Surya Botofasina

The long time student of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda and André 3000's secret sauce talks wildfires, burn out, psychic maps, and saying "thank you" to Swamini Turiyasangitananda

I first met Surya Botofasina at a Midtown restaurant back in the winter of 2017. Up until that point, Botofasina had been in his New York City hustle mode, whether that meant working in restaurants (like this one) or appearing in Boardwalk Empire. On that day, I was there to chat with him about his childhood spent at Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda’s ashram in California. That conversation became part of Luaka Bop’s ever-transcendent The Ecstatic Music of Alice Coltrane Turiyasangitananda set. To be a part of that loving, devotional compilation was reward in itself, but getting to watch Botofasina grow, from leading the Sai Anantam Ashram Singers as they toured the world presenting these ancient bhajans in contemporary settings to his own debut album, 2022’s Everyone’s Children, has been pretty special as well. The first time I heard Everyone’s Children, I nearly wept at its radiance. Those who find themselves spiritually assuaged by Turiya’s ashram tapes would find succor in this album as well. The elevating vibration of “Surya Meditation” is rare to find in recorded music.

Though of course you may know Botofasina more from his playing on André 3000’s New Blue Sun. Every musician there is incredible in their own right, and there are many incredible artists at work in that nebulous spiritual/ ambient/ new age/ jazz space at this present moment. But with Botofasina –and his presence on that album– you have a direct link back to the source. His second album, Ashram Sun, carries the New Blue Sun sound forward and also pays respects to Swamini’s shining example. It’s always an honor to be in his presence and hear his perspective on things:

When we last touched base in January, I felt like you were kind of in this holding pattern, not knowing if you were going to do this tour with André 3000 around New Blue Sun or not. Almost like hurry up and wait.

I guess it went all the way the other direction now, we’re just like always on the road. It was an interesting evolution over a two-and-a-half year period where the arc was like “Okay musically, I'm feeling like I might have done what I can in music. I’m burnt out in a way, like I gotta stop playing. I don't want to try to pursue this anymore, I'm tired and I even talked to some of my friends like ‘Do you think I should just stop playing music entirely?” I don't think this is for me. This was in 2022 right around the first album, Everyone’s Children.

I'm feeling like a lot of just emptiness, in a way. And then I was talking to a couple of friends, people who I always think of as always working, always practicing musicians, like “never put it down” kind of musicians. And they're like, “Oh, yeah, taking a break is necessary and healthy and good for you, take a break.” I thought these were the people that practiced 10 hours a day, every day and they're like you have to keep going, you just need to ride this out. So I took all of that in and then what it came down to was that I was finding myself in a different evolution, even from what I thought was going to be the offering of my album to what New Blue Sun and other things that Carlos, Nate, and I did.

Once I became a little bit more comfortable with that concept, I was like “Cool I'm ready to to commit a hundred percent to everything that I feel.” I'm really in tune and a part of and connected with it and it’s been phenomenal. The experience has been so phenomenal. It's hard on my heart, in my mind, as a father, not being able to be around my kids on a very daily basis; I do find that challenging.

Yeah, I can imagine.

But you know, every tour ends. No tour lasts forever. And this is not like a situation where, like, you know, I'm a guy working on an oil rig for a year, or in military situations where you're deployed and you don't know if you're coming back or whatever that kind of sacrifice is. It gave me a lot of perspective on what I consider challenging and what I consider just circumstantial.

So how is the crew?

Everything's great. The situations that I’m a part of now, they’re not only tight-knit, but high-level human beings with high-level values. It's funny how many people go to their jobs every day and they're like, “oh my gosh, if I see this one person I'm gonna try it because that person is nuts, you know?”

I'm thinking back to when I saw you guys at Public Records a few months before New Blue Sun and it seemed like André really kind of like lucked into this like ready-made kind of setup. He could just get in and ride.

You know with New Blue Sun and André the thing that I find very interesting and beautiful is that each individual is very much an individual, very much their own person, high-level of self-awareness, high-level of personal expression that they bring with themselves. People are thinking like, “oh, you know, he's been in one area of music, and now he's a total novice at this other area.” That's not the case, you know, because instruments have been in his previous expression at a high, high level and at some of the highest levels. And especially as a producer, he is completely underrated.

Carlos also has the ability to look at situations for what they are and really assess things, able to see both the macro and micro and have the confidence to remain unwavering in the vision. He not only has the confidence, but the dedication, the stamina, the whole nine that it takes.

And Carlos has a baby at home, right?

Carlos is many things. A family man being one of them, sure. And he has many people who he cares about. He has many people that –in an emotional way– depend on Carlos and he's got the shoulders for it. We want to like have it go the furthest it can ever go, whatever that goal may be. Which is really ‘if you're happy with it, we're happy with it, kind of like happy for you. Yeah, we all happen to be on it, but, you know, it's different.

What’s the timeline between New Blue Sun, Nate's album Excellent Traveler, and your album? Like, was it all cut from the same cloth?

The New Blue Sun stuff is kind of evolving. It's all like, we all live in our individual houses, you know what I mean? We all have places that we all individually live in. We have life that's centered around our individual houses and our loved ones. And then we're all part of a community as well. And that's the best way I can describe the various different expressions of projects and things that are occurring.

It sounds like ashram living in a way.

It's like, yeah, each person has their own personal address. And in their own personal address, they also have a community of individuals or a community of beings that they feel very connected to in either collaboration or support or simply just observation. And because of that, there's a lot of different avenues for that to be not only valued but to flourish, to be nourished is probably the best way.

