Stephen DeRuby interview by Mary Munarin for Voice of the Wind magazine
Stephen DeRuby, who makes his home near Yosemite in California, has been a musician since his childhood in the ‘50s and
on a spiritual-healing path since the ‘70s. He is known as a maker of Native American style flutes of consistent quality and tone.
In recent years, he has experimented with alternate designs that expand the flute experience and make it easier for players to
enjoy the types of sounds previously available only on challenging rim-blown flutes.
A ramble around his website, www.deruby.com, turns up any number of interesting items, including a percussion-background CD,
an instruction book, flute CDs, and various flutes and hybrids including my personal favorite, the EZ Anasazi Flute.
Mary Munarin: Stephen, I know you sang and played guitar for many years.
How did you then become drawn to the Native American flute?
Stephen DeRuby: In the ‘70s, I was fortunate to work as a folk singer in beautiful Santa Fe, NM. While there, my interest in
Native American arts and culture became a great source of inspiration. The first time I heard the Native American Flute was in
Taos in the ‘70s. A Taos Pueblo man at the annual poetry jam played a quiet, breathy, sweet song. The seed was planted.
The next time I heard the Native American Flute, 10 years later, would become a life changing event. At a Medicine Wheel
Shamanic workshop at Esalen, Big Sur, CA, my friend Bob Edgar played his newly acquired cedar flute. Wow . . . I was
smitten, on fire, and had to have one. After the workshop I drove directly to the maker of Bob's flute, Tom White Eagle.
I would have driven to the ends of the earth but fortunately he was only 5 hours away. I spent the next 10 days in the
Muir Woods playing my cedar flute. I went home and into my shop to make my first flute . . . and it played!
Mary: So it was kind of a “thunder took the toad” experience?
Stephen: (Laughing) Yes, you could say that. The Native American Flute called up something ancient in me. It was as if an
old companion and soul mate had come home. Mystified by the sound, I wanted to devote my time to making and playing flutes.
I've always loved working with my hands. It's my therapy and my meditation. When I first started making flutes, I wondered if
I could actually earn a living at it. However, I had learned that whenever I felt such passion for something, support would come.
Twenty years on, I'm so grateful for all the people whose lives I’ve touched with this simple instrument.
I continue to be inspired by their stories and appreciation. I feel so fortunate to be on this path.
It is called "right livelihood," i.e., earning one's living in a righteous way.
Mary: For you, then, it’s all about the impact your flutes have had on others.
Stephen: Yes. For example, my good flute friend Steve Carney works with high-risk children. Most of them are in gangs, using
drugs and alcohol. Some have been convicted of felony crimes. We have been introducing the Native American Flute to them.
The response is amazing. Their classroom behavior changes immediately and they actually want to practice.
The atmosphere seems to soften when there is a flute player nearby. It brings out the best in people. The flute speaks a universal
language across all cultural boundaries. It takes us beyond words and mental chatter.
It helps to get us to that place of well-being, balance, and connection.
Mary: I hear that when I listen to your music.
Stephen: Whether I'm making or playing the flute, my heart's intention flows into it. Music comes through my breath and hands,
these are the extensions of my heart. I want to feel and be felt, to make my presence known in this brief time on earth.
Mary: As a flute maker you have a reputation for consistent tone and pitch. To what do you attribute that?
Stephen: Time. Making a good flute takes time. Hawk Littlejohn once told me, "The tree needs a little time to figure out that it's
becoming a flute." I'm careful not to rush through any of the procedures. I stay mindful each step of the way. Check and recheck.
Even when I'm not making them, I'm often considering my next approach. Tone is a powerful element in music and life.
Here's a Haiku flute poem I wrote:
The tone of the flute player
Brings my heart to peace,
Lovely One, come home with me
Mary: You've created innovations such as the Deep Mystic Flute with EZ-Reach and now the EZ-Anasazi Flute. How did the EZ- come about?
