[Ed] Do you recall your first experience with the didjeridu?
[Jason] Like yesterday... Lets see I was helping with a work shop at the Telluride Mushroom Festival in Colorado and man there were didjs everywhere. I kept on meeting people who could play and I'd just hang around listening to them. I tried playing one probably a hundred times, until I met this really cool couple. Our little group plus a few others had a very interesting entheogenic experience and at the height of this I decided to try and play again. I got it right away, and as that first vibe went down the tube I think I changed forever. I heard whales, saw fire dances, and felt like I was fast approaching a kind of nirvana, that's when my breath ran out. I stopped looked around at my new friends who were beaming with happiness (remember they had been listening to me flub it for a few days). I noticed at that point a tear rolling down my cheek, and I knew that I had just had an extremely profound experience. Well my new friend that owned the didge I just played gave it to me about an hour later as we stood atop this beautiful waterfall. That didge didn't leave my side for months until I got a new one. In fact there was a lecture later by Paul Stamets, Dr. Andrew Weil, and Dr. Ralph Abraham followed by a dance. The background music was being played by this awesome didj player from AZ. Well Dr. Abraham is a chaos theoretician and he said that "yes...the didjeridu is a chaotic instrument". You should have heard all those didj lovers roar, I became a didj player that day and will be to the day I die. I know it all sounds kind of sappy, but you know memories like that last a lifetime and I'm just really grateful for it.
[Ed] Did these types of experiences - nirvana like or synchronistic - continue as you begin to learn more about the instrument and how to play it?
[Jason] I've had countless experiences while learning to play that have led to a deeper understanding of myself and what is around me, be it friends, nature, customers, suburbia...etc.. I almost don't think I can feel bad after playing. I think that it's easy to understand most didj players get that buzz that makes you feel like you've been connecting with something really good. I've found that even taking a minute or to ground afterwards makes the feeling last. However I also believe playing only for that buzz is just the beginning of what a didjeridu can do for a person.
The creative outlets alone can be all consuming. At first you want to make your own didj, then you want to paint, the you get into painting in general and wham the next thing you know you're an artist. If you create your art as prayers or attach to it a personal spiritual significance then you can commune with the powers that let you be. That is what I understand to be humankind's' destiny, to maintain creation. The best part is that that is only one aspect or perspective with didjeridus. I like this perspective because didjeridu was how I got into art and art for me is worship.
I think I might have departed from the actual question however. Perhaps one of the most significant events was learning to circular breathe. When I went back from Telluride I spent months learning to play. I had lots of time to play maybe 3 or 4 hours a day and it still took me bout 6 months to circular breath. We lived in a remote mountain top canyon and we had this stone circle there which was a great spot to play. It was a beautiful Spring day. I was trying so hard to learn circular breathing, but this day I was relaxed. I just kept on relaxing more and more and these bluejays that would always hang out and listen to me play were there squaking along as well. Suddenly it seemed like everything got quiet, than I could really hear everything going on around the birds, the stream, the breeze all of it with a low didj humming underneath it.
I just kept listening and playing and all of a sudden I noticed that my sound wasn't flubbing when I went for a breath. I didn't get excited and stop I just kept going and going and finally sputtered out because I was crying again, I wasn't balling they were just these spontaneous tears. Before I actually stopped I whispered prayers and thanks in my head to my ancestors and asked to retain this knowledge. I finally bent down kissed the ground and jumped for joy, the bluejays took off in a clatter, Man I'm telling you I felt like I'd just learned the secret of fire.
A friend stopped by about an hour after I had learned to circular breathe nd I was just bursting, you know. I had Rob and Tanyas' (from Inlakesh) phone number though I'd never met them I called them and they Invited us out to their place to check out their didjs. So we took the hour long drive and Rob and Tanya gave a bunch of their valuable time to hang out and let us play with some of their incredible didjs.
I'll never forget that day. Learning to circular breathe and getting to know and play with them was like a great gift. I had no idea at the time of how popular they were. They were very generous to a fledgling player who acted very much like a puppy dog.
