KerrI
St. George, UT
Red Cliffs is a small state park and camping area near St. George. My mom, little brother, partner and I were on a hike there in the summer heat. As we made our way through the trees, breathy flute music and deep drum beats matched our slow trek through the desert sand. Through the scrub, we could see a red rock overhang and a large alcove where two men were seated, playing. Others hiked on and others still crouched in the shade to listen. We decided, on a whim, to hike up to them.
We reached them but didn’t speak, loathe to break the spell. One was a shirtless 30-something with bright red hair. He beat the drum. The other, the flautist, was older with a black ponytail and crows feet around the eyes. He had his bare feet crossed, giving the impression of a man as at home here as in an armchair.
Between songs, I worked up the courage to ask them about themselves and explain my project. They agreed to let me take pictures and talk later, although Niell talked more than the quiet Kerri. It was clear, however, that Kerri was the driving force behind this concert and I called him a few weeks later.
What followed was a conversation that encapsulated the expansive ideas and inspirations that led Kerri up a canyon with a Diné flute.
With any new experience you need to move into it and explore what it might be so you can move forward in life and enjoy life. Not that there’s fear around this interview. I'm not saying that. I want to help you out and share some things with you that might answer some of your questions that you might have about what was going on in that canyon that day.
What inspired you to begin playing in canyons?
I have a hunch that a lot of what we experience now as a civilization is a reincarnation. We carry with us the DNA of our past. This has been taught in many indigenous cultures who believe in ancestors. It’s the idea that we have been here before and lived past lives. There’s a lot of evidence that points in that direction.
When people ask, “whatever got you interested in that in the first place?”
My answer is always, ‘I don't know. I was called to it, I was drawn to it, and for whatever reason it captivated my attention and my imagination.
I remember the first time I saw a Hopi Kachina doll. Kachina dolls were carved by Hopi, Navajo (Diné), and Zuni peoples as depictions of creation deities. When I first saw one, I was totally enthralled. I started to collect them and came to learn that the same thing had happened to Pablo Picasso. He started collecting them himself. There have been many people who called Picasso a “painter shaman” and I believe that.
A lot of artistic people–musicians, writers, painters, all that–realize the information they are getting when creating is channeled. It comes from some ethereal point of reference—something outside of themselves. Einstein said he didn’t know where many of his ideas came from. He believed these things were coming to him but that he needed to share with the world. This can happen with artists, musicians, and writers. The lady that wrote Harry Potter sits down and does automatic writing, which is channeling with a pen in your hand. She channels energy by allowing something to flow through her.
When you channel you step out of yourself and are often amazed by what comes out. A lot of Native American painters are moving away from their traditional techniques and moving into mystical painting. Some do it with the help of plant medicine to put them into a psychedelic realm.
I like the approach that you have with what you do. I think we all, including what you're doing, are trying to open up doors and get outside the status quo. Trying to get outside ourselves.
What experience do you hope people have with your music, if any?
When people come up in the canyon and they hear the flute music, many of them are shocked by it and by the effect it has on them. Each person is on their own journey and has their own experience with it. I’m not trying to create any one thing or any one kind of experience. I’m taking ancient instruments, these flutes that have been made for thousands of years –the first with eagle wing bones– and blend their ethereal music with drums. Drumming is sacred because it beats like the heart. Drums are a sacred sphere like the earth and the cycles of life. All things are connected. It’s all so interesting to me.
I studied all types of religions. I’ve done meditation, transcendentalism, Japa yoga, breath work, holotropic breathing– trying to open up my energetic field. I arrived at shamanism. Shamanism is basically direct revelation. You move into life and into the world in an experiential way. You intentionally approach life with the belief that all things have a connection to the Divine. All things are sustained by the divine and have divine attributes. Each person I meet I see as a divine being, whether they are covered in tattoos or look like some clergy. It doesn’t really matter.
What I see in humanity, and I’m going to be 74 next month, is a major shift. People are shifting into consciousness and an awareness of the divinity within themselves. People want to become more consciously aware of who they are and what they are. They are addressing their self-talk, how they talk to themselves and to others. How they love others. They are addressing their belief systems.
Belief systems capture the human mind and confine it. Once we believe something it’s human nature to defend it. As soon as we take a position, we are against other beliefs. We create duality or separation consciousness. There’s myself and there’s the other. We stop relating to the other as a divine being that should be respected and loved and supported.
Time is moving faster, but it’s an amazing time we’re living in. It’s unsettling for some. You have to be grounded and know what you expect from life. What can you receive? What can you give?
My flute playing is what I have to give. When I play I often find myself sitting and talking to individuals. They have concerns and problems. I’m able to share my experiences with them and play music with them.
