SJ Tucker is on the road. Sooj will be performing at Pagan Spirit Gathering (PSG) Jun 14 – Jun 16, and then onward the next weekend to Free Spirit Gathering 2015 at the Ramblewood Retreat Center, Maryland, June 20 – Jun 22. We talked at Heartland Pagan Festival.

How does it feel to be the “Face of NeoTribal Paganism?

SJ: It is not that different from the way that life has been for me, up to this point. I feel the same support from this community that I have had from the very first time I stepped on a Pagan stage in 2002. I am humbled that I still get this level of love,  people coming to tell me that I have changed their lives just by being around and singing. That’s the part that tells me that I am still doing what I’m supposed to do, still getting that level of love and feedback. People saying to me that hearing a certain song changed something in them, it taught them how to dance again…I don’t think I would hear that if I were in any other niche than this. I don’t think I would hear that if I was playing in bars all the time. Why would I want to be anywhere else? I don’t have a textbook definition of “tribal” Paganism.  As I understand, it’s festival space. It is where we all live and hang out, in circles and churches, and our gatherings like this one. I am kind of spoiled because you don’t get this kind of love anywhere else. When I come back out of this world, for instance when I go to the grocery store, then everyone’s not necessarily going to be friendly. I forget about that when I am in this nurturing, collaborative space.

Is all your music done in some kind of Pagan space?

SJ:  For the most part it is. Pagan festivals and events, and sci-fi conventions, those are my two most typical types of events. I wouldn’t like it to be any other way. Here you have people who are already predisposed to like what you do, whether it is off the wall, or from a certain spiritual place, or a certain nerdy place. The benefits are through the roof.  Outside of festivals and cons, I would much rather sing in a community center or a VFW, and make it into my own space, than work myself into a restaurant or bar gig.  I have friends that are doing very well, and make good money at that. But the connections that you can make when you meet people on a level where they are searching for a certain thing, and it is a thing that you know how to tap into, is important to me. If you are performing on stage at a bar, your job is not to play well, your job is to help the bar sell booze. That’s not why I do what I do.

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