From the jump, Muhsinah (pronounced Moo-seen-ah) has benefited from the Internet age and the ability for her music to strike a chord with whomever was paying attention to it. As the word and MP3s spread among Web audiofiles, more listeners became fans and she built an impressive list of supporters with her The Oscillations EP in 2005.

The Duke Ellington School of the Arts and Howard University jazz studies grad from upper Northeast D.C., who now resides in Brooklyn, has created some high expectations that often-fickle music fans/critics are going to demand are met. Judging from how she matured sonically from the EP to the recently released day.break, it's hard to believe she'll disappoint many. With her unique vocal stylings and creatively molded soundscapes derived from years of listening to her mom's psychedelic rock records, playing Chopin, or studying jazz, there's a lot that can be gleaned over.

February 13 will see the launch of day.break 2.0, featuring four tracks that didn't appear on the first version. And if you're really a music nerd, you'll keep your eyes peeled for when the Japanese version makes its appearance, with six tracks that didn't appear on the original. Muhsinah assures us that in a few years, it'll be a collector's item.

Visit Muhsinah online at: Her MySpace page or her Web page

Buy Muhsinah's albums on: iTunes, eMusic, or her Web site. Note: day.break 2.0 will likely not have a release on iTunes or eMusic.

Questions for Muhsinah:

Would you briefly give us your musical autobiography?

I started playing piano when I was 11. I was playing classical music primarily and took it seriously. I was introduced to jazz when I was high school and took a liking to that. I got a degree in Jazz when I was in college. I didn’t start singing until I was 19 or 20 and I’m 24 now.

You graduated from Howard in 2004. That seems a little shorter than usual.

I hustled my way out in three years with a degree. I told the counselors I was taking 20 or 21 credits until I’m gone. Who wants to spend the extra thousands of dollars to sit in class? With a music degree all you’re doing is playing music anyway. So it’s like, “I have to pay you to practice?” Ah, nope.

You parlayed your degree into work as an audio engineer in New York.

I was teaching piano lessons all through college and I was teaching at a school but I didn’t know if I wanted to do it. Right after I graduated from Howard, someone turned me on to an engineering school and the certification took about nine months. I learned Pro Tools and all of that.

Your way of putting together songs is unique, to say the least. How would you describe your sound to a potential listener?

I don’t know if I can describe it because I can’t describe it to myself. I try to combine so many different genres with each other. It’s hard for me to put together a fly way to put it.

What’s your process of creating your beats?

I used to sample primarily from records. Nowadays, I’m more digital. I pretty much start with making the drums. Maybe I heard a song driving in the car and I’ll get home and look it up. It might have something in it I want to use. I have a vivid imagination. It’s more stream of consciousness approach.

Who or what do you listen to for your inspiration?

I can definitely say Alice Coltrane is a big influence on me. I try to apply what she did to my singing. She and John (Coltrane) were influenced by India, too. Any Brazilian music before 1970, I’m with it. Ella Fitzgerald. Nowadays I’m really into ‘80s electronic and Moog music like Dick Hyman. J Dilla is a big influence, of course. I’m going back and listening to my 27 year old brother’s music because I wasn’t checking for some of that when I was in elementary school.

What song best demonstrates what you’re trying to do musically?

“Only and Always” off of day.break has a lot of the elements that I use. Backwards stuff, forwards stuff, big drums, big bass, and Indian samples. A lot of people say “Construction” is a good example but I definitely think times are changing. So I’d say “Only and Always” or “Net Knot” are probably the best way to describe me in three minutes a piece.

If there’s something you’d like listeners to take away from your music, what would that be?

I think people can get different things out of it. I don’t really have a “change the world” mentality to it. You might want to dance to it. It might be a nice thing to listen to. I definitely think it’s something to be happy about. I’m very optimistic. Maybe I can change five minutes of someone’s life over the course of a month. Maybe that would be nice.

Listening to your sound, and you just mentioned it, there’s definitely influence from places like India. Outside of a few beatmakers, such an attraction is rare. What is it that drew you to it?

My father teaches spiritual and leadership classes and I took a trip to India with him as his assistant. On that first trip, I pretty much latched on to the culture in terms of music and spirituality. It was a really big step for me. We got invited back the next year. Being in India and learning about the culture really turned me on to the music. And then, Indian music is so fly. There are all these different elements, strings and orchestras, that we take for granted.

Most people who listen to you and delve into this musical subfield will make an inevitable comparison between yourself and Georgia Anne Muldrow. How do you feel about that?

It’s definitely a good thing. The first time I heard Georgia it was like a soul shattering experience because our voice and ideas are rather similar. I can totally understand people’s comparisons because people don’t have a big pool of folks to pick from when they hear certain music. That’s my homegirl and shouts out to her. She’s a great person and more people should listen to her.

So are you looking to do any collaborations with her?

Yeah. Why not? I think if we could set it up, it would be dope.

Speaking of collaborations, you’ve done a few. Could you name some of them?

I’m actually on the next Foreign Exchange album. I’ve worked with Little Brother and most of the Low Budget crew. There are so many people.

How'd you link up with these people?

Trips. Friends of a friend. The circle of artists really isn’t all that big. With Phonte (of Little Brother and Foreign Exchange), he saw me on MySpace and had heard “Construction.” He was like, “Who is this girl?” and found me through a friend. He gave me a phone call out of the blue. I was freaking out. Who just calls you like that? Also, I met a lot of people from overseas at the Red Bull Music Academy.

How did it feel to hear your music on a station like the BBC's Radio1Xtra and receive praise that comes along with something like that?

It was definitely exciting. Benji B pretty much decides what people listen to. His show controls a lot of people’s iPods. It gives me a bigger responsibility. If these dudes are checking for me, I have to make sure I come with it. I have to put out some music that’s gonna be good.

Bringing it back to D.C. How have you gone about building a support structure here?

I look to the people I know first and through a couple degrees of separation. I’m going to go to Duke Ellington. I’m going to go to Howard. I’m going to go places where I can leave some flyers or promo CDs. Just hit the streets. D.C.’s not that big. You’re always going to know somebody who can tell someone else about what you’re doing.

It has to be helpful to have folks like Kev Brown and the Low Budget crew supporting you, right?

Yeah. They’re really good guys but even their presence in D.C. could be bigger. Kev Brown is a big name around the world but if I went on the block and asked if they knew who he was or Muhsinah was they probably wouldn’t know. I think the Internet plays a big role but a lot of people don’t have computers. Hitting people’s ears and being in their face (with this music and these artists) directly is a big deal.

What is it that’s missing here in D.C. that makes the hip-hop/urban alternative scene not as visible or cohesive?

Promoters play a big part. We need promoters that listen to the same type of music that we listen to and have good relationships with clubs. Right now, there’s only one guy. There might be a lack of aggression (on the part of some promoters and artists). If more people sought out the music that they liked, there would be a greater demand. It’s really not that hard to set up events around this music we like but we need promoters and we need more than just one guy. D.C. is a bubble and, historically, there’s a lot of talk about why most people in D.C. don’t make it or claim somewhere else when they leave. I can't claim Brooklyn. I get lost in Brooklyn. We need events where it’s not just white kids and not just Afros and locks to create greater visibility.

Photo taken from artist's MySpace page.