In today's Global Hit we meet musician Basya Schechter.

She fronts the band Pharaoh's Daughter. "Haran" is the title of their new CD. It combines layered musical textures with lyrics steeped in the Judaic tradition.

Basya Schechter hails from New York, but as a teenager she left the city and the safety of her religious community. Schechter hitchhiked throughout Turkey and Africa.

She studied marimba in Zimbabwe. Learned to play the saz in Turkey. And fell in love with the oud while in Morocco. We'll let Basya Schechter tell the rest of her story.

Basya Schechter and her band Pharaoh's Daughter: photo by Allen Schlossman

I grew up in neighborhood called Borough Park in Brooklyn. It's the largest Orthodox community in the world. I had spent all of my childhood in all girl schools, all girl camps, in a neighborhood where you could only play with the girls. And when I was 15 I had discovered through friends that there was a camp going to Israel and it was co-ed. So, I ended up on this tour where I wore shorts for the first time. And I was exposed to boys and music that I hadn't heard growing up. And I had a boyfriend for the first time in my life and he played me Led Zeppelin and the Doors. And it's that combination of this new experience of a cool boy who's liking me and then introducing me to all this music I hadn't heard before. And I'd listen over and over.

I would sit there with something like "Black Dog" and I would try and count the rhythm of that piece and I'd learn the melody note by note.

So many things go into making an album, so many experiences. The way you compose the pieces and it's also the choices you make in how you're going to create the sonic sound scape.

The song "Ka Ribon" I composed on the saz. The text is all about devotion to God. I wanted to bring something very ancient, something from a Kabbalistic world. I wanted to bring those words into the present day. I wanted to bring the sounds of places that I've gone to, the things that I've been exposed to, and the things I feel spiritually and mystically in the present day, but with words written over 800 years ago.

I did leave the Orthodox community when I was between 18 and 22. I don't have that much of a relationship inside the community, but I have a strong relationship with people who are struggling with being in the community. I'm part of a group of people who left Orthodoxy or left Hasidis. There are places we go to and we all meet. Those people are definitely attracted and connected to the work.