| Deva Premal and Miten - an interview, May 2002 |
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by Prem Ishu in Atlanta, GA, USA |
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Questions to Deva: |
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| PI: |
What led you to this type of music?
You seem to have a natural affinity for the mantra. |
| D: |
It all began 10 years ago with our Voice Workshops. Our focus was on singing as a healing process. Opening the voice. Miten and I had both been touched by the ashram Sufi Dances, and we wanted to share that space with others. |
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So, we started with chants and songs we'd loved, and took it from there. It wasn't until much later that I realised we had a accumulated enough material for me to make a CD. A CD of chants that I loved to sing. Yes, it was a natural process. |
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 I grew up singing mantras... The Gayatri Mantra as my good-night song… and chanting mantras while walking with my father... it was a familiar thing from early on. But it wasn't until recording The Essence that I really found my voice. Until then, I was Miten's back up singer!
Beautiful, but still, it was important for me to find my own voice and my own "song"... my own expression. The Gayatri Mantra opened this door for me. |
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| PI: |
I know that Osho is your master, he is mine as well. How did you come to be with him, and did he have something to do with your interest in music? |
| D: |
I loved ALL the music I heard around Osho. This influenced me greatly. I was only 12 at the time, but I remember so much enjoying the music that accompanied the meditations: Kundalini, Dynamic, Nataraj... I was a Hari Chaitanya fan! And the 'Music Group' songs, they were so uplifting and I loved to sing my heart out... that's when I met Miten. He used to lead the music groups, and I was 20 at the time. There was always so much good music to hear. Not always perfect, maybe, but always played with spirit and integrity, by some amazingly wild and sensitive musicians. |
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 Of course, my parents also have something to do with it, my mother being a musician (she plays the Viola da Gamba, an medieval version of the cello) and my father playing hand-drums ever since I was born. As a child I played piano and violin, but I always felt stuck in the rigidity of classical music, and the restriction of playing by notation. So it was a great release when Miten introduced me to a world of un-mapped music. |
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What freedom! |
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| PI: |
I have heard from friends (Isa and Malika in particular) that you fought being a singer all the way. Can you put into words why you didn’t want it and what sparked the change in you? |
| D: |
No, I think there's is a misunderstanding there. I never fought being a singer. I welcomed it. It was a connection with my lover that was very important to me... and still is! I think the misunderstanding comes from me saying that I'm a little reluctant to call myself "a singer". For me this voice I sing with is a gift from god, and I don't feel I can take very much credit for it. It is a divine gift. When I sing I sit there like the audience and say to myself... 'ah, that sounds nice!' |
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| PI: |
 I understand you have two new albums coming out this spring. Embrace is the first release right? I have listened to it and am completely blown away by it. Being very familiar with your first two releases The Essence and Love Is Space and having listened to them repeatedly after discovering them, I have to say this new one shows remarkable growth and maturity on your part as a singer. Did you take a different approach to the recording of Embrace? What did you do differently this time as you and Miten looked at putting the project together? |
| D: |
 Well, we intended Embrace to be an extension of Love is Space, which in itself, was an extension of The Essence... and this is the result. I knew we had some great material, and I knew I was singing better and with more confidence, and I was totally looking foward to recording with Vandan (Kit Walker) again. |
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What we didn't expect, was for it to take such a long time to complete. Sometimes I felt dis-heartened, I must say... but Embrace has proved itself to be the lotus flowering out of the mud of frustration! |
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The effort and the intention to 'get it right' was very strong in all of us. We were a close team... Miten and Vandan producing, Paul White mixing... it was an incredible journey and a great exercise in Trust! |
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| PI: |
Tell me about Satsang, Deva Premal and Miten Live! How did you know that the time was right for the release of a live album? Any idea when it will be available in stores? |
| D: |
 We are always asked for 'un-plugged' versions of the mantras. It just grew out of that really. We decided to record a few satsangs, with an engineer who could take care of the technical side. Miten had many songs that people have been asking for that weren't on CD, so we decided now's the time... a live album with the mantras and the songs together, which at the same time, can be used for meditation. It's a beauty. I love it. It will be released around June 1st. |
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| PI: |
I have seen you and Miten perform live once a year and a half ago in Asheville. I was astounded by your desire not to have applause after the songs. Can you tell me in your words about the silence? |
| D: |
Without the silence that follows the chants, you get only half the story. It's like the hook... or the climax of a good story... The silence is there because it exists in the music. It just needs to be exposed, and wow…what a feeling! It's so easy to overlook this part... and it's healing us... if we allow it to be there. |
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The sound of clapping destroys the healing vibrations. This is really one of the main reasons Miten and I sing... to bathe in Silence. It's our nourishment. It's what keeps us on the road. |
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For me there is nothing more precious than having sung with an audience, ecstatic with bliss, and then entering the deep silence that the mantra brings... so deep, that with closed eyes you really feel there is 'nobody' there at all... all personalities dissolved for a tiny sacred moment. This is more rewarding for me than clapping... But... I don't want to get too serious here!... sometimes the outbursts of clapping that happen in the concerts are so full of love, it's almost overwhelming. So much gratitude and warmth! |
