Believe in me

There's a great interview with Thomas Melchior over at RA. In it, he discusses spirituality among other things. Anyway, it's a fascinating read, probably the best feature that the site has carried since the Rob Hood piece a few months back. Hood is a religious guy  - I know that some people laugh at house producers who 'find God' (Green Velvet seems to get a lot of flak for it), but maybe creating/producing music from a spiritual perspective means that the end result has a resonance, a depth that other producers lack -  or maybe the best music is just made with emotion and feelings and doesn't need to be tagged along to organised religion. I'm the polar opposite to Hood, an unreconciled aetheist, but I know that the music that works for me always provokes an emotion, be that happy, sad, surprised or sometimes just frustrated. However, Hood and Melchior are definitely among my favourite producers, so does their belief system give them an edge - or do they just strike a chord with that part of my personality that's in denial about religion?

Comments

[tom/pipecock]

i mentioned some things about the connection with religion and dance music in [url=http://infinitestatemachine.com/2008/07/20/when-the-world-is-running-down-you-make-the-best-of-whats-still-around/]this post[/url] i made a while back. i think that the goal of most religions and of dance music are largely the same, though for me dance music is much better at getting me to that place. but it doesnt surprise me at all when great musicians (especially soul, jazz, and house musicians) are down with religion, they understand the connection very well. it is a bit annoying to me as i am a pretty hardcore atheist who blames many of the worlds problems on the nonsense associated with religion, but the similarities are so obvious to me now that it bothers me less and less.

[tom/pipecock]

i mentioned some things about the connection with religion and dance music in this post http://infinitestatemachine.com/2008/07/20/when-the-world-is-running-down-you-make-the-best-of-whats-still-around/ i made a while back. i think that the goal of most religions and of dance music are largely the same, though for me dance music is much better at getting me to that place. but it doesnt surprise me at all when great musicians (especially soul, jazz, and house musicians) are down with religion, they understand the connection very well. it is a bit annoying

[Martin Dust]

How do you explain Aled Jones then Richard :)

[Dave A]

Tom - it's worth pointing out that faith and organised religion are two different things, it's a common problem that those who have the former are blamed for problems that are caused by the latter (either by dogma or interpretation)

I'm not sure about the religion angle as far as dance music goes, but Melchior himself has a great stab at explaining the effect of (and the differing mileage from) musical repetition in the interview.

As for "depth", surely it makes no difference what the source of it is in the artist - depth (as with everything in music) is in the ears of the listener...

[Jay Newhouse]

It seems that Velvet's music has gotten worse since he "found" God, that's why he gets slagged for it. It also seems their is a difference between spirituality and religion.

[lerosa]

interesting interview. I was shocked when i coped on this guy is also Yoni, who worked on this excellent EP: http://www.discogs.com/release/68412
P-yonic is a magic tune.

can't say I dig his new sounds though.

[Brophy]

@ Martin Dust - what, Aled Jones is making techno now? Gotta hear that!

@ Dave A: yes, it doesn't have to be religion of an organised nature (that's where all the problems start - but that's another day's posting) but certainly faith seems to play a role, even if it's just faith in yourself

@ Jay: when did Cajmere 'find' God? Interesting to see when it happened and if there is a direct link between a spiritual awakening and a deterioration in his productions

@ Lerosa: I went the other way - I only know melchior as melchior. I love his stuff to be honest...

[kenny]

He found god before his last album or around then wasn't it. I heard he wouldn't sing swearwords and stupid stuff like that anymore. A promoter posted on a forum a couple of years ago how he had to drive him up through england once and he never shut up bible bashing all the way, one of those overbearing born agains, at that time anyways.

He has - or did - have some blog posts on his myspace praisin' da lordha!

[Brophy]

sounds like he got too involved in it Kenny - now he relaly does live in la la land:)