Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts

Friday, June 27, 2014

Chillaxin With Trevor Hall



Trevor Hall Chillaxin
Photo: Emory Hall
Chill dude, Trevor Hall is an accomplished musician. His music with it's eclectic mix of acoustic rock, reggae and Sanskrit chanting – echo with the names and teachings of divinities, while maintaining an incredibly and refreshingly universal message. While on the road, Trevor sees the stage as his moving temple, a place where he can share in the experience of his spiritual journey with his audience. His latest album Chapter of the Forest reflects all of the above and more...it's chillaxin time with Trevor Hall!

MS: Hey Trevor how are you?

TH: I'm good, thanks.

MS: I was listening to your latest album Chapter of the Forest right before you called, I liked that listening to it was like taking a journey, you start one place and end up another.

TH: Thank you, thanks so much.

MS: Your music is very spiritual and a mixture of rock, folk, pop and world music.

TH: Right, right. I had to disguise the world music with more popular forms of music so that people would understand the message better.

MS: You took off on a pilgrimage to India right after a successful run in music, what made you want to do that?

TH: Well I've been traveling to India for, seven years. I got burnt out and needed to get my strength back and India is that place, I just took a long time off and went there for about three and a half months or so. It was out of a need to connect again and get my spiritual strength back and physical strength, so I went on a retreat, no phones, no E-mails, nothing like that.

My healing started to happen and when I came back I really started writing a lot of the songs for Chapter of the Forest. 


MS: You met your wife in India and got engaged to her. Did you meet her on this pilgrimage or before that?

TH: I met her in India the year before. Then when we went back in 2013 I proposed to her then in the same place where we met. 

MS: How cool! Being a spiritual person are you into yoga by any chance?

TH: Not really a lot of Hatha Yoga, what people call yoga today in the West. There are actually many, many limbs of yoga, so I practice kind of different things. I probably should be doing yoga more because my back is tight after being on the tour bus. (laughs) The tour is actually really amazing that were on right now, Michael Franti is super into yoga so before every show during the day they have a huge yoga class for all of the musicians. So if I wanted to get healthy this is the tour to do it! (laughs)

MS: So how is the tour going?

TH: It's going great, last night we were at San Diego State University it was such a nice time because there were so many wonderful bands on the bill. Also I am traveling with a super fun group of guys, it's just a really nice time. Sometimes tours, ya know, you don't know who you are traveling with, they play a different style music and they clash or something, but on this one everyone is like a big ole family it's been really enjoyable.

MS: Tell me a little bit about the inspiration for Chapter of the Forest, something other than your pilgrimage to India.

                                                           "Chapter of the Forest"
TH: Chapter of the Forest is the meditation I did and it's about going back inside. The forest for me is a mystical place for solitude and silence. Obviously I believe in the external forest, but I also believe that all these sacred landscapes are also inside our own body. Chapter of the Forest in our hearts or in our mind is that place of stillness, meditation , reflection and rejuvenation type of thing. I'm really influenced by the Indian Saints, one of the Saints says that you can't live in the world continuously or else you'll drown. From time to time you have to retreat in solitude. Whether that be the corner of a room for an hour, or a forest for a month or a year. 

I took that really literally and said: "Stop I'm burnt out" and went up into the forests of Vermont and Maine with my wife and just really tried to slow down. As that happened after a while I started picking up my guitar, not because I had to but because I wanted to, I love music and that was the feeling I was trying to get again after being so burnt out, it became just a job for me at some point. That's when Chapter of the Forest really started to come to life and as that was happening all the experiences I had, had in other forests all over the world, like India and Nepal, these memories started to resurface and give me inspiration and that's where a little of the Indian element came from on the album. 

But I really wanted to do something rootsy and raw, and not be chasing that number one single. Something that was really pure and from my heart, that's what this album is all about. 

MS: I completely get it, it can become disheartening when you are creating for the sole purpose of making money.

TH: Yeah.

MS: Make yourself happy first, that's the most important thing I think.

TH: Right, right, I agree.

MS: Here's something random, when I did a Google search of your name a meme came up with Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka saying: "You test drove Trevor Hall, tell me about his triangle"
do you know what that means? (laughs)

TH: Tell me about his triangle? I have no idea what that means (laughs) Yeah I have no idea what that could mean. 

