Name: Jenny Gillespie Mason
Nationality: American
Occupation: Singer, songwriter, writer
Current release: Jenny Gillespie Mason's new album In the Safety of the Light is out via Native Cat.
Recommendations on the topic of sound: They could read what my gurus, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, say about music, including the Mother’s organ music.

If you enjoyed this Jenny Gillespie Mason interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, and bandcamp.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I usually feel, if I am connected to the music, a sweetness and warmth in my heart center. Sometimes I might even get a little teary or make audible sounds of recognition and delight.

I like to listen to music with my eyes closed and open. I like listening to ambient instrumental music on walks and letting it be the soundtrack.

But I like to listen to live classical music performances with my eyes closed. I can go deeper inside the music that way.

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

I prefer listening with headphones. I love the intimacy - similar to reading a book. I like the one on one nature of headphones.

I have to be honest, I rarely listen through our Sonos system in my home unless I’m cooking, or my family is playing a board game and we put on a themed board game playlist.

As a mom of two active boys I just really love having quiet in my home. So music listening to me has been pretty private and in my head, the last ten years or so.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

There are so many but for sound, I love Sofie Birch’s latest, Bivabippabyalukka. It is cinematic yet gentle, childlike, intimate.



I love Blue Nile and Cranberries’ sound for how the sound creates a temple around the priest/priestess of the vocalist.

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I think a big part of why I wanted to move from San Francisco across the bridge to Berkeley was I wanted to hear the sounds of a train and of crickets and frogs at night, which you do not have in the city.

The sound of a passing train just fills me with a kind of haunted but comfortable longing for distances. It’s like the train sound is bringing the distance closer. The sounds of little singing at night makes me feel safe, accompanied in the darkness.

The sound I miss most of all living in California is thunder. I think it just makes me remember being a child in the Midwest, and it brings me back to a certain innocence and openness.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I hate the sound of You Tubers … influencers I guess you call it. So I make my kids wear headphones if they must watch it.

A sound I could listen to for hours is rain, thunder.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

I like listening sometimes to the din in a restaurant or cafe. Just the cheerful sound of taking, cutlery, cooking-taken as a whole.

It can be kind of psychedelic to step back and listen to all the voices coming together as one sound.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

Yes-I’ve been in a cenote in Mexico and listened to my family’s voices and the sound of the water and the dripping.

It was like being in the womb of Mother Earth. The quiet and the warmth and stillness was a very healing experience.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

I enjoyed playing my music at a recent concert at the Redwood Grove at the University of California Botanical Gardens.

I felt the redwood trees really listening and actually becoming part of the music.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

Yes, it feels like I am a painter working with sound-paint.

As I am also a visual artist, the overlap makes sense. I work very intuitively and quickly, similar to how I paint.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

I believe it is very important. There’s too much sound pollution.

Of course all sound comes from the One, from the Divine, and it all returns to silence. But there is so much potential for acoustic health (I love this term). There could be more spaces for aural cleansing and silence and deep listening.

I love the idea of listening rooms, and would love to see those pop up more.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

Well, my cat (now deceased) would sometimes start meowing and it would become something close to human speech.

It was usually when she was in pain, or she caught a bird and she was trying to offer the bird to me. And her speech would turn into something like elongated vowels and a certain irregular rhythm of accents, like human speech.

It was trippy and moving to experience.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?  

Yes, my cat as I mentioned above and my dog would / will make sounds that sound like they are on the verge of human speech. Because they live with us, I think they are trying to communicate in a way that sounds closer to us.

I can see as we evolve side by side, a communication rising more and more. I can communicate with my animals telepathically, but the sound element has been interesting too.

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I’ve never had an issue as I don’t blast sound into my ears nor is my music a loud kind of music.

I do wear earbuds to concerts.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

I think sound is holy and can impart the transcendent to us, but not as much as silence.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

I think it’s all divine. We have to treat each sense as a precious gift.