The Wild Reed: The Sun Is All Around You

. . . The meaning, something beyond you.
There is one love,
I am here beside you.
And you are needed,
What for will astound you.

Something special this evening: a song from one of my favorite actors and singer-songwriters, Hans Matheson.

I’ve written extensively about Hans’ film career (see here, here and here) but not, to date, about his musical endeavors. That Hans would be drawn to express himself through music should not come as a surprise. In the introduction to her 2020 interview with Hans, Shana Beth Mason explains why.

Hans Matheson was born in Stornoway, Scotland in 1975. His father, Ado Matheson, is a well-regarded Gaelic folk musician whose grandfather was crowned the Celtic Bard in the late ’50s. Growing up surrounded by artistic passions and experimentations would prove rewarding for the young Matheson. His breakout film role in 1997, adapted from the stage play Mojo by Jez Butterworth, would open the proverbial floodgates; a lot of attention in a very short period of time. Yet, the cascade of film work across three decades never eroded Matheson’s creative core: film and music have lived side by side throughout his career, and he is now keen to dig deeper into the latter.

The song I share this evening is entitled “The Sun is All Around You,” and is from Hans’ 2019 album, Sail the Sea.

About the song, and Hans’ consistent “seeking out of new avenues for expression,” Shana Beth Mason writes:

Matheson is a curious, modest man with a steady, calm energy: like a soothing, bass-tone heartbeat over the shrill sounds of the world outside. His pace quickens when he talks about music. His 2019 solo album Sail the Sea, features the single “The Sun Is All Around You,” which brims with airy, pastoral tones drenched in a vulnerable, sincere warmth. He collaborated with his father on The Healing Waves, also released in 2019, an essential collection of windswept Celtic melodies.

What I find most compelling and beautiful about “The Sun Is All Around You” is how its imagery and message reflects the deep mystical source which, like a great underground river, feeds the life-giving aspects of all of humanity’s diverse religious expressions and traditions.

On a more personal note, Hans’ imagery of the sun reflects my interest in the imagery of light as related to my efforts to focus very intentionally on the sacred or divine source (the “cosmic consciousness,” some might say) that is both within and beyond me. I've come to understand and trust that connecting to and living from one’s deepest, truest Self, requires an openness to and relationship with this divine source, one which many people refer to as “God,” and which since ancient times, and across religions and cultures, has been symbolized by light, by the sun, and by a divine love that infuses all things

You know, when I meditate for five minutes every morning at my prayer shrine, I trust that I am aligning my inner divine light (my deepest, truest Self) with the “Living Light” (yet another name for the divine source) which is ulimately beyond me and which infuses all of creation.

With the awareness that I am both aligned with and an embodiment of the sacred, that I am, in other words, with and of the Living Light, I am ready (blessed, if you will) to go out and shine this transforming light upon others through my words and actions, and even my “sweet intentions.”

I trust that my “shining on” helps bring balance, healing, peace, and love to the world, and that it cannot but help encourage others to get in touch with and live from (to whatever extent they’re able) their own inner light; their own source of and connection to the divine. They too can then choose to let their light shine and in doing so, spread the light, the “one love,” as Hans sings, ever further throughout our world. I believe it is our openness to both recieving and spreading this light/love that is the “astonishing” thing that Hans, in “The Sun Is All Around You,” says we are all needed for.

Following are Hans’ thoughts on the creative process, thoughts he shared when interviewed by Shana Beth Mason in September 2020.

When you are writing or creating, making movies, it’s a collaborative process and usually, you can’t do it on your own and you have a lot of ideas about how you would like things to sound or look. I’m sure every filmmaker goes, “I would like it to look like this” or, “The music would be great if we had some strings here or we had this there”. And I think what that can do is stand in the way of actually just getting it made. So you have to simplify what you are trying to do and bring it down to its essence and trust that the essence of it is enough. So the simplicity of a song you sing, that’s what matters whether it has this stand in the way of you ever getting anything done. So you have to accept the limitations, but be empowered by the strength of what you are initially trying to say.

. . . It’s okay to get it wrong and learn from the people around you and get involved in something, it might be in a low budget theatre . . . it might not have a high profile, but there will be people telling a story and you can be involved and it’s meeting the people that is just as much a rewarding experience as something else. Just getting to know . . . interaction with others. It’s a collaborative process. It is not always easy, we have a lot of ideas about how we would like things to look or sound or whatever.

Come back to the essence and if you do need someone just come – go about your business slowly, do not expect too much too quickly and the big break. People looking for a big break with a big company, they do not necessarily have the answers for . . . creative inspirations. They are just making films. I mean, I’ve been involved in big films and I felt, “My God, this is just so far away from whatever,” you know?

. . . You can never really stop learning about your craft and the more experiences with being in these environment is going to help. The other thing is, I do not think that we have to accept that we are not in control of everything. So a desire for a result can sometimes overwhelm the possibilities that might be there, you might think it has to be a certain way, and it can kind of obscure and the magic might be happening somewhere else. You’ve got to keep a little bit of openness to what’s happening in front of you.

– Hans Matheson
Excerpted from "A Close-Up With Hans Matheson
by Shana Beth Mason
Frontrunner Magazine
September 8, 2020

Hans’ latest album is The Gospel of Thomas – A Musical Adventure, released in 2021. You can check it out at Hans’ Bandcamp page. For an insightful interview with Hans about the album, click here.

I think light coming through the darkness
is the most wonderful thing in the world.

– Hans Matheson

The Wild Reed

Wednesday, February 16, 2022

The Sun Is All Around You

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