Surya Botofasina has been busy. In 2022, he released his critically acclaimed debut album, Everyone’s Children. The following year, he was one of the primary instrumentalists featured on André 3000’s debut solo album, New Blue Sun. At the top of 2024, he released the thrilling collaborative album Subtle Movements with Nate Mercereau and Carlos Niño. He has spent most of this year on the road with André 3000, Nate Mercereau, Deantoni Parks, and Carlos Niño on the New Blue Sun tour.
I spoke with Surya Botofasina on the eve of the release of his sophomore album, Ashram Sun, just hours before he took the stage with his New Blue Sun bandmates in Denver, Colorado. The peace and generosity that exude from his music were palpable in the man himself. The record is a reflection on the Ashram where he was raised, Sai Anatam Ashram in Agoura Hills, California, founded by jazz legend Swamini Turiyasangitananda, better known as Alice Coltrane. It is an exhilarating journey that is both impressionistic and narrative in nature. Surya Botofasina walked me through this layered voyage, revealing the sights, sounds, and even smells that informed this project and his musical life more broadly. The Ashram tragically burned down in the Woolsey fires in November of 2018, but Botofasina keeps the Ashram’s legacy alive through his work.
When you were five, you moved into the Sai Anantam Ashram in Agora Hills, California. What was your day-to-day life like at the Ashram, and what was your exposure to Los Angeles and life outside the Ashram?
Life for me was inside the Ashram day-to-day, but it also depended on whether I was in school. I went to public school from the first grade until I graduated high school. I took my first piano lessons when I was eight, so I practiced piano the entire time I was in school. I wasn’t too serious about it early on, but then at 12, I was like, “I really want to learn.” I got together with this teacher in Santa Monica named Bruce Sutherland that my mom found. Bruce Sutherland had every kid that could play everything in the classical world; he was their teacher.
My exposure to Los Angeles was either through visiting family in the deeper parts of Los Angeles, when we went to see people who would come to the Ashram but still lived in LA, or for my mom and me when we’d have the lucky chance to go to a Lakers or Dodgers game. We’re huge sports fans. So, that was also a big part of it. Then, with my mom being a professional musician and gigging. That’s a lot of the way my LA experience was, especially in the valley area.
This wasn’t as often because school was a day-to-day thing. I was always on a team of some sort: basketball, track, baseball. That was where a lot of my time would be dedicated. After that, I would come home and practice piano. So, I had these two separate lives entirely. I tried to be an athlete in school, and I wanted to gain acceptance because I was always the kid with the different name that was a vegetarian. This was before it was cool. There weren’t any plant-based options on a Burger King menu at the time. So, I would try to gain acceptance in a certain way by being an athlete. I would practice piano in the evenings, or especially on the weekends when I had my lessons.
As a teenager, I had a teacher, my mom’s friend, named Yusuf Rahman. Yusuf came up as a trombonist, but he was an incredible arranger. He knew how to arrange and produce, his integrity was at the highest level, and he cared about young people. He truly wanted us to do our best and was willing to invest all of his time. He would show up for a lesson at the house. It would last three or four hours. He would go over each thing. He’s the first person to tell me about Thelonious Monk. He would make me tapes – Listen to Thelonious Monk, Listen to Gonzalez, Listen to Bud Powell. He put me in the studio trying to compete in competitions that I was not ready for with a bunch of grown people because he was just looking to try to push me. And that was kind of like life in the formative sense.
Then, all through this, every Sunday in the Ashram, Swamini leads us to Bhajans. Bhajans are devotional songs. Prior to those songs and chanting, she would give a discourse. Some people would equate it to a sermon. So, she would give a discourse that would last anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, depending on what she was saying. Then the chanting would begin; she would go to the organ and start playing, and it’d be like an explosion of sound for my ears. This complete, expansive, overwhelming amount of sound, chanting, and devotional names were sung in the most accepting and comfortable way. I would see my mom, I would see my pops, I would see other people of their generation bursting into tears, falling on the ground, in pure joy and bliss and happiness. Then, as time went on, I would see how I felt every Sunday. I would see how I would feel so much more hopeful, so much more optimistic about how I felt as a young person, especially as a young person in America who’s a person of color.
