MAKING A DIFFERENCE
people who you would think looked really hippy and cool would walk by and not even notice, and then a big tattooed bikey would approach us with an enormous beard, and tears streaming down his face, barely able to speak because he’s been so moved by the music. These experiences have always blown us away.
BB: How does your music come to you?
Prem: Our music is a gift from God. The songs arrive as though they are floating on
the wind and land in my heart. Often we’re creating musical interpretations of ancient yogi prayers. Also, some songs are our interpretations of Australian indigenous stories shared by a dear friend and Gubbi Gubbi elder, Aunty Minnie Mace. I listen to my heart, to the songs that are stirring in there, and express through tones of what I call my own ‘heart language,’ which I believe we all have. This language of my heart is singing the feelings of the moment, or the land, Spirit calling, the songs of the trees, rivers, oceans, mountains and rocks. The mantras also must stir my heart for the connection to be made and for the song to therefore be relevant to opening the heart.
BB: Can you share some things you do that can help the rest of us remember how to access the heart’s calling?
Prem: Yes. Qi gung, yoga, meditation, grounding in nature. I love to run in the
forest. Jethro loves surfing. At the same time, because we have a baby to feed and a 2 year old using our downward dog as a bridge our practice has to be very fluid, with no attachment to how it has to look. It’s about being in the practice amongst life.
BB: Tell us more about how what you share through music is grounded in how you live your private lives.
Prem: We’re able to connect with, receive, create and serve our music
because our life is focused on always coming back to the inner space and how
22 MAY 2015
we’re faring on the inside. It’s making sure every day we’re doing some sort of practice, something that is honouring the inner self, and nurturing our being in some way.
It’s listening to everyone’s need in the family. It’s being kind to each other. It’s being willing to have the courage to say YES to follow the heart, and listening to and trusting the NO when it comes.
Jethro: There’s also a certain maturity. Four years ago we returned from touring
Europe, very keen to go back. But we realised we needed to consolidate what we were doing in our home country. We stepped back and said “this doesn’t serve our family right now. We have a daughter in high school who needs us and we really haven’t created a concrete connection here in Australia”. So we’ve moved into that process, developed a rhythm, a connection, and we’ve worked out how it flows for us, and we’ve come to that place of maturity. No and yes is all just connecting with what’s right.
It’s knowing how to pause and to make contact with your own knowing. This is the basis of our music – to help bring people into contact with their inner space and then make contact with that knowing – which we all have if we choose to go there.
Prem: Yes, it is the basis of our life and life work... really listening, honouring the
heart’s calling. Every day.
BB: How are you, Prem and Jethro, making a difference ?
Prem: We are making a difference by choosing to live as a conscious family and share the music of Sacred Earth from this place. For us there is no separation between family life and our spiritual life. Sharing patient, loving kindness with each other and our children is our spiritual practice. We strive to flow together with connection, peace and harmony.
Our yoga practice is done on the deck
in the early morning sun while the children play around us and sometimes under or on top of us. Our asanas become part of their play. By being included in this morning practice our children are learning to be in their own gentle focus and flow each day. It is sacred time when we model self-love and self-inquiry. It becomes their daily rhythm. Our 17 year old now wakes at dawn and journeys through her own self-loving practice of yoga, surfing, running and green smoothies. Another way we make a difference, both
in family and in the larger community, is by practising acceptance for what is happening right now and going with the flow. We may make pancakes in the middle of our asana flow or help a little one with the potty. We’ve learnt that when we embrace the present moment life becomes fluid, nonresistant and full of joy.
BB: Tell us about your new album.
Prem: We’ve called our new album “kuTumba” - Nepalese for family. It represents the life we are currently walking. It sings of the joy, love and depth of our hearts as we walk fully immersed in love with each other and our family life. And it’s very exciting, because I haven’t sung on an album for three years now. I was busy creating children. Jethro and I recorded Breathing Space together but I didn’t sing on that album.
BB: Having children you needed to rest your voice?
Prem: No, I needed to put my creative energy into growing my babies. I was
not prepared to go into the studio during this precious time because recording is a whole other birthing. In fact, the music wasn’t actually there. You asked earlier do the songs ever not come. They didn’t really come in that time.
BB: Surely you were singing to the babies in your womb.
Prem: Singing all the time. I sang the Gayatri mantra to each one just as they
took their very first breath. Songs come to me from spirit. In the time I had my babies
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