Tara Beier
Alt-Folk Singer-Songwriter, Filmmaker & Activist

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:01.944) Today's guest is Tara Beier, a Canadian-American singer-songwriter, filmmaker, and activist whose cinematic folk sound bridges healing, womanhood, and transformation. Tara's work has been acclaimed by Rolling Stone, Billboard, and The New York Times, and her music has found audiences around the world. Her latest album, Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree, was born from grief, motherhood, and spiritual renewal in the desert.

Suraaj Parab (00:35.75) Welcome, Tara, to The Artist Conversation. Hello, we are so happy to have you here.

Tara Beier (00:37.189) Hi! Hello! I'm happy to meet you guys.

Sandeep Kulkarni (00:44.686) Welcome to The Artist Conversation, the Sanctuary of Frozen Souls podcast. So Tara, you have such an interesting bio. You grew up between Canada and the US, immersed in piano since childhood, and later you started studying criminology before art pulled you in. When did you realize that music, not law, would become the way for you to tell your deepest stories?

Tara Beier (01:22.86) That's so funny because a lot of people are very surprised when they hear about my background in criminology. I think all of that comes from my interest in human rights and justice; justice is a big thing for me. I can get very passionate about it—I don't know if anybody follows me on Instagram, but I'm going crazy with current politics right now. I believe that it's important we raise our voices.

But yeah, thank you for that question. I think what it was for me was that I really didn't know who I was. I was just trying things out. I tried business, but I was horrible at mathematics. I was taking calculus in university and getting low marks. Then I took one art history class at UBC in Vancouver, British Columbia, where I'm from, and I got an A-minus average. I was so happy; I was like, oh my God, I can be smart. Right after that, I went to Simon Fraser University thinking I would still go into business, but then I decided to try just one course in criminology. Criminology was such a cool degree. It was psychology, sociology, and political science, and it opened up my world to humanity and why people do the things they do. You get into the psychological minds of criminals, but also just people that have been through the cycle of abuse—marginalized people. I got so passionate about it. Then I got into law school, but I took one theater class, did some theater, and that was it. That was the gateway into art.

My dad was like, "What?" because my dad is Asian and he had plans. He wanted a lawyer who was going to go for all the money in the corporate world, but I didn't. I followed my heart. I struggled with that a lot in my life, but now I've come to accept that it was the right path for me.

Sandeep Kulkarni (04:07.79) And you were already an accomplished piano player at the time, right?

Tara Beier (04:14.658) Yeah, I played for 10 years as a kid, since I was five. So when I did make the switch, my dad was kind of like, "Yeah, okay, fine." It was a combo. It's always this fight between being an artist or being a person in regular society. But I feel like being an artist is so important to have in society because if we didn't have artists, then we wouldn't have free speech or life. An artist is just as important as a lawyer or a doctor.

Suraaj Parab (04:53.859) Understood. Tell me, Tara, during the voting session I heard your album, Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree, which was the first time I actually heard your voice. Reading about you on your website, I found your multicultural heritage and your early training in classical piano fascinating. Yet your voice now feels deeply cinematic and personal. How did those early roots shape the artist you are today?

Tara Beier (05:33.345) I think I really owe it to my classical piano teacher. She taught me formal music. I did read about your background as well in classical music, Suraaj, and I was so happy because when I connect with classical musicians, it feels like home. It’s like, okay, he knows music. I know how to read music; I did 10 years of it and played up to grade eight or nine conservatory.

As for where my voice and my singing happened, I don't actually like singing very much; I'm not that interested in it. It's more that I just want to get the message across, and I'm using my voice as a way to transfer it over. I'm actually very insecure about my voice, and I think a lot of folk singers are. I've heard certain folk singers say, "I hate listening to myself." There are parts where I like listening, and other times I'm just like, oh, I'm not a classically trained vocalist. But I know music, I know how to put a composition together, and I know how to write. I need to stop being so hard on myself. It all came together when I started writing for film and doing my documentaries. I learned about scripts, storytelling, and getting images across, because I don't want to bore the person listening. I just want to provide a lot of images and metaphors in my singing.

Sandeep Kulkarni (07:43.338) I heard a lot of your stuff as well, and asking purely as a singer myself, I feel your voice has its own distinct style that truly stands out. To me, it felt very fresh and authentic—it's uniquely you. You know exactly what you want to say, how you want to say it, and the tone is perfect. That's what stood out to me.

