Artist + Analyst : James Hall
James Hall is a singer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, aesthete, non-profit servant, and a consummate southern gentleman. He is known for his raw, kinetic live performances and complete commitment to his art. Life-changing live shows are those that grab you by the chest and relentlessly pull you along without releasing the grip until well after the show has ended. For that brief time, the mind falls away, revealing it for the prison it is, and what is left is simply the experience, the moment. To see James perform live is to be allowed entrance to the transcendent—a portal momentarily opened by his own “extreme presence” and connection to the mysterious as well as his refusal to betray himself and do it any other way but his own. To be in the presence of such intensity and soul is to understand that this life is meant to be lived—the plastic that coats modern daily life done away with so as to experience something visceral, something real.
I - Do you tend to remember your dreams? Do you notice any connection between your dreams and artistic life?
“I don’t typically remember my dreams. Occasionally a particularly odd or disturbing dream will linger into my conscious awareness. I journal daily, so within a few hours at the lake and engaging my access to my subconscious. It seems to be a habitual and effective route toward creative ideas. I don’t really believe in ‘shoulds’ but if I were to get a steady eight hours of sleep each night, I would like to see if I were able to recall my dreams more accurately. There’s a term that came with the advantage of digital tape to represent no sound or information recorded known as ‘digital black’. I’ ve often used that term to refer to a typical night sleep for me, as so often I wake up with no memory of what I dream. -‘I am an intense sleeper, drifting in the digital black.’”
II - Intuition (and/or) spirituality…
“For the last six years, I have worked hard on listening to my own gut instinct. Many of us grow up in a highly dysfunctional and chaotic home, where we learn the three things essential toward coping:
Don’t talk, don’t trust, Don’t feel. As a young man who is starting out with music I received encouragement from friends, peers and the press. The issue with that, was that over time, I ended up in a funhouse for the ego. Or, as I would later call it –‘the James Hall of Mirrors’. I had gotten into the habit, or addicted – if you will, to the praise of others. Which, in itself isn’t a bad thing, but over the years, I became very disconnected with how I felt about a song recording or performance.
As I’ve learned to care for myself better – that means my spiritual, physical and mental health, I’ve been able to reconnect with the enjoyment of working on writing, playing and performing music.
I had given decades of my own power away, concerning myself with how others think, how others feel, with little regard for its cost to me. I now have a great appreciation for life, my ability to do music and it’s capacity to help me grow.”
III - What does the following quote evoke for you?
“Words have a magical power. They can either bring the greatest happiness or the deepest despair. “ - Sigmund Freud
“I’ve never read anything by Freud, but I could probably vouch for the mystical power of words. What I’ve experienced is that suffering exists virtually everywhere. From Santa Barbara County California, to the Kapchorwa District in Uganda. And I have little to no influence over anyone else’s suffering, other than my own. But as I learned to practice extreme presence, I have learned that I can limit the amount of suffering I allow myself to experience. For me suffering is tied intrinsically to my inability to accept the present moment. Usually laced with fear or regret. Fear of the future, regret for the past. Like many, I found myself unable to accept the present moment as ‘perfect’. The more I worked to accept my lot as ‘perfect’ -on some level, the less I’ve had to complain about. I’m a human being: I still fall (or play) victim to the folly of ego, entitlement, and preferences. But the more I learn to see my suffering as a story, or script that I’ve been carrying around, the easier it becomes for me to let go of it. I consider it as a poorly written script that has been floating around Hollywood since 1981. No studio will touch it. If I don’t want my life to become this movie, why should I touch it, myself?
Practicing extreme presence allows me to extend compassion to all, including myself. Sometimes, all it takes is a smile, a hug, or a word of encouragement to bring someone with me into the present moment.”
IV - What is your experience of yourself during times of peak creativity versus times when you feel blocked or simply less creative?
“I tend to be gentle and forgiving of myself during times of peak creativity. I feel smart, engaged and useful as I am working creatively. I tend to eat better, sleep better. During my creative moments it’s easy to connect to my internal geography by ‘enjoying everything, and needing nothing.’
When I am ‘blocked or less creative’ I understand that nothing fundamentally about me has changed. I tend to remind myself that I am only human, that there may be a need to engage my logic or practical side. That, perhaps a look at a completed song might be necessary. Or, I might need to use my energies in a promotional or administrative capacity.
Being patient with myself no matter which hemisphere is engaged helps me to lead a more balanced life. I believe we’ve all been given creative and logical brains, but the responsibility of how we engage these two areas rests with us.”
V - What do you consider the biggest impediment to a creative life? What facilitates it?
“I believe the biggest impediment to a creative life is my inability to be present. My reluctance to exist in the present moment, is to engage my own restless, scanning, rational mind. That consciousness offers little to the care of my mental, physical and spiritual health. The last 15 years, I’ve worked to integrate conscious habits into my daily life. Adopting ‘unconscious habits,’ for me, has been pretty easy to do across the years…
Putting time into daily journaling, exercise and reading has helped me feel I am lowering my own sense of creative risk as I pick up the pen. At 51, I’ve found myself unwilling to go through my life without engaging conscious habits. These creative tools help me, even when life gets stressful.”
VI - What is your sensory experience of your body when engaged in the creative act? Before? After?
“I would call my sensory experience of my body ‘hyper-awareness‘ when I am engaged in the creative act. I have the sensation of an active imagination, an enjoyable feeling of usefulness. I feel free of the judgment of whether or not the work I’m doing is quality or not, only that I am enjoying it. I would liken it to what I’ve heard described as ‘restful awareness’. Of course, adrenaline can kick in, but it needn’t. I associate the source of the adrenaline with the performance, not necessarily the act of creation.
Before and after the creative act?? Perhaps it is only a slightly more subdued sense of awareness.”
VII - My creative process…
“My creative process is probably more reliant on the aforementioned ‘conscious habits’, than ever before. I journal daily to help myself access to the subconscious, the free associative area of my brain, allowing me to walk into a variety of creative or professional environments with the calm of preparation. Often during journaling I will have a title, a word or phrase that comes up to help me as a starting point in a song. When I sit down to write, having something to start with helps me a lot. If a chorus presents itself, I usually feel the confidence of having something to work with. Then, the majority of my efforts can be focused on the support of the chorus with the verse lines. As I work the first rhymes, I value the function of the rhyme for its ability to seat a multitude of verses in my memory. I also tend to keep my antenna up for lines that sting a little bit when I read them out loud to myself. Lines that betray a truth about myself or humankind or are emanating from humility itself.”
Thank you, James.
X
J