It was a challenge in Agora, California. I did not look like all of my peers. I experienced racism at the most subtle, intense degrees. I would see how people would change their opinion of me after they heard me play piano. First, “Why is he in the house?” Then I would play piano, and all of a sudden, “Hey, you want to come over? I got this Christmas party you could play if you like.” And I was like, “Yeah, sure, buddy, whatever, I need 50 bucks.” The whole point was that I was living with this duality of what felt like a material world and then living in a devotional space.
This music that you heard on Sundays would World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda be a good example of what you experienced?
World Spirituality Classics 1 is a great example because a lot of her recordings were taken from the Mundir, the devotional space, or temple, for lack of a better word. Some of those recordings started there, and then she’d take them to the studio. I remember being there as a kid when she was in the studio. My parents were there singing, and everyone else too. It was great because I thought the recording studio was the coolest place on earth. Baker Bigsby, her longtime engineer, allowed me to sit in the booth with him and do my first punch-in on the tape; this was still analog at the time. I felt really happy about that.
Another great example is from her album Translinear Light, which her son Ravi Coltrane produced. There’s a song on there called “Satya Sai Isha”. I’m sure it was mixed and mastered, but that recording was from inside that Mundir in Agoura, California. To me, that’s one of the great examples of the music we heard on Sundays at the Ashram.
What does spiritual jazz mean to you? Do you connect to that as a description for your music, or is there another term you prefer?
I think the term “spiritual jazz” in itself is a nice attempt at trying to indicate that there are sounds that don’t necessarily fall into what would be called jazz standards. Some individuals have taken these standards and put them into academia, or a lot of individuals in the culture of jazz perform these songs as a basis for their improvisation. Spiritual jazz, to me, is trying to indicate that there are individuals who are using improvisation that is coming from a place that’s not necessarily trying to be academic but trying to lean towards maybe what would be more popularly known as wellness.
Things that may be synonymous with that kind of culture, taking meditation, taking the practice of yoga, taking these kinds of traditions, or these kinds of lifestyles that have come from all around the world, obviously, and made it into whatever part of the hemisphere one may dwell, and then saying, “OK, well, what is this music? OK, great. Let’s call it spiritual jazz because it sounds improvised, sounds like there’s some knowledge here, and you can hear some of the harmonic identifiers of what people consider jazz.”
Then there’s the hardest part for people now when they release a record and are asked, “What genre is your music?” Well, I grew up listening to NWA, and I love them. But does that influence what is for me, spiritual jazz? If you grew up in California as a teenager, you had no choice but to listen to a lot of Tupac and a lot of Snoop because it was amazing. Some of those sounds and their influence are in my music every single day. But it’s called spiritual jazz because, I guess, spiritual implies that we’re taking everything of our spirit, of ourselves, of our divine light, and we’re putting it and infusing it into how we express ourselves. Jazz has now become a broad enough term for individuals to try to write about and explain it in that way. But the way that I would consider my own efforts at this current moment. I wouldn’t necessarily call it spiritual jazz. I would call it spiritual sonic expression.
When I heard that you are a big Jodeci fan, I was taken aback because after I saw you at the Mark Taper earlier this summer, I was struck by certain moments that sounded like radically deconstructed 1990s R&B. Can you talk about how hip-hop, R&B, and other forms of popular music have informed your musical point of view?
Not even joking; this is my favorite question of all time. So, in my mind, I was always the fifth member of Jodeci. They just never knew it, and for a lot of reasons. When coming up as a teenager in the 1990s, R&B was like how you learned how to communicate, how you learned the ropes of how to attempt to have any kind of dating life. There were two sides of it. There was a more proper preppy kind of vibe that Boyz II Men had, and then there was the other side, the rebellious kind of vibe that Jodeci had, with the all black and leather and all this stuff. But what is so interesting to me as I listen to it now, you know I still listen to them every week, is the genius of DeVanté Swing.
