[kj] Achieving Planetary Consciousness Through Art—An Interview with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke (The Aquarian)

Wed Dec 25 10:12:12 EST 2019

Thanks, Paul!

On Wed, Dec 25, 2019 at 3:41 PM Paul <dubecho at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> https://www.theaquarian.com/2019/12/25/achieving-planetary-consciousness-through-art-an-interview-with-jaz-coleman-of-killing-joke/
>
> [image: JazColeman.jpg]
>
>
> *Achieving Planetary Consciousness Through Art—An Interview with Jaz
> Coleman of Killing Joke*
> Katherine Yeske Taylor
> December 25, 2019
>
> In a conference room in the Spinefarm Records headquarters inside the
> Universal Music Building in Manhattan, Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman is
> poking at a plate of sushi. It’s an incongruous sight: legendary black-clad
> rock star (including dark sunglasses) sitting under the fluorescent lights
> in this most mundane office setting. He looks as if he should be on stage
> somewhere instead—which he will be, in a few hours, when his band opens for
> Tool at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena.
>
> Coleman is here to discuss his new album*, Magna Invocatio: A Gnostic
> Mass for Choir and Orchestra Inspired by the Sublime Music of Killing Joke*,
> which he recorded with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia.
> It is exactly as the title suggests: a collection of songs chosen from
> among Killing Joke’s 15 studio albums converted into classical form,
> transforming them into something altogether breathtaking in their beauty
> and power. It may seem an unlikely undertaking at first glance, considering
> that Killing Joke, since their groundbreaking 1980 self-titled debut, have
> been lauded as pioneers of the industrial rock genre and beyond, with
> artists as diverse as Metallica, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, among many
> others, citing Killing Joke’s intense post-punk style as a key influence.
>
> But in truth, Coleman’s classical career may be even more impressive.
> Among his many credits in this realm: after growing up in Cheltenham,
> England, studying the violin and piano, he has gone on to become the
> composer in residence for the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the St.
> Petersburg (Russia) State Symphony Orchestra. In 1996, he released his *Symphony
> No. 1: Idavoll,* recorded with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. In
> 2001, he debuted his first opera, *The Marriage at Cana*, which was
> commissioned by the Royal Opera House in London. In 2014, he conducted the
> NSO Symphony Orchestra for the Dubai World Cup opening ceremony in the
> United Arab Emirates. He has worked with soprano superstar Sarah Brightman.
> And over the years, he has recorded albums interpreting the music of Pink
> Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, and Nirvana into classical form, so it
> seems only natural that he should now do the same with his own rock songs.
>
> However, any plans to make *Magna Invocatio* the main focus of today’s
> chat are almost immediately abandoned, thanks to my casual comment during
> our greeting about an interview that I conducted with Killing Joke 25 years
> ago, and how alarmingly fast time has seemed to pass since then. This sets
> Coleman off on a much, much deeper conversational course, which he
> sustains, with intensity, for the next hour.
>
> “You have to live many lives in one life. It’s your duty to, in a way,
> isn’t it? To make your life colorful and interesting, and always have
> something to look forward to on the horizon,” he says. “That’s the way to
> do it, because if you have too much routine, your life goes faster, and you
> get old quicker. So too much routine’s not good for you. For me, I never do
> anything I don’t like. What I do, I do really well, because I love it—it
> gives me energy. I believe that everybody’s born innately gifted. Life’s
> about locating your gifts, and then doing them. Life becomes exciting then.
> If you’re doing something you love doing, you never have to work again, do
> you?” Then he laughs with such uninhibitedness, it makes him shake in his
> seat.
>
> He says there was never any problem identifying his own special gift. “I’m
> Anglo-Asian, and I was in an arranged marriage with music. I decided when I
> was four that I would do music. So I’ve never really been able to think
> about doing anything else, you see.”
>
> That’s not to say that he hasn’t improved over the years, though. “That’s
> the wonderful thing about the years passing: the things I can do well now,
> I couldn’t do in my twenties. I can score for a full orchestra in my head—I
> can compose in milliseconds now, whole scores. I trained myself to do that.
> It starts with, you take your favorite song, and you practice listening to
> it inside your head from beginning to end, and then you develop it like
> this, you see. So I found my own system of conducting orchestras and
> education.”
>
> His experience recording *Magna Invocatio* in Russia is yet more proof
> that he is doing what he’s always been fated to do. “I’m the only classical
> recording artist from the West that records in Russia on a regular basis.
