* * * * * * * The m u s i c is not part of this planet in a sense that the spirit of it is about happiness. Most musicians play earth things, about what they know, but I found out that they are mostly u n h a p p y and f r u s t r a t e d and that creeps over into their m u s i c. But p e o p l e they have dreams of going other places and seeing other things. Musicians should not get to tied up in academic things and their egos and the money thing, or they'll n e v e r b e a b le t o r e a l l y c r e a t e.
There are musicians who say I'm too far from people, but e v e r y w h e r e I go people be smilin', clappin' their hands and they're happy. So it's N O T T O O F A R O U T, because people are listening and they might not know the music but they connect with what I'm doing and that speaks for itself. In every nation same reaction. In A m e r i c a t o o, at l e a s t it took them a long time to wake up. The teenagers and the sub-teenagers they are waking up. I played in a teenage club called the Knitting Factory and people there were amazed with what happened.
I'm dealing with p u r e s o u n d s. I call musicians t o n e scientists. Every musician has to realize what t o n e and what k e y is good for him mentally. He must not only play for the people, he must play for his own well being too. A lot of musicians do too many things that are not spiritual. The whole thing comes down to survival, they only think about making money, but they might be harming themselves mentally, physically and spiritually beyond repair. Musicians must protect themselves.
It's really not my band, it's a creators band. H e s e n d s m e p e o p l e. A fellow I knew, he didn't believe in god, he is writing me about two years ago telling me, "so now I believe in god. He sends you the worst people he can find for your band. Why does he treat you so mean?" And see, I take these people and I change them completely and they be playing amazing things. It's not about how much they know but how they fit.
Now, if you play in this band you have to listen, listen, listen ! Rehearsing wouldn't do anybody no good. You've got to l i s t e n f i r s t and then you l i s t e n to other musicians and you might find out that what they play is imitated rather than created, and that's when you're awakin' to the fact that you have to create. The world needs creators right now.
What I wanna do is mindblowing the musicians. I'm dealing with rhythms, each song I write got to have a different rhythm. I might change the rhythm on the piano and that calls for a musician to use his intu i t i o n, he has to feel it and fall in and then he will hear some music he never dreamed was possible. I teach my musicians not to know things and that's a totally different thing. They don't teach that in schools.
People have a lot more of the U N K N O W N than the known in their minds. The U N K N O W N is great, i t ' s l i k e t h e d a r k n e s s Nobody made that it just happens. Light and all that someone made that, it's written that they did. B u t n o b o d y m a d e t h e d a r k n e s s
My music is about d a r k tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more than black tradition. There is a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division, I'm into coordination, discipline and precision.
I'm never satisfied with myself. I wake up every morning and I don't like what I did before, because it's not going to fit another tomorrow. But I put all that behind me and I don't think about nothing but reaching people with impressions of happiness. If they get an impression of happiness that's pure, that has no purpose really, it just happens like birds fly, then people can use that impression as foundation to know the difference between the makebelieve happiness and the real happiness.
It could really change the planet if people could only visit some other planets. I'm trying to get them to F E E L other planets. And people are ready for something different, they've had enough trouble on this planet to know they've got to find an outlet. I have been o u t a s p a c e I've had experiences g o i n g o u t t h e r e I know it's possible. There are people who think that's crazy, but it's real. Dreams are real. They tell you something.
Maybe 20 years ago the New York Times said that I bipassed the spaceage. But I'm dealing with the omni-age now. I'm talking about the omniverse and no longer about the universe. I used to talk about the universe, but you have to have desires of what you really want and it took me a long time to find out what I really wanted and finally I decided I want several solar systems and quite a few galaxies. I like that ! That would give me something to do, you see.