Sep 26 2023 92 mins
Vic Hyland is a consummate artist: musician, songwriter, teacher, community-builder, spirit-medium, dowser, trickster and sage - a veritable Renaissance Man! I'm so pleased to have him on to talk about his new book, Music, Magic, and NLP, which is an incredible compendium of Vic's ideas, theories, techniques, and a thread of personal memoir in which he recounts his rich and strange life, and how it has brought him to where he is now, and the snapshot of his work that this text represents.
It's a wild ride through the history of Western music, the behind-the-scenes workings of 20th century pop, the insights of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), and the ways that we make meaning out of myths, symbols, and the random elements of our everyday lives. The techniques of Cut Up and remix and sampling, as practiced by William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin in the context of the Beat Movement, are shown as methods to spark creativity and make songs, but also as a fundamental method of creating meaning out of the Chaos of the World. With a soundtrack of the magical music of the great Players - the Beatles, Bowie, Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, or George Michael, and many more besides - Vic offers here a tool-box, a performance, an experiential course of study, with lessons, Thought Experiments, and spells and rituals woven through the text.
In Vic's words, from the Introduction :
"This book attempts to weave these threads into a spider's web, connecting music back to archaic sources of magical potency, from religious music and its folk roots, through to blues, flamenco, Latin, and shamanic traditions.
We will look at the musicians' idea of the groove; that 'soul space' between musicians that informs how the music plays us, rather than us playing it.
Along the journey I will signpost songwriting techniques that have been used by some of the greatest songwriters of all time, notably originating from a couple of magicians who used similar methods for creating books and artworks ... and for cursing people."
This is frankly an incredible set of techniques and insights to apply to ANY art form, but also just to our way of being in the World, to living with meaning, creating meaning, and to claiming our own authority and authorship of our own lives. I highly recommend checking out Vic's work. His Creative Podcast showcases people from an incredibly diverse range of practices and backgrounds, and his courses, his music camps, his educational outreach work, and his wonderful kindness, humour, and wisdom deserve your attention and all the support they can get. This conversation was such a genuine pleasure: two players who know each other well, riffing and improvising on their favourite themes, to create something rich and strange and new ...
Look here for all of Vic's multifarious links and activities! https://www.vichyland.com/
THE HOLLOW PATH IS A MEETING OF MINDS AND HEARTS, TO FOSTER EXHANGES AROUND MAGIC, ART, ENCHANTMENT, CULTURE, POLITICS, AND POETICS ...
RE-ENCHANTMENT. RE-WILDING. RE-MEMBERING.
RESISTANCE.