The Lost Word

Musical craftsman Christopher Magneto showcases his masonry on new album, 32.

Christopher Magneto is a globe-trotting bar star on an adventure-filled search for home. His living room is self-mastery, and with his new studio album, 32, the Hawaiian-born traveling man has come several steps closer to kicking his feet up on that leather sofa that awaits. Guest contributor, Nadine Walters, delves deeper into the mind behind the music during a recent Q&A session.

The title of your album signals a personal benchmark, but no one knows what that benchmark is, so please enlighten us.

This album is a measurement in the craft of soul masonry. For anyone familiar with Freemasonry, you’ll know that 32 and 33 are important numbers within the practice. I was initially working on an album that will come out at another time called “33”. In the midst of working on that album, 32 emerged as what was originally supposed to be just an EP that would be the warm up to 33. Once I shifted my focus to 32, it grew legs of it’s own and here we are now.

I’m glad it did. 33 is an honorary number to seek to embody. Humbly I’m not there yet. I will get there, but not quite yet. With the intent of mastering my craft, I approach my creation process like masonry. I’m constantly analyzing the architecture of my life and art so that I can construct the two in way that is symbiotic. 32 is what I genuinely felt was the best dimensional analysis of everything this album represents.

There are 32 teeth in your mouth.  Water can begin to freeze, or unfreeze, at 32 degrees. Shaq wore 32 on his MAGIC jersey. However you interpret those statements, you’ll find elements of your interpretations woven throughout the album. What 32 the title represents to me is a personal measurement on the journey to understanding what happens at the crucifixion above the 33rd vertebrae.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?

Hmmm.  There’s two that come to mind, but I think I have to give the slight edge to “GTR-33”. That song means a lot to me on a lot of different levels. That was one of the first songs I recorded for 33 a little over a year ago. Besides there being an actual vehicle called the Nissan Skyline GTR-R33, the 33 in the car model had a resonance with the album title.

In addition my solar return is 33 (3/3) and the original plan was to release the album on 3/3/2023. Even though the song is on 32, it is still very much a place holder for what I envision for 33. The song probably gives the impression that I’m a car enthusiast. I’m really not. I do like nice cars and could tell you some of the basics but don’t expect me to get spec’ed out.

My take was more about personifying my physical vessel as a GTR-33 and making spiritual and personal connections in the process. It also speaks to my origin story. I first started drinking when I lived in Japan. While living there I owned a basic Nissan Skyline. It was the first car I had ever paid for with my own money. After leaving Japan I didn’t own a car for a while because of the nomadic and chaotic lifestyle I eventually descended into because of drugs and alcohol. Whenever I did drive it was always someone else’s car and usually with no license.

Driving wasn’t a pleasant experience for me for a while. Because of that, my body became my vehicle in a lot of ways. As I’ve grown in my spiritual practice, the concept of sky deities and coming from above is something that resonates with me on a genetic level. Therefore I have inclinations towards things titled “Skyward Sword” “Skyline” “Skywalker” and so forth. Seeing a deity come forth in a chariot of fire is a common theme for these sky deities. That’s what GTR-33 means to me. It’s literally my chariot of fire.

Another important layer to add is the first song I ever recorded was called “Delorean”. Inspired by the Back to the Future Vehicle, the song was about me using a time traveling car so that I could arrive at the future I had envisioned for myself. GTR-33 is the fulfillment of that Prophecy. I plan on returning to Japan completely sober and recording the video with the GTR community there. I also plan on buying a Nissan GTR so I don’t have to walk every where (lol). In a lot of ways it will be the culmination for an aspect of my hero’s journey. 

How was it working with an executive producer who was never physically present for the process? That isn’t exactly the typical recording process.

Wow. I am kind of stumped with this question. I never really thought about the implications of having the executive producer in another country. In my mind we were just doing what we do. As long as we got a computer, wifi, and good health I know Adika and I will make some shit happen.

I’ve been traveling all of my life so I’m used to these long distance relationships. I was joking with my Brother in Law recently during a recent visit it felt low key kinda awkward speaking in person because a large part of our relationship was formed digitally due to me always traveling. Even Adika and I’s relationship has a digital inception. Damn. I haven’t thought about this in a minute, because it’s obvious to me that we’ve known each other across the span of multiple lifetimes, I haven’t given a lot of thought about how we met in this lifetime. What I do remember is there was a lot of digital correspondence before we finally met up in person in Brooklyn.