Then, with the tree of DeVanté Swing, Teddy Riley, even before that with the Gamble and Huff, Isaac Hayes, obviously, everything that Michael Jackson did. For me, it all came into Jodeci’s thing because they found the perfect blend of church. K-Ci & JoJo started in the church, so having gospel merge its way, just like what Ray Charles did, taking a gospel sound and making it into songs about love or relationships. They, to me, modernized it by taking the hip-hop sensibility of the drums, of the groove, of the tempos, and then DeVanté, putting the most genius arrangements with a lot of lush chords, synthesizers, and core qualities for me that really, truly made these beautiful synth sounds jump out.
They would have a high analog or digital kind of string sound or a pad, and then, like a super sub synth bass that he would meld along with a guitar, and then two dudes singing their hearts out about, “baby, don’t leave me”, or whatever it is that they wanted to say. All of that for me was so exciting because I love the way that it all meshed together, and I felt it all related because of the tradition of the Black American experience in church and how it’s gone into so many different areas.
The person who I was raised by, she started in church. To have those sounds go into the synth world and then go into what Jodeci did, it all for me, especially as an impressionable teenager. I was like, “I don’t need to know anything more.” For instance, if you listen to the instrumental of a Jodeci song like the end of “Cry For You“. Another one where they just let the instrumental go forever, “Freek’n You”, was so nuanced. There are so many different elements. There’s a vocoder, there’s a guitar, there’s a synth bass, there’s two different drum patterns, there’s keyboards and it’s just laid right there.
I have used that inspiration all the time in things that I get to play because I still love it, and it’s still a part of my wellness. It’s still a part of my mental health journey to have things that make me happy or sounds that make me feel really inspired, to have some joy, and to share those in some sort of way. My intention may be different. I don’t know. I’ve never talked to DeVanté. That’s like a bucket list conversation for me. I would love to ask him, “What were your intentions?” I would venture to say they’re probably pretty similar to mine. It’s just different forms of expression. We all want to feel good. What makes us feel good. That’s between you and you. But we all want to feel good. We all want to feel optimistic. We all want to feel happy. We want to feel hopeful. Especially these days, when I say these days, just like the last 400 years of America, you know, these days.
You studied piano at the New School in Manhattan. I believe Robert Glasper was a colleague of yours there. How did that time impact your musical journey?
I was a piano student at the New School, and that was intense. The interesting thing with Robert in the New School was it wasn’t just Robert. Robert was clearly already on his way, and at first, I resisted trying to befriend Robert and a lot of people who were in that peer group. Damion Reid, Keyon Harrold, Lakecia Benjamin, Marcus, and E.J. Strickland, just to name a few of the individuals who were there. I resisted trying to be friends with them because I thought they all were so good. I thought they were all so incredibly skilled. I was like, I don’t belong, literally, at their table. I was very insecure about this. One day, Robert pulled me aside and said, “You need to communicate with us. You need to let people know who you are, or nobody’s going to hire you. If I have a gig and I can’t make it. How would I know to call you? Because nobody knows you. Nobody knows who you are, like as a person.”
I don’t know what led him to say that, except his level of integrity that he really does carry, which I admire him for. But then, because of not only the way that he approached me on that, but the way that he was approaching the music, and the way that the songs that he and his friends were writing and the way that they were writing them, and the fact that they could write those songs and at the same time all the old-school cats at the New School respected those guys because they all could play straight ahead and knock it out the park, I felt they were unlimited musically, with their skills, with all the fundamentals, reading, writing, composing, improvising. They could do it all, in my opinion. And I couldn’t, in my mind.
So, I just practiced and practiced and practiced, and I eventually realized after a couple of years that I’m not like them, that I’m different, I play differently, I sound differently, I approach things differently. I don’t have a need for certain aspects of traditional jazz in my everyday life, and I felt almost conflicted because I felt like I had to learn these particular fundamentals. I would look around and I would see individuals who were so good at those fundamentals, and I felt that they looked unhappy. I’ve seen a lot of people who could play circles around circles plus circles, and they were really just identifying as that, as a person who could play circles around people. So, I found myself knowing, “Oh, my journey is going to be different. I keep hearing the Ashram. I keep hearing the songs I love from R&B, the aforementioned Jodeci, and I keep hearing my own self. There’s something different there for me, and it’s probably not going to be popular.” I’ve never been popular ever in my life. I knew at that moment it was not going to be that popular. It’s going to be different. But I know I have to try it.