Tara Beier (08:26.697) Thank you. The people I always looked up to were folk singers from the '70s, like Joan Baez, Joni Mitchell, and Bob Dylan. Those guys all just had their own voice—it was like, this is me. I think there's pressure from the music industry to be a certain way. I know I'm not a Mariah Carey or a Whitney Houston, and it's not something I'm going for. For my genre, I know my limits. I have a soprano voice, and it's about the whole piece, kind of like film. It's the voice, the tunes, the writing, and the production. The production is very important to me.

Sandeep Kulkarni (09:21.068) Production is so important, especially in what you're doing. I highly resonate with what you're saying, and Suraaj does too. Mainstream vocalists are often so bound by rigid classical styles that they sometimes lose the true artist in them because they are overthinking the mechanics. I always tell people to just sing their hearts out and be themselves.

Tara Beier (10:23.79) Yeah, that's what's going to make you distinctive in what you do. I just met a young girl who was asking me for advice on the music industry, and I said, "Just follow your own path and don't let people tell you to fit into a specific genre." To be honest, genre can be a very judgmental way to categorize things. I understand classical, but for me, I've always been deemed alternative folk, though I feel like I'm also just alternative. My latest album was on the ballot for Best Americana Album. Originally, I submitted it as a folk album, and the Grammys changed my category to Americana. That was unexpected, but it was a compliment because Americana is a great genre. Genre classification is always hard for me.

Sandeep Kulkarni (11:49.026) Your work across your albums—from Hero and the Sage to Her Story and now Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree—moves between grief, healing, and spiritual truth. How do you approach writing something that holds so much emotional weight?

Tara Beier (12:20.413) I'm always trying to help people reach a higher level when they go through something painful. We have to get past it to connect to a higher power or God. We have to be hopeful. When someone passes on to the other side, I choose not to believe that they are just gone; I believe they go on to the spirit world. My dog just died in August, and I still talk to her because I believe the spirit is here. I really want to hold on to the spirit world. I believe that we are all connected to a higher goodness, and there are spirits around guiding and loving us. We just need to tap into that.

I try to bring that into my music because elements of nature and God are connected for me. I'm always going to point out some truths in life. For instance, my song "Hero and the Sage" was picked up by the Biden inauguration campaign for promoting face masks during the pandemic. I actually wrote that song for a friend in Berlin who was a nurse at the time. The chorus says, "We must believe that we can make a change." Even when deep down people feel like the world sucks, you have to somehow believe and push yourself.

With Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree, mourning doves started appearing, and people say that mourning doves are spirits from the other side sending messages through animals. This happened right when my grandmother died. I was washing the dishes, looked up at the mourning doves, and felt like it was a message from my grandmother that everything was going to be okay. Culturally, mysticism is all about looking at the signs constantly coming to you. For my writing, I'm always looking for what sign God, the spirits, or the animals are trying to tell me. Building a colorful world is important because life can seem boring to some. But imagine if you walked around and noticed a penny, picked it up, and put that imagery into a song. Writing can be easy when the images are right in front of you.

Sandeep Kulkarni (16:18.446) I relate to that deeply. I lost my dog three years ago and I still talk to him every day. My mom, dad, and older brother have also passed away, so I talk to the four of them several times a day. I feel they are watching over me constantly. Believing in karma, I strive every day to become a better individual because I don't want to disappoint them. Can you elaborate on how your song was selected for the Biden campaign?

Tara Beier (18:18.222) I have a sync agent based in Montreal. At the time, I had just found out I was pregnant with my twins. Talk about spiritual moments—because I was creating life inside myself, I was operating on a higher spiritual vibration, which attracted something cool out of nowhere. The Biden campaign wanted to use the song to encourage people to wear masks and support nurses. As I mentioned, I wrote it for my friend Michaela in Berlin who works in a nursing facility for recovering alcoholics. I saw him one day looking so depressed, and it hurt my heart. The lines are just about reassuring a friend that things will be okay if we believe we can make a change. It was on my debut album, super stripped-down with just guitar and vocals. It was very exciting because I've always thought Joe Biden was a wonderful, good guy.

Suraaj Parab (21:10.949) Sandeep has told me a lot about Joshua Tree. He went there once and called me on video to show me how incredibly cold and vast the desert is. Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree makes the desert feel like both a physical and emotional landscape. What did the stillness of Joshua Tree teach you that felt worth singing about?

Tara Beier (22:09.361) The Joshua Tree community out there is incredibly artistic. The open, vast space and the stillness are beautiful. The desert feels very clean and quiet. There is also the visible struggle of nature—the Joshua trees are facing extinction threats due to climate change, and the cacti survive harsh, waterless weather cycles. The desert is historically a holy land; Jesus, Mary, and Joseph walked through the desert. Paramahansa Yogananda, whose teachings I follow, also ended up in the desert later in his life. There is something about it that makes you feel deeply connected to the sky, the stars, and the planets. It’s a really cool, spiritual space.

