RockOm

By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Since forming in 1985 as a band of middle school students, the rock quartet known as Live has grown to become one of the most popular and enduring alternative rock acts of the past two decades. They gained massive mainstream success with their sophomore breakthrough album Throwing Copper in 1994 and have since gone on to sell more than 20 million CDs worldwide.

Live frontman Eddie Kowalczyk is currently on an acoustic tour called Open Wings, Broken Strings with Leigh Nash of Sixpence None The Richer and Art Alexakis of Everclear. He is also working on a rocking new solo album to be released in spring of 2010 (details and mailing list at eddieklive.com).

Eddie sat down with RockOm's Trevor Harden to discuss his spiritual journey, rediscovering the Bible, the power of performing acoustically and more...

Trevor: Since Live's first album, Mental Jewelry, you've always allowed depth and spiritual truth into your lyrics. That album came out when you guys were very young so was there a catalyst that started you down that spiritual path? Can you speak about where that longing for something deeper came from?

Ed: Sure. I was baptized and confirmed Roman Catholic but never really got into it much beyond the routine of occasional church going and the formalities of the religion, never really digging that deeply into it as a child. Then as a teenager, I had a natural tendency to dig a little deeper than what was handed to me as a kid, in terms of spirituality and religion. When I was about 16 or 17 in high school I noticed that I was really interested in meditation and seeking Truth and a deeper meaning to my existence. I ended up wandering into a metaphysical bookstore that was near where I lived one day and saw a book by J. Krishnamurti called You Are the World; I bought it on a whim. It ended up being a book about questioning conditioning. He put everything into question in terms of what we accept as true or real and why we do so. It was maybe the first time I did that - to look at the ideas and beliefs I held about God and Truth and ask myself if they were accurate and what I was getting from it.

So that started my questioning which then led into years of meditating and reading. I've always been an avid reader of scripture and philosophy and never went to college so that was kind of my education. In the mid-1990's I met Ken Wilber and became really good friends with him and read his book called A Brief History of Everything which was a major watershed opening of my mind. Then about four or five years ago I did something called the Big Mind project with a man named Genpo Roche, a Zen master who developed a piercing kind of Zen questioning process. Since then I've come full circle by re-investigating the Bible from a metaphysical point of view - reinterpreting scripture in a way that relates to consciousness. That has been the main focus of my life for the last four years. It's definitely not a type of Christianity that people would recognize as typical or dogmatic; it's about the furthest you could be from fundamentalism but nonetheless Christian in nature. I'm really discovering the Bible for the first time in terms of unlocking its potential to teach us about reality.

Alongside all of that, it's music all the time. Music and songwriting is an extension of that search and has given me a lot to think about. It's been a fount of inspiration for me throughout the years and people seem to dig it.

Trevor: What are you finding in the life and teachings of Jesus that you weren't finding elsewhere or that you're finding unique?

Ed: It's unique in it's power, unique in it's breadth of influence. But you have to get away from looking at it as just a moral code and dig deeper into the language of the Bible and I'm interpreting it as it relates to consciousness itself or being itself. One of the simple ways that I see the power in it is every time the Bible says God or Lord or Christ is to relate that directly to consciousness itself, which is ever present and intermingling with your own being at a very deep level. So that unlocks an interest in prayer and meditation that was there but is now even more driven to a deeper place, understanding that as we touch that deep level that our life becomes the fruitage of that. We're happier, our relationships become more harmonious... "you shall know them by their fruits" stuff starts to happen. There's an extra sparkle in my eye and a smile that wasn't there for a while by ucovering that because of the depth of this prayer and practicing going to that place where we all become one. There's a very powerful silence there and it really reveals a lot.

As a musician and artist, you can't really ask for more than that. I come out of these periods with incredible inspiration and want to sing about it. Being able to go full circle and pick up the Bible again has been very powerful for me because it was a book that I really just didn't understand in a way that meant much to me for years. It's a sort of a coming home, but in my own way. It has been really, really exciting and powerful.

Trevor: You're currently offering the free download of your song "Forever" on eddieklive.com. It's a beautiful acoustic version of the song with the great line, "The darker the night, the brighter the dawn." Can you tell us a little about your inspiration for this song?

Ed: Again, coming from rediscovering the Bible and words like faith, that particular lyric is trying to express that when we see our ideal - the best case scenario, the most loving scenario, the fullest life, God or Truth - to keep our attention there in spite of what is appearing as an obstacle or limitation. As you keep the faith and keep your attention on that ideal and get more and more stronger doing that you find that the negativity leaves. You discover you've moved past the limitations and closer to the ideal in ways that are beyond imagination. Everyone has experienced that but this was just putting it into a context that is hopefully inspirational to people. It's something that has had an incredible impact on my life.

Trevor: All musicians talk about that mystical thing that happens in a live setting where there's a unity and connection you have with the audience. I'm sure it happens at both the loud rock concerts with the band as well as in the quiet, acoustic solo performances that you're currently doing. Can you talk about how the texture of that is different in both of those settings?

Ed: It's really different. Look, I love to rock. I've been in a great band for years and love to turn up the amps and have all the lights going and the big PA. But there's a part of you that sits by yourself in a room and writes a song that doesn't get to be on stage then. He has to recoil back into a little place of being there, but not really. Stripping it down and making it an acoustic, intimate setting really allows that guy to come forward. I had really kind of missed him. You obviously have that when you start out, when the crowds are smaller, but as the band gets bigger and your art succeeds, it becomes a persona that is designed to fill these big spaces. With this "Open Wings, Broken Strings" tour, the idea was to strip that down and put artists on the bill that were also ready for those types of things in their music. There's a fullness about the show that everyone is sharing in and the crowds are just loving it. A lot of them have said to me, "I never knew it could rock that much or be that compelling." That trips me out because that's where the music comes from, but I guess yeah, if you've never seen me acoustic you wouldn't know. This is just another view and it's really neat.

Trevor: In that setting you can talk about the meaning behind the songs and share the background a little bit. Are there any of your songs that you're particularly enjoying "clearing the air" about? Is there any song that you really enjoy telling the real story and meaning behind because it has maybe been misunderstood in the past or is perhaps a bit cryptic?

Ed: You know, I keep them that way a lot. I actually just did an introduction to "Lightening Crashes" the other night and said if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me what this song meant, I'd have a lot more dollars. I basically stepped off it again by saying that I have a feeling about what it means but people have received such different impressions about that song in lots of good ways that I don't want to influence that. I've said it's about reincarnation for me at periods of time in my life but I still tend to back away from that because there's something about the openness of it - letting it be interpreted in the way people receive it - that is really powerful.

www.eddieklive.com

Our audio interviews with Featured Track artist Ayurveda and Counting Crows founder Matt Malley comprise this week's audio podcast episode. Topics include the music of Ayurveda, music as the gateway to the divine, Matt Malley's decision to leave the Counting Crows, harnessing Kundalini energy and much more.

CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. Grab it for your commute and be sure to tell a friend we're here exploring the bond between music and spirituality!

Our audio interviews with Featured Track artist Allen Thompson and Country music superstar Collin Raye comprise this week's audio podcast episode. Topics include music's "life-boat" quality in difficult times, forgiveness, the music industry's response to spiritual music and much more.

CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. Grab it for your commute and be sure to tell a friend we're here exploring the bond between music and spirituality!

An interview with Airto Moreira
By Tom Crenshaw, tom@RockOm.net

Airto Moreira is one of the most endearing and influential percussionists in the world today. Born in South Brazil he began playing percussion even before he could walk. By the time he was six years old Airto had won many music contests by singing and playing percussion. He moved to Sao Paulo at the age of sixteen and performed regularly in nightclubs and television as a percussionist, drummer and singer.