2017 was a pivotal year for you. World Spirituality Classics 1: The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda was released, and you became the musical director for the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers. How did that experience inform your musical path?
It was pivotal in every single life way because I couldn’t hide anything from myself. I couldn’t hide that I wanted the sounds I was lucky enough to hear in the Ashram. I wanted to emulate that, and I wanted to express it. As much as I wanted to express that sound and emulate it, as a musical director, I also found a lot of places where I could make mistakes in trying to go the way that someone else thought I should. I started to find out that I can only do so much, that I can only try to be authentic to the experience that I remember in my heart, and put forth all of that in my own personal dedication and thank you.
It was super pivotal because it wasn’t smooth with every individual. It wasn’t smooth with every moment. It wasn’t smooth with every guest. It wasn’t smooth with every concert. There were a lot of rocky moments not only with what was going on with that but in my own life, there was a lot going on, too. That evolution of self was really tough, the way that I was experiencing it then. Also, it changed everything because it was the first time I studied our Bhajans on an academic level. I had always played in the Mandir, and I felt the spirit of the Mandir so many times, but it was the first time I studied Swamini specifically for what she was playing on the keyboard. Then I said, “OK, I’ll never be able to do that – ever.” Let’s be very clear. What I can do is I can put forth my greatest amount of self-discovery, of an attempt at self-realization or liberating myself from my ego through sound.
For the past two years, you’ve been on the move, from the release of Everyone’s Children to Subtle Movements to New Blue Sun and the subsequent touring. We’ve talked about the Ashram, the New School, and your time as the musical director of the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers. Are there any other moments that come to mind that have been consequential for your current work?
Every August 27th and every January 12th (Swamini Turiyasangitananda’s birth and death) has always been the guide. I want to be grateful, and I want to really be thankful to Swamini and my mom and my parents for letting me develop into the person I am today. That’s what’s guiding me. I do have children, so I want them to know that you don’t have to put a limit on your dreams ever. You don’t have to put a limit on your level of introspection ever. Be confident in the process and the path, although you will be challenged.
The moments that have been so astronomically developmental for myself have been around, not only the albums that you mentioned, but the concerts, the gatherings that have also occurred, the conversations with individuals like Meghan Stabile saying, “Just keep on going on where you’re at, this is the next way.” To see it now in its current iteration, and with partnership and connection with so many individuals who I’ve really come to admire over time for their own musical lives and more. I get a lot of inspiration from sports, too. All these expressions, film, television, theater, all of it. I’m super into photography right now. All of this has led me to think now is the time, tomorrow’s not promised. Don’t waste a moment. I was told coming up, “tomorrow’s not promised” a lot. We all heard that at the Ashram a lot. So, I’m really trying to live and understand as much as I can today how to be grateful for the here and now.
Quite transparently, I also started living a sober life, and that has been a big thing. I’m not shy about this because I want individuals to know that we don’t have to seek out things except our own selves to be as okay as possible. I’m not saying in any way, shape, or form that we’re not going to be challenged, and we’re not going to feel like we’re really struggling. But I can say, in my time of living a sober life and clearing the clutter of my own mind, that I have noticed an incredible amount of blessings that have come forth in a musical sense.
So, I hope that whatever we do, however we use music, however we use sound, however we use art, however we use expression, whatever it is that you’re into, know that who you are is good enough. Your soul is perfect the way it is. We don’t have to, in any way, shape, or form, try to live up to a standard that doesn’t feel aligned with our own personal spiritual expression, not for any money, not for any popularity, not for any opinion, sometimes not even for any family member, but with respect and with self-respect more specifically.
