Just a reflection of how I feel in my journey. That’s always been my main expression and I just keep myself releasing what I need to release, to keep myself grounded. I’m lucky that I’ve always had that since I was a kid, no matter what was going down, I was always able to kind of ground myself, releasing energy or tension through music. Essentially now that’s still what I do, and I never really think about why. It never comes to my mind. I just wait and it comes, it flows out of me. You know, it’s cool because people connect with it now and there’s a whole other side to it that’s not as personal. But I don’t involve that in the songwriting process. I think it would be kind of disrespectful to the gift I’ve been given, to involve my mind in it. I’ve got to let it come.
You were talking earlier about yoga. Do you practice yoga before you go on stage? Is that kind of a ritual for you?
Yeah I do … about an hour and a half of asana before I play, and headstand. If I don’t have time, I’ll just do headstand. That’s my short little back-up routine. But if I have some time, I’ll do about an hour and a half of stuff. And then after the show I’ll do shoulder stand and some cooling stuff, just to balance everything.
What got you started in yoga?
Well I have a great teacher at home, a yoga teacher who’s had a 35-year journey and lived with B.K.S. Iyengar. I’ve been really luck to meet up with her. She’s taught me a lot, too. She’s a bit of a mentor for me: spiritually, physically, and emotionally. She’s great. She’s really helpful. Yoga’s been really key for me in balancing myself on this journey. Because I come from a place … I grew up in a small town on the coast, grew up in the bush; and I spent a lot of time camping and surfing, spent a lot of time on my own and with people that were close to me. I went from that to, all of a sudden, being in cities, lots of different energies and lots of different people and spirit, and it’s all stuff I take on. So yoga’s been good. It’s been a good way for me to stay balanced and focused.
Do you feel like that crosses over into your music with chanting and yoga chants, the breathing exercises, pranayama and stuff that you do [in your yoga practice]?
Yeah … I find my inversion’s really important. I find my headstand’s really important in my show. That’s the most important thing: the headstand. I’ve got to stand on my head for five minutes and then, no matter how I’m feeling, everything kind of balances out. I can sort of float onto the stage and I float into the mode. If I’ve done that, everything kind of balances itself. I guess with yoga … do you do yoga?
Yes, I do.
Well, you know how it is. It’s something that stays with you 24/7. If you’re practicing asana, it’s with you all the time. So I guess that yoga frame of mind is definitely always there. It’s definitely helpful for my show.
Do you have any other rituals, things you do on the road to stay grounded?
Yeah I take blue gum and tea tree from eucalyptus, which is a men’s ceremony … an aboriginal ceremony from back home, for cleansing spirit. So I burn that when I feel I need to and that keeps me clean. And on this tour I was given four sacred medicines from an elder in Guelph, ONT: sage, wheatgrass, tobacco, and cedar. She mixed them all together for me and gave me a shell to smudge myself. So I’ve been using that on this tour. I didn’t bring the eucalyptus on this tour, but I’ve been doing the same thing with local stuff. I use fire a lot when I’m home. Fire is important to me. I use that a lot, but mostly when I’m home.
But you don’t set things on fire…?
[laughs] No, but I quite often make little fires next to the bus on the street. I’ll just find a little place where it’s okay and I just burn a little pile of stuff into a little ceremony. But I’m not an arsonist.
Is there anything else you want people to know?
Food in the Belly comes out in January. I think I’m going to record around February-March in Australia and I think [the next record] will be released in June around the world. So that’s kind of cool. That’ll be the first time that’s happened. It makes me feel kind of like Britney Spears. [laughs]