Neil for instance. I’ve only known him for a week! He was wandering around down in the canyon and I called down to him.
"Do you know how to play a drum?”
“No.”
“Well come on up here I’ll teach you.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”
“Of course you’ll be able to.”
I got him set up and we started playing together. Now he’s got several flutes and several days ago he bought a couple of drums. That’s his journey.
Some people walk by and don’t even look up. They are not in alignment with it and that’s fine. It’s not for them. It’s for somebody else.
All these things around us, hopefully they will bring us to a place of self awareness and ultimately peace within ourselves. Hopefully we can interact with people from a place of love and compassion. That’s what it’s all about for me. We’re all creators. We create our own heaven, and we’re capable of creating our own hell.
A lot of people major in creating their own suffering and they don’t even realize. Some of us need a spirit to come to us and say, hey this is what’s going on. So we can wake up! And move through it.
—---------
What I think inspired me so much about what you shared is that your music is a form of giving.
You can never give without receiving something in return. The whole time I'm giving I'm receiving.
How long have you been a musician and how did you learn? How is music significant to you?
The music I do is channeling. People always ask me to play Lord of the Rings or The Last of the Mohicans. I’ve never tried to learn something like that. All of my music is channeled. I tell people I know a thousand songs but none in particular. People ask how I remember all the notes but I know only because I’ve done it enough and I love it enough. Somehow what I do makes sense to my musical mind despite not having a musical background.
You’re self taught?
Yes, I decided to learn and loved it enough to keep going.
I started to get really weak at about 56. I didn’t know what was going on but it got worse when I worked out with weights. I went to the doctor and they did an MRI. Lo and behold, I had this thing called a keri malformation. It’s when your brain, often from head injury, pushes down on your spinal cord. This causes neurological chaos. If i wasn’t careful I’d be in a wheelchair in three years. I decided to keep hiking and keep active. It’s not perfect but I figured that I’m better off than if I had surrendered.
It’s a sacrifice then, to do what you do.
If you’re passionate enough about your work, it’s really not work because you carry an excitement around it. It becomes something you love doing.
I recently realized there’s people that have gone and found my music and put it online and I’m ok with that.
I’ve been so inspired by getting to know you.
Synchronicity. I never meet anyone by accident. I call into myself, through my energetic field, the people who can help me and the people I can help.
If you'd like to see samples of Kerri's music, check them out on my instagram page @sarah.hawkes.art under the post with his name and painting.
Red Cliffs is a small state park and camping area near St. George. My mom, little brother, partner and I were on a hike there in the summer heat. As we made our way through the trees, breathy flute music and deep drum beats matched our slow trek through the desert sand. Through the scrub, we could see a red rock overhang and a large alcove where two men were seated, playing. Others hiked on and others still crouched in the shade to listen. We decided, on a whim, to hike up to them.
We reached them but didn’t speak, loathe to break the spell. One was a shirtless 30-something with bright red hair. He beat the drum. The other, the flautist, was older with a black ponytail and crows feet around the eyes. He had his bare feet crossed, giving the impression of a man as at home here as in an armchair.
Between songs, I worked up the courage to ask them about themselves and explain my project. They agreed to let me take pictures and talk later, although Niell talked more than the quiet Kerri. It was clear, however, that Kerri was the driving force behind this concert and I called him a few weeks later.
What followed was a conversation that encapsulated the expansive ideas and inspirations that led Kerri up a canyon with a Diné flute.
With any new experience you need to move into it and explore what it might be so you can move forward in life and enjoy life. Not that there’s fear around this interview. I'm not saying that. I want to help you out and share some things with you that might answer some of your questions that you might have about what was going on in that canyon that day.
What inspired you to begin playing in canyons?
I have a hunch that a lot of what we experience now as a civilization is a reincarnation. We carry with us the DNA of our past. This has been taught in many indigenous cultures who believe in ancestors. It’s the idea that we have been here before and lived past lives. There’s a lot of evidence that points in that direction.
When people ask, “whatever got you interested in that in the first place?”
My answer is always, ‘I don't know. I was called to it, I was drawn to it, and for whatever reason it captivated my attention and my imagination.
I remember the first time I saw a Hopi Kachina doll. Kachina dolls were carved by Hopi, Navajo (Diné), and Zuni peoples as depictions of creation deities. When I first saw one, I was totally enthralled. I started to collect them and came to learn that the same thing had happened to Pablo Picasso. He started collecting them himself. There have been many people who called Picasso a “painter shaman” and I believe that.
A lot of artistic people–musicians, writers, painters, all that–realize the information they are getting when creating is channeled. It comes from some ethereal point of reference—something outside of themselves. Einstein said he didn’t know where many of his ideas came from. He believed these things were coming to him but that he needed to share with the world. This can happen with artists, musicians, and writers. The lady that wrote Harry Potter sits down and does automatic writing, which is channeling with a pen in your hand. She channels energy by allowing something to flow through her.
