[kj] Achieving Planetary Consciousness Through Art—An Interview with Jaz Coleman of Killing Joke (The Aquarian)

Paul dubecho at gmail.com
Wed Dec 25 09:40:36 EST 2019


https://www.theaquarian.com/2019/12/25/achieving-planetary-consciousness-through-art-an-interview-with-jaz-coleman-of-killing-joke/

[image: JazColeman.jpg]


*Achieving Planetary Consciousness Through Art—An Interview with Jaz
Coleman of Killing Joke*
Katherine Yeske Taylor
December 25, 2019

In a conference room in the Spinefarm Records headquarters inside the
Universal Music Building in Manhattan, Killing Joke frontman Jaz Coleman is
poking at a plate of sushi. It’s an incongruous sight: legendary black-clad
rock star (including dark sunglasses) sitting under the fluorescent lights
in this most mundane office setting. He looks as if he should be on stage
somewhere instead—which he will be, in a few hours, when his band opens for
Tool at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center arena.

Coleman is here to discuss his new album*, Magna Invocatio: A Gnostic Mass
for Choir and Orchestra Inspired by the Sublime Music of Killing Joke*,
which he recorded with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra in Russia.
It is exactly as the title suggests: a collection of songs chosen from
among Killing Joke’s 15 studio albums converted into classical form,
transforming them into something altogether breathtaking in their beauty
and power. It may seem an unlikely undertaking at first glance, considering
that Killing Joke, since their groundbreaking 1980 self-titled debut, have
been lauded as pioneers of the industrial rock genre and beyond, with
artists as diverse as Metallica, Nirvana, and Soundgarden, among many
others, citing Killing Joke’s intense post-punk style as a key influence.

But in truth, Coleman’s classical career may be even more impressive. Among
his many credits in this realm: after growing up in Cheltenham, England,
studying the violin and piano, he has gone on to become the composer in
residence for the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the St. Petersburg (Russia)
State Symphony Orchestra. In 1996, he released his *Symphony No. 1:
Idavoll,* recorded with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra. In 2001, he
debuted his first opera, *The Marriage at Cana*, which was commissioned by
the Royal Opera House in London. In 2014, he conducted the NSO Symphony
Orchestra for the Dubai World Cup opening ceremony in the United Arab
Emirates. He has worked with soprano superstar Sarah Brightman. And over
the years, he has recorded albums interpreting the music of Pink Floyd, Led
Zeppelin, The Doors, and Nirvana into classical form, so it seems only
natural that he should now do the same with his own rock songs.

However, any plans to make *Magna Invocatio* the main focus of today’s chat
are almost immediately abandoned, thanks to my casual comment during our
greeting about an interview that I conducted with Killing Joke 25 years
ago, and how alarmingly fast time has seemed to pass since then. This sets
Coleman off on a much, much deeper conversational course, which he
sustains, with intensity, for the next hour.

“You have to live many lives in one life. It’s your duty to, in a way,
isn’t it? To make your life colorful and interesting, and always have
something to look forward to on the horizon,” he says. “That’s the way to
do it, because if you have too much routine, your life goes faster, and you
get old quicker. So too much routine’s not good for you. For me, I never do
anything I don’t like. What I do, I do really well, because I love it—it
gives me energy. I believe that everybody’s born innately gifted. Life’s
about locating your gifts, and then doing them. Life becomes exciting then.
If you’re doing something you love doing, you never have to work again, do
you?” Then he laughs with such uninhibitedness, it makes him shake in his
seat.

He says there was never any problem identifying his own special gift. “I’m
Anglo-Asian, and I was in an arranged marriage with music. I decided when I
was four that I would do music. So I’ve never really been able to think
about doing anything else, you see.”

That’s not to say that he hasn’t improved over the years, though. “That’s
the wonderful thing about the years passing: the things I can do well now,
I couldn’t do in my twenties. I can score for a full orchestra in my head—I
can compose in milliseconds now, whole scores. I trained myself to do that.
It starts with, you take your favorite song, and you practice listening to
it inside your head from beginning to end, and then you develop it like
this, you see. So I found my own system of conducting orchestras and
education.”

