Speaker 1: I kind of believe that we need both wolves. The
Speaker 1: problem we have is integrating them so they work together.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the one you feed. Throughout time, great thinkers
Speaker 1: have recognized the importance of the thoughts we have, quotes
Speaker 1: like garbage in, garbage out, or you are what you
Speaker 1: think ring true. And yet for many of us, our
Speaker 1: thoughts don't strengthen or empower us. We tend toward negativity,
Speaker 1: self pity, jealousy, or fear. We see what we don't
Speaker 1: have instead of what we do. We think things that
Speaker 1: hold us back and dampen our spirit. But it's not
Speaker 1: just about thinking. Our actions matter. It takes conscious, consistent,
Speaker 1: and creative effort to make a life worth living. This
Speaker 1: podcast is about how other people keep themselves moving in
Speaker 1: the right direction, how they feed their good wolf. While
Speaker 1: Dave Davies of the legendary band The Kinks needs little
Speaker 1: in the way of an introduction, a few people may
Speaker 1: realize that his talents and interests stretch far beyond that
Speaker 1: of a famous guitarist. In addition to surviving The Kinks,
Speaker 1: Dave also survived a debilitating stroke in two thousand four,
Speaker 1: only to follow up with a hugely productive decade Most recently,
Speaker 1: he released a new record in two thousand thirteen called
Speaker 1: I Will Be Me, and just released a new book
Speaker 1: called Heal, which is a guide to meditation. And here's
Speaker 1: the interview with Dave Davies. Hi, Dave, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and saying guys, yeah, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us. We're really we're really happy to have you.
Speaker 1: So our podcast is called The One You Feed, and
Speaker 1: it's based on the parable where there is a grandfather
Speaker 1: and he's talking with his grandson. He says, in life,
Speaker 1: there are two wolves inside of us. One is a
Speaker 1: good wolf, which represents things like kindness and braver in love,
Speaker 1: and the other is a bad wolf, which represents things
Speaker 1: like greed and hatred and fear, and they are always
Speaker 1: at at war with each other. And the grandson stops
Speaker 1: and he thinks and he says, well, grandfather, which one wins?
Speaker 1: And the grandfather says the one you Feed. So our
Speaker 1: show is really about how people apply that parable in
Speaker 1: their lives. So I'd like to start off by asking
Speaker 1: you what that parable means to you in your life
Speaker 1: and in your work. I know that story well because
Speaker 1: I've been fighting with the guy on I Love that
Speaker 1: story when I was about five years old and I
Speaker 1: was walking home from school, and you know when you
Speaker 1: were a kid and you walk, when you look at
Speaker 1: the pavement, you have a little slabs and theo's lines
Speaker 1: and he sort of like play hop scotch new I
Speaker 1: don't want to walk in the cracks, but then sometimes
Speaker 1: you might want to walk in the cracks and not
Speaker 1: walk on the cliffs stone. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: And I distinctly remember one voice on one shoulder and
Speaker 1: the left shoulder, and one voice for me right shoulder,
Speaker 1: with me in the middle saying gone. One would say gone,
Speaker 1: walk on the cracks, and the other one played dark
Speaker 1: walk into spaces. And so it kind of it shows itself.
Speaker 1: That kind of parable that metic for looms up quite
Speaker 1: a lot when you're very young as well. It shows
Speaker 1: itself in many different forms. I kind of believe that
Speaker 1: we need both wolves. The problem, the difficulty we have
Speaker 1: is integrating them so they worked together. I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: think that the dark Wolf is bad. It just needs
Speaker 1: to be integrated right exactly real quick day, we're hearing
Speaker 1: some clicking. I don't know if your microphone is clicking
Speaker 1: against your shirt at all, that's probably my fidgeting. I
Speaker 1: do fidget a lot of Sorry, no, no problem, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm a well, I'm a well known fidgetter myself. Um.
Speaker 1: So you just recently wrote a book and released it
Speaker 1: called Hell and it's an instruction guide to meditation that
Speaker 1: I read the other day. Do you want to tell
Speaker 1: us a little bit more about the book? Yeah, he
Speaker 1: is really for you. Um is a short book, many books.
