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Musician Lalin St. Juste On Writing Through Grief

"This moment is surreal," Lalin St. Juste says. "Because here it is, this song that I've written about her — and now it's taking on a life of its own."
Emalyn Lopez
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Courtesy of the artist
"This moment is surreal," Lalin St. Juste says. "Because here it is, this song that I've written about her — and now it's taking on a life of its own."

Lalin St. Juste, leader of the seven-piece, genre-bending band The Seshen, wrote the song "Distant Heart" in memory of a friend.

"She struggled with a lot of darkness and addiction and trauma and things like that," she says. "And over the course of our relationship, I watched her struggle to be resilient with it."

While the song is personal, St. Juste says that its meaning has multiplied. "Now it's taking on a life of its own," she says. "It has its own particular story, but it's going to have all these different stories for different people. And even though it comes from a place ... of sorrow, there's also just so much joy and so much light, especially in who she was, that gets carried in that song and in that music."

The Seshen's new album, Flames & Figures,is out now. Hear more from St. Juste at the audio link.

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