In 1965 he met the singer Flora Purim in Rio de Janeiro. Flora moved to the USA in 1967 with Airto following shortly after and began playing with musicians such as Reggie Workman, JJ Johnson, Cedar Walton and bassist Walter Booker. It was through Booker that Airto began playing with the greats - Cannonball Adderley, Lee Morgan, Paul Desmond and Joe Zawinul to name a few.

Mr. Moreira's impact in the drumming world has been so powerful that Downbeat Magazine added the category of Percussion to its readers' and critics' polls in 1973 because of his work. Airto has gone on to win this award over twenty times since then. In the past few years he was been voted the number one percussionist by Jazz Times, Modern Drummer, Drum Magazine, Jazzizz Magazine, Jazz Central Station's Global Jazz Poll on the Internet, as well as in many European, Latin American and Asian publications.

Airto Moreira has been advancing the cause of world and percussion music as a member of the Planet Drum percussion ensemble alongside The Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Heart, master conga player Giovanni Hidalgo, tabla virtuoso Zakir Hussain, Flora Purim, Babatunde Olatunji, Sikiru Adepoju and Vikku Vinayakram. Airto has contributed to two Grammy Award-winning projects, the album Planet Drum, which won in 1991 in the World Music category, as well as his work with the Dizzy Gillespie's United Nations Orchestra, which received the award for Best Live Jazz Album.

In September of 2002, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso named Airto Moreira and Flora Purim to the Order of Rio Branco, one of Brazil's highest honors. The Order of Rio Branco was created in 1963 to formally recognize Brazilian and foreign individuals who have significantly contributed to the promotion of Brazil's international relations.

Also, Airto was a professor for three years at the Ethnomusicology department of UCLA and broke new ground in musical concepts and creative energy.

Currently he divides his time between recording studios, workshops and clinics, and creating new projects as well as researching new materials for future releases and live performances in the US, Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Airto's latest album is Life After That and was released on Narada Records.

Airto: No, not really. It probably has nothing to do with the music. There was no music. My parents didn't sing, dance, or play. [Laughs] My father was a spiritist. He, along with about 10 other mediums, would sit around a table and get in touch with the spirits and the spiritual world. They would talk to the spirits and solve problems for people. The medium, acting as a bridge between the spirit and material world, would talk with the spirit of the person and straighten a lot of things up because there's a lot of people who [after they die] feel good about their [past] lives, but most of us, we don’t. We feel like we wasted a lot of time in our life. We feel, "I shouldn’t have done that," or "maybe I should have done this instead of that." We keep those problems and other problems after life. When I say "after life," I mean after our material life. As spirits, we are immortals. We never die; we just spend some time around the spiritual world (which is actually right here) and is the universe. It's God's universe that he is creating. We might have to come back here to solve some problems we left and to learn to do other things and so on.

When I was about five years old I used to watch my father. We weren't supposed to watch but we watched anyway. [Laughs] I saw my father many times writing prescriptions for people. Some of the things he used to prescribe for others to take were from nature, from the forest. Other things he would write were to be taken from a pharmacy. He used to work with a spirit of a deceased doctor who had died 20 years earlier. My father was illiterate. He couldn't read or write but I saw him writing many times. Later on in his life he had diabetes and he lost his vision and was a blind man for about the last 10 years of his life. But he was completely happy! It was really beautiful to see that - the spiritual part of my family.

My sister does a lot of what my father used to do. She learned a lot from him. She is beautiful and happy as well. When others see her they say, "Wow, she is so nice!"

Now talking about death and music, I am in some ways a medium. I also make the bridge between the spiritual and material world. When I play, I do that. The musicians who play with me - including my wife, Flora [Purim] - they know when that comes on me and it's just a beautiful thing. We are helped by the spirits. The music becomes high as far as energy. It doesn't have to be a very fast kind of rhythm. Whatever we do is really rich in energy - universal energy that keeps all the planets and stars together and balanced. This energy is around us too; it's the primal energy that God uses to create the universe. The more you study the more you know. It's not a complicated thing; it's basic, really. I feel the energy when I change, when I am playing something and right at the beginning when it actually happens. I open up for whatever energy is there and then something happens; it clicks and the whole band knows. We look at each other, laugh and smile and we keep playing. It's a beautiful thing, man.

Tom: It seems you were bound for great things as a musician from early on. You had your own radio program in your home city as a preteen and then at 13 you began drumming and singing in local dance bands. Where did this drive, this passion for music come from?

Airto: I don’t know because we didn't have that many musicians in our family. My mother's side of the family was from Italy. I always loved music and I started playing some percussion instruments that my grandmother gave to me and that was it. I just kept playing. My mom gave me other percussion instruments and I just kept playing. This is what I do today; I keep doing the same thing that I use to do when I was a little kid. Now I have a lot of knowledge about different kinds of music - commercial, non-commercial, playing for money or not. Thank God I don't have to play for money. I did when I was younger but if the music wasn't good, if I didn't like it, I didn't play.

Tom: Your wife Flora moved to the USA in 1967 and you followed soon thereafter. Was that a move you intended to make no matter what or were you waiting to see what Flora discovered as far as the music scene was concerned before you decided to leave?

Airto: I had a plan, you see. I was in love with Flora. Really in love with Flora, mainly because she was a fine human being and she had a good education. She was from a family in Rio and I was from a family in South Brazil and we were very poor in our little village. When I met Flora I had never met a woman like her before. She was incredible! She was like a princess. She liked me and we started taking. It was like “Wow.” In the beginning the only thing I would talk to her about would be music. [Laughs] We used to talk a lot about music; she was a singer already. I was thinking this is something very, very special - this is incredible. I couldn’t believe it. We stayed together two years and she decided to go to the States and spend some time there, meet some people, say hello to her friends from Rio who were already there like Sivuca [Dias de Oliveira] who played accordion and was musical director for Miriam Makeba (a great African singer) and Sérgio Mendes. She told me, "I'm going to go and try and sing for a while. I'm really not sure what is going to happen." I said, "Well, I can't go right now. I’m playing with this great band, the New Quartet, and we're successful." I told her I was sorry but I couldn't go.

She went anyway, so we would write to each other. Sometimes we would talk on the phone, but we would write every day. I was so much in love with this woman that I decided to go to California, stay for a couple of weeks, and then bring her back to Brazil. So, I went - and here I am! I'm not in Brazil. [Laughs] Of course, we went back to Brazil often. I don't like the word "career" because I think music is much more than career - music is a lifetime commitment.

Tom: Who were the first musicians you met upon arriving in the states?

Airto: I met Moacir Santos, who was a master teacher from Brazil and a great arranger and tenor saxophonist. I did some gigs with him and studied with him, but not enough. I never really liked study. Unfortunately I can't read music. I started playing in LA with some Brazilian bands and then Flora was invited to go New York to sing with Miriam Makeba.  A few days after Flora went to New York, I followed her there and we lived in New York for almost nine years.

It was in New York that I met everybody. I met Cannonball Adderley and we liked each other so much, even though we didn't understand each other. I was speaking Portuguese and he was speaking English. He was our mentor and sponsor in the states and signed our working papers and told his manager, "I want Airto and Flora here legally." I started playing with Cannonball, Lee Morgan and Paul Desmond. Then everything started to happen.

Two and a half years later I met Miles Davis. I met Miles through Joe Zawinul, who was very close friends with Miles.  One day Miles said to Joe, "Joe, I’m recording this album - a new kind of music. It’s more electric. I need a percussionist that plays something different." Joe said to Miles, "Well I know somebody that I met at Walter Booker's house." Miles asked Joe what kind of person I was - if I was old, young, or what. Joe told Miles, "He's kind of young, but he has some incredible percussion instruments that no one's seen before. He plays them all, plays jazz, bossa nova, samba; he plays anything. He's able to hear something and just play it." So, I started playing with Miles and recorded Bitches Brew with him.

