Physics can explain how the passage of time is actually an illusion. Scientists have been studying this for many years and have come up with equations, like E=mc2, to prove that time can be perceived as relative and that the past and the future actually can exist at the same time as the present. When I think of 13go, I feel that this point in time is a culmination of past and future occurring at this very moment.
In a sense, we are all born as we are and with all the talents and ability already formed in us. We merely have to bring them out. Much like a great sculpture can see the form inside the rock and has only to carve the stone away from what they know is already there. At this stage of my life, I am starting to see what has always been in me in music. I’m not saying that I have achieved all of the possibilities that exist musically, but I feel that I can see how I express myself better. I have always done so as if it were happening now and as a result what was the future many years ago was something that is happening now. My musical expression is/was the same all at the same time. Yes… it’s all kind of mind-bending!
The personnel of 13go are also an assemblage of people who have been with me at different points of time during my life. However, I couldn’t see how they could have come into my life in a musical situation such as this years ago. When I met Ian DeSouza 16 years ago, we got along as friends, but I never played a note of music with him until 2018. I still knew back when I met him that he was going to be an essential person in my life; both personally and musically. I kind of felt the same way about him then as I do now as the future of that period has become the present and all is the same.
My relationships with both Kim Ratcliffe and Vernon Reid are similar to that of Ian DeSouza except that I have played music with each of them for many years. The way I musically express myself has changed over the years, but it all has led me to this current moment with this band called 13go. All the forces of the past have culminated to this moment which, if you think of it, is in the future relative to that past.
I realize that this is all kind way out there, but remember this notion of time is actually an illusion created by our linear perception of how our lives unfold. Although we feel that we are always in the present, it is actually the future of our past that is manifest. 13go is a band that was always meant to be, and that is why it exists, as are all the events and people in our lives.
Kim here, with some ramblings on the band. First, the name. ‘13’ has a certain intrigue about it. Joseph Campbell discusses it in The Power of Myth, and this was where the inspiration came from. It’s interesting to me that in various cultures 13 can have such positive or negative implications. It’s just a number. We’re choosing to focus on the positive. Campbell talks about its significance in American history for instance. Initially, there were 13 states, and on the ‘Great Seal’ the eagle holds 13 arrows in its talons and looks towards the 13 olive branches. 13 can also be seen as representing change and rebirth in a spiritual sense. Or it’s a baker’s dozen. I also like how the ‘one’ can represent our special guest Vernon Reid, and the ‘three’ our trio. For folks who may see 13 as a negative force, for the record, this is certainly not our intention. Sorry. (Have to get an apology in the first paragraph, it’s a Canadian thing).
‘Go’ represents the journey. Taking the trip together. Sticking together. A road movie.
The name of the album comes from the preamble to the American constitution. Keep Reading →