When you channel you step out of yourself and are often amazed by what comes out. A lot of Native American painters are moving away from their traditional techniques and moving into mystical painting. Some do it with the help of plant medicine to put them into a psychedelic realm.
I like the approach that you have with what you do. I think we all, including what you're doing, are trying to open up doors and get outside the status quo. Trying to get outside ourselves.
What experience do you hope people have with your music, if any?
When people come up in the canyon and they hear the flute music, many of them are shocked by it and by the effect it has on them. Each person is on their own journey and has their own experience with it. I’m not trying to create any one thing or any one kind of experience. I’m taking ancient instruments, these flutes that have been made for thousands of years –the first with eagle wing bones– and blend their ethereal music with drums. Drumming is sacred because it beats like the heart. Drums are a sacred sphere like the earth and the cycles of life. All things are connected. It’s all so interesting to me.
I studied all types of religions. I’ve done meditation, transcendentalism, Japa yoga, breath work, holotropic breathing– trying to open up my energetic field. I arrived at shamanism. Shamanism is basically direct revelation. You move into life and into the world in an experiential way. You intentionally approach life with the belief that all things have a connection to the Divine. All things are sustained by the divine and have divine attributes. Each person I meet I see as a divine being, whether they are covered in tattoos or look like some clergy. It doesn’t really matter.
What I see in humanity, and I’m going to be 74 next month, is a major shift. People are shifting into consciousness and an awareness of the divinity within themselves. People want to become more consciously aware of who they are and what they are. They are addressing their self-talk, how they talk to themselves and to others. How they love others. They are addressing their belief systems.
Belief systems capture the human mind and confine it. Once we believe something it’s human nature to defend it. As soon as we take a position, we are against other beliefs. We create duality or separation consciousness. There’s myself and there’s the other. We stop relating to the other as a divine being that should be respected and loved and supported.
Time is moving faster, but it’s an amazing time we’re living in. It’s unsettling for some. You have to be grounded and know what you expect from life. What can you receive? What can you give?
My flute playing is what I have to give. When I play I often find myself sitting and talking to individuals. They have concerns and problems. I’m able to share my experiences with them and play music with them.
Neil for instance. I’ve only known him for a week! He was wandering around down in the canyon and I called down to him.
"Do you know how to play a drum?”
“No.”
“Well come on up here I’ll teach you.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to.”
“Of course you’ll be able to.”
I got him set up and we started playing together. Now he’s got several flutes and several days ago he bought a couple of drums. That’s his journey.
Some people walk by and don’t even look up. They are not in alignment with it and that’s fine. It’s not for them. It’s for somebody else.
All these things around us, hopefully they will bring us to a place of self awareness and ultimately peace within ourselves. Hopefully we can interact with people from a place of love and compassion. That’s what it’s all about for me. We’re all creators. We create our own heaven, and we’re capable of creating our own hell.
A lot of people major in creating their own suffering and they don’t even realize. Some of us need a spirit to come to us and say, hey this is what’s going on. So we can wake up! And move through it.
—---------
What I think inspired me so much about what you shared is that your music is a form of giving.
You can never give without receiving something in return. The whole time I'm giving I'm receiving.
How long have you been a musician and how did you learn? How is music significant to you?
The music I do is channeling. People always ask me to play Lord of the Rings or The Last of the Mohicans. I’ve never tried to learn something like that. All of my music is channeled. I tell people I know a thousand songs but none in particular. People ask how I remember all the notes but I know only because I’ve done it enough and I love it enough. Somehow what I do makes sense to my musical mind despite not having a musical background.
You’re self taught?
Yes, I decided to learn and loved it enough to keep going.
I started to get really weak at about 56. I didn’t know what was going on but it got worse when I worked out with weights. I went to the doctor and they did an MRI. Lo and behold, I had this thing called a keri malformation. It’s when your brain, often from head injury, pushes down on your spinal cord. This causes neurological chaos. If i wasn’t careful I’d be in a wheelchair in three years. I decided to keep hiking and keep active. It’s not perfect but I figured that I’m better off than if I had surrendered.
It’s a sacrifice then, to do what you do.
If you’re passionate enough about your work, it’s really not work because you carry an excitement around it. It becomes something you love doing.
I recently realized there’s people that have gone and found my music and put it online and I’m ok with that.
I’ve been so inspired by getting to know you.
Synchronicity. I never meet anyone by accident. I call into myself, through my energetic field, the people who can help me and the people I can help.
If you'd like to see samples of Kerri's music, check them out on my instagram page @sarah.hawkes.art under the post with his name and painting.
