I have been asked many times how I can combine these two passions: yoga and extreme music.
When I first saw there was someone teaching metal yoga classes I thought “See? I’m not the only one… and there might be a few others”.
I myself had a lot of questions for that teacher before and after I attended the class. Thanks to his kindness and to his experience, my inquiries now have a very exhaustive answer that I am pleased to share.
André Foisy lives in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He is the man behind the guitar, the bass and a synthesizer in the avant-gard metal band Locrian (Relapse Records). He is a certified Turbodog Yoga teacher.
How did you get into yoga?
My wife, Alix, and I started going to yoga classes together. At the time, I had a low back injury. Nothing seemed to heal this injury until I started doing the style of yoga that we practice now, Turbodog Yoga. After practicing regularly for a while, I noticed how much deeper I could breath, how good I felt, and I noticed that I felt really strong in a way like I had never felt before.
I also tend to be anxious and yoga helped me a lot so that my anxiety isn’t really a problem for me anymore.
How long have you been practicing and teaching?
I’ve been practicing for about four years and I’ve been teaching yoga for over a year.
Since the type of yoga that I practice uses a modern understanding of the body in order to help open up the body rapidly, I’ve noticed huge changes in myself. There are poses that I never imagined being able to do a few years ago that I’m now able to do.
I decided that I wanted to get deeper into my yoga practice and help others in order to feel better so I became a teacher.
Do you practice asanas everyday?
It’s very rare that I go a full day without practicing any of the physical postures of yoga. I’ve noticed that if I ever skip practicing asanas for too long that I don’t feel as good, for instance, I don’t feel as alert, or parts of my body might start to get tight.
When I tour, practicing the physical postures is essential to me feeling my best. Touring can be really straining on the body. It’s like moving heavy furniture everyday.
Sitting in the van for long periods is terrible too for so many parts of the body: the back, the neck, the wrists, and the list goes on.
How did you get to the idea of combining metal and yoga?
Well, I’ve noticed a pattern of friends who’ve had bad experiences with yoga. Like, they’ve been to yoga classes where either the teacher doesn’t know how to connect with the students, or the teacher chooses to play really bad music that makes people want to rip their ears out.
I decided that it might be fun to do an event where I played the kind of metal that I like while I taught a class.
A bunch of people also told me about how they felt insecure about being at a yoga studio because they…well, they basically told me that they have issues with their bodies, so I decided that I’d make the metal yoga event really dim and only lit by candles. It seemed like something that would be fun and would make people feel comfortable doing something different.
After I did my first metal yoga event, I went to a gong bath at my friend’s studio. The gong bath was a lot like the drone music that I listen to, and everyone experienced it on their backs in a comfortable position. I thought that was a really nice way to experience music so I decided to start incorporating live music into my yoga events. So for my last few events, I’ve had live musicians play at the end of class when people are physically exhausted and laying down in corpse pose. It’s a great time to listen to music because when you lay in corpse pose, the mind is really relaxed and alert at the same time.
When I red “Metal Yoga” for the first time I thought we were going to practice over Judas Priest. How do you select the playlists?
Ha! Thanks for that observation. I love the Priest, but I don’t plan to play them at any of my classes.
For my playlists, I’ve been selecting music that I think can help people to get in touch with their feelings and emotions. I intend my playlists to help guide people on how to start searching and feeling inside themselves.
Noticing sensations such as tightness and pain is not intuitive for a lot of people. A lot of people live with constant pain, but they get so used to it, that they don’t notice it anymore or just ignore it. For many of these people, going to a yoga class and just listening to their breath and focusing on their physical sensations is not intuitive to them because they are so used to distracting themselves from their feelings, both emotional and physical. So music can be a pathway toward inner exploration for people who don’t normally practice yoga and for practicing yogis.
I went through the lyrics of the last Locrian album, Return to Annihillation, trying to get your concept of annihillation and if there was a link to purification, yoga, etc. Is there any?
There wasn’t a clear connection to yoga in Return to Annihilation, but there is some sort of connection to purification of the earth.
There is a sort of link to the yoga that I do in RTA in that the album is intended to help people feel something and that’s what the yoga that I teach is about too.
Also other yoga teachers are passionate about metal and started experimenting with drones and dark atmospheres (e.g. Black Yo)))ga, Tough Love Yoga) What do you think is the future of this practice?
If people combine yoga and dark atmospherics in a way that helps yoga students and is meaningful, then I think it’s great. I hope that my metal yoga can create an environment where people can start to overcome their physical and mental challenges.
I don’t know the people at Tough Love Yoga, but I know the Black Yo))ga people in Pittsburgh and I think what they are doing is really great. They are really sweet people and I’ve heard that they are amazing teachers and I would love to collaborate with them someday somehow.
There are a lot of people with pain and there are a lot of people with pain that I see at shows. If they can either be powerless about that pain, or they can do something about it, so I expect that many of these people would do something about it if they understood what to do.
The type of yoga that I teach helps people to become active participants in their healing and it’s very safe for the body. There are a lot of styles of yoga that really just cause people to get injured unnecessarily. For instance, there are some styles that incorporate class sequences that start out with poses that students, even advanced students, should only do when they are warmed up. I’m not interested in those styles of yoga and I don’t endorse them. The last thing that I want to do in my classes is to cause people to hurt themselves.