Clearing up some of that from my mind has been monumental in allowing these albums to occur because it allowed me to be in the right mind frame to show up to the recording studio, to show up to the concerts, to show up to the gathering. I showed up for the New Blue Sun recordings as my most whole self that I’ve shown up to anything as, and I believe that’s why some of it was allowed to happen.
In the liner notes to Ashram Sun, Marcus J. Moore says that the album has an edginess, and it does seem that you venture into a different musical terrain than you did on Everyone’s Children. Do you see the new album as distinct from your earlier work, and if so, how?
Ashram Sun doesn’t have as much long-form as Everyone’s Children. And in some of the edgier things that Marcus was describing, there are different aspects of sound and of electronics or acoustics that are being used to really try to express all sides of humanity and the things that I’ve experienced as a human being from my formative years to my present years. That, in its particular way, is how this collection of sounds came about, along with trying to really understand and be open to the way that Nate is going to express sonically, the way that Carlos is going to express sonically. It is going to be, perhaps, different—no, not even perhaps, it’s definitely going to be different than the things that I would instinctually go to.
I felt on the Ashram there was an incredible amount of acceptance for people from all walks of life, and I want Ashram Sun to represent that in a sonic sense. All walks of life are welcome in that all walks of life are a part of our path, and we cannot avoid each other’s spirits. If we’re lucky, we will find that not only are our spirits unavoidable, but we’ll also find that we have so much more that does connect us than sets us apart. You can go anywhere in the world, and you find that people just want to be happy, and they want their families to do well. I feel the same way about Ashram Sun in the way these sounds were put forth for us to do well.
Where, and especially in light of your heavy touring schedule, when was this recorded?
Every concert that Carlos, Nate and I have played – we record them all. So like “Circle of Compassion” started from a gathering we had out in California that was recorded with our homies from the Living Earth crew, Noah Klein, and all of them. Then, from that recording, it was put together, and then MidnightRoba took it and blessed it in her own way, and then it was all melded together. Also, we were trying to finish it before New Blue Sun came out. New Blue Sun came out on November 17th, I think we turned it in November 16th.
The album feels both impressionistic and narrative. The titles of tracks are evocative and a bit obscure at times but clearly referential. I’d love to go through track by track. The album begins with “North Triunfo Canyon Road Front Gate Shanti”.
The Asham was on North Triunfo Canyon Road. There is a front gate there that’s very distinct. At first, Sai Anantam Ashram was known as Shanti Anantam, Shanti being the word for peace, also one of the five values. So that’s why it’s the opening to the album. If you’ve ever gone to the Ashram, you know as soon as you open that gate, you start to go down that little path. That’s where the feeling comes in like you’re okay here.
That’s entirely the sense one gets listening to it, and this is essentially a duet with you and Carlos Niño. He’s been an important figure in your musical life. How did you two meet?
He was very aware of the Ashram, I want to say, he said when he was still in high school. But our paths never truly crossed. Then, I was recommended to him for his Build an Arc orchestra that he had. That’s when we first met, and then, we were like, “We should do an album”. That didn’t happen. Life goes on. Still, he had a place he was curating, The Townhouse Del Monte speakeasy in Venice Beach, California, and he was always willing to say, “Hey, if you want to play here, do your thing, we’ll do it all together – all right fantastic.” From there, we’ve become very close.
“Ashram Sun Sai Anantam” is essentially the title track. What does the album title mean to you, and why is this the titular track?
The album title, to me, is definitively who I am. I will always be from Sai Anantam Ashram. I’ll always be a son of Sai Anantam Ashram. The sun that shines on Sai Anantam Ashram is so distinct, so bright, so beautiful. It’s so enveloping, and then my name’s Surya, it means the sun. I was like, “This is all one big thank you. Here I am, mama. We did it. Swamini, thank you so much for making this Ashram a reality in our lives.” It’s singing for gratitude and acknowledging one of the elders who passed away a couple of days before we recorded the vocals on it. She lived to be 100. Her name was Uma, and so saying her name on it and saying the word Bhumi Devi, which is known as a way of acknowledging Mother Earth, and Sai Anantam Ashram, abode of peace.
