Exploring The Divine In A Dive Bar
“I just wanna melt away in all Its grace, drift away to that sacred place where there’s no more you and me, no more they and we, just unity” soulfully wails Trevor Hall on his single, “Unity.” This positive, hopeful and mystical perspective echoed in every Trevor Hall song evokes a deep sense of divinity. Hall is not afraid to speak his mind on such ethereal topics; in fact, he’s ready to sing his heart out.
Tevor Hall
If the Aum was the first vibration in which everything was created, perhaps Trevor Hall’s frequent chanting of and reconnecting to this original sound adds a divine aspect to his music. With a strong, raspy voice that mirrors a combination of Dave Matthews and Matisyahu, his sound is an unconventional mix of acoustic rock and reggae funk. A South Carolina native, Hall recorded his first record when he was sixteen years old. Shortly after, he gravitated to Southern California to attend the Idyllwild School for the Arts, an international boarding school east of Los Angeles, to study classical guitar. While breaking through in the music scene, Hall has certainly endured his set of challenges, yet at twenty-three, he has already logged such accomplishments as a series of sold-out tours with artists including Matisyahu, Colbie Caillat and Michael Franti and Spearhead; his self-titled album debuted on Billboard’s Heatseeker chart at #7 and in 2009, he was named one of the Top 20 New Artists by Music Connection magazine. This year, MTV named him one of twenty emerging artists for 2010.
While chronologically young, Trevor Hall’s insight hints the intensity and depth of an old soul. Some people say that those born with extraordinary talents have spent prior lives practicing and fine-tuning their gifts. If that is the case, then Hall’s dedication is well-demonstrated through his talent and spirit.
During a Spring, 2010, gig at the Dakota Lounge in Santa Monica, Hall’s only pause between songs was to inform us of about a donation box whose proceeds are delivered to an ashram in India he supports. In that moment, I recognized Trevor as a role model for those of us trying to balance the spiritual and the sacred with the demands of daily life.
When I entered the recording studio to interview Trevor, I found him practicing on his guitar. While I was hesitant to interrupt the flow, he graciously paused to discuss life on the road, balancing his spiritual practice, the presence of our generation’s spiritual thirst and why listening to Lil Wayne helps keep him sane.
Vanessa M. Harris: You’ve spoken of music as your puja – your devotional practice. How did one thing lead to another in the development of your devotional and spiritual life?
Trevor Hall: I first got introduced to Yoga when I was a freshman in high school. I was introduced to Hatha, asanas and Iyengar Yoga. In my first class, in savasana, I just felt this thing. I remember I got back in the car and was like, “Mom you’ve got to try this! It’s amazing – it’s better than marijuana, I swear!”
That’s what attracted me – this connectedness. I liked the practice so I wanted to know where it came from. I learned it came from India – then I wanted to know about India. So then I learned about India and meditation. In high school, I was introduced to a saint [Neem Karoli Baba]. So then I wanted to know what this saint was interested in and it was Sita Ram. So I thought, what is Sita Ram? By the grace of God, one thing led to another.
VMH: How do you think you would have adjusted if you bypassed parts of the practice, for instance, you were introduced to the saint before the physical asanas?
TH: I feel God provides everything for our spiritual practice. If we are sincere – if I had missed one part and still was sincere – whatever is right, he would have provided. There’s some things that if I had come to before all of the prior parts leading up to it, I would have thought, “That’s wack – I don’t know how to deal with that.” There were definitely set-up stages if I was introduced to one thing right away, it wouldn’t have made sense. The good Lord sets you up perfectly. We’re all being set up in some way or another.
VMH: You’ve claimed to stay sane on the road by listening to Lil Wayne. Tell me more about this. As a Yoga practitioner, it can be important to keep things light at times in juxtaposition to always having heavy spiritual contemplation on the mind.
TH: I like to listen to Lil Wayne because although I don’t agree with a lot of the things he says or does, I like him because he is him. He is like, “I’m going to do what I want to do and be free and if you don’t like it I don’t care.” I think that there’s that artistic freedom that’s kind of attractive. I don’t listen to it too much because I’ll end up screaming “young money” on stage, but it’s nice to dive in that realm too.
I think it’s important to explore all realms – the pure, impure, whatever. On the road people are judging you all the time on stage. It helps because I’ll embrace that same artistic freedom and just be like well here I am and I’m just going to go play and hopefully you like it.
VMH: I feel you tap into this freedom since much of your music addresses heavy issues communicated in a way that is joyful and uplifting.
TH: That’s just what comes out. Sometimes I’ll sit down to write a struggle song and as the song is being written it goes in that direction of “Everything’s going to be okay.” The songs are speaking to me from a higher power whose saying, “Everything is going to be fine, you’re going to get through this.”
I don’t really write the songs, I feel like it’s me listening and writing down what I’m hearing. I can’t really control what comes out. It’s always been that way – it’s always been a positive voice, a loving voice.
VMH: It’s interesting how you said you can’t control what’s coming out of you in that it’s not coming from you, but through you. We often hear about artists trying to own their creativity, but you don’t seem to give yourself the ownership for your music.
TH: I feel if I try to control and limit too much, then it’s too much me involved. I want it just create itself. I just want to be a flute and let the air pass through. That goes for your life as well.
VMH: You’ve moved to Laguna Beach to be closer to the Kali Temple, Kali Mandir. How has living close to this spiritual powerhouse influenced you as an artist?
TH: It’s an intense place. Ma is fierce. I got introduced to it [the temple] through high school. At first, I didn’t like it. I wondered how anybody could like this wicked image of severed heads and swords. I thought this was crazy: it was like some cult. But there was something that fascinated me with Mother – seeing God as a woman – that interested me.