Tom: Did you believe Bitches Brew was going to be the phenomenon it became?

Airto: No. I knew practically nothing. It was all like a dream to me, a movie that I was in. Everything was happening and I didn't speak English. I came to understand English better soon after. The first three years was like I was on an acid trip and being in a crazy movie. It was a very strange feeling; I was not afraid at all. It was like I knew these musicians for a long time and we were just going to play some music - that was it. All the other musicians warned me about Miles and said, "Listen, Miles can be real nasty but go and play with him. He's going to like you. But never get into any kind of negative stuff with him because he likes to play with you and try and scare you." I was careful in that area. I had two and a half years with Miles. One of the greatest experiences in my life.

Tom: The sidemen on Bitches Brew were extraordinary: Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Chick Corea.

Airto: Yeah, I played for probably a year and a half with those guys. Then Miles started changing the sound. He wanted to get into the "funk/wah-wah" thing. He loved Jimi Hendrix actually. They were going to do an album together. Gil Evans was going to write the arrangements but it never happened because Jimi died. Yeah, we used to go down to the Village in New York with Miles, into Jimi Hendrix's Electric Lady Studios and jam there. Miles would be talking with Jimi about the wah-wah pedal; He was crazy about it. He wanted to use it with the trumpet.

Tom: Following your stint with Miles Davis, you jumped right into Weather Report with Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Miroslav Vitous and Alphonse Mouzon.

Airto: Actually it was during my time with Miles. I was still playing with Miles when Joe Zawinul invited me to form the band. Joe said, "This is going to be the best group in the world. You’re going to play with us." But I told him, "I'm still playing with Miles. Some people are leaving the band and I think Miles needs me." Joe said, "No, Miles doesn't need anybody. Come and play with us." It wasn't that I was skeptical about Weather Report, I just didn't want to leave Miles' band. I wanted to go into that change with him and give him my sounds and soul. I never went on the road with Weather Report. I recorded with them and I played one concert at CBS for the release of our first album on CBS Records. I told Joe after that concert that I was not going to leave Miles.

Tom: In our interview with your wife, Flora gave us her thoughts of Chick Corea and Return to Forever. I want to hear from you about your experience with Chick and Return To Forever. You all pretty much made history in this band.

Airto: Chick had a drummer before me. But he asked Flora to ask me to come in on the next rehearsal they had so I could show some patterns to his drummer and I said, "Sure." I met them all, met the drummer and showed him some stuff. The drummer asked me to take a break with him, go next door to a bar and have a drink. When we got next door he said to me, "Do you want to play this gig with Chick?" I said, "Yeah, I want to play drums for Chick but you're already playing with him." "I’m a jazz drummer; I don’t want to play this gig," he said. I told him, "Well, we have to talk with Chick because he never really invited me to play with him." So we went back to the practice and the drummer said to Chick, "Chick, Airto and I were just talking and you've got a new drummer." [Laughs]

Tom: When we interviewed Mickey Hart and spoke with him about the Planet Drum album and his intention in recording it he said he realized on day he was "sitting on top of the mountain" with regards to his percussion friends. You and Flora joined him on the Planet Drum album and were in fact co-producers, along with the other musicians performing on the album. What are your thoughts on how this all came to be?

Airto: Flora and I met Mickey Hart with the Grateful Dead. We went to see the Dead one time at the Oakland Coliseum just to see what everyone was talking about with this band. That was some "down to earth" music: singing, playing and tripping. It was a big party with thousands of people! Flora and I went backstage after the concert and they were like, "Oh, Airto and Flora!" They invited us to perform with them the next two nights, to jam with them. Ornette Coleman was sitting in with them, playing this crazy stuff on saxophone. Flora picked up a microphone and started singing with Ornette Coleman, doing free-form stuff, really beautiful stuff. That's how we met Mickey. Mickey then called me and Flora to play on the Apocalypse Now soundtrack and we worked in the Dead’s studio in Marin County for six days and nights straight.

Tom: Was this the first time you had worked with Zakir Hussain?

Airto: Yes. [Pause] Maybe I played with him in the Rhythm Devils. I wasn't a part of that group; I just sat in with them. Apocalypse Now was the first time we collaborated and it was just beautiful. Zakir is one of the most incredible players on earth.

Tom: We agree, but I must add that when we spoke with Zakir Hussain last year in San Anselmo one of the first things he spoke about was Bitches Brew and how that was so inspirational to him and everyone, and how it changed everything. He was taken with your work as well.

Airto: Zakir told me he was a classical percussionist playing classical Hindu music, and that's what he did. Then he saw me play with Miles Davis and said, "Wow, I can do that too. I can play some other stuff." Zakir can do anything, really. He's an incredible musician. Then Zakir started opening up, playing with different people. He's one of the most respected musicians in the world.

Tom: Tell me about your album The Other Side of This, from 1988. It was an exploration into the healing powers of music and the spiritual world.

Airto: I always have ideas for sound. I have a lot of ideas for things I haven't played yet. I am young; I'm only 67. [Laughs] Some of the sounds I had been thinking about for many years were sounds for healing, for relaxing and for energy. I never really thought of myself as a shaman to be working with spirits. Spirits are free to come and visit when I am playing and each day when I jump in, they are welcome.

One day when were working on Planet Drum with Mickey and all the great percussionists who performed on that album I said to Mickey, "Remember that project that we talked about of co-producing, that healing music album?" He was about to head out of town and said, "Why don't you start it while I'm gone." So, I stayed in the studio and did about half of the album in five days. When Mickey returned we began rehearsing Planet Drum again and he asked, "Well what have you been doing while I've been gone?" So I had the engineer play the recordings in the studio and Mickey said, "What? What is this?" I said, "That's our project that you are producing." [Laughs] He said, "Oh, you bet I am! Let's keep working on this!" So we would rehearse Planet Drum in the day and then work on The Other Side of This until the early mornings.

Tom: How do you see music and especially percussion evolving in the near future?

Airto: Percussion was probably the first ever instrument. People would play and not even know they were making music. I think it is always going to be a part of humanity. Right now there's a lot of synthesized music and percussion, but at the same time there are percussionists and drummers such as Mickey Hart, Zakir Hussain, myself and others who are playing all over the world. There is space for acoustic percussion, for the real thing. It will never die. I think that percussion will always grow together with the music. It doesn't matter what kind of music it is because the percussion will always be there. Percussion evolves with the music and with the human race. One doesn't need to be a professional - you can go and play some with the guys and it's OK. Percussion started the music, in the beginning. Percussion is a beautiful exchange, a melting pot. It will always exist and if they keep sampling, they're going to be sampling forever.

LINKS: www.airto.com

An Interview with Brazilian Jazz legend Flora Purim
By Tom Crenshaw, tom@rockom.net

For those who know Flora, an introduction is unnecessary. Her music has interwoven the life fabric of anyone with a passing interest in Latin and American jazz music for over 25 years.

Flora's once-in-a-generation six-octave voice has earned her two Grammy nominations for Best Female Jazz Performance and Downbeat Magazine's Best Female Singer accolade on four occasions. Her musical partners have included Gil Evans, Stan Getz, Chick Corea, Dizzy Gillespie and her husband Airto Moreira, with whom she has collaborated on over 30 albums since moving with him from her native Rio to New York in 1967. In New York, she and Airto became central to the period of musical expression and creativity which produced the first commercially successful electric jazz groups of the 70s.