The whole album has a great sense of ebb and flow. You’re in these moments of deep tranquillity and then ecstatic exuberance. “Ashram Sun Sai Anantam” seems like our first moment of ecstasy, followed by another kind of elevation with “There Will Be Brighter Days,” especially with Angel Bat Dawid’s commanding vocals.
This was the first day I met Angel, it was at the aforementioned Del Monte speakeasy in Venice Beach, California. We were there for a night of dedication to Swamini. And Angel was in town, and Carlos was like, “Hey, you know, Angel is in town. She should join us for a moment.” I’m like, “Okay, great. Sounds awesome.” Caleb Buchanan, Will Logan, they were there too and rounding out the ensemble was myself and my mom.
So, this is from a live recording that we started there. We had this great moment. “There Will Be Brighter Days” was an organic chant moment that she felt, and we made that our refrain. After that was recorded, Nate Mercereau took it, expanded it, and lifted it. Carlos, Anthony, and Nate expanded and made it lift into the huge amounts of sound you hear, especially towards the end of the piece. A little saxophone was added on there, and here we are.
This title feels relatively straightforward. But it does speak to overcoming challenges. You have spoken openly about your mental health challenges, particularly with depression. Mental health can be difficult to talk about, perhaps especially when there may be pressure to be spiritually elevated at all times. How do you think about your spiritual practice in relation to mental health challenges?
What I found about mental health challenges is that they never take a day off, and they don’t have a set schedule. There’s nothing that says for a person with depression or other such things that, “Hey, Friday, at 12 o’clock, this is your moment.” It can occur at any time, an onset of feeling despondent, or overwhelmed, or whatever it may be, as it presents with people. However, in my personal spiritual practice, for instance, I’m very connected with water, bodies of water specifically. So, if I can be around bodies of water, whether a man-made lake, or an ocean, or something like that, I feel more aligned with various things. The challenge in the mental health aspect is to do the first thing, which is to acknowledge it.
For instance, if I’m saying, “There will be brighter days,” that means today doesn’t feel like the greatest moment in time. But my optimism in my mental health, wellness, and spiritual practice will let me know that brighter days will be there. That my light inside of myself will be there, it’s never going away. However, the hardest thing I find anybody with a big heart can do is ask for help. The hardest thing for people to do is cry for help because we have been told that crying for help is a sign of weakness when, in reality, it’s the biggest sign of strength you can ever have. For instance, the word surrender in a battle means you lost. But the word surrender in a spiritual sense means you actually won. It means you let go of your ego in a way. So, for me, “There Will Be Brighter Days” is asking us—asking myself—to surrender continually.
I really appreciate that about your music, both the spiritual and the emotional space that you allow it to go into feels distinct… “Avatar Bookstore Bal Vikas”, can you expand on the meaning of this track title?
We’ve opened the front gate of the Ashram. We’ve gone down the path. As you went down this little path, there was a small building called the Avatar Bookstore. In the Avatar Bookstore, there were a lot of tapes, CDs, a lot of books, not only Swamini’s writings and music, but other things as well. And then, Bal Vikas is kind of like the equivalent of the Sunday school program that we would have as kids. Any one of us who grew up on the Ashram remembers the bookstore. And then you also remember Bal Vikas, because that was where we were taught these values that were super important, which was to be truthful, to be loving, to be peaceful, to be nonviolent, to do things with the right action. That’s your dharma frame, the five values that we learned that came from Sai Baba.
However, the reason why I named it this is because the Avatar Bookstore always had this distinct aroma. It was really soft and beautiful because there was a lot of incense that was sold there. If you’ve ever been to a place that sells a lot of incense, the aroma is very soft and subtle but also powerful. That’s what I always had in my mind; the song just feels like the smell of a lot of good incense. After, we would have our Sunday school or Bal Vikas, that’s when I would typically go in the bookstore or after services. And that felt wonderful.
