Interview:

It first depends on your definition of the word “spiritual”. The classical explanation given by most dictionaries is that it relates to the spirit or soul. It seems that some religions also use the word freely in relation to that euphoric feeling when a person becomes one with God or unified with the universe. This experience could perhaps just be a flood of dopamine, the rewarding neurotransmitter, or a certain characteristic that was once necessary for survival in a scenario where humanoids began to possess both self-realization and the realization of certain death combining to leave them in a petrified and paralyzed state of being. Matthew Alper, author of “The God Part of the Brain”, surmises that only those that had a mutant gene, causing a strange belief in some sort of transcendental life beyond death were able to quell their fear of death, rendering them capable of gathering food and able to enjoy life.

Can this same historical magic feeling come from music? It is thought that loud music can vibrate the sacculus, part of the inner ear, triggering a sequence of events leading to a release of dopamine, which would give you a “loud music high” which is comparable to this religious spirituality feeling. Aside from sheer volume highs I think most people, certainly most people reading this, might have experienced a low volume “spiritual” moment from a previously recorded piece of music played through a stereo. This is where the significance part comes in. Humans may knowingly or unknowingly relate these sounds, live or recorded, to ideas, patterns of thoughts, and emotions. Sometimes music may somehow even explain what can otherwise not be expressed by other traditional means of communication. This personal connection to sound can be experienced as something “spiritual”, connecting an individual to a group of like-minded humans who just might understand you, also facilitating that need-to-belong instinct.

All of this can have a powerful impact on people; it has certainly steered my life a certain direction. What is significant about this is that large groups of people can experience this and I think that sometimes a large enough group can be “moved” enough to change something socially or politically. Perhaps people’s personal politics go through change. Perhaps the very patterns of electrical current producing synapses between neurons collectively and permanently. It seems that in recent history art has sort of been tapped into the future and has shaped the cultures it is exposed to, especially science. I believe this framework still exists and music has the power to implore musicians, listeners of music, and even commercial entities to bend to its whim. To me music is a powerful entity that possesses humans temporarily to produce the necessary elements for the spiritual evolution of the collective unconsciousness!

“Music is a powerful entity that possesses humans temporarily to produce the necessary elements for the spiritual evolution of the collective unconsciousness.”
– Bobby Bray, guitarist and vocalist in The Locust