Shortly after, Flora became instrumental in opening the world up to new notions of what jazz can sound like by linking up with Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Joe Farrell to form Return To Forever in late 1971. She went on to contribute to some of the greatest recordings of the seventies - Carlos Santana, Hermeto Pascoal, Gil Evans, Chick Corea and Mickey Hart - with all benefiting from her vocal and arranging skills. In the mid-Eighties, Flora and Airto resumed their musical partnership to record two albums for Concord - Humble People and The Magicians - for which she received Grammy nominations. In 1992 she went one better by singing on two Grammy-winning albums - Planet Drum with Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart (Best World Music Album) and the Dizzy Gillespie United Nations Orchestra (Best Jazz Album).

In September of 2002, Brazil's President Fernando Henrique Cardoso named Flora Purim and Airto Moreira to the "Order of Rio Branco", one of Brazil's highest honors. Her latest album, Flora's Song, was released by Narada Records on June 28th, 2005.

RockOm had the honor and privilege to spend an extended period of time with Flora Purim recently while she was in Lisbon, Portugal touring with her husband. In this in-depth interview Flora Purim speaks with us regarding her early years in America, her close association with the greats in jazz music, how music transcends race, creed, and culture and an upcoming movie and book based on her life and career.

Tom:  Tell us what you, your family and friends felt on that March evening in 1964 when the Brazilian military staged a coup overthrowing President Goulart sending Brazil into a totalitarian regime. There was widespread systematic repression of artistic freedom and free speech. Did this play a role in your decision to become an artist and do you ever regret leaving Brazil for America?

Flora:  Sure I regret leaving Brazil because it is a paradise and the outpouring of Brazilian music is so big that wherever I go, all over the world there is always a group playing Brazilian music. I am very proud to be Brazilian, but Brazil was a military dictatorship and the Government was censoring the lyrics of music and songs. I was only 20 years old and in the beginning of my career then. I felt if I didn’t leave the country I couldn't be a singer. I made the decision and since I loved jazz, I decided to go to the USA.

Tom:  When you arrived in New York City in 1967, you immediately jumped into the American jazz scene with the artists of the day such as Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. Then a few short years later you met Chick Corea, Stan Getz, Gil Evans, Stanley Clarke, Joe Farrell and others. What did you think when you landed in New York and were able to be yourself and express yourself in the midst of such an eclectic music scene?

Flora: I thought I had died and was in paradise. I didn't know how I was going to find other musicians. I asked around at the hotel where I was staying in New York and was told I shouldn't be going into the heart of Harlem because I was white and it was a dangerous place to go. I said, "Well I come from Brazil and we don't discriminate, so I'm going to take my chance. I must go to Harlem; I have to go." So the concierge wrote an address on a piece of paper and I was dropped off at Club Baron.

I tried to pay my ticket to get in but the doorman started to speak to me and I didn't understand what he was saying. He was laughing, making jokes and wasn't going to sell me a ticket. The only thing I understood was that he called me Snow White. In the meantime, a very tall man was standing in the entranceway going from one side of the bar to the other. He saw the scene, reprimanded the man and he gave me his big hand and told me not to be afraid and to sit down with his lady. He invited me inside and I sat down with a white lady. She was very popular inside of the club. Everyone was arriving and kissing her hand and kissing her on the cheek. Later on, I found out she was a famous Baroness - Baroness Nika. She used to help Coltrane and Charlie Parker when they got sick. She was so loved by everyone because she had no prejudice and loved jazz to the point that she would offer space in her house when musicians got sick from time to time.

Then, when I finally sat down and felt more at ease I looked over at the bar and saw Wayne Shorter sitting there along with Art Blakey, Carmen McRae, Richard Davis, and Mongo Santamaria. I saw the creme of the creme all together in the same place. After Mongo Santamaria played his set - in which Chick Corea was the pianist - the second band came in. I didn't know what Thelonious Monk looked like. He was the guy that helped me get into the club. He walked on stage, sat down at the piano and played. I realized I was the luckiest person in the world. The second day in town I found the place where everyone converged after their gigs, talked with each other and jammed. Afterward, we all went to the house of bass player Walter Booker and played more until the early morning.

Tom: Tell me about the events leading up to meeting Chick Corea and later becoming a part of his fusion band Return to Forever.

Flora: I arrived in the US in December of '67, stayed in New York and later I got a call from an ex-boyfriend, Dom Um Romao, who  went on to perform with Weather Report and he said, "Come to California." So I flew out to California and stayed for about six months. I didn't have a work permit but I was going to the clubs. I saw Miles Davis for the first time along with Gary Barton and several of the young, up-and-coming musicians. Gary Barton was only 16 or 17 years old and he was playing free form jazz. A month afterward, my husband Airto (Moreira) arrived. We both went to see Miles Davis together. It was a dream for Airto.  Something happened to him when he first saw Miles.

I received an invitation from the drummer who was performing with South African singer Miriam Makeba who was singing Brazilian music. She had a choir behind her of three or four girls trying to sing in Portuguese. I went back to New York and was hired by Miriam Makeba to be a backup singer and help the girls learn to pronounce the lyrics correctly. Afterward, I sang two concerts with Miriam and she called me up and said, "You are too good to be just a background singer. I’m going to give you the name of my manager. Please look him up. I’m calling him to say I’m sending  you." Miriam's manger took me in and got me a record deal. I signed with the label that was owned by the comedian Bill Cosby. After the record was recorded and was about to be pressed and released the warehouse caught fire. My work was burned and that record never came out. It was a shock. I thought to myself, "It is not my time yet."

I stayed in New York and continued hanging out at the clubs. In the Village there were a lot of jazz clubs with great musicians and I always managed to get in for free.  I met Chick Corea then. At that time, Chick was playing for Miles Davis and Miles was looking to change the band. Joe Zawinul told Miles there was a Brazilian percussionist who was crazy and that he should check him out. Airto then received a call from Miles' manager. I'll let Airto tell you the rest in his own words and then I’ll tell you how it really was. [Laughs]

Later Chick decided to leave Miles and form a group with Dave Holland, Anthony Blackstone, and Barry Altschul [the group Circle]. They were just playing free form and Chick wanted his music to be more popular. He said that people loved the music but it was hard to duplicate the melodies they heard. He became obsessed to have his music sung and duplicated. He was looking for a person to sing his melodies, because if a person could sing melodies the public would understand that they could sing it too. He offered the music to Ella Fitzgerald and several others vocalists. The vocalists returned the music saying they were already well established on the Bebop jazz scene and didn’t want to take a risk of singing fusion because the music was not mainstream. It was fused with different rhythms.

I met Chick at Walter Booker's apartment after a concert. He asked me to come to his home and try some of his music because he was dying to hear someone sing some of his melodies. I said, "Yes, of course." The next day I went to Chick’s home and the first song he played for me was "What Game Shall We Play Today", and then others. I was overwhelmed with the beauty of the music and couldn’t believe I was having a chance to hear it first hand. So he asked me if I would like to sing those songs with him and to be part of the group that he was forming. He met a very young bass player just out of high School who was 17 years old. His name was Stanley Clarke. He invited flutist-saxophonist  Joe Farrell to join as well. Chick asked me to ask Airto to sit in until he found a drummer so we could keep rehearsing. Airto wasn't doing anything since Miles was taking a break, so I brought Airto in and Chick loved him so much that he decided not to look for another drummer.

"Music has no prejudices. Music does not ask you what color you are, where you come from or what your creed is. Music itself becomes God to us whenever we play it."

It was like magic. Sometimes you put five musicians together and they are great, but the magic doesn't happen. But this time it all melded together and became one. We were very excited to be playing and singing original music written especially for us. From that point on Chick wrote more and more and the music aimed at my voice or Stanley’s bass or Airto’s drumming or Joe Farrell’s flute and saxophone. The first album was called Return to Forever and the second was called Light as a Feather, which happens to contain a composition by Stanley Clark and me.

