January 16, 2026 • 47 mins
On this episode of In Service Of, Mia Garcia — multidisciplinary artist, instrumentalist, and producer — sits down with Sage Bava to talk about her new album water memory and the creative world behind it.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
So I'm here with an incredible Mio Garcia, musician, composer, producer, extraordinary.
You just radiate so much soul, so much depth, and
you have your debut album coming out in one week.
How very exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for your kind words.
I'm so grateful to be here with you. The project.
The project is something that started as an idea maybe
five years ago, and it kind of just came as
(00:45):
a vision where it was this all encompassing feeling of
the purpose of the soul and why anyone is here
at all, and how it's such a universal experience to
be brought from somewhere else into this realm of existence
(01:09):
on this earth and then to live out a life
in whatever color, shape or form that takes place for you,
but essentially the through line being the same, which is
to evolve and to learn and to grow and to
really just do your best, because everyone in whatever degree
(01:32):
they can is doing their best. So yeah, the project.
The project started as an idea and it was kind
of just this image of a being being borne onto
earth through water and the vessel of water was very
(01:55):
important for me because it's something that I've always thought
is like the great connector. So I always believed that
water is just like this ancient messager that carries so
many beautiful things for us to remember. And pretty much
the entire Earth.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Is made of water.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
There's so much here and then we are too, so
it's like the parallel between us and the Earth being
one and the same in that kind of like foundational
makeup was really important for me. And from there there
(02:37):
were a lot of yeah, a lot of logistical things
unfolding from there in terms of like the actual process
of making the album, but I would say that's the
that was the origin of the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's amazing. I recently saw a photo of Earth from
space and there's no land on like one side. Don't
recognize how deep water is. And your congruence of using
water as an inspiration for music so inspiring. It really
(03:14):
feels like you're in service to nature. This podcast is
called in service of and it's incredible how many artists
talk about being in service of something greater than themselves.
If you had to form a message of what you
are desiring for people to take away from the whole project,
and perhaps something else that you feel in service of.
(03:38):
In this respect, so many things I know, but what
comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's a great question. Yeah, I think that when people
listen to this music, the main intention is first lead
to listen, to really listen, because I find that a
(04:05):
lot of the times when we're able to open ourselves
to listen enough to music to really be open to
that experience, what we find on the other side is
just ourselves, a reflection of sorts, and it can be,
you know, in so many different textures, but like it's
like this reflection of something that maybe we haven't seen
(04:26):
in ourselves before, or something that we've always wished to see,
or we wish to grow into, or we want to
access little key components. So yeah, I hope that everyone
takes the space and time to really listen and through
the process of listening, to listen to their own feelings
(04:47):
and what comes up, because a lot of the songs
go through the cycles of deep loving, whether it's you know,
nature or you're self or other people, and through the
depth of love, what you find on the other side,
(05:08):
or as maybe like a through point, is grief because
a lot of the times the cycle of loving includes
grief and grief as the testament to love. So the
bravery that it takes to put yourself in a space
to be vulnerable, to listen to yourself, to love fully,
and then to embrace the cycle of grief that comes
(05:30):
with that loving is really one of the key components.
And the idea for the album and its fluidity kind
of came about in a fully realized version for myself personally.
(05:52):
When I realized that I was judging myself for feeling
certain things, I was like, oh, I don't want to
feel angry about this, like or I don't want to feel,
you know, upset by this happening. And I just realized
I was like, well, I don't get upset when water
changes its state. I don't judge water for evaporating. I
(06:15):
don't judge it for freezing. I don't judge it for
needing to flow in a certain direction. You just accept
that depending on the environment and its experience in the temperature,
it reacts in certain ways. So then I learned to
give myself that type of grace and empathy and fluidity.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Wow. So wise, I feel like you were one of
those small children that were just like staring at the
world with all the wisdom already like somehow implanted.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
In them.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
A lot of questions, a deeply transformative year that you
learn to listen to yourself or was this something that,
like Jane Goodall says, she was born with this profound
connection to hope. So for you, yeah, was there a
(07:11):
time that you could share that you kind of found
that for yourself or was it just always yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, So it's it's interesting when I think back on
on kind of like the architecture of my life and
how the foundations were built and how I exist. Now,
there's this phrase that I have. It's actually a title
of one of the songs on the album, and it's
called the orbital nature of remembering. And I think that
(07:44):
we all come to our own realizations, you know, we
all come to our own realizations at some point and
then we forget them. We're like, oh, yeah, I learned
that lesson totally forgot And my friends and I always
joking about it because like we know each other so
deeply that we're like, you know this, So it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think my spirit came into this life with a
lot of knowledge about the world and about emotion and
about recognizing the way that I feel and learning to
listen to my own voice and my own needs and
what's important in the internal world. I was kind of
(08:25):
like very insular as a kid. I was very like
in my thoughts in my heart, like writing songs in
my room, writing poetry, not really like super social.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was a bit shy.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So that was the foundational seed of how I existed,
and I think through time my experience in life led
me to want to show up a certain way in
the world in order to make other people around me happy.