Speaker 1: I wanted to to keep it short because I wanted
Speaker 1: to get to the point quickly and hopefully devise a
Speaker 1: few exercises that can help people. Were so bombarded by
Speaker 1: all different things in our lives, from the Internet, from
Speaker 1: the workplace and driving and everything is kind of bombarding
Speaker 1: our minds and feelings. And half the time I think
Speaker 1: we're not really aware of what really do. We seem
Speaker 1: to be just caught in this often chaotic state of mind,
Speaker 1: just and we're bubbling up and down in this raging ocean,
Speaker 1: just hoping to get through an app that day. And
Speaker 1: it's certainly not a very good way to live. And
Speaker 1: I think, um, all the great mystics, I think all
Speaker 1: there are great spiritual teachers always taught about in a
Speaker 1: creating distance between your soul if you like, or your
Speaker 1: realself and what's going on outside yourself, because it's the
Speaker 1: only way to see the wood from the trees. It's
Speaker 1: kind of just to step back and have a look
Speaker 1: at what really it really is going on as unemotionally
Speaker 1: as possible, because because directly we sit and trying to
Speaker 1: sit calmly, and we get involved with negative emotion, we're all,
Speaker 1: let's say again, being tossed around in this world ocean. Well,
Speaker 1: didn't just sit there and go mad or confused. It's
Speaker 1: always good to try and do something with your mind
Speaker 1: or your you know, you might have had an argument
Speaker 1: with you brought just for just for example, right or
Speaker 1: delay the next door or someone at work, and like
Speaker 1: it can really take over your whole being. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: your book you you describe a meditation practice, and today
Speaker 1: mindfulness meditation is kind of all the rage. You hear
Speaker 1: a lot about it, and your book you actually describe
Speaker 1: a three part as I understood, a three part meditation
Speaker 1: method where you start out with some deep breathing, then
Speaker 1: you go into some some mantra or chanting work, and
Speaker 1: then finally you do some visualization. At the end of that,
Speaker 1: do I do. I understand it pretty well what you're
Speaker 1: trying to teach. Yeah, yeah, basically. Yeah. One of my
Speaker 1: favorite teachers was a swami, Vivid Canander and from India,
Speaker 1: and he kind of to talk some great disciplines and
Speaker 1: he's one of these things he said that already struck
Speaker 1: a chord were called called me was that he said,
Speaker 1: if you breathe deeply, you think deeply. And conversely, if
Speaker 1: you breathe in a shallow way, you're thinking in a
Speaker 1: similar way. So breath in the way we think really
Speaker 1: affect that the body physiologically, we're in this this no
Speaker 1: not time masume just it's robot if you like. That's
Speaker 1: physical and mental and imaginary and is notional. And we
Speaker 1: I think our task a job is to try and
Speaker 1: work with at least different elements. And I think it's
Speaker 1: interesting being a musician and a writer that you're kind
Speaker 1: of doing that anyway. Imagination when you think of things
Speaker 1: and what do you do with them when you're move
Speaker 1: them around like a game, and it's the imagination is
Speaker 1: a really powerful talk. But every can and talk about breathing,
Speaker 1: how it affects the mind and how it can help
Speaker 1: um the willpower not not only just that when you
Speaker 1: breathe deeply you get more oxygen to the brain. You
Speaker 1: it also gives you a sense of center, or believe
Speaker 1: it makes you feel more self empower. It's almost as
Speaker 1: if we're scared or terrified just to sit down and
Speaker 1: be quiet. It's hard. It is hard. It is hard
Speaker 1: to sit and do nothing. And when you say it,
Speaker 1: enclose your eyes, you get bombarded with everything. Oh the car,
Speaker 1: I've got to the carding garage, I've got going to
Speaker 1: get groceries. Oh, why didn't I was supposed to call it?
