Interview:

For me, there is no separating music from the concept of spirituality. After all, we’re talking about the muse and the spirit. Possibly one and the same, no? So what is spirituality? That’s the real question for me. And I’ll start by setting the record straight in saying that my religion, along with my political and sexual beliefs, are no one’s business. If I must, as an artist, represent them in my art, I will do so esoterically and obscurely so that the true meaning is only relevant to me. Music is not a soapbox for politics or religion, personally speaking. In fact, being a published artist in no way allows for the consumption of my spirit, that is, the thing that keeps me going; the fire within.

And so that, I suppose, answers my question about the nature of spirituality. It is a breath that lifts one up in the utter bleakness of humanity. However you decide to quantify it, name it or pay amends to it, it is a direct bloodline between oneself and the world as which we perceive it. And everyone perceives uniquely. Therefore, it is impossible for me to define the spiritual significance of music on anything other than a completely subjective stance. For me, music being the thing that I have chosen as a vocation, the thing that I spend more time trying to decode on a mystical level, and as my preferred method of escapism, the significance is omnipresent. Music, as a creative process, is what connects me with my reason to exist, my will to continue, and my hope for a peaceful end or transition. It is a bridge between the Earth and the Incorporeal. So I could say that the significance is so great that without music I would not exist.

To be inspired is to catch a glimpse of something that comes from an unknown place and is barely obtainable if at all. My earthly interpretations of the spirit are filtered and incomplete at best. I have no idea why music, books and films fill me with an energy that gives me hope. I can’t define or explain that energy. But I know that to be expired is to be dismal, dour and wandering from distraction to distraction. I don’t want to talk about God. I don’t want to talk about “chosen” people. To reduce God to a name and a plan is to ignore the hottest part of the flame that keeps one’s blood at 98.6 degrees. What I want to do is to imagine what instruments sound best together; what transitions in the song are needed; what surprises I can obtain, as an Earthling, from specific harmonies. Melody inspires me to sing, rhythm inspires me to dance, and harmony inspires me to keep searching. So music is the spirit and at the same time the spirit draws me toward music.

“Music, as a creative process, is what connects me with my reason to exist.”
– Trevor Dunn, bassist in Fantômas