of those things that were coming up but were stuck, that I couldn't let myself feel because I was scared, and so I was in this state of fullness of dense feeling that I wasn't allowing to simply be felt, and come through and be released. RS: It seems like you need to face something to be able to let it go and this took deep reach courage. AW: I had to go through very methodically and look at all of those things and make amends for things that were this huge mountain in my head. So anyway from this darkest point of the Moon - the darkest, densest part, to then experience coming out of that... then I can go back. I can be there if I need to be there for a character. If I need to be there for a book or an interview, I can go into there without fear because I understand. I've been there. I understand all of those things. I'm not afraid to talk about it. The depth to which I went created the capacity for its reciprocation - for that amount of light and joy and lightness of being and empowerment in myself. The extent to which I go into the uncomfortable is the extent to which I'm able to be comfortable being more and more of myself. Allowing for the potentiality of me being all of the opposite of that, and every permutation in between. If I'm willing to go into some deep excavation places; then I can have a larger experience of light. If you are in a dark dense place right now, it will get better. This is not an isolated reality. This is one perspective in an infinite potential reality. I believe that there are story threads that come to us that are not contained only in one life, that come to us from other lives. In my experience, in this life, this is a time when all kinds of stuff from other lives has been coming back up to be dealt with. I've cried probably more tears in this life and I've had in many lives of the past, because they just needed to be felt, experienced and done with. This how I see it feel. Feel free to take any of this or leave any of this. RS: Thank you for sharing that Amy. I think a lot of people will really appreciate the honesty and depth to which you share. And relate to what you say. AW: Thanks, Ryan. We can look at this time as: well okay we're cleaning some closets. We're cleaning some closets about race in our world right now. We're cleaning some closets about how we take sovereignty and how we care for others, by wearing a mask. You know there's a lot of layers that we have the opportunity to get into and cleanse and understand. It's a really potent time. Then the language - how you talk about it, how do you think about it, is really important. Because if you're talking about it like it's this awful thing to do away with, then it might not help you as much, as if you take it as an opportunity to really look at. How does fear register in my body? How is that affecting me right now? Is that a frequency I want to live in? What can I do to listen to what that fear is telling me? To honor if there's an action that I need to take? To live with it being okay for fear to talk to me sometimes and it being okay for that to not stop me from doing what I feel called to do. It's okay to have those voices. But they don't need to drive. RS: That makes a lot of sense, Amy. Ok well now that you have done this interview you have earned yourself a place as a Peace Dimension intergalactic ambassador. Congratulations! You may get occasional Peace Dimension tips on how to develop your skills as an ambassador, a tacky badge and occasional invites for you and your husband to Peace Dimension meet ups and cocktails on Zoom. Do you think you will be a responsible ambassador? AW: I'm not married, but yay to my beloved Nipun! "Do you think you will be a responsible ambassador?" I will do my best to be responsible. I love that. How sweet. RS: Amy I want to say thank you not just for doing this interview but thank you for sharing so generously from the heart your work and talents. To me that remains one of finest ways to express The Peace Dimension. Wishing you joy and success. AW: Thank You, Ryan. Wishing you joy and success - and to all of you who made it all the way through this very long video. I wish you. I send. I envision complete fulfilment; peace in your heart and mind and body. Here we are together. We are connected. Check out Amy's upcoming short biopic film: www.IntoLightOfficial.com The Peace Dimension by Ryan Stride is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Copyright © Ryan Stride 2020 All rights reserved Comments are closed.
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AuthorBorn in London, England, Ryan wishes to share with people how the mystical can be found in the moment, allowing great things to happen. Ryan is also a writer and social commentator who is currently working on a script and several new book titles. ArchivesCategories |