His experience recording *Magna Invocatio* in Russia is yet more proof that
he is doing what he’s always been fated to do. “I’m the only classical
recording artist from the West that records in Russia on a regular basis.
When you consider that the first record I ever bought was *Russian
Orchestral Masterpieces*, at the age of eight, [it was] the workings of
destiny, I mean, it’s just incredible when I think about it. When I bought
that, it changed my life, that record. And then to work with Russia’s
oldest orchestra [the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra]!”
[image: JazColeman-.jpg]

He is aware that it may seem strange, hearing someone who’s been so
influential in the rock world, now talking so passionately about classical
music. But he is, in fact, accomplished in many areas besides his Killing
Joke career: “Most people aren’t aware of the multiple facets of my life,
because I do so many different things, but orchestra plays a big, big role.
And also, I’m a consultant in specific areas of Rosicrucian history and the
occult, amongst other things. I’m an architect, also. I’ve built two
buildings now. I can be anything you want!” He laughs, again with that same
soul-shaking abandon. He grins at the suggestion that he’s a polymath. “I’m
completely crazy, which is to say, with borderline cases like myself, it’s
easy for me to believe whatever I want to believe. I can dream I’m a
knight: I become a knight. Nothing is impossible. I dream of an island at
the end of the earth: I have one.”

Later on, Coleman is going to prove this self-actualizing point when he
goes to the United Nations to meet with representatives, which he
initiated. He is doing this because, he says, it is “my goal of working for
the United Nations for this final chapter of my life. I’m going in there in
the capacity as a composer and artist.” As a result of this meeting, “*Magna
Invocatio*, this Christmas, will be in the hands of most world leaders—to
give everybody a piece of music they can play over dinner and it won’t give
them indigestion!” He laughs, but quickly grows serious again as he
explains how he hopes that his music will inspire those leaders to “think
of the idea of our global family on a planetary level. I dream of
polycentric global governments. The most important thing I’ve done with *Magna
Invocatio* is trying to bring everybody to planetary consciousness through
the arts. Literally this.

“Astrology—which a lot of people think is a pseudo-science; it’s not, it’s
a science—astrology for next year [predicts] we’re in for a very, very
bumpy ride, and we need planetary consciousness as soon as possible. The
arts will play a huge role in this.” As he talks, instead of finishing his
meal, he begins using his chopsticks to emphasize his words, making
flourishes and stabs in the air. It provides a glimpse of the orchestra
conductor he sometimes is.

“Look, it’s simple: in this divided world, where there’s multiple warheads
pointing at everybody, and no one’s talking to each other, the United
Nations is the only framework we have where warring tribes can talk to each
other, before we go from a cold war into a hot war, which will put back
evolutionary progress 15 million years, at best.” He carefully arranges his
chopsticks in a “X” pattern on the tabletop. “We’re on the verge of huge
changes, where we discover that our current knowledge is false, our notions
of history are false. Our notion of how we came into being is false, also.
This is a little bit too much for us to take in all at once, which is why,
largely speaking, I’m against sudden disclosure.” He gives a knowing nod of
his head. “You know what I mean by sudden disclosure.

“There’s no question that we need planetary consciousness and global
governance, but it’s which of the two models we’re looking at, whether it’s
a polycentric or a unicentric one. We need more than ever a philosophical
elect that can act as a moral and ethical compass with the decisions we
make about the development of homosapien into homo-universalist, you see.
We’re at the end of our species; we’re in the extinction period, and we’re
morphing into a different creature. And we *must* do, to survive what lies
ahead.” To emphasize his point, he raps on the tabletop with his chopsticks
a final time and then sets them down with a loud thwack, finally abandoning
his lunch for good.

It is impressive, this certainty that he will sway world leaders with his
art. Coleman smiles at the question of how he became so bold. “In my
twenties, one of the things I used to do to rid myself of insecurities was
to move to a new country—often, it was places in the Middle East, or South
America. And I would go with ten pounds in my pocket. I moved to Iceland
with one pound in my pocket. My whole thing then was knowing that I can
build things up to the power of ten, and I don’t need money. The whole idea
was to overcome insecurity. So I put myself on a crash course to do this,
to the point where I’m fearless.”
[image: Jaz-Vinyl.jpg]

