Did anything in particular help you to reach that conclusion?
I think I’m like that since I was born. Nothing really particular happened to me, no near-death experience, nothing like that. I’m just full of questions since I’m born. The first thing I can remember when I was very little is a question asked to my father, I asked him, ‘When am I going to die?’ And I was four years old, so I was wondering about that, and he said, ‘Oh you have plenty of time, don’t worry.’ And I don’t worry, I follow his instructions [laughs].
But a few years ago I built a cabin in the woods with my own hands and I spent one year and a half there. It was not a retreat, I was not on my own all the time meditating, it was just living in the woods without electricity or running water or comfort; it was an amazing experience. I finally had to take an apartment because it would just be too hard going from a tour to a cabin. It’s really a lifestyle that I would love to have one day, it’s just brought me a lot; I felt really in contact with nature and that’s what we are: We are nature. We’re not separated from nature, we are made of earthly material and it was just a very powerful experience.
How does death correlate to nature?
Death is one part of life in general and this topic of nature is very important. Some songs are about protecting nature but the main thing is soul searching. Because we put a tree on one cover and the whale on another cover, people think that the lyrics are mainly about protecting nature—that’s just one aspect of our music. But this topic of never-ending life, the soul, is really in the lyrics since the beginning also. It’s not new but a new aspect. It’s darker than before, but it’s just one page. The next album will be totally different. Maybe not totally, but different [laughs].
What does the title mean?
It’s a saying that I found in a book I don’t even remember. I picked it because I thought it was very cool. The ‘way of all flesh’ means death, but at the same time it’s very poetic because it’s also everything that we have to go through during life. In this album I’m also talking about how hard it is to be alive and all the tears that we cry because I need to express that. The first thing we do when we’re born is cry, so I think the pain that we feel is something very important. It’s not good to talk about if you go to a party, so through art or music, it’s a good way to express it.
What is the ‘Art Of Dying?’
‘The Art Of Dying’ is a song about one way to behave during a lifetime that could help prepare for the moment of death. We accept to let things go and just be centered without belongings, because that’s what I believe is going to happen during death. You won’t bring material things like money and cars and houses and everything with you when you die. But because I believe the soul will remain, we’ve got to be prepared to let things go, and if we practice during the lifetime, it will be easier when we die. I know it sounds crazy, but there’s a bit of Buddhism in that.