I think our working relationship in a lot of ways is reflective of the times. We live in a digital era and there isn’t a way to get around that. I think a lot of people are still looking for how to function righteously in this paradigm so that they’re in it and not of it. I think that what Adika and I offer in its totality could be a genesis for people who are looking to find balance between the analog and digital so to speak.

As I ponder your question a little further something that comes to mind is our energetic footprints. People perceive that I am in South America and Adika is in North America. But how does the consciousness of those two land masses with all of its inhabitants perceive each other? When we take an overhead zoomed out look they don’t really appear that far from one another. I say that to say, I think the fundamental part of our connection exists in a place where physical distance is irrelevant.

Sure there’s a fraternal aspect of our brotherhood, but I think that fraternal nature descends from a working desire to perform the creator’s intent. Cosmic initiatives obey cosmic laws, not laws of physics and space. What Butler 22 and Magneto 33 do and how we operate is a product of that. 

What made you want to record an album in another country? 

I’m a Pisces. Pisces is historically taught to govern the feet. My Ifa life path reading speaks to an energy governing the feet and moving. Since I was a boy I had a sincere fascination with sneakers beyond reselling. To this day I can tell you stuff about sneakers that I shouldn’t have any business remembering. For example most people don’t know there was actually a sample that was quite a bit different than what was actually released for the infamous Nike Galaxy foamposites that caused riots. Don’t worry I’ll make the galaxy stuff relevant to the question.

I think people feel most at home when they’re in the location of their purpose. We all have our own unique purpose. Part of my purpose is returning to my stellar origins. Therefore my purpose feels at home when it is on the go, because I need to be on the go so that I can go home. I recorded my album in another country because I am looking for the best position that I can continue my return to where I really come from. I know that sounds like some K-Pax stuff but it is what it is. I think there’s a lot of wisdom in the Bible when you have the eyes to see the difference between who created it and who made it.

When it says “my sheep will know my voice” I filter that through what is considered an extraterrestrial context. I think I have a foundational understanding of the Anunnaki and my relationship with them. My music is a reflection of that. Part of me recording in another country is doing my best to put together the fragments as a result of my fall. When I travel I get genetic triggers of places I’ve been and people I was in past lives. When you truly submit to what an experience has to offer, eventually you will master it and seek something more challenging. Through my travels I will that I acquire enough experiences and knowledge so that I can master this thing we call life and move on to the next challenge of the galaxy. See, a man of my word. Told you the Nike Galaxy reference was relevant. 

Where were the biggest influences on the album?

Allah and Yah. People have probably noticed that I oscillate between referring to the creator as “Yah” and “Allah”. They serve two different functions for me. Allah is something I call on when I need to demonstrate feminine qualities. Yah is something I call on when I need to demonstrate masculine qualities. Energetically the song “GTR-33” is Allah, while “Relentless” is Yah. Aside from the intrinsic value of calling on a divine thought matrix to aid you, there’s an opportunity for growth in balancing out the primal masculine and feminine aspects of that thought matrix.

That was something I was working out within myself a lot on this album. As I’ve stated before, I approach this like carpentry so symmetry, balance, and proper measurements drive a lot of what I do. I’m always asking myself is this a good balance between a good message and good music? Is this good balance of Yah and Allah? Is this a good balance of humility and self-aware narcissism?

Even being aware that there’s a narcissistic aspect of human nature takes the inspiration back to the Creator. Because through music, through reflection, through the study of the words left behind from the creator, I am asking myself, “Is this a quality that my creator intended for me? Were there people before me who had this quality, and if so, how did it go for them?” A lot of what you hear in the music is me thinking out loud what I usually think about. I think one of the most assuring compliments I’ve received on my music is that in addition to a good message, it’s actually quality thought out music.

I know the message is important, but music for me is more about self exploration and growth by way of mastering appealing sounds. I speak about what I speak about because it’s what’s on my heart. Most of the time when I approach a song, I am thinking about how can I make this sound good before anything. I think like most things, it’s better when it’s real. Music sounds good when it comes from a real place. When you have a real connection with your creator, that will be evident in your creation. When you say you have a connection to the creator in your music but it’s not creative, that means you’re not really serving the creator or you’re serving something that’s not the creator. I will that it’s evident in the sincerity of my music that I have submitted my life to serving the true and living.  