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| PI: |
You aren’t doing the normal commercial music business routine to market and sell your music (which I personally respect totally and completely) why? |
| D: |
I feel this music is way beyond commercial record companies. They can't make head or tail of it. It doesn't fit. |
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 In the beginning we were open to the possibility to signing with a big company, but we decided to take another route. We'd had an uncomforatble experience that we didn't want to repeat. So we went our own way, and now we've sold way over 100,000 cd's without even being in Barnes and Noble, let alone any mainstream record shops! It's so good, to be making our own movie... making the soundtrack to our lives, and sharing it with friends. We make all our own decisions… and our own mistakes, too! But, that's all part of the game. I'm not an ambitious person. |
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We take care to water the plant, make sure it's happy... then we watch it grow. |
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| PI: |
Do you feel your music fits on radio? Would you like to see it reach others by means of commercial airplay a la Jai Uttal or Krishna Das? |
| D: |
I think Embrace is the closest we've come to being radio friendly. Lets see! I'm certainly not a against it being on the radio…! |
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I would love to see the mantras touching more and more people. They really are a healing force, and if ever the world needed them, it's now. Speaking of Jai Uttal (a musical genius in my book by the way) I instantly noticed his familiar voice and instrumental work on a couple of tracks on Embrace. |
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| PI: |
How was it working with him? |
| D: |
Jai is a sweet soul. It was very nice working with him. We had some good laughter together. |
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Kit had just reclaimed his original sannyas name, Prem Vandan... and Jai immediately 'christened' him Prem Daddy. What a cool name! And it stuck… I think you can see his credit on Jai's new album, as Prem Daddy Vandan. And yes, I agree, Jai is a musical genius. |
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| PI: |
Are there any other musicians you would like to meet or work with in the future? And what artists were you most into/influenced by growing up? |
| D: |
I LOVE Bobby McFerrin!! I can dream, can't I?! |
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| PI: |
How cool is it the Cher loves doing yoga to your music? |
| D: |
You know... I don't want to sound condescending here... but we receive so many incredible messages, almost daily, of how the music has touched peoples lives, that having Cher, who graciously took the time to write a note to us about how she enjoys the music, is of course incredible... she's not only famous, she's a great artist (I loved Witches of Eastwick!), but... you know... all these other people are famous too, in their own lives. I'm just humbled by the love and gratitude that has come my way. |
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Questions to Miten: |
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| PI: |
Miten, you and Deva are quite the world travelers and have been on the go for a long time, where was the last place you had a permanent residence and when? |
| M: |
 What happens is, that the whole planet becomes your permanent residence... that happened about four or five years ago... I suddenly realised I was 'home'!... I was in a workshop in Italy when it happened.
Of course it's easier to realise this when you don't have somewhere to go 'back' to... which is the case with Deva and I, and still is... unless you count the bus we travel in. That's our sanctuary... the Mantra Mobile. |
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I once lived in England for 4 years, left there in '89. I was working there as a teacher in an amazing alternative educational residential school… I was sports master!!... and music teacher.. I had a soccer team and a great kids rock band... those guys could play Wild Thing better than The Troggs! … but that's another story… |
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Anyway, I left to be in a band called 'Ah, This!'… I expected to be gone 3 months, but you know how it is... once you leave the nest... Anyway, Osho left his body a few months later... plus my girlfriend fell in love with another guy... so, I stayed on at the ashram for a couple of years, kind of healing my heart, and working things out. |
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Played for Osho in those years (a peak)...made the In Wonder CD for the ashram... experienced the most incredible shift... Then eventually I went to Italy to join Prem Joshua's band... we played together for a while, with another fine musician named Devakant. |
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Deva only played tamboura, and sang harmony with me back then... A year later we started doing our own thing, because we wanted to sing more... and that was the beginning of our 'musical career' together. |
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Our first event was 92... and we've been on the road ever since... give or take a few months here and there of course... We stay in Germany sometimes, with Deva's mother, Viten... she's great. She loves us, loves us being there, gives us a most blessed welcome... so... that's as close as it's been for many years…when we go home to mom. |
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| PI: |
How did you come to meet Deva and when did you realize that you two had a future making beautiful music together? |
| M: |
Well, we never thought in those terms... having a 'future' making beautiful music. The music just was beautiful... it always felt precious right from the start, so there wasn't much to think about really. Our job was just to travel and share it, which was something we found very easy to do. |
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We'd go to Osho Meditation Centers and play... more and more people started to come. And when we released The Essence, things really took off. Suddenly we were embraced by the yoga world! I didn't even know there was a 'yoga world'... now i do, and it's a beautiful Buddhafield unto itself. |
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 So it just kept growing as more and more people heard Deva sing. And she is very relaxed about this part of the story. She has no ego around her music. That's what you hear in her voice..and that's what touches people, I think... the lack of any ego in her voice. It comes from such a deep place...plus the fact that she's evolved into a really good singer. I've NEVER heard her sing off key, her pitching is so accurate... that's what turned me on to helping her with her singing... it was her complete lack of ego...a willingness to access that deep space.
