A Conversation with David Wilcox  (continued)

PM: In a lot of the songs and the intros, one could say there's a spiritual message or content. Has there been a significant shift in your spiritual life?

DW: In terms of the evolution of how my message gets across in my music, it hasn't been so much that my spiritual life has changed, it's just that I'm better at writing about stuff that's hard to write about. I'm able to sing about the stuff that brings me joy, where before it was that I couldn't really make it fresh. So I'm writing about it more now.

PM: Are there any big spiritual guides of one sort or another in your life?

DW: Oh, sure.

PM: Yeah?

DW: Yeah.

PM: Who's moved you?

DW: I feel the most important thing about what I do in my music is to tell people that their own heart can be trusted, and that they have guidance in their hearts. I don't want to just speak about what I believe, you know, as if I had some personal authority. But what I can sing about with conviction is that just as my own heart was guided, there is guidance available in everyone's heart.

And so I'd say that they're in good hands, and to trust the yearnings of their heart to start the search. I don't have to tell them where I hope they'll wind up. I can just say that my belief is, from the journey that I've had, that if you're sincerely searching, the truth will be obvious. That's the message of what I want to put out. Because it seems so much more believable and real, rather than just me saying, "Hey, join the club that I'm in," that sort of thing. I think it's much more important for me to get across the message that "I believe enough in the truth that I've found that I believe you'll find it too." You know?

PM: Right.

DW: Because I believe that as you look, you are looked for.

PM: Ahh. Thanks for that.

DW: So I didn't answer your question, because what I want to try to say is this: what's more important than my own personal stuff is the message that our hearts are a good design, and the emptiness is there for a reason, and it's there to lead us. And so instead of me sort of preaching, saying "You have to believe what I believe," I'm saying that the truth that I've found and am finding is, I think, looking for me, and if you just trust your own heart and follow where it leads, you're in good hands.

PM: That's deep. I appreciate that.

DW: I think in some ways it's just very simple, and yet it feels… In order for me to sing with any conviction, I need to believe that what I'm saying is really true, what I'm singing is true. And so for me it's fun to sing about the joy that I've found, and try to make it not just sound like I'm, you know, [laughing] searching for members for my institution or something, or whatever I'm into. But that the truth is much bigger than that.

PM: On the subject of joy, it seems that you've put together a great family. Will you share a little bit about that?

DW: It used to be that nothing felt as good as a good song did, and it was music that set the standard for how good a life can feel. And little by little, I feel like just by setting that standard for the rest of my life, I have been able to get a life worth singing about. It's been really joyful to have a good, strong relationship and raise our son together. Like anything, you can come at it from the viewpoint of "We just have to get done the work that needs to be done," or if you look at it in terms of the lessons to be learned, wow, raising a child has got just huge lessons in it. It's wonderful.

PM: Yeah, and they never end.

DW: Yeah.

PM: Where did you meet Nance?

DW: Through kayaking.

PM: And your son is eight-ish?

DW: He's nine years old now. continue

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