He shrugs at the suggestion that such situations seem terribly dangerous.
“No, you see, that’s where I’m in a different world. Killing Joke is
guarded by the ancestral spirit. Very difficult for everybody to
understand. Let me put it in real basic terms. In Killing Joke, all our
dads are dead—all our fathers are in the other world. And we’ve got two
managers and Paul Raven [Killing Joke’s original bassist, who passed away
in 2007] in the other world. All the people that love us in the other
world, we’re governed by their spirits, they make the decisions, and they
always have done. Before every show, for 41 years, we form a circle, and we
do something like an invoking ritual. It has served us well. On *Magna
Invocatio*, in the third movement, are the lines of the oath I took with
Big Paul [Ferguson, drummer] when we were 18, to see this through with
Killing Joke. When I consider it now, listening back to those lines, and
all that has transpired, I am just speechless.” And indeed, for the first
time since this interview began, he falls silent, seeming almost
overwhelmed with emotion.

After a moment, he shakes it off and continues. “So I believe it was all
pre-ordained. When I met every member of Killing Joke, I was overcome with
the sense of *déjà vu* personified, which we used to call ‘anamnesis,’
which means ‘loss of forgetfulness,’ which is ‘to remember.’ And when you
consider that it was Plato who said that all knowledge is remembering, this
is very interesting. I take it another stage further: I believe that within
each of us, we have the genetic memory of mankind. And I believe we’re so
interconnected, [but] we’re not using any of it to have a look. Well, I’ve
taken a peek. That’s why no one can look into my eyes.” As if on cue, it’s
almost possible to feel the piercing stare coming from behind those dark
sunglasses, but then he smiles. “They say when you look into the abyss, the
abyss looks into you—is it kind of true? Yes.”

But Coleman brightens when he discusses his other methods for helping to
turn the world around: “I’m trying to help many people reach their goals.
This means that with classical music, I do master classes, and I raise
money for youth orchestras and things like that. Most people don’t know
that. Actually, I’ve been working with the Cleveland Contemporary Youth
Orchestra, and the Peruvian National Youth Orchestra. When you see these
kids, the backgrounds they’re from… I mean, Lima, where I’m living at the
moment, four million people in the city don’t have running water. (He also
lives part-time in New Zealand.)

“So when you see these children get ahold of an instrument, they play with
such passion.” Again, he seems momentarily overcome with emotion. “*Amazing.
Incredible.* So this is the work that lies ahead.”

Coleman says he knows firsthand how important it is to have someone in a
position of influence offer a helping hand. “Killing Joke went from zero to
100 in ten weeks, and that’s because we had a very famous [BBC] DJ called
John Peel who endorsed us and gave us a session and played our first EP
nonstop for like eight weeks. And John Lydon from the Sex Pistols, he was
talking about Killing Joke nonstop. So our first show was sold out. Ten
concerts later, we’re selling out the Lyceum [Theatre, in London]. And Sam
Alder of E.G. Records signed Killing Joke when we were 19 [years old]. He
was really into the occult agenda and he’s a high-level Freemason, and I’m
eternally grateful to him. So all these different forces came together at
the beginning of Killing Joke’s career.”

He says his teenaged self would’ve fully expected to find Killing Joke in
such a successful position 40 years later. “Absolutely, I wouldn’t be
surprised at all. It’s exactly what I thought would happen. It’s different
with us, because we started with a magical oath. It’s a band to other
people, but for us, it’s a holy and sacred mission.”

At this point, Coleman’s publicist intervenes, insisting that they really
must be going if they’re going to make the U.N. appointment. Coleman,
amiable, complies and wanders out into the main office area, where the
record company staff greet him warmly—he is clearly well-liked and admired
here. He is friendly with them, and it is several more minutes before he
can be coaxed onto the elevator. Standing with his publicist in front of
the building, waiting for an Uber ride to show up to zoom them down
Broadway, Coleman seems calm and content—and why not? After all, whether
he’s appearing at the U.N., or leading an orchestra or arena rock show,
he’s simply fulfilling his destiny.

*Magna Invocatio: A Gnostic Mass for Choir and Orchestra Inspired by the
Sublime Music of Killing Joke is available now wherever music is streamed
or sold, with a red & black vinyl edition to be released on January 24. For
more information, please visit Jaz’s Facebook page: @JazColemanOfficial*
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