She would sing harmony with me, and it was as if there was one voice. I couldn't believe my luck! A girl friend... a beautiful girl friend... and she can sing!?? That's when I knew there was a god! |
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You know, she wasn't singing when we met? She was studying Shiatsu, and massage. I've had the privilege to watch Deva unfold like a flower, right before my eyes. |
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| PI: |
How does touring and singing with Deva differ from touring with say Fleetwood Mac or Lou Reed? Obviously we know which you prefer… ;0) |
| M: |
Touring with those guys was my apprenticeship. I learned a lot... it was a preparation for what I do now. I learned how to meditate while playing music... didn't call it that at the time of course! It wasn't til later when I realised that I'd been totally absorbed in the moment when I played those gigs. So I'm very grateful I did it. |
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I learned what I needed to learn, to be able to share what Osho has ignited in me... but don't ask me to do it again! |
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Singing with Deva in concerts now... we're making love with each other. It's Tantra with clothes on! |
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| PI: |
Do you ever miss the action of the commercial music industry? Would you ever want to see your own music or yours and Deva’s in the commercial radio spotlight if you could keep the industry wolves at bay? Do you even think that’s possible? |
| M: |
Well, if it happens, it'll happen naturally... on our own terms... that's the difference between then and now. We're not chasing anything, y'know? ... life is fine exactly as it is! |
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But, we're ready though, if it happens!! We've paid our dues. We can play for anyone. |
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| PI: |
Do you think it's possible? |
| M: |
Oh yeah, very much so. |
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| PI: |
Tell me about this rumour I am hearing about a dance remix of the Gayatri Mantra? |
| M: |
It's an idea we're kicking around. Maybe a chill-out version… We also plan a CD with a 45 minute version of the Gayatri Mantra... just for the hardcore Gayatri freaks! |
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| PI: |
Where is your favorite place in the world? Is there one place you would like to see that has eluded you up to now? |
| M: |
Yes, it eluded me up until two years ago... but now I've found it. Fortunately, Deva loves it as much as I do! It's in the rain forest near Byron Bay, in Australia. |
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It's the only place I've found in all these years, that I've wanted to call 'home'. The nature is awesome, the beaches are wide and empty, and the people are kind and easy. |
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Hard to put into words, because I love it so much. It's a place for me to live in, and eventually die in. |
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| PI: |
Paradise? |
| M: |
Yes, right now in time, it is. Of course it won't last forever…it'll be 'humanised' soon enough, but today, it's one of the only places on the planet…that I've seen anyway…that is so 'clean' of HMG (Human Mind Garbage!). There's Big Space down there. |
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That's my home. |
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Bonus question for Miten and Deva: |
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| PI: |
You are stranded on a desert island, what 5 cds, books and movies would you take with you? |
| DP: |
I will decide if and when the moment comes! |
| M: |
I can't make that list!…but I'll tell you what i'm listening/watching/reading, right now! |
| CD's: |
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Bob Dylan-Love and Theft |
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Trilok Gurtu-The Beat of Love |
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'Oh Brother Where Art Thou' soundtrack |
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Hank Williams-A Retrospective |
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Women of Spirit-Putumayo Compilation |
| Movies: |
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A Beautiful Mind |
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Ken Burns Jazz |
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Don't Look Back |
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Beatles' Anthology |
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Osho |
| Books: |
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Endurance (on Shackleton's voyage to the south pole in 1914). |
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The Way of Passion-Andrew Harvey |
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The Hero with a Thousand Faces-Joseph Campbell |
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The Beatles' Anthology |
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On the Road-Jack Kerouac |
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