Interview:

I’ve just been thinking over your question, and it’s a bit of a mind blower. Sometimes I think music is the only purely spiritual thing there is in life. Of course it can get suspect sometimes, like in the case of bands trying to “make it”, but even then, it may come from a spiritual place and questionable motives can sometimes lead you in a positive direction. The subconscious mind can put ideas in the brain to set up a desired outcome. But sometimes it really feels like all one is doing is transmitting these ideas. Some force is playing through you. It seems like one of the only places left for spiritual beings and forces to communicate is through creative outlets. Like, these forces might be the guiding hand. And they could easily be forces within you, or completely outside. Or both. For the most part, nobody knows why they write the music they write. Sometimes, I’ll listen to things I’ve written and feel so totally alien to it and almost frightened that it came from me. But I just try to follow my intuition. But, I have no idea, as nobody really does. This question leads my brain down so many different paths that I kind of get lost. I like what Sun Ra said, something like, “when you play music, you’re playing only for the gods, and they know when you’re faking it.”

“Sometimes I think music is the only purely spiritual thing there is in life.”
– Mick Barr, guitarist in Orthrelm