Merry Magdalen: musician Magdalen Hsu-Li pours her own personal growth into the revelatory songs on her new CD, Fire. (music).

Singer-songwriter Magdalen Hsu-Li gladly identifies as many things--including as a painter, musician, lecturer, activist, bisexual, and Chinese-American--but has spent most of her life redefining who she is on her own terms. Her music is part of that journey.

"I clearly believe that it is my spiritual purpose here on this earth to evolve--to re-create myself as an artist and person on continuous levels and, by doing so, awaken others to greater possibilities in their own lives," says Hsu-Li, whose third album, Fire, is filled with finely crafted, melodic, piano-based songs that borrow equally from pop, folk, jazz, blues, and even punk. "If I can help one person to rise above their adversities, to see what's on the other side of their own `fences,' then I feel I am fulfilling my spiritual purpose."

Thirty-one-year-old Hsu-Li was raised in rural Virginia by immigrant parents and subjected to "seething racism and bigotry" as an Asian-American child also afflicted with Tourette's syndrome. After conquering Tourette's by sheer will-power at age 16 and working hard through therapy to heal her damaged self-esteem, Hsu-Li went on to study painting at the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. However, after receiving her BFA, instead of jumping headlong into the New York art scene, she was sucked into the grunge-riot grrrl heyday of early-'90s Seattle.

"I had no intention, of becoming a musician, but music seemed so much more immediate and powerful an art form than painting in a room alone," the artist recalls. Hsu-Li studied jazz and classical music at Cornish College of the Arts until she was once again jolted by overt prejudice, from a faculty member. Using the incident as an impetus for change, she began per forming and touring nationally; set up her own indie record label, Seattle-based Chickpop Records; and eventually quit Cornish.

Hsu-Li points out that in the Chinese five-element system of medicine, the element of fire governs how a person builds such things as relationships, love, intimacy, and friendships, among others. So after spending several years working on those areas in her own life, Hsu-Li turned to that element when it came time to name her new album, a long-awaited follow-up to her critically acclaimed 1998 disc, Evolution. Fire features lyrics that manage to be universal, political, and personal at the same time. "I sing from a heart which once was weak and battered and now has grown strong from the love and support I have created around me," says Hsu-Li.

The greatest source of that love and support around her comes from her partner, Dale Fanning, who also happens to be her primary producer (besides Hsu-Li herself) and drummer, performing with her when he's not playing with his jazz trio, the Living Daylights. "Many magazines continue to call me a lesbian, though I am absolutely 100% open about being bisexual," Hsu-Li says. "For those who don't understand [my bisexuality], I can't help them understand that. My music is the most beautiful and important thing that I have to offer. So I offer it to anyone. What they do with it ... that's their journey."

Find Magdalen Hsu-Li's official Web site and other related sites at www.advocate.com

Coble edits Dance Music Authority magazine.