> When you consider that the first record I ever bought was *Russian
> Orchestral Masterpieces*, at the age of eight, [it was] the workings of
> destiny, I mean, it’s just incredible when I think about it. When I bought
> that, it changed my life, that record. And then to work with Russia’s
> oldest orchestra [the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra]!”
> [image: JazColeman-.jpg]
>
> He is aware that it may seem strange, hearing someone who’s been so
> influential in the rock world, now talking so passionately about classical
> music. But he is, in fact, accomplished in many areas besides his Killing
> Joke career: “Most people aren’t aware of the multiple facets of my life,
> because I do so many different things, but orchestra plays a big, big role.
> And also, I’m a consultant in specific areas of Rosicrucian history and the
> occult, amongst other things. I’m an architect, also. I’ve built two
> buildings now. I can be anything you want!” He laughs, again with that same
> soul-shaking abandon. He grins at the suggestion that he’s a polymath. “I’m
> completely crazy, which is to say, with borderline cases like myself, it’s
> easy for me to believe whatever I want to believe. I can dream I’m a
> knight: I become a knight. Nothing is impossible. I dream of an island at
> the end of the earth: I have one.”
>
> Later on, Coleman is going to prove this self-actualizing point when he
> goes to the United Nations to meet with representatives, which he
> initiated. He is doing this because, he says, it is “my goal of working for
> the United Nations for this final chapter of my life. I’m going in there in
> the capacity as a composer and artist.” As a result of this meeting, “*Magna
> Invocatio*, this Christmas, will be in the hands of most world leaders—to
> give everybody a piece of music they can play over dinner and it won’t give
> them indigestion!” He laughs, but quickly grows serious again as he
> explains how he hopes that his music will inspire those leaders to “think
> of the idea of our global family on a planetary level. I dream of
> polycentric global governments. The most important thing I’ve done with *Magna
> Invocatio* is trying to bring everybody to planetary consciousness
> through the arts. Literally this.
>
> “Astrology—which a lot of people think is a pseudo-science; it’s not, it’s
> a science—astrology for next year [predicts] we’re in for a very, very
> bumpy ride, and we need planetary consciousness as soon as possible. The
> arts will play a huge role in this.” As he talks, instead of finishing his
> meal, he begins using his chopsticks to emphasize his words, making
> flourishes and stabs in the air. It provides a glimpse of the orchestra
> conductor he sometimes is.
>
> “Look, it’s simple: in this divided world, where there’s multiple warheads
> pointing at everybody, and no one’s talking to each other, the United
> Nations is the only framework we have where warring tribes can talk to each
> other, before we go from a cold war into a hot war, which will put back
> evolutionary progress 15 million years, at best.” He carefully arranges his
> chopsticks in a “X” pattern on the tabletop. “We’re on the verge of huge
> changes, where we discover that our current knowledge is false, our notions
> of history are false. Our notion of how we came into being is false, also.
> This is a little bit too much for us to take in all at once, which is why,
> largely speaking, I’m against sudden disclosure.” He gives a knowing nod of
> his head. “You know what I mean by sudden disclosure.
>
> “There’s no question that we need planetary consciousness and global
> governance, but it’s which of the two models we’re looking at, whether it’s
> a polycentric or a unicentric one. We need more than ever a philosophical
> elect that can act as a moral and ethical compass with the decisions we
> make about the development of homosapien into homo-universalist, you see.
> We’re at the end of our species; we’re in the extinction period, and we’re
> morphing into a different creature. And we *must* do, to survive what
> lies ahead.” To emphasize his point, he raps on the tabletop with his
> chopsticks a final time and then sets them down with a loud thwack, finally
> abandoning his lunch for good.
>
> It is impressive, this certainty that he will sway world leaders with his
> art. Coleman smiles at the question of how he became so bold. “In my
> twenties, one of the things I used to do to rid myself of insecurities was
> to move to a new country—often, it was places in the Middle East, or South
> America. And I would go with ten pounds in my pocket. I moved to Iceland
> with one pound in my pocket. My whole thing then was knowing that I can
> build things up to the power of ten, and I don’t need money. The whole idea
> was to overcome insecurity. So I put myself on a crash course to do this,
> to the point where I’m fearless.”
> [image: Jaz-Vinyl.jpg]
>
> He shrugs at the suggestion that such situations seem terribly dangerous.
