Music is magic and here's how I know
Bops, tunes, and deeply healing musical journeys
Have you ever curated a playlist of songs that you feel intimately connected with and then asked your friends to lie down with their eyes closed and deeply listen for two hours? I don’t want to say I now know what it’s like to perform on stage, but I do want to say that I’ve never had so much AUX anxiety.
To set the scene, picture eight friends in full slumber party mode in the living room of an AirBnB in the redwoods. Mattresses around the fireplace, blankets, eye masks, and a little bit of mushies.
Over the next two hours there were tears, laughs, and a lot of love and connection. It left me with a profound feeling that music is magic.
The Playlist
The vibe I was going for was to start easy & gentle, slowly drop in to more evocative & deep, and then come out loving & joyful. Here is the playlist if you’re interested in going in for a listening sesh of your own:
Putting it together was a surprisingly creative and emotional experience. I went deeeep into Spotify for hours, exploring liked songs, radio rabbit holes, and playlists going all the way back to high school. With each song I added, the next one seemed to reveal itself.
It was a creative act that felt similar to writing. Beyond the narrative arc and general vibe I was trying to curate (had to exclude a lot of Cudi and John Mayer 🫤), I chose each song because it has a deep (sometimes ineffable) resonance with me and/or a core memory connected to it. It feels surprisingly vulnerable baring my soul without saying a single word.
The Legend of the Tongue Drum
My favorite part of the whole experience happened after the playlist ended. We kept the slumber party vibes going with snacks, tomfoolery, and taking turns debriefing our journeys while playing around with my tongue drum.
The lore behind this drum is mystical and tender.
The first encounter was in 2022 at Lucidity, a hippie music festival in the mountains behind Santa Barbara. My friends Marissa, Logan and I had hiked up a hill to a lookout to watch sunset. One of our friends was at a 10-day silent meditation retreat, and before she left, we all made a pact to watch the sunset together that weekend and send some love & good vibes both ways.
As we sat there, watching the sun go down over the Santa Ynez valley and imagining her watching the very same sun go down over a very different scene, someone began playing an instrument that was both ethereal and surreal.
I had never heard a tongue drum before, but it could not have been a more perfect soundtrack for this scene. More people gathered, and soon there was a squad of strangers sitting together in reverence— watching the sunset, listening to the drum, and sharing something. I remember having a very cliché but profound thought that this is what it means to be human. To feel deeply connected with other humans, to nature, to love.
I convinced myself I NEEDED a tongue drum, and as fate would have it, the guy playing the drum was also the guy that made the drum, he and happily sold that very drum to me. It’s now a memento that can transport me back to that feeling every time I play it.
The tongue drum also symbolizes the beginning of a new chapter. The friend I was sending love to on that hill was Daphne… and I had finally shared my feelings for her right before she left for her retreat.
Music Guy
I’ve never considered myself particularly musical, but sharing music with others has been a new skill tree that I’ve been leveling up recently. A couple months ago, two friends in Venice showed me a music-journeying app called Atoon that they’ve been building. One of them is an insanely talented musician, and they built the app around collections of music that he carefully orchestrated to lead you on an inward journey. It’s a genre of its own, and honestly hard to put into words, but it’s now a tool I consistently reach for when I want to tune out of what’s happening in my head and into what’s happening in my body.
Every time I saw these friends, I told them how much I’ve been loving their app, and after many conversations, we decided to work together. Starting this month I’ll be helping spread the good word with marketing and events. If you’re in LA, hit me up about coming to a listening event. If you want to try the app for yourself, below is 2 weeks fo free:
Send any feedback my way, I’d love to hear how my tub friends are using it!
I’ll leave you with one more music rec:
Song Exploder (a pod where they break down songs line by line with the artist) is one of my favorite listens, and here is a recent episode with Lil Simz that was DOPE
That’s all for now, but don’t be shy to comment any music-related recs, mems, or hot takes,
Brandon
We are so excited to have you support Atoon! Ready spread some magic together ✨ PS Love the Spotify playlist.
sharing music as a skill - damn so true