Metal Yoga – A conversation with André Foisy

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:

http://www.andrefoisy.tumblr.com

Metal Yoga with André Foisy

Last Friday I attended my first Metal Yoga lesson at Tatwerk.
André Foisy from experimental metal band Locrian (Relapse Records) was in Berlin both for music and for some yoga action. As soon as I was informed about it, I didn’t miss the chance to hopefully experience something I started wondering about soon after I had began to practice some years ago: the proof that yoga and extreme music are not so far as one might think.
I’m not sure how long the class lasted, sixty or ninety minutes I guess, I stopped thinking about it as soon as I entered the room. You know, everyone has his way to prepare for the class. I like to arrive as early as I’m allowed and relax in shavasana pose until the class starts. This time the room was candlelit and drown in slow metal riffs at a quite high volume. Then I started losing count of the passing minutes.

Mr Foisy is a certified Turbodog Yoga instrurctor, a Chicago based yoga studio. His class is quite dynamic and combines a selection of atmospheric metal music (Locrian were included as well and I loved to practice over “Dream House” from Deafheaven) with sometimes tough asanas that made my legs shake and burn while opening up my joints very nicely. He leads the class using a mic so his voice can go on top of the metal madness, but beside all that, it is still a work hard yoga class.

A very special touch comes in the last part: while you are finally lying in dead body pose, Mr Foisy will plug the jack into his electric guitar and cuddle you with an amazing drone bath filled with piano melody as well. A stunning and unexpected relaxation experience on the vibrating floor.

As a metal fan I found Andrè Foisy’s Metal Yoga class a very meaningful one, showing a two-way link towards two worlds that are considered the further ones but have actually a lot in common, especially an inclination for  pushing beyond one’s limits.

Knifeville Records

Not only Friuli Venezia Giulia had given birth to interesting bands but the labels who released their records are based in the region as well. One of them is Knifeville Records (among their bands I had already mentioned Man on Wire but there are many other good ones and I think at the moment my favourite is Arnoux, check out his latest ep “Makes Wonders”) and they are going to celebrate their tenth anniversary soon.

Knifeville is a small label run by some active locals that love independent music and besides releasing records they promote live shows of Italian and international artists. Their peculiar name is not just a tough sounding random choice but it has a real connotation: this record label is based in a quite small town named Maniago which is well-known in the world for producing the best knives ever, so there you go, one plus one equals two… Then you must have already imagined that all the records released by Knifeville are from Maniago (or not so far…) based bands and despite what one would probably think of such a small area, I have to say it is a very prolific music scene that allowed this record label to put out some very nice records during the last ten years.

A random week-end

Well, I haven’t been writing for such a long time! Let’s keep the thing going. So… they say there’s not so much going on in Friuli, and it’s kind of true if one has no friends, but keep looking around and some good surprises could come up from the randomness of a week-end in the province. I’m talking about music, ’cause an area that is poor in entertainment offers will probably be richer concerning people who want to express themselves. The new big thing is Man on Wire, a very nice band – for The Arcade Fire and David Bowie lovers – that is doing very good out there after having beaten the street club after club. They come from this area and, useless to say, they’re long time friends. That week-end they played at Deposito Giordani, which is the biggest “rock” venue still active in an area that is bigger than the whole province. Very nice gig with an awesome sound. Can’t say the same about the beer.

I kind of hate Sunday evenings. I don’t like the atmosphere when most of the people – including me – behaves like “fun is over” because they all have to go to work the day after. The fact is that we really have to but… Who said we can’t have fun anyway? Thanks to Lorenzo and Rachele the good times were not over that week-end. Sooner this Winter they started “Colora”: they call it a laboratory but they’re actually hosting concerts in their living room (no worries, you can’t be there unless you are invited) and their first event was Man On Wire’s gig n. 0. That Sunday it was time for Videodreams, the last creation born by the mountains of Carnia. It’s a melodic folk duo but don’t stick to this definition. I have to say the kind of music they play is not part of what I usually listen to so check both links out and decide what you think about them. I can just tell you I liked this concert a lot, despite the first time I saw them, when they were a trio and they had been also boring. Well done brothers (yeah, they are brothers)!
So, Colora was awesome once again. As usually the entrance fee was a bottle of wine then… things can’t go wrong when you know you’ll meet your fiends at the buffet Rachele had prepared and after chatting with a nice never seen before girl you’re going to enjoy a good concert on the living room carpet. Can’t wait for the next one!

Do people still care about Metal?