“Chumash Pradesh Mandir Steps Reflection“
The Sai Anantam Ashram was said to be on Chumash Pradesh. Pradesh being a word for state, like you would say Andhra Pradesh, which is like a state in India. Chumash is acknowledging the First Nations members of that particular area of California. The Chumash people were the ones who were in that area of California where the Ashram was. This is all a reflection of the Mandir steps. The album cover depicts the Mandir steps. The reflection of the sun on those white steps, on the land that the indigenous nation—the Chumash people—cultivated. We were the next people on that particular land, dedicating our lives to its wellness. That’s what I wanted to acknowledge, our connection and lineage with that deeply.
I was going to ask you about the cover, which is really beautiful. It seems to express a lot of the various energies on the record.
Sitting on the Mandir steps, photo shot by the wonderful Grace Oh. My mom and my sister were there that same day. Artwork done by the incredibly talented Nirbhai (Nep) Singh Sidhu, a wonderful artist extraordinaire of many different mediums, based in Toronto, but he’s a global being. And through all of them, through my mom, my sister, and Grace’s lens, and Nep’s view, that is how, sitting on the Ashram steps, the album cover came forth.
Even your outfit, the tunic with the Jordans, communicates on a multitude of levels.
I’m a sneakerhead through and through. Let me wear some blue ones [laghter]
“Thru Her Wisdom Eye” seems like a direct reference to Swamini Turiyasangitananda.
All the way. Every album, I want to acknowledge Swamini Turiyasangitananda. Also, she released, on her own album, a song of that title. So, I just really want to acknowledge that with Mia Doi Todd doing what only Mia can do in conveying that. Mia is so important to each album. I don’t feel like an album is complete if Mia is not on it. That became very clear very quickly. And so she was able to convey through “Thru Her Wisdom Eye” us saying thank you that the spiritual vision of our guru was one that we were able to see her exemplify in her own life. Then therefore, my generation, my parents, and my peers were also able to benefit from it. Not only benefit but be guided in the deepest sense. It is all through her wisdom, it is all through her devotion, it is all through her highest being that we were allowed to have the most unique experience. That song is just trying to say another deep thank you.
It seems like a continuation when we get to “Turiyasangitananda Eternal Pranams”. Pranams, here is a reverential salutation. But what does this collection of words mean?
It’s saying we eternally give salutations and obeisances to Turiyasangitananda. It’s also saying that I really enjoyed watching her television program, Eternity’s Pillar. And that’s why the word eternal because I didn’t want to use Eternity’s Pillar directly. The eternal is something that she has expressed in different ways. So I felt like my soul is eternally so joyous to have just been in one conversation, one moment with her. This happened to be the last song added to the album. But the title is just saying that we eternally offer obeisances, and thank you, and take the torch as best as possible in whatever way we can carry it—and saying that her eternal vision is one that I will always keep in my heart.
“(The Circle) of Compassion“ is the lead single. What is the circle of compassion? How did you connect with MidnightRoba from Attica Blues?
Nate, Carlos, and I played a concert in London at the Church of Sound that Raba, being that she’s based over there, came through and blessed. My mom was a part of this vocal chorus that Carlos put together. Miles Spilsbury is playing saxophone. It was an incredible night. I hope that music is released from that night. Because of the impression that Roba left on me, I really hoped she could be a part of this album, too.
I also have a high need for women to be represented on my albums because it is beyond known, but unfortunately, not so addressed how women have been completely underserved in the music industry from not only a safety aspect, a representation aspect but also a business equality aspect. Fortunately, I’ve been given the ultimate example of a woman who is a powerful force in music who carried on not only the legacy of herself but, obviously, of her husband, too. Raba, I could see from the minute we met and the minute she connected with my folks and my family that she was a perfect example of power and grace, everything that we find so many women in music to be.
The circle refers back to my childhood. The circle is where we played. The circle is where we hung out. I can’t tell you how many bike races, skateboard moments, tag happened in that circle. For any one of us who lived there on the Ashram, especially my peer group, the circle was where it was at. “What are you doing? Just go meet in the circle. Where are you going to go? Going to the circle.” It was a literal little circle, just a little patch. And so, I wanted to acknowledge that.
The next track also seems to root us in the geography of the Ashram, “Our Cottage to Across the Stream”.