I have another story to tell about a hell of an experience that involved the elk that live up in those mountains. There was this grand valley up there that was an actual caldera for an old burnt out volcano. You can see for miles across this grassy meadowland surrounded by mountains on all sides. This was actually a giant ranch so there was a bunch of cattle out there this day. It was however also a drought year so many herds of elk were there finding some precious water. A friend and myself loved to go there and get high. Well I took this didj with me and I began playing for all those elk out there. I just knew in my heart that they would respond somehow. When I began playing they were about 600 ft or so away. The elk all looked up at once as that vibe rolled across the field.
Then they started to move forward they came closer by about a hundred feet or so. Then a car pulled up and they watched the elk as I played, which after a minute began to move forward again at a languid pace. As more cars came up the less inclined the elk were to move forward but still they'd come closer after a minute or so. Finally there were maybe 25-30 of them 250 ft away when 2 busloads of Japanese tourists pulled up. I knew that was it, there was now close to sixty people out there yammering away, snapping photos of the elk and I. The elk didn't move any closer with all that racket, and truthfully it was getting hard not to laugh, so I stopped said a prayer to the ancestors and laughed. I looked around and all these tourist were laughing and waving. My friend and I left before the situation got too ridiculous. I love that kind of experience cause you just expose so many people to something beyond their normal lives. It's like guerrilla didjing, you're minding your own business and then you get hit with a love vibe from an ancient sound. It changes some peoples lives you know...
[Ed] Can you tell us a little about your didj making? When did you get started and how it's developed?
[Jason] I got started making them about 4 yrs ago, only about 3 months after I learned to play. I was bathing with some friends in the hot springs by Jemez Springs N.M. When I heard a didj being played by someone a few hundred feet away. I immediately went to find the source and it turned out to be this guy named Jody Wysteria. He was just out there camping and making his way by selling a didj here and there. His pieces were made from ABS and had sleek curves from being gently heated over a fire. He was selling them for 20 bucks a pop, so I bought one. I then invited him up to the commune I was living on. Well he wound up staying there a good long time and he turned out to be one of the most creative people I've ever known. He taught me to sculpt, paint, and make green chili apple pie over the next year. He's also quite an eccentric and damn loony as well. We drew a lot of inspiration from each other in those days. He'd make a great interview, you know...
I really didn't sell any didjs until I felt a little more confident with the culture and instructing that goes along with selling them. So I really listened to the feedback and people in general want it to have some spirit in it. Jody and I would chant and say prayers while were making them, and we'd make comments about how this piece wants this and that one wants that. We would have to treat them as individuals if the right person was to purchase the right didj. I still honestly believe that today. I've made the mistake of suggesting the wrong one to people and it just won't click, they have trouble playing or start to become really disenchanted with the whole vibe. It's not a real obvious thing but once I recognize it I ask them to exchange it for something different. 90 percent of the time I was right and they would continue down that happy vibe road. By the way I've gotten a lot of good word of mouth advertising because of this as well as repeat customers for custom orders.
So that's pretty much the only intention I start off with, then the individual didj will pretty much guide you through what and how it wants to become. I know it sounds silly but it's the only honest way I could do it and sell them. They'll behave like children, they have ways of getting your attention and letting you know what they want. All you have to do is listen.
Even if I sit down with some new concept or idea, once it's there being made it's guiding me through every move. I think this almost happens irregardless of whatever intention I start with. It's made me an extremely strong supporter of the rights of the individual in anything.
[Ed] What kind of custom work have you done? Any usually requests or some unexpected results? I was wondering also if you do specific pitches or tune your didjs.
I consider custom didjs my specialty, this makes for an even more individualized didj than normal. So I really consider the custom orders the cherry on top of this kind of work. I get all sorts of requests but nothing to unusual. I guess my most unusual stuff comes from my own prototypes, I make these customs for myself and take them to events to see how they go over with friends and prospective clients. My two latest prototypes that went into production (when people can place orders) are the dual belled bondo and PVC, and my sculptured pieces like the whale that sits up on its fins and the mouthpiece comes to a point after the tail. These are pieces that take a lot of work so I get really weird and into the whole thing when I'm working on these. The whale demanded nothing short of my entire attention, I'd be playing whale songs in the background, incense burning, chants etc.. One time I'd been working on it for like ten hours straight making all these mistakes and I broke down into a blubbering mess when I finally got it right. The whale song on the CD that was playing sounded like a birth and here I was with all this labor for hours before and the near finished form was stringed across the workshop in front of me like a floating baby whale. That was my most empowering hour ever.
