At the end of my stay in Hawai'i I interviewed Ray Brown, a musician that grew up and lives in Hawai'i. I met Ray on Soulday, a spiritual event on O'ahu. Ray has an inspiring view on how music and life are more than just connected: life is music, and we are all musicians. We just have to remember. He also describes music as a medicine that brings people together. Continue reading for part of the interview or watch this video for the full interview.
We are meant to make music together. That is the beautiful thing of the arts: it brings us together. We need more of that in the world, rather than things that divide us.
What does 'aloha' mean according to you?
Alo, as I understand it, is 'in the presence of' and ha is breath. So, aloha literally means in the presence of breath. This is also the essence of all meditation teachings. When we center and rest in that presence of breath we are able to tap into the mana (power) of the land and akua (God). So aloha can mean hello and goodbye with love, but it is also a way of living. The law of aloha was actually the first law of Hawai'i and states that we have to live in a way that is in accordance with aloha, being pono (righteous) with all the creatures, the land and everyone else. It is a feeling that is in the air. It is difficult to put into words. But I feel that Hawai'i has a lot to teach the world when it comes to living the way of aloha.
What role does aloha play in your music?
In my music I always find inspiration in that presence, staying centered. Even in life when we are led astray from that center, we just have to bring it back and start again, patiently and persistently. The same is with music. Music for me is a vehicle to the way of aloha. Vibrations can be a vehicle for an intention so when I perform, I try to get into the state of aloha to put that intention onto the vehicle of these sound vibrations to give it out to the world.
You do not only make music you also teach. Can you tell something about your way of teaching? What methods do you use, what do you pay attention to?
I draw a lot from Victor Wooten, maybe one of the best bass players. His approach to music is treating music as a language. Seeing yourself as a baby learning a language can be much more effective than seeing yourself as an adult learning this new process. It is about that state of exploring and adventuring. I always say 'just noodle and listen,' through trial and error you will get a sense of the instrument and the sound. So with teaching it is about tapping into why someone might have a blockage to expressing themselves through music. I believe that we are all inherently musicians. All the lifetimes we spent around the fire drumming and singing around the fire; music is hardwired within us, it is in our spirit and our DNA. Teaching, then, is about getting a person to remember that and to teach them to be able to express themselves without judgment, that is part of the process. A baby does not think 'oh maybe I am bad at talking so I am not going to talk', a baby just tries and that is how the baby gets better. We should approach making music the same way.
The spirit of music works through us and uses us as an instrument. If we can clear the blockages to listening, the more music can flow through us freely. Essentially, I feel like everything boils down to just listening. From that space we can move into the direction that is most harmonious. And even just having someone listening to your music can already give inspiration for new ideas.
If you have thought about it and can summarize it: what is your philosophy of life?
Simplicity. Lately, I have been especially feeling the sense of arrival, not needing to reach. The grass is not greener on the other side, the greenest is the here and now. There is nowhere else where we can really be. The here and now goes infinitely in depth in subtleties. The more we can rest into that the more we can expand the layers that were hidden to us before.
Everyone's life is a special treasure, a gem. And it is okay to forget that at times because it is exactly that journey through the forgetting that makes the awakening and the remembrance even more special. I find that feeling very reassuring. So we have arrived, now what? To fully play our part, step up to the stage, we have to raise whatever comes up and work through it anyways.
I love how you use terms related to music when talking about life. Playing our part, stepping to the stage...
Yes, that is also something you see in Victor Wooten. Everything is related to music and life, like tension and release. With yoga too, like music, it is about the balance of building tension and release. The space in between the notes is just as, if not more important than the notes themselves. In life taking space and taking rest is also very important.
Another way that I find music and people to relate is that we are all vibrations, everything is vibration and the universe is in a constant state of jamming. It is constantly getting more and more in tune. You can hear the birds singing, but if you listen closely you can also hear the birds listening to each other. Inherently, we are music, we are musicians, we are jamming. Nature is in a state of jamming all the time. So when we relate to each other, two people together might clash but adding a third note or person might give a context and that works. I find that notes and people have that similarity.
For the full interview you can watch the YouTube video! Ray further speaks about the influence of places and locations on music, the process of playing music together, the power of improvisation, and about his life as a musician growing up on Hawai'i.
Cultural music genres have their own spirit or entity in a way. I feel like Hawaiian music is what the land sounds like.
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