Deva Premal: The Medicine of Mantra
Deva Premal is the beloved female half of Deval Premal & Mitten, whose music has fostered an explosive rebirth of chanting and mantras into the popular music culture. Her latest album, Deva – Transcendent Collection of Signature Mantras, truly is Medicine for the Soul.
An Interview with Deva Premal – The Medicine of Mantra
Over the past few decades, chronic illness has skyrocketed worldwide. Meanwhile, since their debut album was released 20 years ago, musicians Deva Premal and Miten have received letters from people across the globe, sharing dramatic stories of healing from listening to and chanting along with their signature Mantras. Numerous scientific studies now verify that music has the power to heal us, both emotionally and physically. Even where the big guns of conventional medicine have failed, Deva Premal and Miten decided to celebrate the launch of Deva’s new album of signature Mantras with a live Facebook event series on The Medicine of Mantra in partnership with top doctors across the globe.
Sandie Sedgbeer: Before we talk about how it’s possible for music in general, and mantras in particular, to facilitate healing, I’d like to take a little trip back in time and share with our listeners a little bit about your own journey with music and in particular mantra.
Deva Premal: Yes. Both of those things, music, and mantra entered my life right from the very beginning because my mother was a classical musician. She played medieval music on old instruments like the viola that combined the harpsichord and everything. My father was the wild card in the family. He was an artist, a painter, and he got into drumming Persian style around the time I was born, so I grew up with him always drumming, and even before we were born, my sister and I were already deeply immersed in Eastern spirituality, especially mantra. He took it to such a deep level–four hours every night, 2 to 6 am in the morning, walking around the city walls of Nuremberg. Chanting mantra. That’s the kind of person he was; he would do everything very thoroughly in a German way.
On the other hand, he was so not German because he was so at home with yoga and meditation. He studied Sanskrit. He made himself a German Sanskrit Dictionary because he couldn’t find one. So, I grew up with his influence and my Mum’s. Also, they chanted mantras for my sister and me when we were born and, as a good night ritual, we had the Gayatri mantra every night three times. As a kid, I did it because I was asked to, or told to, and I had no idea what I was doing. Also, I was a little embarrassed at what I was doing, it was different to what other people around me were doing, and didn’t really know the meaning. My mum once told me it was cleansing, so I knew there was something good in it, but I didn’t know what it was; I didn’t know this was called the Gayatri Mantra, and that millions of people chant this across the world, especially in India. I think we all have to find our own way in life and, for me, it was finding my own Guru, and that was when I was eleven years old when I dropped chanting the mantra and totally immersed myself into my path.
Later on, it all came full circle. I met Miten. I became a Singer–I still have a problem calling myself a Singer, but I guess you would call it that–and a musician under his teaching because Miten was already an accomplished musician and knew how to make music for meditation, which is a very different thing from music for entertainment. So, I was in really good hands and saw some potential in the way our two voices sounded, and so we started singing together. I started very shy and supported him as a second voice, but there was no mantra in sight at that point. I had totally forgotten about my Mantra beginnings in my childhood.
Later, I heard the Gayatri Mantra being sung by friends, during a year in England and was surprised that there was somebody who knew those words I had chanted every night as a child. Then I started singing it myself and chanting it, and a whole unfolding happened out of that. The shyness disappeared that I had felt up to then singing on my own in front of people, and the voice developed in ways I hadn’t expected or believed it would work. It kind of unfolded and came into flowering, and then we started to record these mantras and realized there is a whole world out there who loves to sing and chant Mantras and incorporate them into their lives, and that’s the kind of Yoga community. That was 20 years ago now. Now I think it’s gone beyond that.
Sandie Sedgbeer: The Gayatri Mantra is one of the most revered and powerful Mantras of all. Why is that? What makes it so special?
Deva Premal: One reason is that it came into existence at the beginning of time, with the first fire ceremony that created the Universe and there were the Vedas, and there was the Gayatri Mantra. The other thing is that it’s a prayer to the Sun. It doesn’t specifically call upon a specific deity, but it calls upon the light, and the light is so universal and cosmic, and everyone on the planet relates to the light as a benevolent force. So, it’s universal. You don’t have to believe in anything. You don’t have to focus on a certain deity or quality like love. The light shines on everything – and the sounds themselves vibrate the whole energetic body system; they have a very wholesome effect on our bodies and our metaphysical bodies.
Sandie Sedgbeer: On October 12th this year, nearly 20 years after your original ground-breaking version of the ancient Gayatri Mantra topped the alternative music charts and appeared on yoga meditation sleep playlists, you released your latest album which is very simply titled Deva. Before the month was out, it had already reached Number One on the Billboard New Age Charts and on iTunes World Music Charts in 11 countries. Tell us about the album and why you decided to re-record these Gayatri Mantras.
Deva Premal: Actually, it’s not re-recorded because the Gayatri Mantra that’s on this new Album called Deva is the long form of the Gayatri Mantras, so that’s what I came to know later after I reconnected to the Mantra that I had grown up with. Of course, I looked for the Gayatri Mantra, and I realized that there’s a longer version that has more sounds and words. The difference is that the new version, which we called the Seven Chakra Gayatri Mantra, addresses every single one of our seven Chakras individually. Which means that we meditate upon this enchanting source of all things in this divine light of pure consciousness that awakens us or inspires or energizes us. So that’s the meaning of the Mantra. We are calling upon all the seven spheres or realms, seven Chakras as they are, as these seven realms are reflected in our bodies, and we invite this pure light to shine upon us and to enlighten us.
Sandie Sedgbeer: You open and close with the Seven Chakra Mantra. Why did you choose to bookend it in that way?
Deva Premal: When we recorded it, we felt they were different, and we didn’t want to choose one over the other. It’s a kind of déjà vu because it’s also what happened 20 years ago on The Essence album when we had two versions of the Gayatri Mantra. We didn’t even realize that it was all happening again, so it was kind of funny. They’re different and what’s also special for me is that I’m actually not a composer. Miten is the composer in the family. Secretly, I was always hoping that maybe for this long form I would find a melody, and Joby Baker, who is the producer of Deva and also of Miten’s Temple at Midnight and a few other albums, wouldn’t take no for an answer. He said: “You just have to write this melody. It has to come out of you this time.” It really did, and I was so surprised and the melody just kind of formed itself in front of me, and it felt so right.
Sandie Sedgbeer: So, you didn’t think you’re a winger, and you are. You didn’t think you’re a composer, and now you are. What else don’t you think you are?
Deva Premal: That’s a good question. Maybe I should look at that. (Laughs)
Sandie Sedgbeer: At what point did you start to consider that your music and chants had healing power?
Deva Premal: It was pretty needed. It was incredible when we recorded The Essence, which had the Gayatri Mantra on it, I still remember we went to India with a pre-mix just after recording it. We played it to our friends, and somebody said, “Wow, there’s some power in there.” It’s a huge responsibility to put music to these sacred sounds. From the very beginning, we received messages from people saying: ‘I was ready to take my life, and somebody put on the CD while I was getting a massage, and suddenly the light went on, and I felt some kind of spark that would make me want to live again.’ This hasn’t only happened once. It’s so extremely humbling, and I feel like if we’ve just recorded these Mantras just for this one person, it would have been worth it. It actually makes me speechless.
Continue to Page 2 of the Interview with Deva Premal