These two albums defined Return To Forever and in America we were not sure if they accepted us or not. But when we arrived in Japan or anywhere else around the world we were so famous we need a police escort. So many people were waiting at the airports screaming and giving us gifts. From that point on I understood there were certain prejudices and maybe the musicians that were dedicated to swing, mainstream, and Bebop were guardians of that style of music, which prevailed at the time. They were not giving in even if our music was nice. The rest of the world embraced Chick’s music. Some first started listening to jazz after Return To Forever and then started looking for other records that we were involved in as well and learning more and more about the other forms of jazz. You were right about one thing - because of my association with Chick Corea I became very, very popular all over the world.

Tom: In 1973 you released your first solo album, Butterfly Dreams, and went on to work with Carlos Santana on his album Welcome (1973) which also featured John McLaughlin, Tom Coster, Leon Thomas and John Coltrane's widow, Alice. Tell us about the vibe in the air working on that album.

Flora: Well Carlos was incredible. We were playing at the Keystone Korner in San Francisco and one night Carlos walked in for the second show. I saw him come in but I had never met him before. After the show he said he was recording that night and invited us to come to Columbia Studios. He played some of the songs for us and asked if we could do something to enhance the songs. He offered me two songs and Airto worked on another two or three songs. The next week he had a concert at the Museum of Modern Art and I sat in with the band. A very famous writer Ralph Gleason wrote a review of the show and said I was great and raved about me. The next day I got a call from Fantasy Records and they invited me to sign a contract with them.

Tom: You were involved as a co-producer along with Mickey Hart and your husband Airto on the 1992 Grammy Award winning Planet Drum album. In speaking with Mickey Hart and Zakir Hussain they both spoke about the spiritual nature and healing qualities in music. Do you feel the same way? Does rhythm and music have unifying and healing properties?

Flora: I would say yes. When Mickey Hart’s wife was about to have a baby and was in labor for hours nothing would help. Mickey put on a track from Planet Drum and she relaxed and gave birth right away. I also learned from Babatunji Olantundi that drums are not made from just any tree. In Nigeria, to cut the tree to make a drum you have to talk to that tree for months and get an affinity and have the tree recognize you - even tell stories to the tree. You and the tree become friends. So when the time comes to make a drum from that tree, the tree is ready and understands it’s not going to stop "being nature", that it would actually be helping the world to know that the first language between men was drumming.

Tom: Through your close friendship with Dizzy Gillespie, who was a devotee of the Bahá'í faith, you came to adopt that faith. How has Bahá'í influence you?

Flora: Bahá'í was a young religion when I met Dizzy. Dizzy used to carry his praying book, which was different than everyone else's.  All the pages were embossed in gold and his name was written on the front in gold. I used to sit next to him in first class, so once I asked him, "You are always reading this book. What is so good about it." He said, "This book is my Bible and I know every single prayer by memory."  I challenged him and he said, "OK, I’ll give you the book and you can open it to any page and ask me." I took the book, opened it to one page, and by chance it was the Prayer of the Traveler. He said, "Which one out of the five?" I chose, thinking it would be difficult for him. He recited the prayer fluently. I thought  to myself "He’s lucky, the Prayer of the Traveler is one he must read most often." I opened up another page, I challenged him again, and he recited the prayer perfectly. He read that book for 30 years every day. He read to remind himself that men should help other men, that a universal language should be created so that people could communicate and that women should be treated equal to men.

I told Dizzy, "I want to be a Bahá'í." He said, "You can’t be a Bahá'í yet." I asked him why. He said, "Before you decide you want to be a Bahá'í you have to read a couple of books to see if you agree with it." I was given several books to read, loved them and said, "I still want to be a Bahá'í." So we were leaving Australia and the family that was receiving all the Bahá'í in the town ran to the airport and gave me the book of prayers, just like Dizzy's book. Inside of the book was an Australian ten-dollar bill. I said, "Wait, I think you forgot the money." The lady who gave me the book said, "No we, didn't forget. You always keep this note inside of the book because this is to bring you more money and it could save you in a difficult situation." I kept it and never spent that money.

Tom: Sometimes music brings people together in ways that nothing else can. What is it about music that bridges barriers and put us in touch with that which we call the Divine?

Flora: Music has no prejudices. Music does not ask you what color you are, where you come from or what your creed is. Music itself becomes God to us whenever we play it. As musicians we only communicate through notes and rhythms. We hardly talk with each other unless it's to give a new idea for direction. At the time we are playing it doesn't count what color you are, where you come from, or which religion you practice. I love that.

Tom: What does the future hold for you?

Flora: I have lots of work ahead of me. I've been in Portugal working with a screenwriter and with another writer to do a book of my trials and tribulations along with a film based on a Brazilian singer who wanted to sing Jazz. This project is very big, is sponsored by the Brazilian Government, and is entitled "Brazilian Flora". I am singing all Brazilian music by Brazilian musicians. Because of my popularity around the world I can bring the new Brazilian music to the rest of the world as long as I keep singing.

www.florapurim.com

Watch for an interview with Flora's husband, Airto Moreira, next week right here at RockOm.

A casual interview with neo-reggae band Passafire on their new album, connecting with nature and "being in the zone"
By Trevor Harden and Tom Crenshaw

When you think of the South, one thing that usually doesn't come to mind is reggae music. Even still one of the hottest bands rising up the charts today (including being prominently featured in the iTunes store and newsletter this week) is Savannah, Georgia's Passafire. Their latest album, Everyone on Everynight (out this week on LAW Records), pushes the boundaries of reggae music, giving the genre a "hard rock meets pop" edge that few (if any) other bands have attempted. In other words, though you will certainly hear musical influences in the parts of Passafire's music, the whole is something quite unique and noteworthy.

RockOm met up with keyboardist Adam Willis and drummer Nick Kubley before their show in downtown Savannah, GA to discuss the new album, seeing signs, their thoughts on God and how it feels to connect with an audience.

Trevor: How is Everyone on Everynight different than past records?

Adam: On the last record we had a year and a half while on the road to write the songs, put them together, try them live on the road and all that. For this record, we didn’t test any of these songs on the road. We got together after touring and had all this inspiration from traveling and locked ourselves up and wrote.

Nick: There was a lot of pressure to come up with a new record fairly quickly, but I think it was good. We all thought, “This has to be done quickly and it has to be really good.”

Trevor: The album's title comes from the lyrics in your song “Prelectricity" [one of RockOm's Featured Tracks this week]. This song talks about light pollution and the loss of connection with the stars, which used to guide people for many centuries. What was the inspiration for this track?

Adam: The song is about civilization and modern societies and how with the way we live now, the cities are so far removed from the natural world that you kind of forget about it. To us as a band it’s really important to reconnect when we’re somewhere, like when we’re out West we’ll go camping. We just hope to stay in touch with that because it’s really easy to forget about the world we live in and the natural beauty, especially when you’re in a vehicle all day traveling and playing in big cities.

Nick: You really don’t notice it until you’re out West in the middle of nowhere, driving in the middle of Wyoming for example. There are a million more stars that you see.

Adam: We just can’t forget about who we are, the people in the world around us and the world we’re living in. It’s very easy to do that nowadays and that’s what this song is about: distractions.

Trevor: Your song “Here in Front of Me” [the other RockOm Featured Track this week] talks about looking for signs and coincidences and even being disturbed or upset when we do see them. Was there a story behind these lyrics?

Adam: I think it came from when we were out West on our last trip. To me – and I didn’t write the lyrics, [guitarist/vocalist] Ted did – it always felt like this cryptic description of our band, all the good and bad we’ve been through, and our drive to keep going.