Speaker 1: You know, it's endless, these things that mind just toys,
Speaker 1: toys with us constantly. And now I try to do
Speaker 1: some conscience simple practices so I think are beneficial. No,
Speaker 1: and I've kept why. I kept the book short, so
Speaker 1: you can read it in one session, you know, and
Speaker 1: the things you can do straightaway, little breathing things, um,
Speaker 1: relaxation exercises and um. You know, I don't think people
Speaker 1: will benefit from the book. It's very it's very practical.
Speaker 1: And just a second ago you talked about how beneficial
Speaker 1: you think this stuff is. And I know you had
Speaker 1: a stroke in two thousand and four and some of
Speaker 1: their reading I've done. You attribute a lot of your
Speaker 1: recovery that stroke to meditation and other spiritual practice, is correct, Oh, absolutely,
Speaker 1: And it was like, um, this kind of weird striving
Speaker 1: that we have. Now we want to come out on
Speaker 1: the other end. But all the it was like well,
Speaker 1: running around trying to escape some sort of pain or suffering.
Speaker 1: But in the end it's going to just take us
Speaker 1: away that think that acceptance of the inevitability of life
Speaker 1: is death. We shouldn't. It shouldn't be approached in a
Speaker 1: fearful way. So a lot of confusion in our lives.
Speaker 1: I feel arrived from fear. When we're fearful, we can't breathe.
Speaker 1: You know, when you see someone in the panic, they
Speaker 1: not getting any breath into the lungs or into the brain.
Speaker 1: That's why breathing is something important, even simple breathing, so
Speaker 1: we can try and relax the body, so that we
Speaker 1: can try and see what's going on in the mind.
Speaker 1: When we're in a state of fair we can't do anything.
Speaker 1: And so specifically, how were these things helping you with
Speaker 1: the with the stroke recovery. What parts of that did
Speaker 1: you did you find it be most value in helping
Speaker 1: you to recover maybe more strongly than somebody that didn't
Speaker 1: have these tools. Well, yeah, because it was because I
Speaker 1: practiced these type of techniques of my life, or since
Speaker 1: my early twenties at least that when I was in
Speaker 1: that state that I was paralyzed and lying on me back,
Speaker 1: I didn't lose consciousness. But you have to use everything
Speaker 1: the disposal. How can I get out of the situation.
Speaker 1: I mean, it was almost it was so debilitating, it
Speaker 1: was almost funny. It was like, I think I know
Speaker 1: things and I can do things, but actually sometimes you
Speaker 1: just cannot do anything about life. I think acceptance of
Speaker 1: that really taught me a lot about my own personality,
Speaker 1: about my own person and I say, as I went
Speaker 1: through the process of recovery, my spiritual ideas and meditation
Speaker 1: all help me through it, bit by bits, step by step.
Speaker 1: It's the easiest thing in the world to be pessimistic,
Speaker 1: to be negative, or that don't work. Why should I
Speaker 1: bother me that never work before? And all that, And
Speaker 1: I think directly we go into that state of mind,
Speaker 1: it gets fed by one of the wolves, and it's
Speaker 1: many many allies in our mind and in our consciousness.
Speaker 1: So that's why we always have to. And there's so
Speaker 1: many metaphors, isn't there all be positive or looked to
Speaker 1: the light and and all these things. The bad Wolf
Speaker 1: does seem to have a lot of allies in our
Speaker 1: culture these days. I think it's everywhere you go. So
Speaker 1: we try and have the bad Wolf entirely, or do
Speaker 1: we embrace him. It's intent that drives the result whatever
Speaker 1: we want to do. What why do we do things?
Speaker 1: What's the intent behind every action that we do? But
Speaker 1: it's picking up a pen or just having a thought.
Speaker 1: And if we can persuade the bad Wolf, don't think
Speaker 1: we should be so hard on him. I think it
Speaker 1: should be included. Like the the old style track farms,
Speaker 1: And there was a great lines, great lines and all
Speaker 1: there was some guy, some profit so that he knew
Speaker 1: where God existed in the universe. So he hijacked the
Speaker 1: Enterprise and then to get to this place where he
Speaker 1: thought God was central the universe. And he had some
Speaker 1: kind of hypnotic trick where he'd hold one of the
Speaker 1: crew and and he goes up to Kirk and it's
Speaker 1: at all Captain Kirk, let me take a little pain.
