Beat of a different eardrum

Swinging her long pink dreadlocks and tapping her black boot, TL

Forsberg sang along to pounding drums, surging guitars and the sound

of her own commanding voice that she had recorded earlier that day in

Jaggo studios in Los Angeles.

The 34-year-old singer and songwriter from Burbank has been

hearing impaired since childhood.

“I get the opportunity to dispel myths about deaf people, what

they look like, what the talk like,” she said.

Forsberg is in the midst or recording several tracks for a demo

album, which she hopes will eventually be experienced by hearing and

deaf audiences alike, that will include bottom end frequencies that

produce greater vibrations and have visual components like a DVD that

includes the lyrics in sign language.

“A lot of people have the misconception that deaf people can’t

experience music,” said Forsberg, who has been doing shows for

hearing and deaf audiences for more than 10 years, including at the

Deaf Arts Jubilee in 2005 in Burbank and through Music Connection at

L.A.’s Best Kept Secret.

During performances Forsberg uses sign language to express her

lyrics along with her voice. She includes visual aspects like

standing her neon and pastel pink dreadlocks up above her head with

wires.

“Like Medusa,” she joked.

She often gives audience members balloons so they can feel the

vibration of the music.

“Hearing audiences are moved by the sign language,” she said.

“I’ve also had a range of people come up to the stage almost crying,

saying they’ve always been able to feel the vibration, but now they

can understand the words.”

Forsberg suffered an injury when she was 8 that ruptured one

eardrum and resulted in an infection in both ears, which led to a

conductive hearing loss. Now she uses a hearing aide and lip reading

and experiences the most difficulty when trying to converse in a

crowd.

“This whole journey for me, is coming to terms with my hearing

loss, and saying ‘Yeah, this is me,” said Forsberg, adding that being

neither completely deaf nor completely able to hear has caused her to

sometimes feel out of place in either culture.

“People don’t get ‘hard of hearing’,” she said. “People want to

put you in a box.”

She hopes to be able to use her personal experiences to create a

bridge between the way the deaf and the hearing experience music.

“I have a foot in both the hearing world and the deaf world,” she

said. “I can bring both of them together at the same time.”

Forsberg’s lyrics encompass a range of concepts and emotions from

the betrayal that is sometimes felt working in the music industry to

the frustrations of misogyny.

“It’s an angst-ridden project, but in a good way,” said Josh

Rumer, a producer from Invengo Records who is working on Forsberg’s

Demo.

“It’s intelligent,” he said. “She’s a woman that can be a role

model for a lot of people.”

In addition to being be drawn to her voice, which he described as

both powerful and intimate, Rumer said that he was also drawn to

Forsberg’s cause.

“It’s a good cause,” he said. “When someone’s making a statement

like that and putting their heart into it, I said, ‘You can count me

in.’”

Forsberg started out in dance but because of her ear injury she

had trouble with balance.

After hearing her voice, people encouraged her to sing and soon

she was writing and performing her own rock ‘n’ roll songs.

“It was either that or kill somebody,” she joked. “Music keeps me

sane.”

The demo will be out in early September and Forsberg hopes to find

someone to help finance the project.

“I want to be an agent of possibility for anyone who has a

challenge,” she said.

* SARAH HILL covers education. She may be reached at (818)

637-3205 or by e-mail at [email protected].

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