Dazed Digital | Saul Williams: Explain My Heart Video Exclusive

Dazed Digital: Do you think there are certain things one can reach for in music that connect with us on a profound physiological and spiritual level?

Saul Williams: Yeah. It’s that spiral of sound that Plato talked about. If you look at the octave scale and the scale of the chakra energy centres, it is that same thing of going upwards. The oldest prayers known to the ancient Egyptians and so on employed music to take you through all these different energy centres, because different pitching and tempos cause different vibratory responses. In the past, one thing I was often trying to do was create really upbeat music for people to mosh to, or whatever, in the hope that they would then hear something in the lyrics – you know, the way a soldier in tank might be listening to it and hear something in the lyrics that makes him hold his fire. Now, it’s not so much about figuring out the alchemy of that, but celebrating the alchemy of that: it’s s as simple as wanting to lift spirits.

Dazed Digital: It’s interesting you make a military analogy as sonic weapons are very much being talked about in warfare...

Saul Williams: Fela Kuti said, ‘Music is the weapon of the future.' It’s true. There are soundwaves that can make the earth vibrate and respond the same way a piano cord would if you plucked it. If we have the capacity with technology to create earthquakes with sound, then we can have the psycho-equivalent of that in music – you can make someone laugh, you can make someone cry and you can help someone get it. You can flick that switch on that helps them look at their life in a different way.

via www.dazeddigital.com