> “No, you see, that’s where I’m in a different world. Killing Joke is
> guarded by the ancestral spirit. Very difficult for everybody to
> understand. Let me put it in real basic terms. In Killing Joke, all our
> dads are dead—all our fathers are in the other world. And we’ve got two
> managers and Paul Raven [Killing Joke’s original bassist, who passed away
> in 2007] in the other world. All the people that love us in the other
> world, we’re governed by their spirits, they make the decisions, and they
> always have done. Before every show, for 41 years, we form a circle, and we
> do something like an invoking ritual. It has served us well. On *Magna
> Invocatio*, in the third movement, are the lines of the oath I took with
> Big Paul [Ferguson, drummer] when we were 18, to see this through with
> Killing Joke. When I consider it now, listening back to those lines, and
> all that has transpired, I am just speechless.” And indeed, for the first
> time since this interview began, he falls silent, seeming almost
> overwhelmed with emotion.
>
> After a moment, he shakes it off and continues. “So I believe it was all
> pre-ordained. When I met every member of Killing Joke, I was overcome with
> the sense of *déjà vu* personified, which we used to call ‘anamnesis,’
> which means ‘loss of forgetfulness,’ which is ‘to remember.’ And when you
> consider that it was Plato who said that all knowledge is remembering, this
> is very interesting. I take it another stage further: I believe that within
> each of us, we have the genetic memory of mankind. And I believe we’re so
> interconnected, [but] we’re not using any of it to have a look. Well, I’ve
> taken a peek. That’s why no one can look into my eyes.” As if on cue, it’s
> almost possible to feel the piercing stare coming from behind those dark
> sunglasses, but then he smiles. “They say when you look into the abyss, the
> abyss looks into you—is it kind of true? Yes.”
>
> But Coleman brightens when he discusses his other methods for helping to
> turn the world around: “I’m trying to help many people reach their goals.
> This means that with classical music, I do master classes, and I raise
> money for youth orchestras and things like that. Most people don’t know
> that. Actually, I’ve been working with the Cleveland Contemporary Youth
> Orchestra, and the Peruvian National Youth Orchestra. When you see these
> kids, the backgrounds they’re from… I mean, Lima, where I’m living at the
> moment, four million people in the city don’t have running water. (He also
> lives part-time in New Zealand.)
>
> “So when you see these children get ahold of an instrument, they play with
> such passion.” Again, he seems momentarily overcome with emotion. “*Amazing.
> Incredible.* So this is the work that lies ahead.”
>
> Coleman says he knows firsthand how important it is to have someone in a
> position of influence offer a helping hand. “Killing Joke went from zero to
> 100 in ten weeks, and that’s because we had a very famous [BBC] DJ called
> John Peel who endorsed us and gave us a session and played our first EP
> nonstop for like eight weeks. And John Lydon from the Sex Pistols, he was
> talking about Killing Joke nonstop. So our first show was sold out. Ten
> concerts later, we’re selling out the Lyceum [Theatre, in London]. And Sam
> Alder of E.G. Records signed Killing Joke when we were 19 [years old]. He
> was really into the occult agenda and he’s a high-level Freemason, and I’m
> eternally grateful to him. So all these different forces came together at
> the beginning of Killing Joke’s career.”
>
> He says his teenaged self would’ve fully expected to find Killing Joke in
> such a successful position 40 years later. “Absolutely, I wouldn’t be
> surprised at all. It’s exactly what I thought would happen. It’s different
> with us, because we started with a magical oath. It’s a band to other
> people, but for us, it’s a holy and sacred mission.”
>
> At this point, Coleman’s publicist intervenes, insisting that they really
> must be going if they’re going to make the U.N. appointment. Coleman,
> amiable, complies and wanders out into the main office area, where the
> record company staff greet him warmly—he is clearly well-liked and admired
> here. He is friendly with them, and it is several more minutes before he
> can be coaxed onto the elevator. Standing with his publicist in front of
> the building, waiting for an Uber ride to show up to zoom them down
> Broadway, Coleman seems calm and content—and why not? After all, whether
> he’s appearing at the U.N., or leading an orchestra or arena rock show,
> he’s simply fulfilling his destiny.
>
> *Magna Invocatio: A Gnostic Mass for Choir and Orchestra Inspired by the
> Sublime Music of Killing Joke is available now wherever music is streamed
> or sold, with a red & black vinyl edition to be released on January 24. For
> more information, please visit Jaz’s Facebook page: @JazColemanOfficial*
> _______________________________________________
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