Interview:

I find it difficult to write or speak about spirituality because I think of it as transcendent of our conventional experience and resistant to the confines of language, or at least to my language skills. However, if there is a human activity that can be reliably linked to spirituality I’d say music is a good candidate. The more I work with music, the more I feel it has an extremely central place in human experience. I find that music touches all aspects of my life. It is my teacher, my friend, my guide, my healer, my taskmaster and my companion. Music somehow interweaves the intellectual and emotional, the philosophical and the visceral, the realistic and the idealistic. I don’t know by what mechanism music manages to be so powerful and vital, but I’m not sure it’s necessary for me to understand that. I feel my role is to listen, to appreciate its messages, to learn and to follow the voice that has the most resonance and meaning for me. I don’t know if music is a link to the Divine or an aspect of divinity itself, but I’m grateful to be able to participate in its radiance.

“The more I work with music, the more I feel it has an extremely central place in human experience. I find that music touches all aspects of my life.”
– Michael Manring, bassist and composer