Tracy Lyons: Singing for a Cause

Tracy Lyons is a singer, songwriter and environmental activist. Growing up, Lyons had many health problems, but it wasn’t until many years later that she found out she had mercury poisoning from the poor air in Northern Ireland and Canada. She has spent the last six years working to bring awareness about the connection between environment and health, as well as performing. Lyons plans to release a new album this year, from which one single has already been released. The song, called These Days, is a reflection of the current state of the environment and economy.

I sat down with Lyons to talk about how she got involved in music and environmental activism, and what people need to know about how the environment affects their health.

How did you get involved in music?

I played the piano from a young child, and never really knew that I was writing at a certain age, initially you just learn to play, and I also loved poetry. As time went on for whatever reason, the poetry didn’t feel complete for me. I just naturally was able to do that, and I don’t know why it didn’t feel complete but after learning to play the piano I started to put the poetry to music. That really was the beginning of my writing. I was really fortunate to meet people that were involved in music that helped me to go forward with that. I never thought, oh I’m going to go this path, it just naturally evolved.

What sparked you to tie environmental activism into your music?

I didn’t actually know, but health wise I always had issues. The music helped me to express that, and it wasn’t discovered actually until I came to California in 2000. I had been involved with things like saving the seals, concerned with the WWF and things like that. When I came to California there was a doctor that discovered that I had mercury poisoning and other toxins. A lot of my health related issues for my lifetime were because I was completely toxic. That was a very rude awakening. While I was trying to express myself through music and wanting to share that with others, people’s health is in danger. It was fortunate I was able to discover that early on.

In my view, cancer and all these other things are because of the environment. That’s really how I married that together and how that evolved. I wanted to share that as much as possible with people so hopefully they could go and even simply get a blood test to see if they have any toxic issues. There’s a whole host of diseases and problems now related to the environment.

What are some things you are doing to help and spread awareness about health and the environment?

I’m part of a group called the Natural Resources Defense Council which is an environmental activist group that helps to change laws in Washington and to create policies that are supportive for the environment to help with the reduction of things like carbon emissions. There’s a lot of policy change through that organization. From an activist point of view there’s a lot of musical concerts. I put on and was sponsored putting on an environmental awareness concert talking about new technologies available now and the things people can do. My main focus is the health, though through that road show it was also about providing technologies that were available. Save Me was an instrumental song encapsulating what happened to me from a toxic poisoning perspective and the fact that people that don’t know that they’re affected. I was always suggesting at various concerts to even just get a simple blood test.

You have an Environmental Trivia Challenge on your website, what was the idea behind that?

It is a global issue and everyone is affected on both of those topics. The challenge was really trying to touch people with a little bit of shock value from certain statistics that I think people don’t realize. In the last three decades half of the world’s forests are gone. It is a bit of shock value apart from air pollution and whatnot. It’s really trying to help people get involved to understand what it means and how it will affect them. Obviously with the horrific disaster in Haiti, why is that? Rising sea levels and disasters happening more frequently. In time many people will be displaced because those islands won’t even exist due to rising sea levels. It’s going to affect all of us completely. This challenge was just a touch of some information to keep it current.

What are some things people can do in their own lives to help the environment and their health?

From my perspective, a lot of importance is placed on people’s health. Without your health, what do you have? No amount of money can buy your health. For me it’s reflective on that and taking care of one’s health. There are many changes you can have. Buying hybrids, many carbons emissions come from cars. Recycling, being aware is part of it, but you can join organizations like NRDC. There are many environmental organizations. It’s trying to keep people current of what’s going on to hopefully impact people enough to make a change in their life, no matter how small. I don’t think people tie their health enough to the environment.

Please visit Tracy’s website to listen to her music and take the trivia challenge. You can also find Tracy’s new CD These Days on iTunes.