Stephe Rommel and I began djing together in art installation settings in January of 1993. At that time, I had just returned from the University of Iowa and he was attending M.I.U., fresh out of Santa Fe, New Mexico. His choice to meditate and to learn more about consciousness through Transcendental Meditation was interesting to me because I grew up meditating and rebelling against the dogma of the community, whereas he embraced it and made it his own.

His reality and background were curiously different than mine, and his style of djing and selecting music were unlike anything I had experienced before. His ear for psychedelic beauty in music and sound was unparalleled by other dj's I had known or interacted with prior to that point.

I had learned the "dj basics" back in the 1980's and dj'ed @ the University of Iowa radio station in 1991 and 1992, but none of that work had prepared me for this advanced style of mixing. Stephe's genius and keen ear quickly became a major inspiration for me to examine the range of intelligence contained in sound and music, and more specifically, electronic music.

What he showed me was that there is inherently spiritual opportunity to be a dj who plays music with higher intention and psychedelic beauty in order to foster the upliftment and revelation of everyone. point blank.

As the art-installation/multi-media team, known as "Be Happie," we transformed venues into a world engulfed by art where visual stimulation was nearly as important as the audio presentation. We were creating and cultivating spaces that would propel us and our audiences into higher states of altered consciouness for the evening; we obliterated the plastic landscape of basic field perceptions.

You better believe we took our thang seriously....and we took our responsibility as psychedelic tour guides very seriously too.

As "Be Happie" We studied together various spiritual traditions, found the gems of each and then incorporated them into our approach to organizing and playing shows. One aspect we were very entranced by was Native American healing traditions. Most intriguing was the role of music as a mode of worship. Music was used as a vehicle or carrier wave for creating health and harmony; inspiring divination and sometimes for making personal breakthroughs possible for the members of the tribe. We were re-cognizing the musical connection of ancient tribal music, rhythms and lifestyles and then remodeling them for the current day.

Though we were sure to take time out to play around, be goofy and have fun, we were also quite disciplined and took studying the best of the best of each spirtual tradition very seriously. We were aware that our roles were important ones and brought with them a new form of responsibility. As vessels for Nature, we recognized that we were not the ones in charge, but rather humble servants of a greater good. Therefore we consciously yet spontaneously began building a humble and respectful element into our lives and performances. We presented a spiritual experience of maximum growth, not just an evening of loud music and wild dancing. We began to organically establish our own rituals and rites which we practiced with heightened intensity just before performances. We took long walks in nature, ate good food, discussed music and consciousness, drew and wrote in journals, and we would pray and express our highest gratitude to Nature for allowing us to be the vessels that delivered her goods. Then we jammed.

Our audiences consisted of the young and old, and our music selection would wind like a river through the available compositions being produced at the time. We would shop methodically and carefully each week, searching for the highest sounds we could find. Everything was fair game during performances. We would sometimes select from the wealth of masters that had come before us such as classical, jazz and reggae, although we were most appreciative and interested in the newest forms of musical expression emanating from ambient, dub, tekno, trance, jungle, and some hip hop.

It was always our goal to produce our own music with our own gear, ear and gifts, and for years we sat and wrote business plans, sketched out tour ideas and crunched the numbers to achieve what we wanted. We did some touring and played many shows together and eventually moved to different parts of the country to pursue our own projects; yet through all this time we have remained close friends and like-minded musical partners who still musically give back to our communites with a psychedelic and spiritual intention to enliven and elevate the tribe.

This show is one step on the bridge from our past as dj's playing music from the record store, to the present day as composers featuring our own creations. After 15 years of effort and devotion to being vessels for Nature's message, we are in fact at the next level of the journey. This show represents a small facet of our music production dreams dreamt 15 years ago while praying, dressed in day-glow-technicolor-garb, outfitted with humbly shorn heads and big beads around our necks dancing wildly and opening doors of perception for beautiful audiences here and there. This show features music written by Stephe (sometimes known as Oblivious Word) and myself (most usually known as Obvious World), and it is a true pleasure to be able to share this evening with everyone. Rest assured, there is more music to be played and there are more breakthrough nights in store for the entire tribe.

Thanks for listening, and, as Stephe and I like to say -- BE HAPPIE!

-Matt Ahearn

[Obvious World]