heidiwyder.com

Heidi Wyder

SINGER-SONGWRITER

TEACHER

AUTHOR

Learning to Listen

British-born singer-songwriter Heidi Wyder started learning guitar from a chords book in France while at university, inspired by the simple chord progressions of various 60’s and 70’s Pop Hits. A few years later late at night, during a time of personal crisis, she unexpectedly found herself scribbling down some lyrics, and shaping them until a bridge and some verses appeared. After finding that writing her own music with original lyrics was both incredibly cathartic and rewarding, the following nights were spent in a similar manner.

Soon after playing the first handful of songs to students at the secondary school near London where she was teaching French and German, they begged her to start recording them.

Thus, in her first years working as a teacher, every spare penny was spent on time in the studio, working on her debut album Peeling Oranges. A limited run of CDs was printed and sold in 1993, and a second album Solitaire (released on cassette shortly before these became completely outdated) followed in hot pursuit in 1994, just before Heidi purchased a round-the-world ticket, due to a long-standing ambition to travel. 

“Songwriting is all about stillness and listening – tapping into the silence within... and often being surprised at what will appear on the page.”

- HEIDI WYDER

The story is written in her book Kriya Yoga, Four Spiritual Masters and a Beginner.

As a result, music took a backseat for the best part of the decade in which she worked in teaching, wrote the book, started a family and migrated to Australia with her family in 2007. 
 
A month before the relocation to the other side of the world, Heidi realised a long-standing desire to record a CD, India Dreaming, featuring the songs published in her book, since song writing had taken on a new direction and meaning after embarking on the path of yoga and meditation. Three years later she recorded a further album: Divine Romance.
 

Heidi is currently working on a Mindfulness teacher training qualification. She hopes to return to writing another book soon as well as continuing to release more of her music … so stay tuned!

Life has other ideas

“On the surface, everything in my life appeared to be just fine; I had every reason to be happy. And yet there was an indescribable inner yearning, as if something were missing.”

Heidi’s early songs reflect a searching spirit which led her to take up a backpack, with a plan to perform in Australia. However, a brief one month “stop-over” in India was extended to almost three years after she met a spiritual master, “Guruji” (Yogi Prakash Shankar Vyas), and started to learn yoga and meditation as a Christian, and as a complete beginner. 

Buddha by Alexander Bock