Part 2

Could you describe your creative process on the basis of a piece, live performance or album that's particularly dear to you, please?

Serebii: “Even When You’re Gone” by myself and Arjuna Oakes.

This one is very precious to me, the process started with a magical improvised jam over a smooth backing track I made the evening before, I was accompanied by a flautist named Christopher Lindsay Ding who played these beautiful lead lines in the session, which I later pieced together that evening, these two flute hooks that later weaved around the third part (bass line).

The next session I had with Arjuna I remember being super excited to show him this track that had birthed, but at this time Arjuna was going through a lot of pain in his life so I didn’t quite know how to navigate around that in this session. We eventually managed to tap into his pain to find a message. He wrote two incredible vocal hooks that day which changed my life musically, they gave the song a strong narrative and reputation as a blissful heartfelt mantra.

It took weeks of blending, playing with arrangements and layering to get it sitting right. Once we got it, we realised we’d pulled off five working melodies that all intertwine and dance together to support this special piece of art.

Arjuna: I have to choose the same experience as Serebii. “Even When You’re Gone” was born out of heartbreak, but also out of me and Serebii’s friendship and bond. We’ve helped each other through hard times.

I think the song perfectly captures how we both felt at that time in our lives, and we were able to express it through music.

Listening can be both a solitary and a communal activity. Likewise, creating music can be private or collaborative. Can you talk about your preferences in this regard and how these constellations influence creative results?

Serebii: Although this project is a collaborative one and very fluid in terms of roles within the creative process, we still savoured our solitude as much we did the communal, collaborative stuff. I believe finding that balance was the key to good work flow, vision, harmony and a sense of direction to get things finished.

We both love our own time as much as the next person, so making this work was a matter of spending time together outside of our professional lives, a few years of touring the country together in a different band helped. After 5 years of friendship I believe we found the sweet spot.

Arjuna: Collaboration with the right people is always a joy. With Serebii we understand eachother musically and personally so we don’t really have to try too hard, if we’re being true to ourselves it usually resonates with the other person. We’re able to give eachother space to create our own magic, but then come together and find a special balance between our two worlds.

I’d say Serebii is absolutely incredible with details, and I am more obsessed with structure and the overall picture, we learn so much from eachother.

How do your work and your creativity relate to the world and what is the role of music in society?

Serebii: I feel a lot of my own creative work isn’t necessarily relatable to the wider world, but more a specific demographic. The things that do stick are lyrical themes, melodies, rhythms that I’ve inherited by listening to lots of different music since a child.

I believe music creates unity, it’s a global language, a healing power for the people that make up our societies, it’s escape, a feeling of belonging, you get what I mean.

Arjuna: I used to want to make political music about issues like climate change and wealth inequality, but I’ve realised that if you are truthfully expressing yourself and encouraging others to do the same, that is the most powerful political statement you can make.

Don’t give into fear and doubt, hold on to what makes you feel happy and alive.

Art can be a way of dealing with the big topics in life: Life, loss, death, love, pain, and many more. In which way and on which occasions has music – both your own or that of others - contributed to your understanding of these questions?

Serebii: Hearing my farther cry to Joni Mitchell, something in that record reached deep inside him, it seemed he felt understood, and was finally able to be venerable in that moment. I don’t recall seeing him cry like that since 2005.

That helped me understand the growth and beauty that comes from pain and suffering, and particularly the key to doors music can unlock.

Arjuna: Music has helped me grapple with so much in my life, especially loss.

Making this latest EP with Serebii, Final Days, was a way for me process my grief of losing my Grandad. He was a flute player and absolutely loved music his whole life, we had an unspoken bond through music. Making this music really helped me through that time, we imbued the tunes with all sorts of emotions, It just felt right.

How do you see the connection between music and science and what can these two fields reveal about each other?

Serebii: Music and science are forever overlapping ... They both use formulas and enlighten people in some kind of way. Music is essentially the science of our souls right?

Arjuna: Music and science are both occupations of understanding. I feel like science, especially astronomy, is working out our place physically within this universe, whilst music can be about working out our place spiritually, emotionally and philosophically. They are both rooted in discovery and understanding.

Creativity can reach many different corners of our lives. 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?

Serebii: Hmm ... for example coffee is a simple morning ritual for me that occurs almost everyday day, with the same amount of beans in the same percolator. Whereas expressing music in a creative way is never the same routine, shape or form.

How the caffeine influences your forever morphing mind on a day to day basis would be somewhat different every time too, I suppose if I made music in a very regimented, structured way, then mundane tasks wouldn’t be so different from music after all. Fortunately for me I don’t dabble with too many templates. (laughs)

Arjuna: I think I’ve never felt more alive than I do when I’m on stage performing music. There’s this incredible rush of excitement, but also a more quiet feeling of belonging. It’s as if nothing can touch me, I’m totally free up on stage. There’s nothing else like it in my life.

Music is vibration in the air, captured by our ear drums. From your perspective as a creator and listener, do you have an explanation how it able to transmit such diverse and potentially deep messages?

Serebii: Love this question, heavy stuff!

The human race has been exploring sound for over 30,000 years, I believe we’ve learnt to reach these depths by evolving as a species, we will forever find ways to dive deeper and engrave messages through our sophisticated vibrations.

Arjuna: Depending on your experiences in life, music can hit you in profound ways. Maybe it’s because of some special memory, or connection a sound has to a special person in your life. Maybe it just perfectly encapsulates how you feel or have felt it the past.

There’s so many factors, but music continues to change people’s lives and create a positive impact in the world, and for that I'm grateful.