When Kavi writes a song, he lets go of himself so that the music and the melody come through him but are not of him. He doesn't want to entertain the listener. He wants to create a space for transformation. This is not music as you've heard it before, you are invited to listen with fresh ears. His new album Unconditional Love is completely different to everything he has done before - and way beyond his expectations.
"I had originally called the album Garden of Love - a beautiful image, a beautiful intention but still vague. Then suddenly the record company were forcing me to step into something new, focus it, give it true intention and name it - Unconditional Love - it's the title of the first track and then it became the title of the album. It was always there, but I had to recognize it and name it. I'd spend so much of my life running away from it. I had systematically avoided talking of love, of naming it and now the cosmic joke is that my album is out there, branded Unconditional Love. It was a universal decision, not my own to make."
"The song ‘Unconditional Love' was easy to write, born out of the meditation between my partner Amoda and I. And this theme underpins the rest of the album…. It's like a mantra, it's like the Beatles' 'All You Need is Love.' And it is like a mantra, it lulls the mind."
The music has a spacey vibe. Going beyond space and time, it is ethereal but gets right to the heart centre. It is deeply emotional. "In the creative process I really focused on going with the flow - trusting and surrendering to the journey. I really had to let go of the mind - it was a quantum shift in working."
When Kavi works he becomes a channel - dropping traditional ways of writing a song. "It is difficult to stay with the flow and naturally there were hurdles, but I feel like the album formed itself, and at a certain point I had the thought, it was finished. It said to me 'don't do any more to me!'"
"The songs don't arise from anywhere particular. My form of enquiry keeps inviting you to court the mystery of life - to be a witness to it. Not every spark or intention becomes a song, you get a lot of debris, a lot of skin-shedding."
The album started life as a guided meditation album. "My partner Amoda and I had intended it to be a meditation album in a more traditional sense, but it wasn't right, so we annihilated that idea and this musical journey was the result, but meditation was the seed."
Kavi creates a melody of words, feelings, vibrations working in the same way as mantra. "With technology by my side, I can create a spacey atmosphere that permeates the songs. I hope that I do not get in the way, that my mind does not get in the way. In some ways what I sing is not about anything - it is simply the vibration that is important. Taking the listener to a place of healing."
"In some ways I have gone beyond ritual, it used to be such a core of my life, but now I realize that the only ritual is courting the Beloved. The Beloved living just below the surface of everybody."
"I'm excited that I'm not just 'gigging' anymore. For me, what's important now, is prayer and intention." Once Kavi spent many years performing Shamanic rituals, now he feels that his ritual is dancing with the Beloved and music is his tool.
"Finally, I found that I have a reason to perform in this world. Playing live is like a form of prayer. If you focus your intention and sing as a prayer, you are inviting the Beloved to come out and dance with you. And everyone gets a taste of it because they recognize it within themselves. They attune to the Divine within. It's about diving into love."
Kavi didn't want to play live in the traditional sense. So he invites people to go inside, to quieten the mind and not to mark the end of each song by clapping.
"Playing live is a challenge - I still dance with my ego. I play a bum note and feel like I've ruined it for everybody! Then you simply have to stay with that, accept it, get on with it."
According to Kavi, the music can evoke powerful personal experiences. "The music, the melody, the lyrics will reflect things back to the listener, creating a deeper understanding of themselves and inviting them to a place of self-love."
"Usually when you play live you are pouring your energy outwards and drawing attention towards you. I had to drop that. I wanted to create a group experience and radiate the energy out, not suck it in. I have to ask the audience to surrender to a place of meditation. It challenges your preconception about what a performance is. For the listener, I am not doing it for entertainment value. That is of secondary value - the important part is creating a place of healing and truth. It might make the listener uncomfortable - and again they have to accept the invitation to sit with themselves, accept it, get on with it, surrender."
For more information about Kavi and to hear his music visit www.myspace.com/kavihockaday and if you are interested in the new album Unconditional Love, you can visit www.newearthrecords.com