Nick: Yes, like the part that says, “It’s actually happening.” Is that what you’re talking about?

Adam: I don’t know if that’s actually what he means by that.

Nick: Ya, I don’t know either. [Laughter]

Adam: I think on this one we wanted to create a visual in the listener's mind and then they do whatever they want with it. But we are a people who think about the signs and notice things. I feel like personally I’m destined to do this and the signs are there.

Trevor: Let's look back to one of your older songs, “Feel It." There’s some language in there about “recognizing the eternal fire within.” What does that mean to you personally?

Nick: It’s taking notice that you have an energy inside you, a flame that needs to be kept going.

Adam: For me it’s definitely symbolic of God or a higher being. That’s how I always interpreted it.

Nick: “Feel It” doesn’t necessarily have to be about God. Ted says that in the song – “whether or not you think there is a God above.”

Adam: For me it does, though.

Nick: I’m not sure I believe in God completely, but I do think there’s something else there.

Trevor: And the way Ted has structured it, he’s left it open for interpretation.

Adam: Yes, I think we try to do that with all the songs. When you try to cram a message down someone’s throat, that doesn’t seem to work too well. If you leave it open for interpretation, people can understand it in their own way so they can use it to be better and go forth.

Nick: That’s the song we get written to about the most. A lot of people write us and say how that song in particular got them through tough times in their lives – crazy shit like that. This one kid was saying that he was thinking about killing himself and then he didn’t because of this song. That’s heavy.

Adam: It’s rock and roll, it’s a good time, but if there’s something in there that can uplift people or change them for the better or help them, that means we’re doing something right I think. It’s so easy to wield the weapon of music in a negative way. You can influence people to do just about anything.

Trevor: Reggae music usually carries with it this kind of positivity, spirituality and activism. Do you hope that you’re performances and songs are a little more than just “music” for people?

Nick: I always wanted my being in a band to be something more than just playing for people. If we can make them forget about their problems for an hour and a half then I think we’ve done our job. Yes, I’m in a band but why am I really here? I’m good at playing music and I need to use that for something positive. I think we all feel like that.

Adam: If you have a skill or an ability --

Nick: -- you should use it for good.

Adam: I think there's an obligation to do that.

Nick: Not everyone can play music or get to the level that we’ve been able to get to. Once you’re there you should do something with it.

Tom: You’re playing for a home crowd [in Savannah, GA] tonight and you’ve previously been out playing across the country. How do you know you’re connecting with the audience when you’re in a new setting, other than them rocking out? What do you feel?

Adam: That’s a hard thing to describe but it’s definitely real.

Nick: It’s not a tangible thing. It’s either there or it’s not. I think that time we played in Minneapolis, opening for 311, there were like a thousand people there and they were all just standing there with their arms crossed. But that night was one of the nights where we sold the most CDs. We sold a shit-load of CDs after thinking, “Oh my God, these people hate us.” [Laughs]

Adam: Aside from the obvious stuff – like people dancing or singing the lyrics – I think when you’re on stage you can feel positive energy when you’re reaching people. There is this invisible connection that can happen. Without running the risk of sounding cheesy, I firmly believe that. And there are some times when you walk off stage that you know something really magical just happened. It goes from us being on stage and them being out in the crowd, to us all participating in this thing together.

Nick: It’s like everyone’s in on this unspoken... agreement.

Adam: That’s good. That’s a good way to describe it.

Nick: It’s still not that good of a way to describe it. [Laughs] But I don’t know how else to say it.

Trevor: Moving on, let’s close with…

Nick: It would be like being in the Zone… in sports. [Long pause] Sorry. [Laughter]

Trevor: One more plug for the new album, what’s your personal favorite track on the disc?

Nick: My favorite is “Queen of Spades” because to me it’s the Southern Rock song on the album and I’m really proud of it. I feel like that embodies where we’re from – Savannah – and being in the South. It’s got this twang to it and crazy slide solo.

Adam: It’s tough to say a favorite but the one I keep going back to is “You’re Here.” I just feel like it’s really upbeat and positive and the lyrics are just cryptic to me. In listening over and over again it seems different every time. I feels like I hear new things in it each time.

LINKS:

Passafire's main website

Passafire on MySpace

Everyone on Everynight on iTunes

An Interview with Nutone artist Donna De Lory
By Trevor Harden, Trevor@RockOm.net

Donna De Lory's latest album Sanctuary (out now on Nutone Music) is by and large a mantra-based chant album, using ancient Sanskrit devotional prayers alongside original lyrics, all set to a beautiful and meditative East-meets-West instrumentation. Through her heartfelt, gentle and breathy vocal delivery, Donna's singing wraps the listener in a nurturing love and encourages a sense of devotion and transcendence.

Donna has not always been focused on yogic music, however. Her past pop career had her singing vocals on albums by Santana, Carly Simon and Jewel to mention a few. Most famously, Donna was known as one of Madonna's main live accompanying vocalists for nearly 20 years.

In this interview, Donna De Lory shares with RockOm about the title track from her album Sanctuary, how conscious intention transforms music into a healing force, Joseph Campbell's influence on her life and work, and what being open to the Divine Mother has taught her about God.

Trevor: I'm not an overly emotional guy but I found that upon listening to your album for the first time, as the beautiful first track rolled over into your song "Sanctuary" - and I heard how you took this old Christian folksy worship song that I grew up with and brought it into a meditative and spiritual arena - I just got kind of choked up. What is your history with the song "Sanctuary"? Is it something you came upon recently or did you have a church background that introduced you to the song?

Donna: Not really. Growing up my family was Christian-Catholic and mom is actually a recovering Catholic. She was wanting to be a nun when she was young and grew up in Catholic schools and then kind of rebelled against that. So when I was a kid I always wanted to go to church and I went with my friends to different churches or with my Jewish friends to their temple. Not that I was trying to find the place for me, but I just liked the sense of community and the devotion that you felt in that environment. I moved to Nashville when I was eighteen and I went to church there and started on my spiritual path at that time. I probably did hear the song "Sanctuary" in the church but more recently I heard it on a friend's CD.

I heard the words "with thanksgiving I'll be a living sanctuary for you" and sometimes I'll hear words that someone else wrote that really ring true, something I would write. The actual song goes on for many more verses but I didn't resonate so much with the other words. I felt like all I really wanted to say was this over and over again. And that's something I love about the mantras where you take something very simple - either the names of God or a phrase like "I am divine love" - and you sing it over and over again. I love what I've learned about mantra-based music and how I can apply that to other songs whether it's "Amazing Grace", my song "Sky is Open", "May God's Love Be with You Always" or "Sanctuary."

It's beautiful to say something that can resonate with people but not engage them too much. Music is a tool for opening and when you study the history of music I believe that was the original intent of music - to open people up, to heal and to move people. Coming from a really commercial pop background, I now look at music this way and set intentions for the music that I make. I want to have this be my gift for other people to help them. Consider what Mother Teresa did or Amma, people who are giving, giving, giving. I feel like my music is my small piece of what I can do. That song, "Sanctuary", for me reminds me of that. People come up to me all the time and say, "Please don't stop doing this. I know it's hard, you've got your family and other things, but please keep doing this."

Trevor: When we spoke with one of your label-mates and friends David Newman, he shared about the yogic use of sound as a path for healing. So that's what you're talking about here, right? That music has a healing power?

Donna: When you have that conscious intention it absolutely has a healing power. I was doing an interview a couple of weeks ago and someone mentioned a man's name, a healer, and wanted to know if I knew of him. I said, "No, I don't know this person." They said, "He exclusively uses your music to heal people. The vibrations and the frequencies in your music really help and he has a lot of experience with that." It was beautiful to hear that and I thought, "Of course!" I've personally been there with people when they've transitioned and left the body as music played or people will play my music when there's a baby being born. I hear stories like this and that is what music can be used for - these deep, deep meaningful experiences in our lives. And it's beautiful because when you use music in this way you can go back by playing this music again to that place. It's a tool to take you back to that moment again.

