Paul Mahern on music

Music is the most important form of communication, period. Not to get too spiritual, but all existence is a vibration. All of everything is vibrating. Music is a concrete analogy of the existence of everything. We can hear it and experience it with our ears, and it communicates to us on so many levels; whether we understand it or not, whether we’re aware of it or not.

That three-minute pop song that makes you feel a little bit better on the way to your dead- end job as you’re tapping your foot in the car? That’s fucking it! Nothing else does that for me. Art can do that; architecture can do that. But when you’re playing with the vibration of music, it doesn’t require your conscious participation. It can be going on in the background. It can just be playing in the car, and the next thing you know, you’re tapping your foot. Visual art – to really and truly appreciate it – you’ve at least got to look at it, and you have to be open to it. But the vibration of music doesn’t require your conscious participation.

It’s reaching out to you.