Salman Rushdie sat between the members of Dredg sharing the spotlight of an unprecedented event hosted by Spin Magazine at Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe in New York City. "Liner Notes" was created to bring various artists from different mediums of art together in a showcase presenting one artist whose art has influenced another artist who shares an equal yet unique perspective of that art piece. The event Spin Magazine created allows a in-depth look at how one artist can express and manipulate another artist's creation. In tonight's round, Salman Rushdie's "Imagine There's No Heaven: A Letter to the 6 Billionth Citizen" was the feature of the evening which influenced the Band Dredg to write their best recorded album to date "The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion."
The guests sat in anticipation with no idea of what to expect and not fully understanding how two totally different voices could be combined in agreeable terms. Would these two artists put their views to the side and get through an hour long session together without the threat of artistic differences was a burning question in my mind which was answered and quickly subdued when Mr. Rushdie took center stage to read an except from his book "The Ground Beneath Her Feet." The book explores time and space in a conventional manner between two parallel universes. The journey spans over forty years of pop culture and focuses on a gifted musician (Ormus Cama) and his soul's mate, Vina Aspara, whose amber voice sings, lures, and traps her listeners instantly through a vocal canvas of color notes. Despite earthquakes, heartbreaks, and a tare through a continuum of both time and space, the story happens to be Mr. Rushdie's most optimistic book written yet. The versus read this night pierced me deeply but the pain was soothing as I was able to find with in me a way to connect with my own soul's mate who sits more then 1200 miles away from me. If she could only know how I feel and how much experiencing this night would impact her own personal perceptions I know our 1200 plus miles apart would vanish to inches apart.
With my own idea of a book in the making I have written my love of loves one letter for each day since we met and the messages behind Mr. Rushdie's writings have personally opened my eyes and made valid my theory of true love or what she has beautifully expressed to me my "soul's mate." Salman Rushdie has inspired millions, perhaps billions across the world and now he can add one more to that list. Thanks to the idea of synchronicity or that everything happens for a reason I have experienced my own personal light and understand with a new clarity as to the tests that have been put before me. I understand why life has traveled up some of the highest mountains I ever had to climb and why I had to start in the lowest of valleys to reach this new insight as I perceive it today. I understand now why I met Dredg and came to this latest event in my life and to witness this collaboration of artists goes well beyond the beauty of an album cover or chapters written by one man's brilliant pen.
Dredg joined Rushdie on stage after the his reading to confirm their own claim as true music artists. Dredg paints their shows with minimal glitz or glamour. Going to a Dredg performance is allowing you to open up and listen to the roots of music without being distracted by flashy stage works. The music is enough to draw the audience in and tonight I was even more impressed to listen to this particular performance by Dredg toned down to acoustic and electric instrumentation minus the percussion. Loud music can deafen you when played at a lower level and being loud isn't always best. The blend of the music highlighted by Gavin Hayes' vocals was tremendous. The impression the band made was unholier than thou, if I may borrow the term, and it stole the air out of the old bookstore where the guests leaned forward in their chairs, drawn in tightly to the music Dredg exuded. The set was a short and very sweet five song list. "Pariah," "Lightswitch," "The Ornament," "Information," and "Cartoon Showroom."
The night embraced the love of music with the importance of expression, but leave it to the last person you would think of in this story to break the serious tone of the evening with dark humor. Rushdie managed to gather everyone in the room together with such amazing stories of his life and the collaboration attempt by Alex James of the acclaimed band "Blur." The eccentric Rushdie sat in his chair and impersonated a slob, alcohol driven, filthy mouthed Londoner ranting about a collaboration idea. Another highlight came when one guest asked Rushdie if he meant for his controversial book "Satantic Verses" to be so affective to the believers that hunted him for a decade. Rushdie sat back with a smile and said, "Being sentenced to death by the Ayatollah Khomeini really ruins your weekend."
It's 2009 and with so much energy going into two very impressionable pieces of written works, Salman Rushdie's essay and Dredg's latest album both surround a beautiful concept and view at humanity. So how is it that the world we live in still finds the written word and the freedom of expression through music and books a threat to power? Why do artists continue to create verbal and written ammunition knowing that odds are against them? It is conceivable that the 6 billionth citizen could be in a country where he will never learn or hear about either Dredg or Salman Rushide and their life changing messages.
" This 6 billionth child could be in a country where such messages are censored which is sad. A lot of the world now is like that now. I don't truthfully know the answer. All I can do is put the message out there and hope that the message will reach this child somehow. Another great thing about this musical collaboration is that it takes the message to another place where different people will hear it in different ways and it multiplies the message. All you can do as an artist is put it out there. None of us in this age can control the powers that say what we can listen to or what we can say. All we can do is disregard them and do our work. Maybe at the end it will find its audience."
What an interesting collaboration! That's really cool!
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