FM
When was this?
It was the late 90s, early 2000s. What I call the Western yoga boom
was beginning in Los Angeles. Yoga was popular but not mainstream
and yoga teachers weren’t yet rock stars.
There was lots of opportunity for me and my collaborators to play
our blend of world music, electronic music and sound healing tools.
We learned how to improvise and compose a live flow that brought
into play some of the things I’d heard lying on that massage bed but
also responding directly to what was happening in the yoga class.
It was a conversation between the music and the yoga, feeling the
pulse of where the teacher wanted to go.
Nobody was really doing this at the time and we gained a lot of
exposure while becoming aligned with really well-known teachers.
From this, we began an odyssey of writing music for instructional
videos featuring popular teachers. We scored six to eight of these a
year and kept the music rights. Desert Dwellers was born out of this
huge catalogue of chilled out, downtempo yoga music that was very
devotional without being overtly religious.
And YogiTunes?
Craig, Amani and I started YogiTunes together. There was a demand
for music in the yoga market, including from teachers who needed
fresh playlists, and we had a surplus. At the same time, more artists
were taking a self-care way of getting in touch with the muse,
swapping alcohol and drugs for breath and yoga. We were at the
centre of a network of artists and teachers, record labels, yoga
brands and festivals.
After a couple of years when YogiTunes essentially failed, Craig
and Amani decided to go back to being full-time artists. I stayed on
as CEO and reinvented the company. We’re now in the process of
building and launching new apps that can compete with Spotify. The
focus is still yoga studios and teachers but it’s broadening to include
therapists and other wellness practitioners.
We want to help educate people, not because we’re elitist. If you’re
a teacher unskilled in using music, it can be highly distracting and
your students might as well practice in silence.Do you still make music?
I play shows locally, but I don’t tour much. My focus is on music for
emotional integration. I use music, sound and breath to help people
experience deeper parts of themselves and address some of the
things that are out of alignment through dancing and singing.Is yoga connected to creativity for you?
They’re very closely intertwined. My favourite songs and the ones
that have been the best received have literally come to me halfway
through sun salutation. I get the download, hear it, know what it is
and run to the studio to express it. I’m in the studio for four hours
and the whole thing comes out. And then it’s back to my yoga mat
to finish my practice.
There’s something about aligning inside and opening up to the
power of this practice that brings about an extremely creative energy.
One of my teachers recently defined the role of the artist by
saying, “The job of the artist is to express through the prism of their
own insight the culture of the times they live in”. There’s something
about yoga and breathing and moving in the body that allows you
to focus your own prism of light. If in that focused moment you get
an insight into the culture and feel compelled to express something
others can relate to, that’s really being an artist, And that’s the thing
that I was called and perhaps born to do.
I think the other beauty about yoga is that it teaches us to be
humble ourselves and reduce our ego footprint. I can never go too
far down the road of claiming that I’m the source of this because I
know in myself that what I’m opening up to is life.What about your own yoga practice?
It’s hatha primarily, although I keep yin pretty close to me depending
on what my body needs. Mine is essentially a sun salutation-based
practice but with a difference.
During my two-year apprenticeship with David Goulet he trained
me in a unique style called Dundaal that comes from an ayurvedic
warrior culture of yogis back in the day. You do pressurised breath,
punches, kicks and spear throws as well as using your own muscle
resistance to build strength. It’s quite a yang, fiery kind of practice.
I also like to pick a part of my body that I really want to work on,
whether it’s hips or shoulders, and finding stretches that get me
deeper into those places.
I’ll usually begin and end my practice with singing, whether it’s with
my guitar or harmonium. I’ll often sing or make a tone with my voice
if I feel there’s a sound that wants to come out. For me, music is just
the most gentle and joyous place to be.Sign up at yogi-tunes.com and receive a free 90-minute
vinyasa playlist.Find out more about David Holzer at yogawriters.org