GARDNER: How would you describe your creative process as a composer?

SPORE: My music flows from my personal experiences, my contact with nature and  the diversity of Earth's environments. Subjects of nature inspire me a great deal, but also nature in terms of human history - our legends, beliefs and myths which are all a part of the tapestry of who we are. When a subject moves me, all my senses open up to it. I feel it move in my body, and I’m right there with the reality of the thing. With ‘Night on the Nile’ I put myself on a papyrus boat going down the river with an Egyptian man at the helm. The moon and stars are reflecting on the water. There’s a sense of anticipation and mystery as a cool breeze starts to blow the canvas sails. I see a crocodile slip into the Nile from on shore. Pyramids and temple-ruins are silhouetted in the distance. With Creatures of Neptune I composed the entire piece in my mind without ever practicing it. It felt like I was composing on auto-pilot - in a kind of daydream about the god Neptune. I could feel his presence lurking in the water while I observed the various species that evolved near the ocean floor. Then one evening it happened in the studio. The mood was right – the lights were low and I played the whole thing for the first time in one take with no need to go back and redo it. I had a similar experience with ‘Orion’ and ‘Birds.’

GARDNER:  That’s interesting. Can you explain that process further?

SPORE:   I have to have a genuine interest in a subject before I can write about it.  Usually there’s a gestation period. I may read about the subject or travel to places that relate to it and do some sketches. All the while its like I’m feeding information to this composition that’s going on in my unconscious and then one day it begins to emerge, like it's saying, okay, its time to be born. It’s a very peaceful state I enter, like an active meditation. There’s a kind of electricity that builds up and I tend to get very focused. For me there’s a tactile, sensuous quality to writing music akin to doing an oil painting or a mixed media sculpture. There's a whole spectrum of hues, textures, shadows, highlights and a mood to bring forth.

GARDNER:  I experience the color and texture you’re referring to in your composition ‘Festival at Karnak’. It’s a rather grand piece, almost bigger than life. What moved you to compose it?

SPORE:  I had a lot of fun working on Festival. I’ve always had an avid interest in Egyptian history and mythology. Musician, Jeff Lennan was on the djembe’s and instruments of all kinds filled the studio. There were tambourines, sistrums, wood drums, chimes and shakers. Even a few toy whistles and flutes I found in a thrift store.  Here was the largest temple complex ever created in the ancient world. It covered one hundred acres. Painted stone pillars reached 80 feet high. Three Vatican’s could fit inside of the complex! The annual feast of Opet has just begun and there’s a curious energy in the air.  Thousands of Egyptians and Nubians gather outside the temple on boats and by foot. There are acrobats leaping in the air. Children are laughing and playing leapfrog and tag. The esteemed conductor is working with musicians as they warm up for the celebration. The procession begins with a burst of applause as the blue and gold statue of the creator god Amun is carried from a waiting boat along the Nile.  Then the event picks up as dancers twirl around with sistrums and shakers to the beat of drums. Everyone is having fun and letting loose. Again I’m transported to this great event – caught up in the revelry of the crowd - in the joy of the celebration.

GARDNER:  The ancient Egyptians appeared to be a happy people overall. One need only study their colorful wall paintings and carvings to see that. 

SPORE:  They loved life and they loved to celebrate it. 

GARDNER:  I hear the classical element as well as an impressionist, often abstract quality of your music. I’m reminded of Debussy - his song poems about nature. He broke from traditional modes of composing where every note had to be showcased in conventional time.

 SPORE:  The act of composing is a free flowing contemplation for me. It’s natural for me. I often write in a completely abstract mode working at first with sounds and images that come up for me. I think a lot of ambiance and sensitivity gets lost for an artist when there’s a strict focus on conventional frameworks. We have the organic flux and flow of the elements - the raw forces of nature. There are geometric and symmetrical aspects of growth born from that organic flow. That speaks of what my own process is like as an artist. It takes a little while for things to take form from the chaos and crystallize, to get all the chemistry moving in the right direction.  When it does, it’s an awesome experience.  Music and creativity is like a flower opening its petals. Each petal layer opens up to reveal the whole. Each creative work has its own particular process and in a real way, takes on a mind and voice of it’s own. Debussy is one of my favorite composers by the way.  He sure loosened things up for modern composers to expand - to focus more on the signature of ones creative voice. He was a forerunner for film scores, not to mention new age, ambient and jazz  

GARDNER: Why the term 'New Age’ and why is that important to your music?

 SPORE:  We are just beginning a new thousand-year millennium and a new century. It's an exciting time we're living in! It’s time for us to let go of ideologies and self -limiting beliefs that we have as a race, which only tend to isolate us from the global family. People have misconceptions about what the term ‘new age’ means.  It’s not a  religion. It's a positive philosophy - a way of life.  Meditation and studies in metaphysics are important, but the primary framework of the new age speaks for balance and mutual cooperation for a more workable future for everyone, including our natural environments. This can be achieved through the creative arts, sciences and the healing arts. There’s a focus on common ground within the colorful diversity of cultures in our world and a greater appreciation of that diversity. New age thought has inspired me to broader horizons and I feel that my music and art embodies this vision of life.

 GARDNER:  The cover painting you did, ‘Temple Earth’ speaks powerfully to me of that vision.

 SPORE:  I think the image of the earth from space as taken by the astronauts is a timely one, more than ever - one we can lift up as a banner and flag with pride.

 GARDNER:  It certainly is a symbol which people of all cultures and ages can relate to, especially for young people today.

 SPORE:  The painting is a mixed media work in acrylics and oils. It’s my own interpretation of that image from space – stepping back to view our world from a different perspective - a distant oasis in time from the ruins of humanities past.

 GARDNER:  There’s a sense of communion with the glass of wine and the single rose at center. It reminds me of how unique - how precious our planet really is.

SPORE:  I see it as a universal symbol of a new cosmology for the new age we are entering into. We are all one in a global sense and connected in a vital way. We are all responsible for the planets well being and future blossoming - each in our  own way.

 GARDNER:  Are there any new music compositions in the works?

 SPORE:  I’m presently refining ten new works for piano and music for a CD of ancient Egyptian themes. I have three major works also in progress; Alien Symphony, Celestial Concerto, Song of Atlantis.

 GARDNER:  Thank you SPORE for sharing your music and creative process with us. We look forward to your upcoming CD’s with your new compositions. For now though let us relax and perhaps light a candle and give a good ear to SPORE-original works - Volume 1.