It was only some days ago but I can’t remember where I was and who said that. I just remember it was a male with a beard. I can’t remember whether it was last Sunday at my friend’s daughter 4th birthday party or two evenings ago while rehearsing with Coro Anni Dieci. I was among friends and other people I met there for the first time and, as it often happens in this occasions, someone was talking about my (frozen) life as  a musician (though I never called myself a musician… ’cause well, it’s mostly about screaming the right way). After hearing that this guy asks what kind of music my band used to be into and I tell him “Metal”. The guy looks  at me as if I said “banana flavoured horse puke wurstels” and goes on “but do people still care about Metal?” I mean, do you think I’m a cave man? Then I thought about a quote from Rob Zombie on the awesome documentary Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (which I recommend everyone who wants to understand something about the devil’s music and its disciples to give it a go) saying “Metal is so fucking huge. Yet most people don’t even know it exists.”  I answered, “Yeah, they still care and some of them will always do. Incredible, uh?”

Listening to: Hatesphere – The Great Bludgeoning (Napalm Records – 2011)

Peter Beste Interview February 2011

This an interview to photographer  Peter Beste I did in February 2011 then published in Italian on the paper version of Salad Days Magazine issue 7.

“Peter Beste Lives in New York and likes to take pictures.” This is the only information you can get from his official website but in recent years this fella’s name and his pictures became a cult all around the world thanks to having made the ultimate photo book on the True Norwegian Black Metal scene. An intense look from inside at the people and at the landscapes that generated what seems to be the most extreme and nihilistic music scene ever. And this was just the beginning… Beste then achieved getting inside another rather closed music community, the Houston Rap scene. And the two worlds seem now less distant than one would think…

Most of our readers who already know you they do because of True Norwegian Black Metal but your recent work on Houston rap culture will attract a lot of them who are more in tune with the rap and the street culture. However, these two local and distant realities seem to have something in common that makes looking at your work as a single flow. Tell us about your point of view as a photographer…

PB: There are many similarities between these two cultures, but what ties them together for me personally is my childhood connection with both scenes. These two projects aren’t meant to be companion pieces, but there are some similarities between the two scenes. Looking the part, being “real” and existing outside of mainstream society are just a few of the similarities. I shot both of these projects in a similar way. I simply got to know the people involved and over a long period of time, and attempted to take striking and honest portraits of them in their natural surroundings. Very few of the photos are posed and all are taken with a handheld camera with no elaborate lighting set up, only the occasional on-camera flash.

Would you call the Houston rap one a gangsta scene?

PB: I guess it depends on how you define the term. The typical rapper from Houston is considered “gangsta” to most, but in my opinion, the most interesting rappers from Houston are a bit more conscious. They all have at least one foot in the street, but the best ones aren’t confined to those topics. Some examples of this are: K-Rino, Z-RO, Dope E, Devin the Dude.

In True Norwegian Black Metal you said you’ve been welcomed by very solitary, reclusive and obscure characters as long as by other very human ones. The Houston pictures show us tough guys smoking, a lot of weapons and what seems to be another elitist community you achieved having a very special look from the inside. Can you compare this experience with the one you shared with the Norwegians?

PB: Ironically, I felt more welcome half way around the world in Norway than I did at first in my hometown of Houston. Needless to say, a white guy with a camera in the hood is bound to be looked at skeptically at first. With a little bit of time and getting to know people that changed and I was given intimate access. I think the one thing that made me successful in documenting both of these cultures is the fact that I approached them with honest intentions and simply wanted to portray them in their personal environments. I didn’t approach them as a fan or as a pushy journalist. That approach would have gotten me nowhere.

The black metallers rebelled against Christianity considering it the destroyer of the real Norwegian historical heritage and they developed their own ideology. Even if the source of it might be different have you seen something similar among the Houston rappers?

PB: It’s quite different. The Black Metallers didn’t develop their own philosophy against Christianity, they simply borrowed from Norway’s ancient Pagan religions and some from Satanism. Both scenes (Houston Rap and Norwegian Black Metal) have an “us vs. them” mentality. Though their enemies appear to be completely different, ultimately it is the Establishment, or the Imperialistic West that are looked upon with disdain by both groups.

PB: Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh, founder of the black metal one man band Burzum and guilty of having killed Mayhem’s guitar man Euronymous) does not appear among your portraits on True Norwegian Black Metal but only by an archive pic. Is this a choice you made, did he refuse to pose or weren’t you allowed to reach him in jail?

PB: I think Varg gets too much attention in black metal so I kept my book to the non-incarcerated players.

Gaahl (Gorgoroth) and Nattefrost (Carpatian Forest) seem to have been given a more important role in the book. Why them?

PB: Simply because I have photographed them more and I think they both embody what black metal is all about.

Any anticipations about your next project? Have you ever thought about portraying the Courage Crew?

PB: In addition to finishing the Houston Rap book that I’m working on with writer Lance Scott Walker (out early 2012) I’ve started a few new projects. All of them are polar opposites of my previous work. It’s premature to discuss, but I will post it on peterbeste.com in the coming months. As for the second part of your question, I come from a Hardcore/Punk background and I find few things more obnoxious than the hardline SxE scene. There is nothing courageous about beating up kids who smoke or drink. To me, they’re just a different brand of jocks.

Links:

peterbeste.com

saladaysmag.com