My house where I grew up in on the Ashham was called the Cottage because it was a cottage. This exemplifies my mother and the way she and my pops go about things. Our cottage started as a two-bedroom. Me and my mom in there. There was a wood stove. That was how it started. By the end of it, there was a music room, an additional breakfast nook, a laundry room, an additional bedroom, a little volleyball court, and a deck on the outside. From this cottage, we would walk across the stream because that’s where the Mundir was. I would love walking barefoot from there. You could go barefoot from our home to across the stream to the Mundir, where Swamini would give the words of the day and the chanting would happen, and that was what I wanted to acknowledge, that journey from home to the Mundir.
Then we would go from the Mundir across the stream back to our cottage, and our cottage was the kick-it spot. It was very much like, “OK, it’s wonderful, it’s beautiful, Sunday on the Ashram. Don’t sleep. I’m watching the Lakers game with full dedication at the end of the day.” They would start to play, and at 6:30-7:00, it was all done. So, I would make some food, and the next thing you know, there’d be 15 to 20 people at the house, Sunday dinner style, watching the game.
“Your Soul Is Perfect (Supreme Uniter)”
This was a “had-to-happen” moment. Swamini would conclude a lot of her satsangs, which translates, in a way, to sermon, but it’s a more specific thing. She would conclude her inspirational message, if you will, by praying that everyone present would one day seek the truth that is God, that we would be liberated, our souls would be liberated, that we would go through liberation, self-realization, and eventually the ultimate, the highest goal, as she said, God realization. Taking that on the album, for me, is to say that your soul is perfect, again, the way that you are, the way that I am, the way that my partner is, the way that my family is, who we are, inherently, is unblemished, it’s perfectly acceptable, it’s viable, it’s vibrant, it’s bright.
Supreme uniter, that’s an acknowledgment to Meghan Stabile, the concert promoter, the luminary, somebody who I was incredibly close with. Earth was too small for her. Meghan left the earth. She joined the ancestors a couple of years ago. We recorded this song from a concert that was very much dedicated to her spirit. She had just taken off, maybe, three or four weeks earlier. Meghan was someone who was very instrumental, literally and figuratively, to a lot of individuals, especially in the New York scene. You’re not going to be surprised if you see Eric B and Rakim at the Blue Note; that’s because of the vision that Meghan had. She put a lot of money in a lot of people’s pockets, but beyond that, she had a vision. She not only had a vision, but she also very openly dealt with different issues, like I dealt with, too. “Your Soul Is Perfect” is just saying, “Meghan, your soul is perfect. I love you. You’re all good. I’m glad you’re where you’re at in the stars.”
This composition also features your mother, Rada Botofasina, on harp and voice. I can only imagine how special it is to collaborate with her. Could you speak to what that means to you?
It’s really wonderful. Our communication is unique. To say that my mother is in my corner is an understatement, but she’s very subtle about the way that she’ll state it. It’s just great to do this with her. I also know I love having it because, as time goes on, and she and I join the stars, my kids will be able to have it. Why not have a song with your mom, if you can? Anytime we, as parents, get to do stuff with our kids, and they can be a part of it, it’s beyond great. Right now, in the current sports culture, Lebron James and Bronny James are big things. “Oh, his son’s not good enough. Yo, it’s your son; it’s your child. Why would you not want to do something at the highest level with your child who you love?” There are no words to equate the level of joy that brings, and the same goes for my mom, hearing my mom sing and us being a part of it. It’s awesome, and we’ll have it forever.
Are there any final thoughts you would like to share about the intentions behind this extraordinary body of work?
My biggest intention I want to communicate with Ashram Sun is that it is made with love, it is made with joy, it is made as a gift, it is made as an offering, to let ourselves know that we are perfectly okay as we are, that we are here for each other, to make sure that we connect with the deepest part of ourselves, to make sure that we apologize to those we need to apologize to, and more than anything that we forgive ourselves, that we forgive ourselves for any things that we’ve placed on our mental hardship, and that we allow this forgiveness that we give to ourselves to then expand into a joy that we can spread within ourselves and then share with others. That’s what my hope is for Ashram Sun.