I also use some other interesting mediums such as doing a collage instead of painting. I just recently made a didj that is made of 90 percent recycled material, this one is made of tin cans and paper mache (sp?) and inspired by some of the didjing on Liquid Didj by Tim Whitehall and friends. The very latest thing I'm working on is making my own paints and stains from scratch from charcoal, mushrooms, clay, etc.. Which will be applied to my all natural hand drilled wood pieces. I'm excited by all of these and there are new ideas popping up all the time.
I will tune about 3/4 of all my didjs but some of my bamboo pieces don't seem to want it. Also my dual belled pieces will usually be in two different keys, this makes them really full and rich sounding.The recycled pieces have really large bells on them so they come out in whatever tune they want.
I use my price ranges to dictate how intricate and involved the piece will be. I do all my own mixing of paints, so I've put out custom didjs with hundreds of colors on them. This kind of detailing is extremely fun, if I sit there and do dot work for12 hours straight (which is what I find myself doing a lot) I see everything around me in dots. Like seeing molecular structure or something, of course it's just a trick of the eyes but it sure makes things interesting for a few hours..
I should make something a little clearer here, I'm not makeing gobs of money on my didjs' my pay comes out to about ten dollars an hour. Which is really hard to survive and keep makeing them on. I have an incredible girl friend who has a lot of faith in what I'm doing. If it wasn't for her I wouldn't be able to do these kinds of didjs at all. Thank you Baby!!!
[Ed] If there is one thing you'd want to tell all the didj players who are tuned in to the world wide web, what would that message be?
[Jason] Don't just stop at playing the didj, look into the art and creation from where it came. Pay honor and be humble to native peoples the world over, they are an endless source of inspiration and wisdom. If you've ever been moved to great emotion because of didjeridu don't invalidate those emotions, use them as a catalyst for creative endeavors. Turn on people to the vibe, I mean they're easy enough to make and hey didj circles get down right magickal after a while. Okay two more things, don't let your ego get in the way of meeting and playing with others cause you never know who's going to teach you what, and never tilt a didj up at a high angle when playing especially if someone else just played it (that was for all you new players).
[Ed] With the expanding popularity of the didj and all kinds of people becoming involved with it, I have noticed a lot of different attitudes or perhaps I should say more attitude around it. Sometimes I think it's that good old competition rearing it's head from the depths or our American culture. Am I "out of touch" on this or have you noticed such things over time as well? Any opinions about what I've called rather flippantly, the "competition" between didjeridu players?
[Jason] Well the didj means different things to different people. I believe that competition within the didj community at large is a sad thing. It shows maybe a lack of understanding about nourishing our environment instead of hurting it through competitive stances based on ego. This piece of wisdom is as ancient as the ancestors, yet as a culture we've been programmed to compete on almost every level of society. I see this more and more in the didj community and I attribute it too just the large numbers of people playing.
Perhaps there is a greater sadness in this regard amongst didj makers. I've met makers that were so aloof as to be downright snobby and dominating, others who did everything they could to help any didj seeker. It seemed to be more of a money thing with the snobs, and a spiritual thing with the helpers. I've stayed in touch with some and have recommended many people to other makers. This can be so important to a beginner because they in general want to know why you'd recommend someone else. That almost invariably leads them to explore the actual culture more than staying focused on nothing but the didj. Trying to nourish our environment will lead us to not only being better players but better people. If there is some huge spiritual and healing significance to didjeridu this in my knowledge is where it begins. What a beautiful thing this would be, if we learned something like this by learning to play a musical instrument. I feel this should be a responsibility of the maker and dealer. Lets help each other instead of copping this attitude. We are helping to make the didj community of the future right now. I want this future to be forever and not a fad. Don't get me wrong sometimes I find myself being defensive and a know it all, but all I have to do is remember how uncomfortable it is to be around that kind of vibe and I stop. The sweetest thing about all this is that everything I've said above,in the long run makes for a healthier and stronger business.
I would also like to say that I've seen more and more of those bright eyed players and makers who make me have bright hopes not just in the future didj community but for our entire culture. They are incorporating a myriad of ideas, thoughts, and beliefs into their regular lives. All from learning to play the didj, but taking it farther and finding certain truths that they feel in their hearts. I know that it seems naive or dreamy but hey if you're going to dream, dream the best that you can, right?