Brighter Than The Sun

This is the first album published by Dada Veda. It contains his original songs which fuse the wisdom of yoga with the rhythms of folk and country music. It was recorded in Albania, where Dada was working. In fact the CD was put together as a way to raise money for the Albanian Sunrise School, a kindergarten for children in an impoverished locality. Dada started this school in 2001 and it is still in existence.

released June 1, 2003,  remastered 2007

Credits

Lyrics and music: Dada Veda
Vocals and acoustic guitar: Dada Veda
Bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar accompaniments: Redi Dashi
Drums, percussion, sound engineering: Andi Haxhihyseni
Background vocals on track 9: Vasudeva

“In the winter of 2001-2002 I was in Albania and we had severe power shortages. The electricity was down for many hours in the day. That meant that I could not use a computer. I got out a pen and paper and used this time to start writing songs. I had never written any songs before that time.

I was trying to raise money for a kindergarten in Albania which I had set up in the previous year. The parents of the kids were very poor and couldn’t really pay much so I had to find other funds. I got the bright idea to make a CD and sell it! At first, I thought I would use other people’s songs, but when the power went off and some of my own songs were emerging I decided to use them on the CD

I made a rough demo with a boom box cassette recorder and send it off to friends in Malta, and they organized a concert for me in Malta and I did raise money for the kindergarten with these songs. A few months later I found a drummer who worked at a TV station in Tirana. He borrowed some good microphones from his workplace and helped me record the CD in his bedroom. Andi, the drummer, added his own percussion to the mix and enlisted the help of guitarist Redi Dashi to complete the CD. We printed 200 copies, and I sold all of them on a whirlwind tour in the US and Europe in 2003."