Real Sounds Feature
Christina Deva Interview
By Real Sounds
In today's interview, we explore the intriguing world of mystical and esoteric influences with Christina Deva whose life and music are...
In today's interview, we explore the intriguing world of mystical and esoteric influences with Christina Deva whose life and music are deeply intertwined with the search for deeper meanings. Our conversation delves into why mystical themes resonate so strongly with them, revealing a journey marked by profound personal quests for understanding and the divine.
Their engagement with the mystical began in response to a deep-seated dissonance felt from a young age, stemming from the pain and suffering experienced in their life. This quest for meaning beyond the visible and tangible led them to seek a phenomenological approach to spirituality, relying on direct, personal experiences of the divine to shape their understanding and beliefs.
As we discuss these themes, we also touch on the transformative power of music, not just as an art form, but as a vehicle for healing and divine connection. The artist shares their belief in music's ability to facilitate a co-creation with consciousness beyond our own, highlighting the profound impact sound can have on our perception of reality and our spiritual lives.
Join us as we uncover how personal suffering and the pursuit of truth have guided their musical journey, crafting a path that is both uniquely challenging and immensely rewarding.
Would you consider yourself to be drawn to the mystical and esoteric things? If so, why do you think this is?
Yes, because in life I have felt, simple answers have never been enough, not knowing the reason of being alive brought no comfort, there was always a dissonance I felt growing up, witnessing and experiencing the pain and suffering that engulfed my inner world and existence on earth. I could not bear it and accept it as all there is, I wanted to experience for myself the presence of the divine, for without it life for me was merely a sea of darkness devoid of love. I found that no matter how many teachings and paths I followed, the only way for me to be convinced of the existence of the true definition of God, was through a phenomenological approach as the root of my learning, meaning having my own direct experience of spiritual mysticism, alongside learning through others direct experiences. In conclusion, I feel that my suffering is what drew me to that path. The very fact that I was not content with my own existence as it was and was willing to risk my life to find truth.
Do you believe music has the power to heal? Please share your thoughts on this topic.
Yes, I believe, not only that music has the power to heal, but also, that when we create music, we invite consciousness beyond our earthly incarnation to move through our vessels, our bodies, to sound itself into existence, I believe its a co creation with more than "us" as we know ourselves, and each particle of sound, if it can even be quantified, has its own consciousness. "To hear a sound, is to see a space", as said by architect Louis I. Kahn. I believe that each aspect of sound has its own visual form, colour, feeling, and other qualities that give it a distinct character. The same goes for melodies and rhythms, tone qualities, sonic dynamics and so on, yet such worlds where many sonic elements that fuse together to form a musical piece, would be more complicated, perhaps forming different universes or dimensions. As humans, we never use all of our brain capacity at once, and we have limits. We do not perceive and sense reality in its absolute form. Other animals hear different frequencies we can't hear, see different colours we can't see, and so on. An absolute perspective of reality encompases all perspectives that exist at once, meaning the reality we perceive in our day to day life is never absolute. That makes every experience that appears to be an altered state of consciousness, a metaphysical experience, synesthesia, a near death experience or an out of body experience, merely a different perspective that is part of the absolute. The perspective itself is part of the absolute, but how we phrase it limits it to a subjective interpretation of a perspective that consists of the fragment of the absolute. In conclusion, this is one of the reasons why I believe music has the power to heal, because it transcends us, it is a non explicitly perceivable contact and co creation with divine energies, a bridge between our world and other realms of existence, it provides a window for a mystical experience thus potential for healing.
What inspired you to start making music?
Since I was a child, every time I listened to music I liked, I would envision myself singing, it happened so automatically, I didn't question it. From an early age however I was shamed and made fun of for trying to sing, and it traumatized me deeply, to the point I had tremendous fear of using my voice, for singing, public speaking, etc. This translated into my body psychosomatically as tension, and difficulty with communication and self expression. I had other aspects of a troubled mind that I then soothed with addiction. It was only when I lost my voice completely due to the severity of my addiction and psychosomatic pathologies that lead to vocal tension & illness, that I realized that if I keep being an addict, I will die in silence. The only thing that I wanted more than smoking, was to be able to sing, and use my voice to make music. That became my biggest motivation, I replaced smoking with learning how to sing, and I would practice all the time, even if I wasn't perfect, and sometimes I sounded terrible, I didn't care anymore, I felt that my only other option was death, so I chose to live and work to make what was once only in my head a reality. I still have much more to learn, as I only did this turn on my path in life 4-5 years ago. It is an infinitely inspiring journey I can't see my life without.
