Deva Premal & Miten: Songs for the Sangha
OMTIMES: Why did you chose Greece to host your New Temple of Music?
Deva Premal & Miten: It just happened – as does everything else in our life. We have been taking people to the island of Corfu Greece for our chant programs for the past 18 years…
As a result, a community has sprouted there and we have the great honor of watching it bloom and flower. Corfu is a mystical island, and our ‘Gayatri Mandir’ nestles among the olive groves, open to the stars and to the sounds of nature…our feet touch the earth while we chant while the prayer flags send the mantras across the universe. Who could ask for more?!
OMTIMES: There are so many different versions of the “Gayatri Mantra,” however your version is the one that prompted a phone call from Cher, who said she loved it so much that she wanted to use it in her Las Vegas concert.
Deva Premal & Miten: Not only in Las Vegas, but on her whole world tour.
OMTIMES: “Songs for the Sangha.” This is a completely different album than the ones that you’ve previously done. Talk us through the process of how it came about.
Deva Premal & Miten: We’ve done 17 albums, and that means that no one album actually defines us. It’s all part of a journey, and they’re all stations on a relay. With “Songs for the Sangha,” we wanted to record a complete album that was diverse material-wise but at the same time had a thread – a musical thread. Even though “Strong My Roots” for instance, and the “Sarveshaam Mantra” are very different in context from each other, somehow there’s a thread that runs through both pieces. The music is connected in some mysterious way, and that’s what we set out to do. We tried before and it never worked. We tried to put some songs in with the mantras, but it just didn’t feel right. This one does. A lot of the credit goes to Joby Baker and Spencer Cozens.
OMTIMES: You don’t need to be religious to enjoy and use mantras, right?
Deva Premal & Miten: Religiousness is a beautiful quality. But, religion? No, no, you don’t have to be part of any particular religion to see what’s going in here. This music and the mantras are beyond organized religions. They’re powerful, ancient healing formulas that were discovered many, many moons ago, and way before the beginning of Hinduism.
