Have you had any "otherworld" experiences? If so, were they the inspiration for any of your music?

I have had a few, yes. A couple of them have crept into songs – “Heart Beat” on Haphazard and “Spirit Call” on Blessings, most notably. The former resulted from watching Dreamtrybe perform at Heartland Pagan Festival in 2003, really the whole experience of being in that community and feeling the energy in the air, and in other people, change with the music as it was played.

The latter, an instrumental, resulted from a teacher of mine taking me up on top of a hill “to play for the spirits” around a certain very large sycamore tree in the Missouri Ozarks. Said teacher stayed with me, held sacred space, and urged me to play for whomever might show up to listen. I did so, and I felt and heard many things that night which cannot be explained away. My most vivid memory came about during a moment when I wasn't sure what to play next--I didn't want to do something too sad or too slow, thinking my unseen listeners might rather have something to dance to. I heard someone say in my mind, very clearly, “don't worry about that. Just play. We want to hear you play--just play.”

Your music covers a wide range of religious beliefs. How do you define your personal spiritual path?

I believe in the sacred masculine and the sacred feminine in balance, combined into one source, which is comprised of all the gods, goddesses, and entities we've ever thought of. I've studied Christianity, many flavors of Wicca, modern Druidism as taught by ADF, Hermeticism, a bit of Shinto, a bit of Hinduism, a bit of Buddhism (applying zen principles to the way I practice guitar works wonders), and a bit of Asatru.

Lately my physics and my metaphysics have blended together, as I started learning about String Theory a year and a half ago--String Theory is pretty much the core of my beliefs taken in by science, which is pretty exciting. The core of my faith is that music exists in all things. We know that, down to our tiniest particles, there is vibration present in all matter. Vibration is what creates sound, what creates notes and music, from crickets to pipe organs. This applies to us as well, our bodies, and the stars and the earth. Even black holes, and there is documented evidence of this, have registered an actual pitch.

Music holds all of our world and our universe together, as far as I am concerned. It is as much a force of nature as time and the tide. Every time I tap into it and create more music, I am an agent of the source, affecting positive change. I don't have to think about this; it just is. In line with this, my personal spiritual path and my career path are much the same: heal with my music, heal those who hear it as much as they are open to being healed, as much or as little as they need. Let it be a positive experience for them to hear me, and let my efforts create positive change on a very deep level.

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