Sandeep Kulkarni (23:57.718) It absolutely is. Moving on, your music beautifully blends folk, indie, Americana, and cinematic elements. When you hear your own songs back, what do you hope listeners feel before they even understand the words?

Tara Beier (25:05.267) I want people to get a visual vibe. I want them to feel the cinematic atmosphere and be invited into an ambient world. I'm not hyper-focused on forcing a specific point across; I just want to invite them in very lightly. I want people to feel chilled and relaxed because I love instrumental and relaxing music. My goal is to maintain that relaxed world with my voice carrying the message on top.

Sandeep Kulkarni (26:09.422) It blends perfectly with the storytelling. Because Suraaj and I are very visual people, what stood out to us in your music videos was that gorgeous, nostalgic, cinematic tone. It feels 100% like Southern California.

Tara Beier (27:10.069) I love that you feel that, especially since you are from Oceanside. That is extremely validating. Thank you so much.

Suraaj Parab (27:21.499) Your new album was shaped in the quiet aftermath of loss and the rhythms of motherhood. How did contrasting emotions like grief and joy reshape your music?

Tara Beier (27:54.332) Grief and joy are definitely interchangeable; there is a oneness in consciousness that we have to maintain. Going through painful grief is simply a natural part of life. We all experience sadness, but we must continue moving forward and enjoying every little thing we have. Looking out at my green yard keeps me grounded and grateful that we are still here. Life can be tough, but it is also amazing. It’s a yin and yang balance. My husband always says it's 50-50. If you focus entirely on the negative, you'll go down a dark path. But if you think everything is perfect, you're delusional, because it's not.

With my criminology background, I look at the dark things happening in the world—like the Epstein files—and recognize that heavy, evil darkness exists. You have to decide what side you are on, choose the good side, and fight that darkness daily with good karma. I feel like my songs are a tool to bring up the lightness to help level out the darker elements of the world. The positive energy we contribute helps fight the bad things.

Suraaj Parab (31:33.018) As artists, we learn the rare skill of channeling our emotions directly into our art. Many artists tend to stay on one side of the emotional spectrum—either completely melancholic or entirely happy. How do you successfully combine both grief and joy together?

Tara Beier (32:14.523) I think there is joy in simply accepting and expressing what makes you sad. For instance, I wrote the song "I Closed the Door" while cleaning out a storage shed. I was picking up things people had given me over the years and reflecting on those relationships. I found a beautiful scarf my mother-in-law had given me back when our relationship was in a great place. The dynamic shifted after I had kids, which brought up a sense of grief. I had to grieve the past version of that relationship. But by the end of the song, I walk away realizing that this is the beauty of life—nothing stays the same, and things are constantly evolving. We have to be able to take experiences in, and then let them go.

Sandeep Kulkarni (34:10.19) That is beautiful. You've also been part of vibrant creative communities, including the Recording Academy. How do these artistic communities help sustain your creativity during challenging times?

Tara Beier (34:32.123) This year I've become incredibly passionate about community. I used to be a highly isolated writer. After having my kids, I connected deeply with other mothers, and eventually realized I needed that same structure and peer group for my music. I used to attend a recovery support group where sixty people would openly share what they were going through, and I needed to find that equivalent for music. The Recording Academy provides exactly that. I feel incredibly lucky to meet such supportive, amazing people there.

Suraaj Parab (36:49.147) Your work as a filmmaker and musician heavily intersects with activism and culture. How can art act as a vessel for social change, and what responsibility do you carry as an artist?

Tara Beier (37:12.976) When people ask that, I think of a specific memory. I directed a documentary called I Met a Man from Burma about a Karen refugee in Canada who had been denied citizenship for over ten years because he had been forced into the military back home. He reminded me of my own father. When I screened the documentary at festivals, a young girl came up to me crying and thanked me because she was so deeply moved by his humanity. That hit me hard. It proved to me why artists are absolutely essential to give society hope.

In some immigrant or Asian communities, parents push heavily for traditional paths like law or corporate corporate success. But a civilized society needs artists to speak truth to power. Historically, oppressive regimes targeted artists first because they were the most powerful truth-tellers. Even Michelangelo was protesting the political and papal suppression of his time through the figures he painted in the Vatican. People look back at that art centuries later and realize what was truly going on. That's exactly how I view my responsibility.