If you feel the vibes you can’t keep away. Once you get a taste, you want to keep eating that food. So I kept going back, skeptically, but there was something about the vibe. These people were talking to Ma as if she was in the room – living and walking around like she was really their mother.
They do a big festival every summer called Kali Puja and they invite some priests from India to do authentic Kali worship from a very famous Temple in Calcutta. That was the second time I went and I was just blown away to see something so authentic.
From that point on I was hooked and just kept going back. One thing led to another: you get mantra, you get practice, you get sadhana, you get guru – it just flows. And slowly – slowly – my songs, the music, found somewhere to sing to and somewhere to sing from. Before I was writing these love songs, but they were disguised. They were for Ma really, but I was disguising them for a girl. But Ma is like the supreme girl. My involvement with the Temple affected my music and music became my practice. It became my way of devoting myself and listening.
VMH: How do you maintain your spiritual practice and your connection with the temple while on the road?
TH: One minute you are in a Temple eating good food with all these devotees around you and all you talk about is God and saints and love. Then the next night you’re in a bar with profanities drawn all over the wall and people talking about God knows what. But that is Mother too. It’s hard for me because sometimes I make a distinction like this is one world and this is another world. I get into trouble there because you want to see everything as one thing. I don’t want to see these people as good and these people as bad. Baba said love everyone, serve everyone. He didn’t say serve just these people. I find it as part of my practice: to try to live purely in a hard environment and see the divine in all situations. Every situation I’m placed in, I repeat God’s name and know that “you’re here for a reason and this is your practice.”
On the road, I call the Temple almost every day. I bring lots of books and read as much as I can because the books are my spiritual company. Spiritual life isn’t easy; you have to be disciplined. But I’m not always disciplined, sometimes I fall, but then I get back up.
VMH: Do you ever feel like you’re living a double life?
TH: All the time. I’m pretty young and I’ve been to India three times and meet a lot of saints or holy people or whatever you want to call them. I didn’t do the college thing. I would think, “What’s wrong with me? I’m into all of this crazy stuff!”
Sometimes I just wanted to be a regular kid and do what regular kids do. That was confusing for me at first so I was going to therapy to try to figure things out. Then I just realized this is me, this is who I am; this is what I do. Love yourself; you’ve got to love yourself. Sometimes I see a lot though and I live a double life, but then other times it’s like this is all good; this is all one thing.
VMH: At your shows, you have a donation box that supports an ashram in India. How did you become involved with this Ashram?
TH: The Ashram is in Allahabad – probably one of the holiest cities in the world. It’s my teacher’s teacher’s ashram, so it’s in my guru line. It is what they call a gurukula. Kula means ‘family’ or ‘school,’ where you learn about Yoga and meditation and all these types of things. I went there my first time with my teacher. It’s beautiful, it’s poor, but it’s amazing. The thing that got me right away was the children – these kids were like these little angels. I immediately took to them and they took to me. After I got back, I wanted to keep helping them so we put a box out at concerts. The feedback has been good – from it we’ve gotten them lots of things like computers and new bathrooms. They live a hard life but it’s probably my favorite place on earth.
VMH: And have people been receptive?
TH: The majority has been receptive but some aren’t so receptive. I remember we were at a Matisyahu concert and a woman came up to the table and she looks at the picture and said, “I don’t want to give money to Indian kids, I want to give money to Jewish kids.” So I was like, “All right give money to Jewish kids.” People come up and will say, “This isn’t Christian; how can you support this?”
You know, “This is water – it gets on you. Shake it off.” But ninety percent of people have been unbelievably supportive.
VMH: You are young and speaking about such ancient and sacred traditions. You’re connecting and opening up these concepts to a younger group who might not otherwise hear of such things.
TH: I feel youth are hungry – they are spiritually hungry. Not a lot of us know where to go to get that food. I was lucky, I went to a different school and had a teacher and got into it quite young. I see that kids are interested but they don’t know where to go; there are so many things out there. It’s nice that I’m able to maybe introduce them or inspire them. I’m not a preacher; I can’t teach them. When I was young, I heard Bob Marley singing about spirituality. George Harrison – look at what he did. He sang one song and it just spread like wildfire.
VMH: As a musician, yogi, activist – what does it mean to you to be successful?
TH: Everybody has different goals as to what they consider to be successful but you look at people who have a lot of stuff – cars and houses and food and they’ve sold a million records, but are completely miserable. I don’t think that’s successful.
We label that as success; I’m not saying it’s bad to have all those things, you work for it. But I don’t think it’s about what kind of work, it’s how you do the work. If you do the work with 100% devotion and concentration and service of other people, then that is success. It doesn’t matter if you are a street sweeper, a fruit seller, a multi-platinum artist or you’re the President of the United States of America. Success is when you get happiness by serving others and doing that work completely from a pure heart and pure hands. Success is finding that happiness inside.
In accordance with Trevor’s terms of success, it is no doubt that he is thriving. Only time will tell if his message will spread like wildfire, but in the meantime, his art is serving many. Those lucky enough to attend a live show will support the belief that they carry a raw and organic energy that is sure to sway the hearts not only of young girls, but even the toughest critics.
Chasing the Flame: on the road with Trevor Hall, released June 29, 2010, is a selection of live performances recorded on the road. For more information on Trevor Hall, his albums and his tour, visit: trevorhallmusic.com.
To learn about the Kali Temple in Laguna Beach, visit: kalimandir.org.