MS: Thanks Trevor, have fun on the rest of your tour.

TH: Thanks man.

Join Trevor in the forest at: http://www.trevorhallmusic.com/

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Lions, Tigers & Trevor Hall, Oh My!


Yep, Trevor Is King
TREVOR HALL
SURPRISES FANS WITH RELEASE OF NEW ALBUM
CHAPTER OF THE FOREST
OUT NOW

#3 ITUNES SINGER-SONGWRITER CHART
#17 ITUNES OVERALL ALBUMS CHART



SOULSHINE TOUR WITH MICHAEL FRANTI BEGINS ON THURSDAY, JUNE 19TH 


Trevor Hall is King of the Forest...

Singer songwriter Trevor Hall surprised his fans with the sudden release of his new 12-track album Chapter of the Forest. The album, which debuted at #3 on the iTunes Singer/Songwriter chart and #17 on the iTunes Overall Albums chart, is available now via iTunes and the Vanguard Records store. Hall posted the announcement yesterday morning via Facebook with the following note: “Dear Villagers, IN FULLNESS OF HEART, I know a lot of y’all have been asking when the new album comes out.  Just wanted to let you know that it comes out……TOMORROW!" 

The 12 songs on Chapter of the Forest were born during a yearlong sabbatical where Hall returned to his beloved India, Nepal, Vermont, and Maine, and spent that time in deep reflection and spiritual connection embracing life-altering events. Hall explains in his own words, “This album is inspired by simplicity, by the roots of life, and by the beauty that one finds in solitude and in nature.  I am more excited than ever before due to the fact that this is the first record that I have done entirely on my own…purely from the heart.”  

Listen to “WISH MAN” here: https://soundcloud.com/vanguard-records/trevor-hall-wish-man

Beginning this Thursday, June 19th, Trevor Hall will join the line-up with Michael Franti’s Soulshine Summer 2014 tour hitting 30+outdoor amphitheaters across the country. In the fall, Hall will embark on a headlining tour in support of Chapter of the Forest.

SOULSHINE SUMMER 2014 Tour 
06-19       Santa Barbara, CA – Santa Barbara Bowl w/ Michael Franti
06-20       Los Angeles, CA – The Greek Theatre w/ Michael Franti
06-21       Berkeley, CA – The Greek Theatre w/ Michael Franti
06-22       Tahoe, NV – Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Outdoor Arena w/ Michael Franti
06-24       Jacksonville, OR – Britt Pavilion
06-26       Vancouver, BC – PNE Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
06-27       Seattle, WA – Marymoor Park w/ Michael Franti
06-28       Bend, OR – Les Schwab Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
06-29       Troutdale, OR – Edgefield w/ Michael Franti
07-01       Missoula, MT – Big Sky Brewery w/ Michael Franti
07-02       Ketchum, ID – Sun Valley Center w/ Michael Franti
07-03       Salt Lake City, UT – USANA Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
07-05       Santa Fe, NM – The Downs at Santa Fe w/ Michael Franti
07-08       Kansas City, MO – Crossroads w/ Michael Franti
07-10       Chicago, IL – First Merit Bank Pavilion at Northerly Island w/ Michael Franti
07-12       Des Moines, IA – Simon Estes Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
07-13       Indianapolis, IN – Farm Bureau Insurance Lawn at White River St Park w/ Michael Franti
07-15       Toronto, ON – Echo Beach at Molson Canadian Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
07-17       Asbury Park, NJ – Stone Pony Summer Stage w/ Michael Franti
07-18       Boston, MA – Bank of America Pavilion w/ Michael Franti
07-19       Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion w/ Michael Franti
07-21       New York, NY – Pier 97 w/ Michael Franti
07-22       Philadelphia, PA – Skyline Stage at the Mann Center w/ Michael Franti
07-25       Wilmington, NC – Battleship Park w/ Michael Franti
07-26       Portsmouth, VA – nTelos Pavilion w/ Michael Franti
07-27       Charlotte, NC – Uptown Amphitheater at The Music Factory w/ Michael Franti
07-29       Boca Raton, FL – Sunset Cove Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
07-30       St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheater w/ Michael Franti
08-01       Atlanta, GA – Masquerade Music Park w/ Michael Franti
08-02       Nashville, TN – The Woods at Fontanel w/ Michael Franti

Into the woods with Trevor: www.trevorhallmusic.com