Of all the musicians in the world, the one who seems to capture the spirit of enlightenment the best - at least for me - is Craig Pruess. He's a versatile American composer, musician, arranger... and a gold & platinum record producer who has been living in Britain since 1973. His career has covered diverse areas including - arranging for international stars like Sir Cliff Richard, Anu Malik and Sheila Walsh, as well as arranging for international acts like Massive Attack, Katie Melua, Def Leppard and Bond. He's also know for his performance work, as one of the world's finest sitarists (for such well known composers as Danny Elfman, Gabriel Yared, Rachel Portman, and George Fenton).
I first ran into Craig's music when I saw the box office smash and critically adored film, "Bend It Like Beckham" (top ten in the USA box office, number 1 in India). As a filmmaker myself, I know absolute genius when I hear it. Later, he followed up with "Bride and Prejudice", stars the big names of Aishwayra Rai, Anupam Kher and Martin Henderson, and again in "The Mistress of Spices", directed by Paul Berges. The music soundtrack is a rich example of Craig's skills in combining Indian music seamlessly into the idiom of a Western feature film soundtrack.
I caught up with Craig to do an impromptu interview:
MM: So what are you up to these days?
CP: Two big things in my professional life at the moment, happening exactly at the same time (not intentionally planned that way timing wise, but, hey!) are: 1) a major new feature film soundtrack for director Gurinder Chadha ("Bend It Like Beckham" and "Bride & Prejudice") called "It's a Wonderful Afterlife" - a romantic comedy, with a supernatural twist to it; and 2) the Ganda Boys! I've launched a new wonderful African band, with my two Ugandan superstar buddies, Denis Muggaga and Daniel Sewagudde... I've had SO much fun with this one - last night we played a big show at a prestigious London theatre, The Almeida, and we raised the roof! 14 piece band, about 1/4 chants/lyrics in Swahili, but very very good songs in English. So powerful - lots of groove, soul, call and response - a One World, One Love band of the highest calibre. I'm a proud poppa! I'm still buzzing. www.gandaboys.com
MM: Your music is so uplifting, it seems to open the higher chakras! What's your secret?
CP: My secret? I'm in love! Deeply in love! Some years ago I was teaching breathing techniques (www.artofliving.org) to prisoners in a high security jail in the UK. It was hard work in a negative atmosphere, but these tough guys just came alive - they were so grateful. Many were murderers, with no future and a horrible past - but they discovered the present moment in the silence and depth. At the end of the ten day course, they were hugging me, tears in their eyes - complete blossoming of the heart. It was so moving. It changed my life. That night, driving four hours back to my home, I had this thought: "the most important thing in life is love..." and then: "why don't people see that?" You know, I had this overwhelming longing for that love, the highest, and I wanted so much to share it with someone, like any man - a woman of my dreams. I was exploding inside. Well, literally within four weeks, there I was deep in meditation after breathing at an Art of Living group session in north London, and all of a sudden I had such a profound experience! In one instant, I knew without doubt that the person sitting next to me was my partner for life! Now that's a bit scary, because I wasn't meeting her socially, or anything. It was just certainty in that infinite space. The small mind kicks up all kinds of stuff, doesn't it? - doubts, what if's, and no... can't do that, blah, blah, etc. But the more I meditated on it, I could see my future... and all my doubts would vanish. So interesting to witness the mind doing all that.
And yes, I did get her number, and yes, she is my wife now. It was my future!
MM: Do you meditate?
CP: Every day. I'm lucky also in that in addition to my daily deep meditation/yoga/breathing practice, I have quite profound experiences when creating music recordings, or when giving concerts - the meditative impact of the sound of the sitar on the audience, where the group vibration gets tuned in, and people go deep into samadhi (effortless meditation). That's how I convinced the conservative prison culture here in the UK to allow me to teach the Art of Living courses in the prisons - I was giving sitar concerts in the different prison wards, and the chaplain remarked to me that many of the guys were having genuine meditation experiences. That's when I piped up and said I could teach them yogic breathing techniques....
MM: Have you ever done tantra?
CP: Yes, my wife and I both practice a whole set of tantric practices and we have quite ecstatic experiences from it. It has also summoned some quite exraordinary souls (our children) into this Earth plane.
MM: Who would you most like to work with? We'll ask our readers to do some intentional meditations for you!
CP: Thank you! I would love to introduce the Ganda Boys to Peter Gabriel or Bono (or both!) and do concerts with their bands.. I don't mean to be greedy, but I think both of them would understand immediately what we're up to. The new Ganda Boys album also has some powerful African Truth in there.
MM: You are quite active politically, what's your hot button today?
CP: Two topics - 1) the complete financial manipulation (fraud) on the population through fear - we don't live in an age of a free press, unfortunately. The media channels are very cleverly controlled. One of my professors at MIT was Noam Chomsky, and he has written a contrite, punchy little book: "Media Control - the Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda". And, 2) the manufactured and designed crisis of Swine Flu. People should check out the criminal charges against the WHO filed by Austrian journalist and researcher Jane Burgermeister. For those familiar with the movie, "V for Vendetta", encourage everyone to get more informed! This makes a difference. Definitely.
MM: Leave us with some spiritual advice!
CP: Wisdom means knowing when we're under the grip of the small mind, AND knowing what to do to constantly bring in the influence of the big mind. Most folks usually aren't even aware when they come into the grip of complaints, nagging doubts or negativity (small mind). Small mind has been our taskmaster, telling us our own limitations for all of our life.... But if we know how to successfully manage our energy (good diet, yoga/meditation, good company, inspiration, love, tantra, joy, nature, etc., etc.) then it's amazing what we can do, what we can achieve! Rather than waste our energy on small problems, WE CAN SAVE OUR MINDS for the big stuff. We can make a decision to move forward, but it is also good to learn some effective techniques and skills in this area, too.
You can buy Craig's music directly his website heaven-on-earth-music.co.uk.
