Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
[Piano Music and Rain] [Singing]
Music causes me to FEEL something that I may not feel otherwise.
I feel closest to that thing that might be called God or The Universe.
Music has an impact on the people that it washes over, particularly in these large venues with a lot of energy already.
There's something about someone just opening up and pouring out that magic that's inside of them.
When they're performing, it's like they get to be who they really are. And in that moment when they're being who they really are, then I get to be who I really am too. [Music Stops]
I love when I tell people, "I'm an interpreter and I specialize in live music." And you always get this little turn of the head. People say, "You what?"
[Singing] "Do you realize that you have the most beautiful face? Do you realize?"
We are sign language interpreters that go to concerts and interpret between the musicians and the Deaf audience watching the concert.
It's funny because a lot of people say, "Why in the world would Deaf people ever go to a concert? That's just ridiculous! That's absurd! Deaf people don't like music."
There's lots of Deaf people, and Hard of Hearing people, that actually love music but can't participate in it.
They can, of course, see what's happening on stage, but they can't hear the emotion and the tone and the rhythm and all of that that comes with hearing the music.
[electronic music]
To be near the vibrations, to be the near the stage, and hear the sound more is a part of it. But I still can't hear the lyrics without the interpreter and everything comes together in the moments when the interpreter is there.
To me it's just so inspiring. Oh, it's so moving!
[Arcade Fire Music]
They've chosen to put us right in front of the stage. You get to be in that place where the energy comes from the stage-
and the energy goes out to the crowd. And sometimes that energy is forceful and it almost knocks you down.
LUCY: The audience really really feeds you, you know, in an amazing way when you're up there.
And it's easy to get carried away with whatever they're, they're kind of putting back, you know, on the band.
BARBIE: Really good entertainers will notice that there's something there, but they also notice that to be entertaining of us-
is to be entertaining of the whole audience who is also seeing us.
Eddie Vedder: I'm not going home personally until I'm covered in dirt. [Music Starts]
BARBIE: Eddie Vedder's made a point of coming over and interacting while we're working. We're accurate. He knows that we
know the songs, so there are certain songs when he'll come over knowing that he knows the same sign that we're going to sign.
SNOOP DOGG: If you're having a good time today, just put one hand in the air like this.
BARBIE: A lot of musicians refer to us as an added value to their stage.
They see us truly representing their work, and we often get accolades from the artists.
[Music]
SNOOP DOGG: Awww, *** pass that ***. [music changes]
You get the appearance that they are a part of it, and they become transparent, and at the same time they're amazing.
And when I'm there I don't feel I'm a deaf person who needs some kind of specialized service.
I'm just a part of everything that's going on, and I feel the same as everyone else. [Cheering & Clapping]
We know the music because we do our homework and we do our homework because we care about the quality of our interpreting.
AMBER: I read their background to see where they are coming from because there's goals of every artist and we want to
make sure that we're gonna match the goal of the artist, but at the same time leave some leeway for the Deaf people
to also come up with their own interpretation. And we hope and pray that we get a setlist.
I always say it's our Golden Ticket.
Lucy: It's a lot of work! But it's the funnest work I could think of doing.
Barbie: LotuSIGN provides interpreting in the way that provides complete and total access.
Access to the emotions. Access to the experience.
Access to the cultural center which is that venue.
But there's just something primal, there's something beautiful about the way that music touches you on a molecular level.
Lucy: It makes me happy. It makes me feel completely alive. It puts me in a space that nothing else I do in my life puts me in.
Amber: It can move you to laugh. It can move you to cry. It can move you to want to dance.
It moves you to want to have sex. It moves you want to fall in love.
Or it can make you cry when you fall out of love. To be able to channel that to the Deaf audience...
I can't even think of the words.
Sometimes it almost brings me to tears when I look out and I see how beautiful it is and
I'm standing looking at what the artist sees and that the Deaf people feel the same as all the Hearing people,
that's when I am just completely humbled by that. [Music]
Additional Camera Trevor Patten