Speaker 1: And Kirk turns around and says, I need my pain.
Speaker 1: I love that it. Maybe we need to so called
Speaker 1: dark side. It's like Star Wars and a wonderful, deep,
Speaker 1: multi lade story about metaphysical war in our own minds.
Speaker 1: You know, Star War was an incredible concept. There's a
Speaker 1: great scene in the Empire strikes Back when Luke and
Speaker 1: it's already funny. Mark Hamill was a dear friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and there's a big Kins fan, and there's a great
Speaker 1: scene when I think Mark has to confront his dark
Speaker 1: side and he cuts its said ahead of and inside
Speaker 1: the helmet, it's it's himself. So the dark guy is
Speaker 1: himself as well. So what do we do with it?
Speaker 1: Is it wise try and kill it entirely? To cut
Speaker 1: it off? I think that's a big, big mistake, if
Speaker 1: I may say so, or if I may not say,
Speaker 1: I'm saying that maybe that's a fundamental error in religion.
Speaker 1: It's trying to cut off or get rid of these
Speaker 1: elements that maybe unsavory at first, but um, maybe we
Speaker 1: need to understand why that those illergies and those forces
Speaker 1: that are within us respond, not act or react in
Speaker 1: the way they do. I think it's all too to
Speaker 1: do with them intent and nurturing and understanding. All these
Speaker 1: things have to come first. So let's talk about music
Speaker 1: for a second. Um, I'd like to ask you about
Speaker 1: your your solo work. If you look back on the
Speaker 1: on the solo work you've done over your your career,
Speaker 1: I'm curious, what what song for you? Do? You feel
Speaker 1: like the stars truly aligned and you've got everything just
Speaker 1: the way you wanted it. The music, the lyrics, the recording,
Speaker 1: everything which which one you know, everything came together for
Speaker 1: you that you feel most proud of. I think the
Speaker 1: things that catch you by surprise always a special thing.
Speaker 1: You really got mes and it was a series of
Speaker 1: really clumsy events that led up to that that recould
Speaker 1: be in my and when I look back, I think,
Speaker 1: how the hell did we do that? On my latest
Speaker 1: album as a track called coat do Yeah, we love
Speaker 1: that one, which is which seemed to just come out
Speaker 1: of itself. We got built out so mean might have
Speaker 1: been here, no call to rong, just supermarket beer. I
Speaker 1: just got fast it outside my front door, making you
Speaker 1: want fashion that Let's stick chicks. He sets his turning
Speaker 1: tricks at night and the bull surveillance gives me the
Speaker 1: com goes free. So It's based on a a character
Speaker 1: that I made up, but it's obviously part of me,
Speaker 1: and it's part of people that I met. So I
Speaker 1: spent many years in l A. This guy, he lives
Speaker 1: in cent apartment. He's been through a mill and he
Speaker 1: company hasn't got any money and he can lose his flat,
Speaker 1: his apartment, and what's he going to do. I think
Speaker 1: the parts in the song of this guy's character that
Speaker 1: like me, the part where the guy talks about when
Speaker 1: he was a kid, when I was just a lad,
Speaker 1: I dreamed about a place, and that was me and
Speaker 1: really imposing myself on this guy's life, if you like.
Speaker 1: And I as a child, I always imagined that the
Speaker 1: future is gonna be full of hope and fields and
Speaker 1: beautiful things animals. And I still think that you made
Speaker 1: a joke about it earlier, and I'm sure you get
Speaker 1: tired of questions about you and your brother's relationship, and
Speaker 1: I want to put a slightly different spin on it,
Speaker 1: because what I'm curious about is how is how these
Speaker 1: spiritual practices help you to deal with that relationship and
Speaker 1: make it better as you get older. Well, as I said,
Speaker 1: it's um continue work because I think the most precious
Speaker 1: thing that I've learned in my life. I've probably learned
Speaker 1: from my brother that the confrontational aspects of it, the
Speaker 1: two people, two people being so vastly different from each other,
Speaker 1: it seems like a battle. But we're each other's teachers,
Speaker 1: and it seems very hard because we had a lot
Speaker 1: of karma and there are a lot of lessons to
Speaker 1: be learned, and it's a very special kind of relationship.
