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Below, Kevin Paris, creator of Rise, and Acro yogis Chelsey Korus and Matt Giordano share their thoughts with us. Kevin Paris, musician, yogi, and creator of Rise, answers some of our questions below about his music, his yoga practice, and why music is an imperative part of life. When did you become a musician? Why? Who were your influences? When I was 15 years old I went to a Ben Harper concert with Jack Johnson opening, and knew that day I wanted to become a musician at least on some level. More than music, I wanted to contribute to something massive—to be able to bring people together and create an unforgettable, transformational experience for thousands of people through music, like Ben & Jack did that day. They, along with Bob Marley and Bon Iver, are my biggest influences. What brought you to yoga? How did you start playing live music for classes? I took my first yoga classes while living in South Africa, but it wasn’t until I returned to the U.S. and took a class with a great playlist that I was hooked. I realized how much the music altered my experience of the class and my ability to connect with myself, my emotions, my body, and the whole experience. I knew I could play a lot of the songs on the playlist, so I asked the teacher if we could collaborate on a yoga and live music experience. We did. I fell in love with the flow. The collaboration. The fusion of music, breath, movement, stillness, intensity, strength, and the silence between. Every class is like jamming with a new band: The teacher, the students, the room, and us all jamming in unison, flowing and building off each other in a way never created before. It’s spontaneous. It’s free. It’s healing. It’s Big Magic. How has yoga changed or influenced your life? Yoga to me is a state of relationship, so it has innately changed and influenced everything: My relationship with myself, others, music, life, movement, food, art, listening, ethics, the world… All things. Are there similarities in the message of your music and your personal practice? Does one inspire the other? Absolutely. There is no separation between my music and my personal practice. My music is my practice, and my practice informs my music. Both continuously, intrinsically build off another. Most yoga teachers will tell you they are best at teaching what they are most in need of hearing or have spent the most time healing. The same goes for me musically: Music is my medicine, my outlet, my practice. I sing, write, and play what I need, and I’m deeply fortunate there’s such an amazing tribe who resonates with what the music offers all of us. Why is music important for us, as a society? What does it do for you? Big question... Music is an intrinsic part of society, because it is an intrinsic, inseparable part of us. Yogis believe the whole Universe was created by sound (the sound of Om). Sounds, when put together, create music (and life). On a more visible scale, music as a platform, movement, and grand unifier is crucial to the world. Look at influential musicians like Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Fela Kuti, Bono, John Lennon, Willie Nelson, and thousands more. These are revolutionaries who harnessed the power of music to create global shifts in consciousness, societies, politics, equality, and beyond. Music is also important as medicine: A powerful reality currently being embraced by more Western doctors who are only beginning to understand what shamans, yogis, and healers have been saying for thousands of years. Broken down simply, sound and music are healing, medicinal modalities because:
Below, Kevin Paris, creator of Rise, and Acro yogis Chelsey Korus and Matt Giordano share their thoughts with us. Kevin Paris, musician, yogi, and creator of Rise, answers some of our questions below about his music, his yoga practice, and why music is an imperative part of life. When did you become a musician? Why? Who were your influences? When I was 15 years old I went to a Ben Harper concert with Jack Johnson opening, and knew that day I wanted to become a musician at least on some level. More than music, I wanted to contribute to something massive—to be able to bring people together and create an unforgettable, transformational experience for thousands of people through music, like Ben & Jack did that day. They, along with Bob Marley and Bon Iver, are my biggest influences. What brought you to yoga? How did you start playing live music for classes? I took my first yoga classes while living in South Africa, but it wasn’t until I returned to the U.S. and took a class with a great playlist that I was hooked. I realized how much the music altered my experience of the class and my ability to connect with myself, my emotions, my body, and the whole experience. I knew I could play a lot of the songs on the playlist, so I asked the teacher if we could collaborate on a yoga and live music experience. We did. I fell in love with the flow. The collaboration. The fusion of music, breath, movement, stillness, intensity, strength, and the silence between. Every class is like jamming with a new band: The teacher, the students, the room, and us all jamming in unison, flowing and building off each other in a way never created before. It’s spontaneous. It’s free. It’s healing. It’s Big Magic. How has yoga changed or influenced your life? Yoga to me is a state of relationship, so it has innately changed and influenced everything: My relationship with myself, others, music, life, movement, food, art, listening, ethics, the world… All things. Are there similarities in the message of your music and your personal practice? Does one inspire the other? Absolutely. There is no separation between my music and my personal practice. My music is my practice, and my practice informs my music. Both continuously, intrinsically build off another. Most yoga teachers will tell you they are best at teaching what they are most in need of hearing or have spent the most time healing. The same goes for me musically: Music is my medicine, my outlet, my practice. I sing, write, and play what I need, and I’m deeply fortunate there’s such an amazing tribe who resonates with what the music offers all of us. Why is music important for us, as a society? What does it do for you? Big question... Music is an intrinsic part of society, because it is an intrinsic, inseparable part of us. Yogis believe the whole Universe was created by sound (the sound of Om). Sounds, when put together, create music (and life). On a more visible scale, music as a platform, movement, and grand unifier is crucial to the world. Look at influential musicians like Bob Marley, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Fela Kuti, Bono, John Lennon, Willie Nelson, and thousands more. These are revolutionaries who harnessed the power of music to create global shifts in consciousness, societies, politics, equality, and beyond. Music is also important as medicine: A powerful reality currently being embraced by more Western doctors who are only beginning to understand what shamans, yogis, and healers have been saying for thousands of years. Broken down simply, sound and music are healing, medicinal modalities because:
- Music is created by sound waves
- Sound waves transfer energy through vibration
- Other vibrations influence our vibrations through resonance.