Name: Gaura-jīvana Dāsa, fka Griffin Pyn, aka Antimaterial Worlds
Occupation: Producer, ayurvedic wellness educator, Ironman triathlete, ultra runner, bhakti-yogi
Nationality: American
Current release: The new Antimaterial Worlds album Double Saturns Last Purification Exercises is out via Chemical X.
Recommendations: Please listen to Vrindavan Mellows 3 and/or Prayers to the Dust of Vraja by HG Aindra prabhu.
Please read Sri Satyanarayana Dāsa Babaji’s translation of Bhagavad-gita.

If you enjoyed this Antimaterial Worlds interview and would like to know more about the project, visit it on Instagram.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I like this question. It really depends on what I’m listening to and where I am.

I pretty much have music on 24/7 as I go about my day and the genre differs according to the circumstance usually. I notice that when I listen to music while running it tends to affect my heart rate depending on the bpm of the music.

I generally have my eyes open.

What were your very first steps in music like - and how do you rate gains made through experience versus the naiveté of those first steps?

I think VERY first steps had to do with my mom going to see The Smiths at their last U.S. show ever when she was six months pregnant with me.

The first music I made consisted of a very rudimentary form of sampling / looping where I would record the same 15 seconds of a song over and over again from a CD onto a cassette.

I don’t understand the second part of the question - I love to turn the gain all the way up tho especially when recording vocals!

According to scientific studies, we make our deepest and most incisive musical experiences between the ages of 13-16. What did music mean to you at that age and what’s changed since then?

Duuuuude yes. Music has always been a huge part of my life but around 12-13 I discovered political activism and straight-edge through music and that was life changing to say the very least. Through those two things I made some really solid older friends who definitely left a lasting positive impression on me that I’m so so grateful for. Music opens up worlds, I think that between 13-16 was when I really realized and experienced this.

These days music is still opening up worlds for me, and maybe the only difference is that I am slightly more aware of the way that the sounds we let in have the power and tendency to shape our consciousness.

This is important to think about as the subtle influence of music can create our internal environment and perspective, which in turn creates our external environment - it’s no small thing to mess around with.

Over the course of your development, what have been your most important instruments and tools and how have they shaped your perspective on music?

Other people’s music and the BOSS DR. SAMPLE 303, one or two-string electric guitar. I think overall these tools show the endless possibilities and encourage playful exploration.

Just as all Nas needs is one mic, all I need is one string.

What, would you say, are the key ideas behind your approach to music and what motivates you to create?

I don’t know if there are any key ideas, maybe that’s the key idea. I feel like I don’t really approach music, the music approaches me.

Also as a sidenote I think there’s a large portion of my past creative output where referring to it as “music” would be incredibly generous and merciful. There’s a recording of me tripping on mushrooms in 2009 where I say “there’s so much stimuli stimulizing everything, it comes into my mind and I need to put it back out into the world or else I go crazy” and I think that sums up at least one aspect relating to what motivates me to create, although there are many motivating factors.

Paul Simon said “the way that I listen to my own records is not for the chords or the lyrics - my first impression is of the overall sound.” What's your own take on that and how would you define your personal sound?

LOL at Paul Simon listening to his own records. Triple LOL at the idea of if he were to listen to his own records for the lyrics as if he didn’t know what he was about to say next lmfbo.

If I listen to my own recordings, I am usually listening much to intently for specific frequencies and if it’s during the creative process it ruins whatever song I am listening to because I get to the point where I can’t hear the song anymore and then it either has to be scrapped or come back to ten years later.

My personal sound is much too personal for me to reveal publicly.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds? In how far would you describe them as “musical”?

In Vrindavan you constantly hear birds, monkeys, and cows voicing their opinions about the human nuisance paving over and building on top of what used to be their serene forest home. I am moved by the protest and the conviction that these animals have to this cause. I support them even tho I am technically part of the problem.

A cow mooing is extremely musical, a monkey squawk is also very musical, and the birds, well the birds sing and I for one personally believe that singing is a musical act!