Speaker 1: But I'm thankful that it's been so difficult because I
Speaker 1: needed to find out things that I might not have
Speaker 1: failed out any other way. So looking back on some
Speaker 1: of um, looking back on some of the Kinks records,
Speaker 1: that would be curious. You're obviously very well uh, you know,
Speaker 1: associated with with you really got me in. But I'd
Speaker 1: be curious, what are some of your other favorite riffs
Speaker 1: from the Kinks period, Because there's so many great ones.
Speaker 1: We talked about the famous ones a lot. I'd be
Speaker 1: curious if you have a couple others that maybe aren't
Speaker 1: quite as well known that you're particularly proud of. There's
Speaker 1: on my first solo solo album in there's a lot
Speaker 1: of roofs on there, Wow, And and there's a song
Speaker 1: called in you, I believe, And there's a riff behind
Speaker 1: that that I love very much, and that it goes
Speaker 1: down and that very quickly. I don't know. I like
Speaker 1: I'd like things that move around and got them down quickly,
Speaker 1: probably like my merchants. Yeah, there's that unlike Schoolboys and
Speaker 1: Disgrace has got some great riffs and i'd love love riffs. Well,
Speaker 1: you're you're good at them. We were listening to Waterloo
Speaker 1: Sunset not too long ago and just we're just the
Speaker 1: guitar party on that is perfect. It's just it's wonderful, dirty.
Speaker 1: That's you keep people so easy, make me feel busy, light,
Speaker 1: chin so and right. But yeah, it's very special record.
Speaker 1: And um, I mean right is uncanny sometimes is observations
Speaker 1: are so point, it's sad and just, but still feel
Speaker 1: like it's something about his right and looking so hard
Speaker 1: and I love that about his writing. Is that looking
Speaker 1: observing and which is like a meditation. I mean, we
Speaker 1: can't see unless we really penetrate the veil. We need
Speaker 1: to really look at people in the way they behave
Speaker 1: and the body language and their flowns and their life.
Speaker 1: And you can tell so much from the way people
Speaker 1: laugh and mortally sounds. It is very beautiful observational piece
Speaker 1: of poetry as well as sonically. It's full of light
Speaker 1: and hope and companies sound very lucky to be involved
Speaker 1: with some really truly incredible pieces of music, which when
Speaker 1: you're doing them you don't always realize what you're doing,
Speaker 1: so you um you had you were in the in
Speaker 1: the process. I think of of promoting the record Bug
Speaker 1: when you had your stroke. And my partner Chris, one
Speaker 1: of his favorites is Flowers in the Rain from that record,
Speaker 1: Oh blessing all the things I didn't say, all these
Speaker 1: words keep going out and I miss you most alone
Speaker 1: when I see Flowers in Shock something life can be cool.
Speaker 1: I was in at that time and I was thinking,
Speaker 1: I really miss England. I've got to get back to England.
Speaker 1: And there's something for me family the special about the
Speaker 1: Moorlands in Dartmoor and ex More in Devon. It holds
Speaker 1: a special feeling for me in these more Land places
Speaker 1: where you can go and get totally lost in nature
Speaker 1: in the rain and it's always raining in the cold.
Speaker 1: And I went back to England and I went to
Speaker 1: Devon Countries over their friends and we sat in the
Speaker 1: middle of Dartmore, which is a beautiful place. And I
Speaker 1: felt and I said to the woman, I said, when
Speaker 1: I die, I went to plant me. I want you
Speaker 1: to plant me up in the ground here because I
Speaker 1: got off actually grow. And it sounds like an insane person,
Speaker 1: but it's like I felt, like we plants, you know,
Speaker 1: and then we might not be physically attached to the
Speaker 1: But I think there's certain places places on earth that
Speaker 1: we have more intimate intimacy with than the others. And
Speaker 1: I find Dartmore very special place. And Flowers in the
Speaker 1: Rain came out of that feeling and the I missed
Speaker 1: you most of all, and it is directed at people
Speaker 1: have known that are there no more, But it's also
Speaker 1: about the place in Dartmore. So I missed the place
Speaker 1: and the flowers in the rain. It's really about a
Speaker 1: place all that it's got memories about people. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a special song from me. It's a beautiful song.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned at the beginning you're you're really busy.
