If you’re fatigued by the daily cacophony of White House scandals, an evening of sacred chanting with Deva Premal, Miten and Manose promises to be just what the guru ordered. The world-renowned mantra-based group will be offering divine music at the Rio Theatre on Wednesday, May 31 as part of their “Temple at Midnight” tour. With 20 albums and 20 years of touring behind them, Deva and Miten have brought their music into ashrams, concert halls and even behind prison walls. Their latest albums are “Temple at Midnight” and “Cosmic Connections Live,” recorded at concerts in Budapest, Amsterdam, London and elsewhere.
Sentinel >> “For people who haven’t been to your live performance, can you describe a little of what they might expect?”
Deva Premal >> “Every night is so different. We don’t call our evening a show because it’s a gathering. It feels a little bit like a reunion where we all know what we came for and we’re ready for everyone to contribute. That contribution is in singing and chanting together and also in the silence that’s created. It’s a journey. It’s a celebration.”
Miten >> “There’s also some great music! We come together and we push the boat out when Deva begins singing and we follow the journey for the evening. It takes us to many wondrous places. We approach these mantras with great respect. The musicians who we play with are good; they can groove. Manose (Nepalese Bansuri flute player) Joby Baker (Canadian bassist) and Rishi (Danish percussionist); they’re all master musicians. We’ve been all over the planet doing this for many years and we started with just a few hundred people in a yoga studio. We all need solace and moments of contemplation and the experience of joining together in community is essential in this world now.”
Premal >> “This planet is definitely shaking, trembling and wiggling itself into a different shape at the moment. It’s boiling and simmering and erupting in some places. It’s an amazing moment to really find the peace within. It’s basically the only place you can find it and it’s anyway the only place to start. The mantras are so beautiful because they give us a way to that inner peace which is very joyful and also very quick, actually. It feels almost like a shortcut.”
Sentinel >> “Mantra singing is repetitive, like ancient tribal music, minimalist and modern trance music. What have you noticed about repetition?”
Premal >> “It’s tribal and its also hypnotic. It brings us all to a rhythm. With the mantras, I feel like it’s water washing over pebbles. One wave comes after the other to make the pebble round and soft. That’s the repetition. The mind wanders but we can tune back into the moment through the mantra. Every repetition is the only one.”
Sentinel >> “I heard that you played music for Elisabeth Kübler-Ross when she was dying. She’s author of ‘On Death and Dying’ and is considered an authority on the subject.”
Miten >> “She was a special spirit. When we were taken into her room she was in bed with the television going full on and lots of chocolate. She loved chocolate! (laughter) We sat around her bed and she wasn’t that interested in us. She was watching television and I thought, ‘Well, we came this far,’ so I got my guitar and we started to play and after a while she started to listen. Then we started to chant together. She particularly liked this one chant that we’d recorded on ‘The Essence’ CD called ‘Shima Shima.’ She loved it and associated it with the native people there (Arizona). It was like meeting the Dalai Lama in a way. Some people have a certain spirit that you can recognize and move into. There’s no barriers and no need for any politeness. You’re just in there in a very good place. And when you play music from there, magic can happen.”
Sentinel >> “Tell me about playing at San Quentin Prison.”
Miten >> “We took the mantras into San Quentin a year or so ago. We go to places that sometimes other musicians choose not to go. Like when there was trouble in Kiev. When there was a bombing in Brussels we had a concert there, and in Paris. It’s our spiritual practice. It’s life and death. There’s nothing more important to us then sharing these healing sounds with people. The prison is like going to a monastery. There is no distraction and you are just faced with yourself. There was singing and there were tears. There was a depth of silence that we always experience in our concerts wherever we play. It is particularly strong in places like prisons. There was an amazing moment where somebody asked if we ever played Reggae. (laughter) So, we got into this whole energetic reggae thing from one of our albums and everybody was dancing and there was a pristine moment of joy.”
Sentinel >> “Deva, I think your mother sang the Gayatri mantra to you when she was pregnant with you.”
Miten >> “Both of Deva’s parents chanted the mantra to her. The Gayatri mantra is the oldest prayer known to humanity. Deva grew up chanting these healing sounds, as a little kid, you know? We met when Deva was 20 in India, in the ashram. We were traveling and playing music together, but it wasn’t until Deva re-discovered the Gayatri mantra that things started to change for us. It resonated so strongly and for us it’s just carried us around the planet for the last 20 years. We feel like we’re flying around the planet on the wings of these mantras. Deva’s father was chanting the Gayatri mantra to Deva at her birth. And at the end of his life, when he was taking his last breath, what was happening? Deva was singing the Gayatri. She was giving it back. Again, when her mother died, we had some beautiful moments with these mantras. And not just in the dying process, but in all those intense moments in our lives. Many people tell us how they use our music to give birth. And in the middle of all that, many people tell us, ‘We use your music when we’re making love in our tantric rituals.’ So, we’ve got the whole thing covered.”
DEVA PREMAL & MITEN
With: Manose
When: Wednesday, May 31, 7:30 p.m.
Where: The Rio Theatre, 1205 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz
Tickets: $36.75 general; $68.25 Gold Circle seating
Details: www.riotheatre.com