How would you describe your creative approach with this project?

In the womb. An image that comes to mind is the Star Child from 2001: A Space Odyssey. I think that the baby could represent the curiosity of the creator as another form of existence is being contemplated from the womb of outer space. This album in a lot of ways is me contemplating the next form of my existence. A lot of times during the creative process I was making sure I would focus on speaking into things that I would like to establish in my life.

It’s taught in the beginning was the word/logos. I want to take that idea and see how far I can stretch it out. Is the word in the ending as well? Is the word the all and all? If the word was made flesh does that mean I’m the word? Can I create my perfected reality through the perfection of words? It’s almost like going back to when you’re a kid and you’re asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”

I have decided to take that approach through my music. I ask myself, “If I was healed from addiction, molestation, PTSD, OD’s, and family loss, how could I share that in a way that is humble, honest, and sincere?”

All this type of thinking is done in the womb of the mind ya know? It’s not something I necessarily am actively thinking about when I am writing my lyrics, but in the effort to abide by “As A Man Thinketh, so He Becomes” I design my life around the thoughts to my music question and I think the reality of my life funnels that back into the music. 

I also say the creative process for this album could be described as in the Womb, because I spent a lot of time in the womb of my apartment at where I lived in Brazil. Due to the nervous system injuries I sustained, I was physically limited and often times conservatively mobile. My apartment helped a lot because It was close to everything and had what I needed at the time.

Everyone who used to come over would ask why I needed such a big place. I would have to explain I spent the majority of my time at home despite living across the street from the famous Copacabana beach. It really was a womb like experience for me though. The amount of free time and space I had allowed me to really form who I will be in the remaining years of my life and how I want music to factor into that.

I think I asked myself questions during that time that someone would ask themselves when they’re in the womb prior to a new self genesis. One last funny thing about the womb of that Brazilian apartment. The lady who owned it had A1 taste. It was designed with the influence of a Japanese garden and modern appliances. If you’ve been to Brazil you know it can be difficult to find modernity and quality at affordable levels. If It weren’t for some other issues I may have bought the apartment.

One of the issues was that it was located on Avenue Nossa Senhora Copacabana. Some people call this part of Copacabana, Copastanistan as an acknowledgment to it’s “middle east” lawless like nature. Guaranteed when I left my home every day I would see drugs, addicts, human feces, dog feces, homelessness, and many other consequences of a corrupt government. Waking up to drug addicts fighting  at 2AM was a common occurrence. Despite all that, if it weren’t for the Português blaring over the cars driving by promoting their low quality cleaning products you may have thought we were in a luxury bachelor pad in Japan. My apartment truly was an oasis in a desert. I say all that to say, that’s how I approach my creative process. I took a look around and have decided I want to be an oasis in a desert. 

How would you pitch this album to prospective listeners reading this interview?

At this stage of my life I am done selling myself. I’m focused on my brains cells and maintaining my mental health. Seriously, sales traumatized me in a way where I never want to have to sell something again. I know there’s a point to be made about me selling myself as an artist but it doesn’t feel like that.

I am living out my divine purpose so naturally it will find a way to sustain itself in this reality as all divine things do. What I can say is that one of the realizations I had in sales was the goal is to create a product so undeniable that the product is the promotion, like gold. No matter where you go on the planet gold is gold. People who know it’s value, know it’s value. People who don’t, don’t. If you’re getting it on discount it’s probably not real gold. Very rarely is pure gold seen or worked with.

There’s a reason you see a gold organic painting on the album cover. There’s a reason the release date for the album is the same for the atomic number of gold. There’s a reason why I only wear 24k gold. This album will hold it’s value where ever you want to take it in life. The more you examine it, the more you’ll see the purity that’s being offered. If you know you’re looking to know who you are, then this is that. If you don’t know who you are, or what you’re looking for, then you don’t know what you’re in store for. I’m going to stop there cause it’s starting to feel sale-sy.

“If you looking for the real, it’s finally that season.”