When did Ashram Sun start forming for you? On the road?

Ashram Sun started to formulate at least a year, year and a half ago. So well before New Blue Sun, because I had the name Ashram Sun for the album before New Blue Sun was even named. In that particular regard, I had personally always wanted to specifically point the place where I was bowing my head to, point to the ashram in a very blatant manner. And so since my name is the “sun” and Swamini is directly responsible for conveying that in my life. The Sai Anantam Ashram was so important to me and my values; it allowed me to remain whole in times when I did not feel like I was able to. On a very deep level, I always felt my most peace when I would feel that sun on the ashram shining on my own face. Or the way the mandir steps would look on a Sunday –just a clear beautiful California Sunday– that can only be described as just magnificent and radiant.

So all of that was on my heart and my mind. And of course, being that the actual land itself has gone through different iterations since my family relocated from there, I just wanted to always say how much my heart just comes back to that place in Southern California, no matter what. Like, my entire being of existence is very much there. I’m gonna try to name my album something that’s very related to the actual ashram itself, so my ashram family can see it, listen to it, and know that their ashram sun is out here, still with us on our hearts and on our minds at all times.

I like thinking about the song “Avatar Bookstore” and remembering that I was in there and met your mom there for the first time.

Like a little psychic map.

You went out back out there recently, did you not? I saw a picture that’s just like the stairs right? Only the stairs survived the Woolsey wildfires.

Yeah, I go back there all the time. It’s a trip, because the wildfires that went through that land –that were allowed to pass through that land– that was around 2018. And so those fires are allowed to pass through that land, if you saw any pictures or images from the land at that time it was torched, just 20 foot, 30 foot tall trees just black, completely charred. The wild thing about it was how the steps that remained. The steps remaining there was so so incredible, not only they remained but that there's a burnt tree one foot from it. Burnt branches laying on it, it was just unreal. I go there for a few minutes at a time and I look and see what I remember. I remember how I feel and I remember what it was like to see Swamini arrive there. And in and with all of that, it just gives me so much peace in my heart just to feel it.

And I feel I'll be there in some iteration for the rest of my days. I consider Swami Turiyasangitananda not only the most most humble, most gentle force of absolute power ever, but ahead of her time always. And the ashram to me remains in that same kind of space, just ahead of its time. Currently there are moments where community is so valued and it’ so expensive to live in places that are peaceful right now for a lot of individuals. It’s rugged. It’s so criminal to me. It’s almost akin to like, if you want to eat healthy, you have to pay the most. But if you want to eat horribly, go for it.

“We’ve got a coupon for you.”

Yeah, it'll be right down the street. This aspect of the ashram being available for many people from different walks of life, to nourish so many continues to reverberate through current things. We've seen in the last five years an incredible heightened interest in all of the aspects of what the ashram and its sound represented. We see different artists, different individuals, who are highlighting this or saying that’s what they’re interested in, or leaning towards that way, I think it’s incredible.

When did you know the album had gotten to the finished stage for you?

I knew two things about Ashram Sun: that it was going to feel a little bit different in terms of the pieces that were selected. And I also knew that the last song on the album, “Your Soul is Perfect, Supreme Uniter,” was going to be included on there, taken from a live recording. I knew the day that we had the gathering and concert, what I felt it that night after the show when I heard it back, that was the last song. Because it’s a nod to the latest, greatest, wonderful ancestor, Meghan Jahnavi, and my connection with her. That's where the “Supreme Uniter” comes from, because that was what she wanted to use for her own aspirations in music.

And so once I knew that that song was going to be in there lexicon, I thought, great, we have everything we need. Because of the chanting, because my mom singing on it, because you know the whole crew was on there, Nate, Carlos, and then we were blessed with Mai Doi Todd and Angel Bat Dawid rounding out the ensemble.

When you were working on the album, would you ask her a question about the music? Do you have like that sort of a feeling in it?

It's just every time I sit down to play and every time I’m lucky enough to be able to sit down and play or something is recorded. I really just try to imagine the look that she would have towards either a space in the room that I saw her in. Or when she was playing the organ or in conversation with myself. I just try to remember her expression and let that guide me. And ask myself inwardly like is this something that I would want to offer to her feet. If the answer is yes, that's cool, that’s all I need to know. I’m just really just trying to say “thank you” over and over and over again for my lifetime of bliss that I got to experience as an ashram child.

So you've been back to the ashram land since the wildfires, right?

Many times. I went a few weeks ago.

So kind of describe it for me now, six years after the wildfires. Like, what do you see in the land now?

There's things that have grown vegetation-wise in places that were never there before. You know, there's things that have been moved there weren't necessarily there before. It's very obvious that the animals are walking around a little bit more freely. The deer come from the hills and hang out and it still has the feeling of of incredible inner peace.

I would love to buy it. And just re-dedicate it in a way. My dream would be that we reacquire that land and then utilize it, continuing the way that it once was. It still feels like the ashram that I remember in my heart, this place that I learned how to shoot my first first jump shot on the basketball hoop we had in the parking lot, where I remember riding my bike as a kid. I remember driving for the first time out of there when I was learning how to drive, remembering the different times in my own musical life that I would return there and check in with Swamini about things that I thought I was experiencing or maybe learning or maybe trying to understand or experience. So it’s still bright. It's still beautiful. It’s still envelopingly, caressingly warm in the sun. It's still cool in the shade.