From very deep/high/loud/quiet sounds to very long/short/simple/ complex compositions - are there extremes in music you feel drawn to and what response do they elicit?

YES hella! I live my life in extremes, somebody told me that about myself once and I will co-sign for the purpose of answering this question.

I like loud things like MASONNA and GISM but I also lately have been really liking David Parsons who is extremely chill. I have been exploring the most extremely chill sounds that I can find, whereas I used to dig up the most extremely ear destroying sounds that I could find.

The response that these different sounds elicit is usually a premeditated response so I’m not sure if it really even counts at that point, because it’s not as though they are eliciting things independent of my desired outcome from when I press play on the recording.

I guess the wild stuff makes me wild and the chill stuff makes me chill?

From symphonies and traditional verse/chorus-songs to linear techno tracks and free jazz, there are myriads ways to structure a piece of music. Which approaches work best for you – and why?

I know absolutely nothing about structuring a song, if you don’t believe me just listen to anything I’ve ever had the audacity to record! The proof is there!

The approach that works for me is to just hope that the thing kinda structures itself in a way that it feels most comfortable to itself. I try to just stay out of the way.

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of one of your pieces, live performances or albums that's particularly dear to you, please?

I’m not sure that I can but I really appreciate you asking politely.

Sometimes, science and art converge in unexpected ways. Do you conduct “experiments” or make use of scientific insights when you're making music?

Yea always, it’s always an experiment! I think that all this talking and theorizing and building up of philosophies around “the creative process” really gets in the way of self-expression, often creates analysis paralysis, and gives too much credit to the “artist” as the creator of the art. The “artist” and the Creator are two separate entities from my estimation.

I think a lot of scientists have had revolutionary breakthroughs while their minds were engaged in other tasks, and sometimes this is referred to as “Divine inspiration.” I’m pretty much obsessed with that idea and would like to remove myself from the equation as much as possible.

Does that count as a scientific insight?

How does the way you make music reflect the way you live your life? Can we learn lessons about life by understanding music on a deeper level?

Well generally speaking I have always been a traveler, since I was 0 years old. So this paradigm does not lend itself well to creative endeavors as it is hard to create without a place to create.

My workaround for years was to use other people’s spaces and other people’s equipment, and other people’s time. It could not have been possible without the many generous and supportive friends I had around me!

Yes we can learn lessons by understanding music on a deeper level. The way that has worked for me is through concentrating on song lyrics, which I cannot help but fixate on. David Berman said so many profound things in his songs which have altered my general perspective and have taught me lessons.

I love hearing a song for the mazillionth time and getting a brand new takeaway from it. Music is insane and supernatural!

Do you feel as though writing or performing a piece of music is inherently different from something like making a great cup of coffee? What do you express through music that you couldn't or wouldn't in more 'mundane' tasks?

It is absolutely different than making a cup of coffee. At this point in my life music is a form of Yoga. It’s not fully there yet tho, I have a very long way to go to make that claim, but that is the intention.

Striving to build a relationship with Radha-Govinda and recognize the role They have put me in by doing my part could never be considered mundane. This longing for connection is something that has the potential to be expressed and explored through tasks which could otherwise be considered “mundane”, but where I’m at the goal is to make all aspects of your life transcendental in a mood of servitorship to Radha-Govinda, so there would be no more “mundane”.

Again, I am a long way from the goal but the music is helping me get there I think.

Every time I listen to "Albedo 0.39" by Vangelis, I choke up. But the lyrics are made up of nothing but numbers and values. Do you, too, have a song or piece of music that affects you in a way that you can't explain?

No but I know a guy who used to get super agitated any time he heard “Tom’s Diner” by Suzanne Vega when he was a little kid. It is possible that this effect is still there to this day now that he is a grown man.

That is pretty inexplicable to me. Great song tho!

If you could make a wish for the future – what are developments in music you would like to see and hear?

I would like to see people stop taking credit for “creating” their art. I’m working on it but sometimes it is violently thrust upon you and what can you do?