 |
Eavesdrop and roll
|
“Sometimes I like to eavesdrop on people,” says Charles Spearin, “but not really hear what they’re saying, just listen to the melody of their voices.” The beauty of vocal cadences moved Spearin to use speech as a starting point for musical composition—not performed spoken word, just the everyday chatter of the average person. For vocal samples, Spearin turned to seven of his neighbours in downtown Toronto, recorded his conversations with them, then enlisted 10 of his musician friends to help mimic their speech with musical instruments. The result is The Happiness Project, recently released by Arts & Crafts. With his Buddhist background in mind, the Mirror questioned Spearin about the genesis of this project and the meaning of happiness. Mirror: I read that this idea was partly inspired by silent Buddhist retreats. Charles Spearin: It was more the reaction that I would have coming back to my ordinary life afterwards—it was either completely overwhelming or it was a delightful cacophony of noises and sounds. Eventually, I wouldn’t even notice the chaos of the world, I’d just be swept right back into it, but that few weeks or so right after I’d come home, it’s like you don’t have any skin. You’re feeling everything very raw and very fresh and very intense. That brought my attention back to these melodies of speech, it kept bringing back that idea. M: Why did you choose to record these neighbours of yours? CS: The randomness of it was important to me. I didn’t want to pick people who had interesting voices, or interesting things to say, I just wanted to find ordinary life, and work with that. M: Do you think happiness, or at least appearing to be happy, is something that’s overvalued in our society? CS: In a way, happiness sounds naïve, selfish and superficial, but I think that no matter what people are looking for in their life, they’re looking for happiness. There’s an underlying universality to the subject of happiness, because everyone in the world wants to be happy. From that perspective, it’s certainly not undervalued. M: Maybe the problem is that we’re led to believe that superficial things will bring us happiness. CS: That’s one of the reasons I asked about it, but my neighbours didn’t say that. Mrs. Morris said that happiness is love; love for each other, for community. And Anna, who takes care of mentally challenged young women, says that they’re happy all the time and they don’t ask what’s beyond the present. Ultimately, I think everybody has an understanding that happiness doesn’t come from the trivialities of life. M: Buddhism equates living with suffering—are Buddhist practices ultimately meant to alleviate that suffering? CS: Meditation shows you the ordinary magic in the world, it leads you to stop running away from your fears and running towards your hopes. You end up sitting there with a bit of a broken heart, but that sadness, ironically, contains a sense of truth that brings happiness and wisdom. WITH ANDREW WHITEMAN AT |
