1. Could you please tell where are you from? Where were you born?
Stephen: Toronto, Ontario Canada
2. What is your education? Where did you study?
Stephen: I graduated from York University in Toronto, with
a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in music composition.
3. Who has influenced you most in your music and why?
Stephen: Mychael
Danna & Tim Clement's music. After
my years of study of traditional music composition, jazz, electronic
and world music, I wanted to find a music that reflected more
the changes I was going through in my own lifestyle. A more holistic
music. New Age and ambient music gave me both the creative latitude
I sought, as well as being reflective of a holistic way of life.
When I first came across Danna & Clement's music I was immediately
struck by the mystical, yet heart-centered quality of it. Their
music also reflected the grand expanse of the Canadian wilderness,
something I had always known and grew up with. Even now I am rediscovering
my connection to this great wilderness, with the several trips
I have been taking to the far north. In fact it is the theme of
a new project I am currently working on.
4. Considering your music released on the
Oasis label, your interests
are very wide and varied. If your first three albums (Pangaea,
Ancient Mysteries and Bardo)
can be labeled as new age and world music, your recent Ambient Origins (released in 1998) is a pure
ambient sound. Also the last time I head your compositions in
various samplers (for example The Ambient Eclipse and The Ambient).
Does ambient music attract you more now? In general, which musical
style attracts you most? What are your musical preferences?
Stephen: Currently, ambient music is what is drawing my
interests most. Mounting a project like "Bardo" is a
massive undertaking, requiring hundreds of hours writing and re-writing,
then there is the expense!
My first love was actually sound before music. I have always had
a fascination with sound on a purely timbral level. Also, I have
been drawn to the inherent meaning or narrative in sound. Sometimes
sounds (whether electronic or concrete) can convey thoughts and
emotions that pitched and/or tempered instruments simply can't.
5. By the way, why is one of your albums devoted to the Bardo
(according
The Tibetan book of the Dead Bardo is state in which
spirit is between death and the next incarnation)? Why did you
create exactly this album? Are you interested in Buddhism?
Stephen: This album came about after a breakup of 10-year
relationship with a woman, whom I had been married to for three
years as well. I as began to regain my sense of self, I realized
that a part of me had actually gone through a kind of death. It
was the dying of the attachment I had to the illusions I had about
being in a long term relationship. As I explored these thoughts
further I began to realize that we are dying every day and that
it is loss-- whether of loved ones, career, major possessions
-- that reminds us of own mortality. Coming to terms with this
aspect of life (death) is one of the things that can give you
real contentment.
I have always been fascinated by Buddhism/Yoga and Eastern spiritual
ideas. They give a perspective that is refreshing to our Judeo-Christian
centered society.
6. Could you tell me, please, about your idea of world music orchestra
with which you have created Pangaea and Ancient Mysteries. What
is the world music orchestra?
Stephen: Different cultures use music for different reasons.
Within the classical Indian, Asian and Persian traditions, music
is a path to spiritual unfoldment. A tool for reaching higher
states of consciousness. During my own spiritual/musical journey
I have tried to be very aware of how music affects me and others.
In Indian spirituality they refer to music or sound as "nada"
and that music or sound can activate the various energy centers
(chakras) in the body. Being aware of this idea for many years,
I have certainly had the chance to observe this process on myself
and others. In very general terms you can say that primitive musics,
rock, jazz and pop tend to activate the lower chakras; classical
European music works on the heart and throat chakras (or middle
chakras) activating the emotion centers; and classical Indian,
Asian, Persian, some New Age and ambient tend to activate the
higher more spiritual centers (upper chakras).
My purpose with a 'world music orchestra' has been to bring together
elements from these different traditions in the hopes of awakening
feelings in all centers of a person's being.
7. You not only create music but you are also famous as a producer.
Stephen: Working as a producer has been very beneficial
to giving me objectivity about my own music. I have also found
that as a producer and an artist, I am able to be a kind of translator
between the artists and the marketplace. I know that my future
will be much more in the role as a producer. With this role, I
am beginning to see that I will be able to have a much farther
reach and influence change more, than simply as an individual
artist.
8. What has inspired you to create Pangaea?
What is the concept of this album?
Stephen: A love of nature and yearning to return to a kind
of natural Eden, before pollution, noise and overpopulation.
9. What is the concept of Ancient Mysteries?
Stephen: In some ways this album foreshadows "Bardo",
in that, while traveling to the Maya ruins and studying ancient/mythical
civilizations, I was really trying to tune into the vibrations
of these past cultures and their past lives. I think maybe even
some of my own past lives.
10. What does your music mean to you? What do you want to pass
on to your listeners through your music? What concepts are you
expressing in your creative work?
Stephen: The biggest single message, if I was to have one,
is that music and all art can be gateways to the hidden mysteries
of our metaphysical selves.
11. What are you working at now?
Stephen: Currently I am working on music inspired by the
power, mystery and mysticism behind the natural wilderness. In
addition I am expanding further into other artistic endeavors
-- photography, writing, video, and 3D-animation, etc.
12.What are your interests in life?
Stephen: Yoga, wilderness travel, cooking (I rarely have
time for it), reading, the other arts (photography, writing, video,
& 3D-animation, etc.) and movies.
13. What religious and philosophical views are you close to? What
is your spiritual search? Are you practicing any spiritual exercises
(techniques)? Do you belong to a particular religion?
Stephen: Yoga/Buddhism/other relevant teachings. My spiritual
search is like anyone else's to find happiness, peace, fulfillment
and contentment. I have been meditating daily for 26 years, practicing
yoga daily for 18 years and I've been vegetarian for 21 years.
14. What is important for you to express in your music?
Stephen: A sense of wonder, mysticism and compassion.
15. What is the new age music in your view? How do you define
it?
Stephen: In its purest form it is music for spiritual unfoldment.
Serge, thank you for interest and support of my music. It is not
often I get to talk about my music, creativity and spiritual ideas
on a deep level. I appreciate the opportunity.
