Left to right: Taloch Jameson, Josh Elliot, Chris Jones, Kayleigh Marchant  

The Dolmen are known for their spiritual music. In the last weekend of January, they took us on a magical trip during their two concerts in the Netherlands. In this interview we are joining their trip to see what is behind their music.

 

What drives you to make music?

Taloch: “On a personal level, we don’t know why we do it, other than we love doing it. The thing is, being a musician is like being a drug addict.”
The band laughs.
Kayleigh: “Eh, not quite…”
Taloch: “We never got any money… Can’t get a job…”
Chris: “That’s it, because we’re all unemployable… We all smell sweaty.”
Kayleigh: “Speak for yourself! I smell fresh.”
Chris: “We don’t only do the music, we do all sorts of stuff. It’s just to give people something that they can enjoy.”
 

You are quite spiritual. Does that show in your music?

Kayleigh: “I hope so. Otherwise, we’re doing something really, really wrong.”
Taloch: “There is a very simple message in our spirituality. It’s a universal spirituality, which is not bound by the constraints of religion. The individual is always encouraged to follow their own way of spirituality. I live by a five fork mantra: every person is born equal. Every person deserves opportunity. Wisdom will come naturally. No woman, no man, can call themselves free unless they have freedom of choice. It means that everybody is always left in control. You have to take responsibility yourself. This mantra can be said in one word: love. Love for life, love for the planet, love for humankind. And that is our spirituality. We don’t preach it, we sing it. We live it. You can’t tell any of us what to think or what to do, because we’re beyond that. We live through that mantra. Hopefully, that’s what people get from our music.”

“Part of being human is to also have an essence of spirituality”

Do you think the world needs more spirituality?

Taloch: “Every person is spiritual at some point in their life, even if they don’t feel it right now. There will be one point in your life, maybe a few points or maybe an everlasting point in your life, where you will feel spiritual. Where things around you will make a big difference. And you will come to hear that innate voice that echoes down, soon. That is why the human race has always built shrines and stone circles or they go on and build different monuments.”
Chris laughs: “The Shard.”
Taloch: “Part of being human is to also have an essence of spirituality.”

Does your music help with that?

Taloch: “I wouldn’t say that it helps with it. People help themselves to find their own way to it. We play music and our music just happens to tune that way. This is our contribution. Whether it helps someone, is down to the person’s personal take on it. Our music is not to help, it’s just what we do.”
Kayleigh: “We’re sharing our spirituality through our music in the hope that it will make a difference to people; someone will take something positive from it and carry it on from there. We’re not saying that we do do it, but we hope that we do.”
Chris: “We put our own spirituality in it, which a lot of people who listen to us experience or find that in common with us. That five fork mantra goes into all of our music and performances. Some people relate to that, which is great.”

“We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors”

Taloch: “You know, wouldn’t it be just beautiful if the human race could just see the greater love of what it needs to exist and to survive. Countries could learn to sell their differences and learn to actually come together. That is the greater love of life. If enough people could actually grasp this… People can still be proud of their cultures. We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors. We’ve come down through hundreds of thousands of years of evolution to reach where we are. Let’s hope that we continue to evolve and we will reach that point where we can. Where we can settle our differences without dropping a few missiles. War is not good for anyone. Isolation is not good for any country or person.”

This year is the 30^th birthday of the Dolmen. Are you going to celebrate it?

Taloch: “We are.”
Josh: “We usually drink, to be fair. It’s a special occasion.”
Taloch: “We haven’t worked out exactly what we are doing yet, but it is a special year for us. The Dolmen was put together to play gigs at campfires. I didn’t want to ruin this atmosphere of a beautiful time out in the country or out in the woods where we would play instruments. We still do it now. In the UK we still have our own gatherings, festivals and other events.”