Is it “metal” yoga just because you play metal music during the class or is there more to discover under that name?
Well, perhaps there’s more to discover under the name of “metal yoga.” Obviously, the metal that I’m playing at my events is the type of music that leads people to focus internally. I don’t see much point in jamming traditional metal at my events and the type of yoga that I practice isn’t traditional yoga either.
I feel strongly about the music that I listen to and I also feel strongly about the style of yoga that I practice and when the right kind of metal and the right kind of yoga are combine, then it can be really transformative for the student.
The type of yoga that yogis in India practiced 3,000 years ago is largely meaningless to me. Those yogis mostly lived in caves in the Himalayas and had a diet that was very different to the diet that makes me feel my best. The music and the asanas during my events are intended for the modern body.
For instance, ancient yogis didn’t have computers that they looked at all day, so they didn’t have the same problems that many people today have, e.g. constant tight necks, carpel tunnel and wrist pains, low back pains, etc.
Tradition can be great and meaningful sometimes, but tradition for the sake of tradition doesn’t work for me and, I think, for many others.
I think a lot of metal fans have prejudices towards yoga, maybe because they see it as too healthy. What’s your view on this matter?
Everyone has different issues and there are a lot of prejudices. Some people think that going to a yoga class is too expensive. For me, I’ve spent money belonging to my yoga studio, but I’ve also saved money because I haven’t had to have any surgeries for my physical pain and I’ve felt more energized.
Some people don’t want to try yoga because there are yoga studios all over and they have a difficult time choosing where to go, so they just never try a yoga studio. There are a lot of styles of yoga and I do not endorse all styles and I think that there are a lot of bad teachers out there.
There are a lot of teachers who will force their class to listen to really appalling music. It’s typical for yoga teachers to play music like Rusted Root, Jason Mraz, John Mayer. It makes me cringe just to type the name of these musicians. If I were a new yoga student, then I would be terrified to walk into a class that ended up playing music like this.
Some people may not want to do yoga because they view it as being healthy, but I know a lot of people who listen to metal or other challenging music that are vegan or vegetarian because they think that’s healthy. I think that a lot of these people would do yoga if they understood how that it would make them feel better.
What’s a good yoga teacher?
I think that everyone needs to find a teacher that resonates with them, but generally everyone has a certain amount of healing that they need in their lives. For healing to be effective, people need to take ownership of their own process. So really, people need to become their own teacher. A good yoga teacher should help students explore ways how to become their own teacher.
Personally, I’m drawn to teachers that are able to help me to push my limits both physically and emotionally. At some point, all emotions are held in the body and if those aren’t moved out, then they will turn into sickness. In the past, it’s been really difficult for me to be mindful of my emotions. Like, I didn’t know how to articulate what my emotions were and I didn’t allow myself to fully feel them. Many people throughout the word numb themselves from their emotions so I’m not unique in this respect.
By helping me to really explore my physical sensations and challenge my limits, my yoga teachers have been able to help me to become more mindful of what I’m feeling and have taught me how that I can clear many layers of those emotions. The way that these teachers did this was to help me find poses that challenged me in a way that really really led me to feel something emotionally.
I’ve been lucky to have great teachers and I know that I wouldn’t be still practicing yoga today if it weren’t for them.
I found the volume a bit too high during the class. Is that something you’re doing on purpose?
Thanks for letting me know. The sound level, such as the level of my voice and the level of the music, is something that I work to get right in my classes, but it’s difficult. Obviously, I don’t have a sound person with me, but maybe I will in the future. I’ve been trying to get the level of the music high enough that people can feel the sound, but so that the sound isn’t too distracting, and I’ve been trying to make sure that my voice comes through the music so that people can follow along with the physical postures without necessarily having to see me.
How long did the class last in Berlin? I was not thinking about time.
It’s a great compliment that you forgot about time during the class! The physical postures lasted about an hour and twenty minutes, and afterwards I played for about 15 minutes.
Is there a spiritual side to Metal Yoga?
Of course, every class has a theme for people to explore during the class. I often incorporate down-to-earth meditations so that people can work on their spirituality, in addition, to their mind, and body.
I incorporate meditations, but they aren’t new agey or flakey. I hate that stuff! That’s another reason why many people are afraid to try yoga!
What kind of themes are you offering?
My themes are always different. At the Berlin Metal Yoga, my theme was about allowing yourself to feel in the moment, rather than being lost in the past or thinking about the future. It was about remembering to stay alive and awake. For instance, we tend to daydream and dwell on the future or past, but we rarely let ourselves appreciate our life in the moment, but there’s really no reality besides the here and now.
I tend to daydream, so the theme was something that I have been working on in my own life because I don’t want to miss my life. I don’t tour a lot so when I do, I think it’s special and I try to really appreciate it.
Do you teach Metal Yoga on a regular basis?
The Berlin event was my fourth metal yoga event. I have a few more events planned in Chicago, but I plan to continue teaching metal yoga events on about a monthly basis. I plan to begin teaching metal yoga and other yoga workshops in other cities as well so I hope to teach another metal yoga class in Berlin very soon.
After your comments though, I’m realizing that I need to tweak the name of the event so that people don’t think that I’m going to blast Motley Crue jams or something.
Anything you want to add…
Thanks for the great questions. It was a real pleasure meeting and chatting with you.
My yoga website can be found at:
albi vs albi 