Trevor: In the album's liner notes you spoke to how Joseph Campbell was an inspiration for you. What did his work mean to your spiritual journey?

Donna: Wow, it was just his overall view of mythology and man's quest and incredible awe for this higher power. This is what he dedicated his life to study and in going back to see cave drawings and all the art. It's basically this yearning to know God, a connection to nature, and that we're all connected. We need to get back to that place, obviously, because what we're doing with the planet and each other is not respectful. Because of the damage that has been done it's especially time to wake up and to realize these things, that we're all really connected.

Plus he just gives you so much information you can go out and learn about. I first learned Sanskrit from watching him and hearing his talks. He talked about Sanskrit as the great spiritual language of the world because of how old it is and the intention put into it. I went further into studying yoga and began hearing the words again and started putting these mantras and words into my songs. I've always been on and interested in a spiritual path, whether that was studying Joseph Campbell or Yogananda or something from the Christian tradition - wherever I was.

Now it's yoga and everyone's coming together to help themselves and other people through yoga. I love yogis because they're generous and help other people. As far as the physical practice of yoga in our country is concerned, I think it's great if there's a yoga center on every corner because it's just going to make people be more compassionate and have some of this intention. It's OK even if it's just "Namaste" at the end of a class, at least you're bowing to some thing that's greater than yourself and I think we need that.

Trevor: On a personal, non-musical note, I see that you have two children. Everyone agrees that children become like our gurus as they have so much to teach us. What are they teaching you right now?

Donna: You don't know love until you have children; every day I'm being taught something. I'm learning just "being" and not having to "do" all the time - just being in that moment. I'm really feeling time passing quickly now so I'm trying to hold on to these moments. Even when I look back to pictures of my 6-year old daughter when she was a baby, I don't even remember! It's going by so fast. I say to my husband, "Did you take more pictures? Did you get the movie of them?" I'm realizing this is the good stuff, the stuff of life.

It's the interesting thing about life, as you go you realize what's really important. With all those years that I spent striving for something in my career and all those desires, now I'm trying to just "be" instead of wanting so much all the time. I'm just so grateful I'm right here.

Trevor: Speaking of mothers, the culture in which we live here in the West has a very masculine view of God overall. You have "Jai Ma" on your album and so what do you think we're missing in our understanding by only having a Father figure or more specifically what has being open to the Divine Mother meant to your journey?

Donna: I think we're missing the nurturing aspects of the divine. I was watching a video of Amma and they were asking her, "Why do you think people love what you're doing so much, just coming and getting a hug?" She was saying that if she can make both men and women feel more of that nurturing Mother energy, that's what she wants to do. Her hugs are opening those people up. I guess with my music, I want to do that same thing. And by me being a mother now I'm starting to understand it and have more of that to share in my lyrics and music. Since I had my daughter who is six, "He Ma Durga" has been my theme song or mantra. It was really powerful for me and for other people too. When I sing it, people are holding themselves and being compassionate toward themselves.

That's what's missing; we don't have that kind of nurturing support to love ourselves, or know God is the ultimate lover who loves and holds you. And that is what Amma is doing; she's loving everyone. Anyone who comes up there for a hug, she gives them the same amount of love. Whether you're a celebrity or the poor and dying, it's that ultimate love. Also Mother Earth gives us that all the time and we don't see it, though some people do. She's giving us that and we keep doing what we do with the earth and not being conscious, and the Mother's still there giving me another chance to have a child and this life and creation.

I think I'll always sing those mantras because it's so important to me. When I think of doing another mantra CD I think, "I have to keep singing Mother." I just worked on a compilation CD that is specifically made for doctors giving this music to their patients. On it I basically just sing, "Mother, Mother," in English, Spanish and Italian. Sometimes just saying the words "mother" is so beautiful. If we can say these mantras and get out of our heads about our own mothers, but instead recognize that nurturing love that is there for all of us, then we can really feel it. Everyone feels it inside somewhere so I love that music can bring that more to people. At my shows I love when it's exciting and people are dancing, but the most powerful thing is when you get people to open, whether they're crying or want to go give someone a big hug. After I play my music, that's how I feel; I feel like my heart is so much more open.

LINKS:

DonnaDeLory.com

Donna on Nutone Music

This week's audio podcast episode features interviews with "industrial re-percussionist" and performer Billy Jonas (about his song "God Is In") as well as Mickey Hart (of Grateful Dead fame, Planet Drum and more). Topics include seeing God in everything, connecting to the divine through participation, the healing power of music, modern Shamanism and much more. CLICK HERE to visit our Podcast page to download this and other episodes of the RockOm Podcast. Grab it for your drive home to or from work or school tomorrow!

Music is what the good doctor has ordered this week at RockOm, healing us with rhythm and with laughter.

To begin, check out our all new interview with Grateful Dead drummer, world music practitioner and music therapy expert Mickey Hart titled "If There is a Creator, It's a Rhythm". Read Mickey's thoughts on his "shamanistic" role as a drummer and about music's ability to connect us with the infinite, vibratory universe.

Then head over to the right column of the homepage to check out Billy Jonas' amusing and lighthearted song, "God Is In," about finding the divine in everything. Make sure you listen to the whole song to get the depth of what he's trying to say and then head over to his website to find out more and to pick up a copy of one of his albums.

Frontman James LaBrie opens up for the first time on the band's spirituality (and more)
By Trevor Harden, trevor@RockOm.net

Dream Theater has had one of the longest and most influential careers in all of modern progressive rock. Considered by many to be metal's alpha dog in terms of musical technicality and composition, it is no wonder the group's hardcore fan base is enormous, ecstatic and dedicated.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings arrived as Dream Theater's tenth studio album upon its release by Roadrunner Records on June 23rd. As you're about to see, the band considers it to be a return to their roots, exploring familiar musical and lyrical themes from DT's past. Throughout Black Clouds, as in the rest of their material, frontman James LaBrie shows off his tremendous vocal range through sweeping melodies and heartfelt delivery, singing lyrics that explore the spectrum from real-life experience to philosophical struggles.

In this exclusive RockOm interview, LaBrie shares his impression of the new album, discusses the group's team-based songwriting process and, for the first time, opens up about his personal convictions as well as the spirituality in Dream Theater's members and music.

RockOm: You guys have had quite a career and have a prolific catalog of music. With this new album's release, what would you say you’re most proud of on Black Clouds and Silver Linings whether it be one of the songs, something you communicated or something musically or vocally?

James LaBrie: I think it’s showing that I’m continuing to grow as a vocalist. What I always find exciting is I’m able to take the music and the lyrical message, through literal meaning and through my own interpretation, and make it my own so that emotionally and expressively it can become something sincere. It’s something I am really passionate about and it’s important for me to convey that. With this album especially – not that I haven’t on other albums – I think I landed on something that was really cool [in that way] and I think it shows.

Musically I think the album is incredibly reflective of Dream Theater’s roots. It’s a collection of who and what we are today and who and what we’ve been. I think that you can go back to songs such as “Learning to Live” and you can hear elements of that. You can hear parts of Awake, parts of A Change in Seasons, even from Scenes from a Memory. When you get into a song like “A Nightmare to Remember” it seems very linear and like a movie unfolding before your eyes. Because of that, it’s made the album very powerful and very personal. When we look out there and see the reception we’re getting from the fans, but also because the album is selling incredibly well for us in today’s environment, I think it goes to speak for itself and that we’re not the only ones who are feeling it. We’ve touched on something we can all be proud of.

