Artist Profiles

Michael Manring

// bassist & composer

MICHAEL MANRING is a bassist and composer from Oakland, California. “The Book Of Flame” (1998) is available from Alchemy Records, Attention Deficit’s “The Idiot King” (2001) is available from Magna Carta Records, David Cullen and Michael Manring’s “Equilibré” (2001) is available from Solid Air Records, Scott McGill, Michael Manring, and Vic Steven’s “Addition By Subtraction” (2001), and “What We Do” (2006) are both available from Free Electric Sound, Michael Manring’s “Soliloquy” (2005) is available from Manthing Music, Don Ross and Michael Manring’s “Live In Toronto [DVD]” (2008) is available from Candyrat Records. Michael Manring has collaborated with many musicians including Thomas Dolby, John Gorka, Michael Hedges, Henry Kaiser, and Patti Larkin among many others.

Website: www.manthing.com
Photo: Philippe Lissart / Manthing.com

Interview:

I find it difficult to write or speak about spirituality because I think of it as transcendent of our conventional experience and resistant to the confines of language, or at least to my language skills. However, if there is a human activity that can be reliably linked to spirituality I’d say music is a good candidate. The more I work with music, the more I feel it has an extremely central place in human experience. I find that music touches all aspects of my life. It is my teacher, my friend, my guide, my healer, my taskmaster and my companion. Music somehow interweaves the intellectual and emotional, the philosophical and the visceral, the realistic and the idealistic. I don’t know by what mechanism music manages to be so powerful and vital, but I’m not sure it’s necessary for me to understand that. I feel my role is to listen, to appreciate its messages, to learn and to follow the voice that has the most resonance and meaning for me. I don’t know if music is a link to the Divine or an aspect of divinity itself, but I’m grateful to be able to participate in its radiance.

“The more I work with music, the more I feel it has an extremely central place in human experience. I find that music touches all aspects of my life.”
– Michael Manring, bassist and composer

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