Sandeep Kulkarni (40:21.202) It clearly translates into your art. Please don't ever think of yourself as "not a trained singer"—you have developed a beautiful, unique style. Simple songs often carry the most profound messages. For example, when I visited Joshua Tree, I recorded a simple iPhone video cover of Julian Lennon's song "Saltwater." It’s an incredibly straightforward vocal delivery without crazy vocal gymnastics, yet the message hits perfectly. Keep doing what you are doing.

Tara Beier (41:56.301) Thank you so much. I'm actually recording a track right now, so your words give me great inspiration.

Sandeep Kulkarni (42:11.982) You honored female folk pioneers on Her Story, and now your own spiritual journey on Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree. What is the most enduring message you want your music to leave behind?

Tara Beier (42:35.469) I highly resonate with '70s folk icons like Joan Baez and Pete Seeger, who used their backgrounds to protest the Vietnam War and sang completely off the cuff because getting the message across was all that mattered. The same applies to Bob Marley—he was fighting a literal battle for his people. When people listen to my music, I want them to know that I was truly trying to help the world, offering a sense of lightness, relaxation, and hope.

Sandeep Kulkarni (44:17.964) Does your songwriting come entirely naturally, or is it a conscious consolidation of your lived experiences?

Tara Beier (44:39.949) I'm a Capricorn, so I'm naturally very focused and regimented about setting time aside to write, record, and perform. When I sit down to write and have absolutely no ideas, I just turn on my creative switch and tap into a mystical space. I'll grab inspiration from melodies I like. Once, during an acupuncture session, a classical tune kept repeating in my head, so I grabbed that melody.

I also like to write to a drumbeat using my guitar. My first album was entirely acoustic guitar, but now I need that percussive energy. When I toured with a full band, I realized the drummer was the most important asset because they keep the tempo together and drive the entire performance, much like Mick Fleetwood did for Stevie Nicks. Now, I set up a drum rhythm as a heartbeat metronome and riff on my guitar over it. I always start by writing the chorus first, focusing on a core concept—like my current track about protecting children from war—and build out from there.

Suraaj Parab (47:40.731) So you use a drum machine to build your tracks?

Tara Beier (47:51.24) Exactly, I have a drum box where I select different beats, and then I use my guitar to riff over the rhythm. Don Henley of The Eagles always fascinated me because he was the first icon I saw masterfully singing and playing the drums simultaneously. It's all about that rhythmic heartbeat. It's funny because despite my classical piano background, I rarely use the piano to write anymore; it is entirely guitar-driven.

Suraaj Parab (49:35.054) That multidisciplinary approach makes your music completely unique. You direct your own videos, play multiple instruments, and control your production. It reminds me of Naval Ravikant's philosophy that true irreplaceability comes from connecting multiple distinct dots together. You are a true creative powerhouse.

Tara Beier (50:40.617) Thank you so much. I love connecting with fellow talented musicians.

Suraaj Parab (50:55.483) Looking ahead, what chapter of your story haven't you written yet?

Tara Beier (51:11.209) Making millions of dollars from music! Jokes aside, I'm happy where I'm at, but I would love to complete a comprehensive European tour. I've played iconic venues like the Troubadour in California, and toured Canada and Germany, but I'm waiting for my twins to grow up a bit more. They are four now, so when they are around eight, I want to take them on a two-week European tour with me.

I am incredibly attached to my sons; motherhood and music go hand-in-hand for me. The moment I returned from the Grammy events, I switched straight back into mom mode to take them shopping. Balancing both worlds is tough, but raising them around an open-minded, creative musical environment is beautiful for their development.

Suraaj Parab (53:07.787) That is wonderful. Thank you so much, Tara, for your honesty, openness, and the beautiful care you bring to your music and storytelling.

Tara Beier (53:23.74) Thank you guys. You are wonderful interviewers and I highly appreciate these refreshing questions.

Sandeep Kulkarni (53:38.041) We truly enjoyed it. If you are ever down in Oceanside, let’s grab a coffee, go for a walk by the pier, or collaborate here in my studio. This conversation was a beautiful reminder of how art can beautifully hold grief, healing, and transformation all at once.

Suraaj Parab (54:13.945) To our listeners, thank you for joining us today. Please stream Tara Beier's work on Spotify and Apple Music, and follow her on Instagram. Don't forget to join our Discord community, A Sanctuary of Frozen Souls, via the link in the description. Share this episode with someone you love, and we will see you next time on The Artist Conversation.

Sandeep Kulkarni (54:46.254) Thank you all. Thank you, Tara.

Tara Beier (54:46.821) Thank you!