RockOm: As Dream Theater really is a group effort with everyone contributing musically and lyrically, do you always agree with the lyrics that one of your other band mates has penned for you to sing? If not, how do you deal with that?

James: If something was written that I thought was very offensive and literally pointing out someone’s fallible qualities then I would definitely say something. I would say, “You know, I’m not comfortable singing this. If you want to somehow convey it some other way, then great.” But we’ve never crossed that bridge and I hope we never do. A creative environment is intense to begin with and you don’t need anything else to aggravate the situation.

I’ve always found that I sit down with the lyric, I read it and I have it say to me what it says to me. We all interpret things slightly differently because of our own experiences. So I take that first and I internalize that. Then I will go to whoever the lyricist was and get a literal meaning from them so that I’m absorbing exactly what it is that he is trying to say. From there, I will go away once again and I will sit with all that has been said and I make it eventually become who and what I am. So I’ve never really found it to be contrived, forced or insincere when I’m singing something. I’ve always found myself feeling, “This is how it moves me. This is the emotional strain that it has pulled from me. And this is how I’m going to express it.” I think that’s the only way to do it. If I was trying to be who and what the other lyricists are and how they’ve been affected by their experiences, I think it would be too mechanical, too forced and too insincere.

RockOm: From the earliest Dream Theater albums with songs such as "Voices" to more recent songs such as "In the Name of God" and now with "A Rite of Passage,” you guys have always peppered your lyrics with religious and spiritual imagery. This is done as both pro-spirituality and looking to one’s self for the answers as well as condemnation of religion’s negative aspects. Does the band have some sort of common ground when it comes to these philosophical and spiritual matters or is everyone more or less individual in that regard?

James: We’ve never actually talked about this. Let me first say, I respect anyone’s religion because it’s up to the individual what you pull from that. If that makes you feel more connected and more grounded then it’s always doing something good. It’s the reverse of that, when it starts to become something prejudiced and something judgmental that it no longer serves a valid purpose.

You know [guitarist] John Petrucci is probably the most conformed religious person in the band. He’s very much Roman Catholic and his Catholicism is extremely important to him and his family. And yet John will actually question the validity of religions and just how positive they can be is always open for debate because there’s so much corruption around organized religions. I think that’s healthy because when you stop questioning something – even if it doesn’t make sense to you – that’s when it becomes very scary. It then becomes more cult-like and you’re no longer thinking for yourself; you’re just doing what you’ve been told is correct. So I find it very fascinating to a degree that many of John’s stories and lyrics – like “In the Name of God” where he questions all these cult figures – are based around this figure that has all the answers and is the only way to eternity.

As for myself, I was raised Roman Catholic. My mother still goes to church religiously every week and my father passed away a few years ago but he did as well up until his passing. But I remember when I was 16 or 17 thinking, “This doesn’t connect with me any more.” There were too many questions, too many contradictions as far as I was concerned. So I started to get more into books like those by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer and stuff that I felt was a little more open-minded and was for the good of humankind. I’m interested in understanding, first and foremost, who is within. Don’t turn that voice off, listen to it, because that really is your enlightenment. I think when we go to existential means to find the answers, our direction and our purpose, that’s when things get cloudy. If we look further into ourselves we all as a world community would be able to communicate much better and there would be more harmony throughout the world. There’s no doubt in my mind.

People should have philosophical questions. There’s not one day that goes by that I don’t think, "This existence, this consciousness is so bizarre... and space and what’s beyond space."  You can get into some really crazy and frightening thoughts if you want. But I think the goal is to surrender yourself and know that what this all is is beyond comprehension. I don’t think it is something we’re supposed to figure out at this point. I do think that there is something absolutely mind-blowing and incredible that awaits us beyond this physical form because… what the hell is this, you know? [laughs]

Everybody goes, “Oh, well this is all random.” This is all random? Look at space and look at the fact that the sun is where it is and we are where we are. Is it just a fluke that we’re just so many millions of miles from the sun that it’s the perfect setting for creating this planet as it is with organisms? Maybe so, but then again there’s supposed to be another ten million planets throughout the universe that are capable of holding life as we know it here on this earth. So, I don’t know – that’s pretty immense.

RockOm: I understand you’re a big fan of literature. What are you reading right now and/or what was the most profound book you’ve read recently?

James: I’m reading The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s based on this man that is thought to have been simple-minded but then when he speaks with other people he’s brilliant. He’s so wise that he floors everyone and they’re captivated by his speech. Everyone is magnetized by his wisdom. It’s set in the 19th century and the only reason he was thought to be “the idiot” is that he suffered from epilepsy and through frequent episodes, his body and mind had been drained. It’s just an interesting book and it gets into that whole love territory and how he immerses himself into that is really interesting.

RockOm: I’d like to ask you about a few of the themes and songs on Black Clouds. In the song "Wither" you sing, "Like reflections on a page, the world's what you create." Is that something that you subscribe to or experience?

James: I think it’s something we all experience. Through our experiences, we do create who and what we are and what we become. Because of those experiences, that’s what inspires the making of the character that we are, giving us the personality that we take on. So yes, who and what you are is a reflection of the experiences you’ve gone through that then creates the person in front of you.

RockOm: "Shattered Fortress" seems to me to be a song about shedding away your previous understanding of the world, maturing and adopting a new and more noble understanding. What does this song mean to you?

James: Well it’s the final chapter to the [Twelve Step] Suite that Mike Portnoy has written dealing with alcoholism and addiction. Yes, it’s about being assured that you are in a place that is much better than where you just came from. That you are much more insightful as to what really matters in life. Through that experience you realize all your mistakes and realize that no one is infallible. But what you’ve done is you’ve bettered yourself to a point where your life experience is much more rich and satisfying and mature.

RockOm: ...and then that opens you up to want to help and serve other people, according to the last line in the song as you sing, "I am responsible when anyone, anywhere reaches out for help."

James: Yes, absolutely because you’re setting an example for others in saying, “Look, as tough and as miserable as life became for me, this is where I am today. Nothing is impossible. You can do it as well and look to me and call upon me for strength if need be.” Anyone can exist within this realm, which is a much better place to be than living out the heinous acts that people take part in when they’re susceptible to such addictions.

RockOm: Let’s conclude with a question about performing. How do you describe those nights when the band is spot-on and connecting with one another so that you remember that night, that town, and those songs above all other shows? In other words, when you’re on and in the zone, what transpires making those concerts different from the others?

James: I don’t know! We used to go out there and say, “Oh, this is going to be a great show” but we don’t do that anymore because when we did it would always end up to be a cluster. We’ll come off and say, “What the hell happened there? There were clams here and clams there.” So I think it’s just you get into a zone where it’s a cohesive endeavor and it’s effortless. You’re finding that you’re up there and you’re responding to the energy that you’re getting from the crowd and you reciprocate that and it just makes for a really memorable and explosive evening.

You just can’t explain the times where you go on stage and you feel great but meanwhile something happens where you come off stage and wonder, “What happened? The night before we had such and incredible show and tonight we had a sub-par show.” For the most part, it’s unexplainable. Each one of us prepare ourselves before we go out on stage. We do what we know has become our ritual in order to prepare us to be in our top form and nine times out of ten it works for us. We might have that tenth time that for whatever reason it just doesn’t want to cooperate.

But on that note, I think that the voice has been on my side [so far this tour] and I think I’m singing better in my career than I ever have. I will go so far even to say that the band is playing better than we ever have our entire career – right now. I think we all kind of feel that way.

www.dreamtheater.net

Thanks to Roadrunner Records

Photography by Tom Crenshaw; Atlanta, GA