Stephen: I love to experiment in the creative process. In my twenty years of making and studying world flutes, I've been fascinated
by the variety of fipple styles and their particular tones. I've always loved the sound of rim-blown flutes but found them very
challenging to play. I wanted to create that sound with an easier mouthpiece. Over the years I've had many "back-burner" experiments.
Consistent quality was an issue. With the recent popularity of Anasazi flute replicas, I wondered if I could develop an easier version that
still had that rim-blown sound. So I went into my place of inspiration and asked for guidance, and an elegant design came through.
It has the air-splitting edge of a rim-blown with an air-slot above it. Eureka! I am elated with the design! It has brought joy to many.
It's a good example of the breakthrough that can happen when you stick with something long enough.
Mary: I know that some Anasazi flute makers dismiss your EZ-Anasazi Flute and other innovative designs as not "traditional."
This amuses me, since modern flute makers have given us a standard scale that, while serendipitous, is certainly not traditional.
Not to mention the many styles of mouthpieces we see, which also would not be recognized by earlier Native American flute makers.
Instruments do change over time, as people discover better or easier or simply interesting variations on the original.
Stephen: The EZ-Anasazi flute has been called a "mutant." Definition: A sudden change resulting from generations of gradual change.
I like that. It's certainly a tipping point in my flute development.
Most replicas of the original Anasazi Flute are already variations on the originals. For instance, the blowing edge on the replicas usually
have a version of the Shakuhachi or Quena flute notch. Flute makers do tinker. We call them Anasazi flutes to indicate the similar
scale and sound of the Ancient Anasazi Flute. The "traditional" or original Anasazi flutes were made with stone tools and made by
Pueblo dwellers whose name, by the way, wasn't really Anasazi. Cool word, though. Names are not the thing itself.
They only categorize.
Mary: The mouthpiece is a joy for the embouchure-challenged. It looks deceptively simple, but I assume it’s vital to achieving the husky sound.
Stephen: Yes, getting that sound requires a methodical and exacting level of skill.
You can see that the mouthpiece has within it the shape (notch) of a rim-blown. Making the EZ- mouthpiece alone takes longer than making
an entire rim-blown flute. Fipples are fascinating, too. Angles, shapes, sizes have such a broad effect on the character of tone.
I've also applied techniques to make the holes closer together. The result is a lot less effort for the player.
Mary: That’s a second advantage of your EZ- flutes that I really appreciate, the closer holes.
As a player with typically girly arms and hands, these flutes fit me.
Stephen: The effort and challenge of a rim-blown are good things, but sometimes you just want to relax and breathe into those deep tones.
Mary: Yes.
Stephen: Listen closely and get inside the subtle layers of tone and personality. That is when the flute is playing you.
A torrent of compressed air molecules being split and becoming tone. It is a microcosmic storm of spirit (breath) and matter (wood).
That storm of particles and waves rushes down the barrel of flute and the longer the journey, the deeper the sound.
It remarkably evokes a plethora of visions and feelings in us all.
When we get to the place of inner peace, the body's natural healing ability kicks in. Inner peace is most important.
If we look at the basic reason for all our actions, it is to feel good.
I have found that one of the best ways to feel good is to bring joy and inspiration to others. It stokes my creative fire.
I make personal choices based on what most supports the creative process.
Mary: What’s next in that creative process?
Stephen: On my previous CD's, I have played all the instruments. My upcoming one, by contrast, is an exciting project that
includes some exceptional studio musicians on acoustic instruments. The compositions are exotic and seductive.
On the flute front, the EZ-Shakuhachi Flute is coming shortly, to be followed by a contrabass F# drone with EZ-Reach. After that . . .
Mary: (Laughing) Well, Stephen, I see that you’re off into your creative space again. Any last words for us?
Stephen: I’ll close with two more of my flute inspired, Haiku poems:
Just playing my flute
I'm the master of nothing
Hollow, empty space
I breathe all that is
my flute alive with music
particles to waves
For a sample of the EZ-Anasazi Flute sound, go HERE.
