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Part 2

Take us through a day in your life, from a possible morning routine through to your work, please.

When I wake up, the first thing on the agenda is to give thanks / express gratitude for waking up and being part of this creation for another day.

I have two little kids, so mornings begin very early and are quite chaotic. Given everything we’ve discussed here about individuality, my kids are the greatest teachers in that regard because they haven’t learned to be anything but themselves yet.

Regular practice of the drums, as well as regular silent meditation, are two things that are essential to my well being. Once the kids are settled, I try to do one if not both of those things before I get into the grind of the day.

The rest of the morning and early afternoon is spent on “work” tasks that I need to clear out before I can 100% focus on creativity - whether that be a general “to-do” list, things related to my work as a software developer, or “business” related music tasks.

Kids come back around 4:30, and when they go to sleep around 7:30 is when I can really sink into creativity whether it be practicing or composing. The energy of the morning and night tends to be the best time for me to have clear focus around this as opposed to the middle of the day.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

So much of what I am trying to do with music is to get in touch with my true self - with that in mind, many of my compositions stem from things that I play when I first sit down at the drums without any particular concept in mind.

For this reason, Ronald Shannon Jackson, the drummer and composer who I consider a cosmic mentor of sorts, would advise musicians to follow the things that come out when they first pick up their instrument. I think in that moment, when we first pick up the instrument, we are more connected to a child-like state in the sense that a child hasn’t yet internalized so many rules about what they are and aren’t supposed to do, they just are.



This is the inspiration part of the process. The seed of a composition comes from pure inspiration, but from there it moves into a more analytical / intellectual phase where it can be brought to completion.

One thing I am trying to do is write down less and less on paper … boil down the compositional concept to its absolute essence, and allow the musicians to fill in the rest. In my experience, that is when the music tends to be really lift off.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

I create music first and foremost for myself, because if it doesn’t resonate with me then I can’t expect it to resonate with anyone else. I can feel satisfied when I have a meaningful practice / improvisation session by myself, or when I am in the midst of working on a composition.

That said, there is nothing like hearing other musicians understand my compositions and elevate them by bringing their own perspective. It’s a profound form of human connection that really energizes me.

As for live performance, I want it to be a communion between listeners and musicians, as opposed to a performance with an audience. The listeners in the audience bring their own unique perspective and energy, which affects the alchemy of the experience for both musicians and listeners.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

I’m fascinated by West African music, because in my understanding it is traditionally imbued into every facet of life, and is functional as opposed to being “entertainment”. With this in mind, I intend to experience any live performance as a communion between audience and performers, not a division between one and the other.

The culture we live in in America usually feels like the polar opposite of that, where music is generally relegated to “entertainment” and most of society ties value to successful commodification. Creativity and making money are essentially like oil and water, so this can feel like an impossible situation, yet it does create circumstances that force one to dig deeper and deeper into their creativity.

New York City, for many logical reasons, seems like an impossible place to do what we do, and yet it also seems to be the only place we can do what we do, at least consistently at the level that we want to do it. Many would argue that centering one’s life around creative music makes it near impossible to survive, but the fact is that I wouldn’t be able to survive if I DIDN’T do it, so being in this place forces me to really dig deep for the love and fulfilment that comes from sincerely committing to the creative process and development of one’s creative self.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Music is a direct experience of the vibrational level of reality, which reveals the truth that life and existence is profoundly beautiful. We all experience tremendous pain and suffering to various degrees throughout our time here, but music that resonates with us is proof that this creation is built on an all encompassing love and beauty that we can access at any time.

It is part of life that we can all fall into negative states of sadness, anxiety, depression etc … because of its true nature, music is some of the best medicine we have to heal ourselves from these states and keep us positive and energized.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?  

Music is very much a science, dealing with pure vibrational elements and how they affect human beings (some would even say plants, animals and other parts of creation). At the same time, it is mysterious, personal, and evades the structures of logic usually associated with science.

In my opinion, a composer is like a scientist discovering their own personal system of musical rules and laws that best demonstrates their inner being - not unlike the way a chemist or physicist would develop ways of displaying certain laws of nature.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

Great question. These things are the same as music in that we can do them from a place of love, comfortable in our authentic selves in the present moment.

Even if we use the same beans and coffee maker, my cup of coffee is not your cup of coffee. My omelette is not your omelette. The way we clean and organize our homes, the way we walk to the grocery store … when our hearts are open and aligned with our true nature, we can find joy in everything. On the flip side, playing music can become mundane and boring if we don’t approach it with an open heart!

We can all find practices that work for us, to help keep us aligned in this way, and for me music is a huge part of that.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

I think that on some level, existence is purely vibrational. All art forms are powerful and profound, but music is special in that we can’t see it, we directly experience it as vibration.

Depending on all the complexities of a particular context, different combinations of notes resonate in ways that make sense or don’t make sense to us, please us or don’t please us. This differs from person to person, even within the same person at different points in their life, depending on a multitude of factors.

By learning what musical vibrations resonate with our own personal vibrations, we learn alot about ourselves, how to make sense of ourselves. When you add lyrics, the alchemy of the music supporting the words and vice versa is another vibrational interaction added to the equation.


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