How an encounter with a lion brought Alysha Brilla closer to her music

When musician Alysha Brilla first visited Tanzania, her father's homeland, she knew it was going to be a special experience. She was not expecting it to influence the rest of her life. 

"That was the closest I think I'll ever get to the truest experience of the source of music," says Brilla. 

Brilla is a three-time Juno nominated Indo-Tanzanian-Canadian musician. This year, she's nominated for her self-produced album Rooted. 

In February 2015, Brilla went on a safari in the Serengeti National Park with her father and connected with the animals in an experience she recalls before each of her own live performances.

Jamming by the fire

One night she and her father learned that some of the men at the safari camp enjoyed rapping. So after settling around a bonfire, her father brought out a guitar to play a song Brilla had written with him. 

The song is called "Baiskeli Yangu," which means "My Bicycle" in Swahili. The song recalls not only Brilla's joy at riding her bicycle growing up, but also her father's joy of gaining a bicycle — a privilege that allowed him to travel around his hometown. 

Singing together was fun but not particularly quiet, and Brilla couldn't help but wonder what the nearby animals thought of the scene. 

"I always have this feeling because music is vibrational and energetic, that if there were any animals in the area of course they would be resonated by it in some way or another," says Brilla. "Either they hear it or they'd feel it."

That night around 1 a.m., the animals responded to her call.

A cackle of hyenas entered the camp Brilla was staying in, making their high-pitched cry as they passed her tent.  

"We were the only humans for kilometers and kilometers. That was just us in our little tents," recalls Brilla.

After the hyenas left, Brilla began to fall asleep. But five minutes later she was awakened by a husky growl. A pride of lions were marching through their camp.

I do think that music is one of the most powerful and unifying modes of connectivity we have between every living thing on this planet.- Alysha Brilla

Brilla was terrified at first, hearing and seeing their bodies rustle against the sides of her flimsy tent. 

A surprise connection

Since this was in a national park, they weren't allowed any weapons to defend themselves. And Brilla says she suspected the people running the safari weren't prepared either. 

She was told it is extraordinarily rare for the animals to get this close to humans.

"To this day it was the most beautiful sound," says Brilla. "As frightening and terrifying as it was to have lions around us, [their voices] were still the most beautiful sound I've ever heard in my life."

It's a story she retells at her shows today, and one that she says helps connect her with audiences across the country. 

"I do think that music is one of the most powerful and unifying modes of connectivity we have between every living thing on this planet," says Brilla. 

Click LISTEN to hear Alysha Brilla sing "Baiskeli Yangu" and hear her mimic the sounds the lions and hyenas made in response to their bonfire songs.