Interview:

I love to play and hear music. Music is play. It is no coincidence that some languages use “play” when referring to the process of creating music. Playing and listening to music is its own reward. This reality points to one spiritual significance of music. We are at a point in human evolution where a form of slavery has developed, with materialism as its master. We have been educated to believe that we must use much of our time and energy to “work”, by doing activities that we would rather not do, and that creativity and happiness are earned or deserved by some and not by others. This has given rise to the belief that it is best to get as much “work” accomplished in as little time as possible so that later there will be time to “play”, by doing activities that we choose. Music is one spiritual antidote to the beliefs that means and ends are not connected, that faster is better, that we should spend our time and energy “working” for extrinsic rewards from authority figures, and that only some people deserve to enjoy realms of play like music, dance, painting, meditation, and poetry. These are what we are made for, with our eyes, ears, minds, and bodies. Music is one avenue for connecting to self and letting go of self; opening directly to the interplay of life and death that occurs each moment.

“Music is play… Playing and listening to music is its own reward. This reality points to one spiritual significance of music.”
– John Malkin, author of “Sounds Of Freedom”