Speaker 1: So what what's coming up with you? New records, touring,
Speaker 1: what other things are going on? Well, I've try signed
Speaker 1: an indeed deal for a new album because after the
Speaker 1: other album It's already given me a sense of like,
Speaker 1: not what's next, what's next? And so I'm writing songs
Speaker 1: for a new album I've I won't tell you what
Speaker 1: it's about because a spoiler. I'm looking forward to start
Speaker 1: recording that. I'm doing a big show in London. I
Speaker 1: haven't played in London thirteen years, and they're playing at
Speaker 1: a place called the Barbican on April the eleventh, and
Speaker 1: I'm really really excited about that, playing in my hometown
Speaker 1: and not actually far from where my family grew up,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of a really special feeling. I'm also
Speaker 1: working on a paperback version of the Heel book, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to promote and pursue that. I'm hoping after
Speaker 1: the Barbican on the eleventh, I'll come back to the
Speaker 1: States and do some selected shows because rock and roll
Speaker 1: in your blood. As I say, we'd love to love
Speaker 1: to see a plane over here in the States about
Speaker 1: So are you all right? We are in Ohio, cool Columbus, Ohio. Yea.
Speaker 1: And I think if I didn't ask this, Kinks fans
Speaker 1: around the world might find us and hunt us down
Speaker 1: because it is the fiftieth anniversary. Any any word on
Speaker 1: on you guys playing together for that, not really because
Speaker 1: I don't know why, but we have to put I
Speaker 1: was saying to write what the other day were the
Speaker 1: other week? You know, what's all this stress and pressure
Speaker 1: about a fifty year Don't they realize that it's going
Speaker 1: to be the fifty first, Yeah, celebration of the Kinks
Speaker 1: name ship and the fifty second right after that. One
Speaker 1: of the things though, that I read in an article
Speaker 1: of yours recently that I admired was you sort of
Speaker 1: talked about you seem to have a real sense of
Speaker 1: integrity around not wanting to do something that's not good,
Speaker 1: not wanting to do it for the money. You you
Speaker 1: talked about some other bands of your age who seem
Speaker 1: to just keep sort of milking the last out of
Speaker 1: the profits, and you seem to be much more focused
Speaker 1: on doing something that's meaningful and important. It's about intent
Speaker 1: and going back to that word, you know, I want
Speaker 1: to do I'm saying to me, I would love to
Speaker 1: for us to work together, but I want to do
Speaker 1: something that makes me happy, right. You know, I'm sure
Speaker 1: we can make a lot money if we're two old
Speaker 1: guys calling up and stay just blasting so yeah, a
Speaker 1: bunch of songs, and I'm sure we can make up
Speaker 1: quite a lot of money. But I don't want to
Speaker 1: go in my little quiet time and look okay myself
Speaker 1: inside and think what you do, and I'll be playing
Speaker 1: with the Wolves again. Ray Dave Davies and the Bad
Speaker 1: Wolves Reunited. Dave, this has been a really enjoyable talk.
Speaker 1: We I liked I like the book, we like your
Speaker 1: latest solo record. We're looking to seeing more from you,
Speaker 1: so thanks so much for joining us today. I like
Speaker 1: what you're doing. It's a really cool idea. We'll let
Speaker 1: me know if there's anything else can help with and
Speaker 1: and stay in touch. We will, and uh hopefully we'll
Speaker 1: see here in the States sometime over the next couple
Speaker 1: of years. Yeah cool, Okay, thanks, Thanks, take care of you. Yep. Bye.
Speaker 1: You can learn more about this podcast and Dave Davies
Speaker 1: at one you feed dot net slash Dave Davies