Interview:

I once read in an edition of Reader’s Digest about a guy who developed short-term memory loss, very much like Leonard Shelby in “Memento”. His wife, in an interview, recalled that on their first date, this guy told her something that she had always remembered, and it was this: “The best things can’t be spoken with words. That’s why there’s music”. These words have remained with me because I think it reveals an aspect of art that is very dear to me: namely, the ability to act as a doorway both to our emotions and to our spiritual life. There are many people who want to make a distinction between the lyrics and the music and determine a band’s spiritual depth based on the lyrics alone. That, I think, is a very poor way to go about gauging a band’s spirituality. If lyrics were the only thing that mattered spiritually, why wouldn’t we have only poets and authors in the Kingdom? Yet, the Bible instructs God’s children towards the use of music and instruments in worship. Why is that?

I have thought a lot about that question over the last few years, with a study into other ethnic groups, and the history of the people of 25 God, which has taken me down a very interesting path of realization. It seems that every ethnic group from the beginning of the world till the modern day has passed on ethics, heritage, and stories to their people in two ways: through story-telling and song. Many ethnic groups did not have an understood system of writing, even now, many tribes still don’t, so the things most important to life and culture were spoken and sung. It seems that those who wanted to best relate to their audience, used a doorway that everyone understands to transcend mere statements and facts. Weaving a myth together by mixing story with memory, putting a deep truth into a melody, and making a beat to enchant the listener. These were the tactics employed by most of mankind to relate the most important things to their offspring.

That’s what artists do. Notice I didn’t say songwriters or musicians. Artists create a doorway with their music that bridges our mundane physical existence with our mysterious spiritual life, and when they do it well, we all listen. Everyone knows the feeling of being moved in your innermost being by a song. Music has a way of reaching right through your ribcage and gripping your heart. It is by that means that our facades of disinterest and cynicism are broken down. Only then can we truly hear. If you want a spiritual awakening in your own life or in a culture, you can bet your last dollar music will have something to do with it.

“Artists create a doorway with their music that bridges our mundane physical existence with our mysterious spiritual life.”
– Seth Hecox, guitarist and keyboards in Becoming The Archetype