When you reach a certain age, you get used to the experience of processing bad news or difficult times in your life. It may be hard to explain the consistency of that behavior as processing trauma is an amorphous experience, sometimes different things heal the wounds that life tosses at us at different times.
Cancer is a particularly dark development in anyone’s life or family, and while medical treatments for the disease have come a long way over the years, there is plenty of sage wisdom out there that says our mindset plays a large role in recovery from the unwanted spectre of cancer.
Donna Lewis is best known for her 1996 megahit, “I Love You Always Forever” which can still be heard frequently on radio dials and while wandering around your local drug store at 11PM. At the time, it was a vivaciously bubbling love pop song with just the right amount of breathy spookiness to infiltrate a post-grunge world ready for new sounds in a new century.
In 2021, Donna hears the diagnosis that no one wants to receive, she had breast cancer and then embarked on a course of treatment that was, thankfully, ultimately successful. However, during days and nights that must have been hauntingly frightening, she found inspiration and therapeutic relief in composing music that illustrated her journey. The result is Rooms With a View which finds Lewis’ signature voice describing her experiences in an incredibly powerful way.
Join Donna and me as we discuss her latest album, her virtual work with producer and musician Holmes Ives, and what’s coming up next in support of this album. As you’ll learn during our chat, the music on Lewis’ new work got her through a tough time, but will most certainly be heard by other folks moving through their own difficult days. Donna may have made this album to help herself through the darkness, but it’s also there to comfort others, too.
Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.