You make improvisational music, what do you feel is the key to improvising well?
My primary improvisational instrument is vocal, so my perspective focuses on the voice as the instrument. The key for me is to: - Listen very deeply, and respond to the sound, as if you are becoming part of it, fusing together. - To have no expectations from yourself, to limit your self judgement and heighten observation. - To not underestimate the power and potential of potent nuances that can emerge through simplicity. - To trust that through allowing yourself to totally surrender to the sound, you will progressively open up and free yourself to new possibilities, greater than what your conscious mind may expect you to do. - As musician Chloe Goodchild says in her book : "Transform, don't perform, express, don't impress" - An improvisation that touches your soul does not require advanced technical skill or advanced theoretical understanding, it more so requires you to reveal the depths of your soul, and lose yourself to find yourself as they say. - Do not care about what people think. - On the practical side of things, remain consistent with learning, practicing, exposing yourself to different musical settings, getting out of your comfort zone and following your intuition over what you want to learn and incorporate in your practice.
How did you choose the musicians you collaborate or perform with?
Admittedly I am sometimes shy to approach people I want to collaborate or perform with, so oftentimes the ones that I collaborate & perform with seem to appear through some form of synchronicity, and they seem to get what I do, or most aspects of what I do, sometimes better than myself. It has insofar always been the case that when I sense they get it, the feeling of admiration for what we both do is mutual, and also the spiritual perspective on music is mutual, which is a window of more possibilities to sonically connect, become one through sound and explore the worlds that unfold from that. That is for the improv based collaborations and performances, as I don't have much experience yet in regards to collaborating and performing together on my compositions or others compositions, yet what draws me to working with other musicians, always includes a spiritual depth that they seem to experience and have managed to embody through their practice, and their openness both in listening, and their approaches to playing. I often listen and assess what would be a fun sonic sea for my voice to flow through. I definitely wish to collaborate and perform with more people, both on my personal project, and also in improvisational projects or other projects, as I feel for me it can be the most fun and spiritual/transcendental way to communicate with other beings, and it mutually encourages learning, inspiration & growth.
Who are your musical influences?
My biggest influences vocally and lyrically are Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, Diamanda Galas & Darja Kazimira's voice. Kristin Hayter and Diamanda Galas are messiah's for me, and I bow on my knees, sometimes crying, when listening to most of their works. I have never felt so much emotion from any other music, no one has pointed towards more spiritual depth without excluding the pain & darkness that unveils it like them, no one has that depth and potency in evoking emotion for me, it feels to me like the only human that has sung out the core of my inner suffering in existence other than me is Kristin Hayter & Diamanda Galas. Before I encountered their music, my writing and music (unreleased) came from a very similar place, but these women taught me to not be afraid, and to go deeper & deeper, to completely surrender myself, and I am still learning & working with those teachings. Before I encountered their music, my biggest influence was Jeff Mangum. His genre is not the one I typically listen to, but what his music is rooted in, what his soul emanates, lyrically and vocally, changed my life. I wished to have a book with all of his lyricism, it made me cry, the emotion and sincerity with which he delivered them, made everything else disappear, it made what he expresses be the most important thing in existence, what a beautiful thing to live for I thought, to be able to experience this, same goes for the above. I could talk about my influences for hours because there are many more that have influenced my music in its different aspects, yet these are few ones that lay in the core of my soul, and live through me, the way our love for things can live through us eternally, even when those things are gone, or no longer in physical form.
Can you describe your creative process when writing a song?
The lyrics come first always, and they oftentimes come as poetry with a non certain configured melody. It will happen at a completely random time where for whatever reason, an experience, song, sound, phenomenon, dream etc, has inspired me, and has awakened a very strong feeling within me to the point I need to type it down to verbalise it. It often starts from one sentence and then expands. I then often let these writings sit and whenever I play a melody that I feel drawn to, I try out seeing how my writing can fit there. Sometimes it works, and sometimes I need to trim or modify the words slightly. Once I successfully fuse the melody with the writing (usually I write it on guitar, lyre, keyboard, drone etc), I focus more on the vocal delivery of each part of the song, and repeat it, testing out different things until something really sticks with me. Sometimes I have to record the voice and when I go back to working on the song, use that as a learning reference. It usually takes me lots of repetitions to really successfully remember everything. I may then eventually think of elements outside the voice and core instrumentation, yet insofar I've kept my set very stripped back. I look forward to exploring more song writing approaches.
How do you handle creative blocks or moments when you feel uninspired?
I know deep down that in such moments, I have to expose myself to more of life in general. Have walks alone, read books, go to gigs, listen to good music…