But sometimes that meant sacrificing my own feelings and not
(08:56):
being fully authentic with myself about how I was doing. So,
you know, forgetting that internal base knowledge and then growing
up a little bit and being like, oh, you had
this when you're a kid, you know, like you know
all the answers. So this project was really about kind
of circling back to that initial seed that I feel
(09:18):
like I had when I was younger, and growing into
the wisdom that I had when I was a kid
that a lot of us have that we forget and
kind of have to circle back to.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I remember, I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Love how you talk about spirituality. It's such a necessary
thing and proven via MRIs to really protect parts of
our brain, et cetera, et cetera beyond just you know,
the faith components. But to me, spirituality and intuition are
kind of very linked. And you're creating music since you
(09:54):
have such a profound facility with so many instruments, and
as a producer and as a composer and all. So
you know, I'm sure the work that you do in
film really stretches you in different in other ways, but
you still feel like you really create from a place
of intuition.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Do you sometimes feel like you're.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Fighting yourself because you have such a profround ability to
do very hard things, So sometimes the simpler option is
is not really what's called upon in that context. But yeah,
i'd love to hear you talk about like your connection
to intuition in creating.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Hmm, I love that. Great questions, Ah, intuition, Yeah, this
is an interesting one, the intuition, so that there's a
lot of levels to it. I think intuition comes very
(10:56):
clearly in feelings and like bodily feelings and a motive
feelings and energetic feelings, even in dreams. There's a lot
of ways that intuition can kind of come to give
you messages. And I think depending on what you're creating,
(11:20):
it can be more clear or less clear, but there's
always a way to kind of like tap into it
in a feeling sense. So I think that, Yeah, I
mean my baseline and tens many times when I'm making something,
I ask myself before I'm making it, is what does
(11:45):
the world need the most right now? Like? What can
I possibly offer? What can I possibly offer if there's
anything that I'm offering or contributing to creation right now?
What does the world need? And maybe it's like on
such a personal level, go to give my mom a
hug and she needs that feeling of a hug and
it's that simple, or maybe it's even you know, something
(12:07):
more complicated, where you know it's in relation to a
specific issue or topic that's coming up on a recurring basis.
So before I create something that's kind of the baseline question,
and then through feeling and exploring that question, I think
a lot of things will just naturally kind of land
(12:29):
into place.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
From there, there's such a stunning ritual feeling to your
work and a renewal in all the songs. Feels like
a meditation, It feels like an offering, feels like a hug,
feels like you're really tapping into what humanity and this
(12:53):
very bird's eye view and a mother earth that kind
of and I sourcing that material. It makes so much
sense of why you're creating this kind of music. I
think within that to make music that is of that spirit.
(13:16):
There's a lot of your own personal rituals that go
into kind of conjuring that go into bringing that forward.
Could you share some of how you get into calling
that in and where maybe the initial seeds come.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, that's an interesting question. It's there are many ways
that songs will come through, And I think the greatest
ritual that I have when I'm in the practice is
the first one is just being ready to receive on
(13:56):
like a foundational level. And for me, that really means
like tending to my body a lot. So I love
like having a lot of movement integrated in my day.
I like eating really clean, I like drinking like a
bunch of water. I like giving myself a lot of
self love. And having that foundation set so that my
(14:20):
vessel actually feels like light and ready to receive and
healthy is really like where it starts, I think. And
it doesn't mean I have to be happy that day either.
It doesn't have anything to do with the feeling like
I could be so sad and still like trying my
best to just get through the day and just trying
to do those things that I know like will kind
(14:42):
of open me up a bit. The other thing I
think that's really helpful for me in terms of the
ritual is writing a lot, because the writing can allow
you to be empty, and sometimes when you empty yourself
even more, there's like more room for things to just come. So, yeah,
(15:06):
I think a lot of the times it's yeah, it's
just making enough space for creation or source to just
come through and be in the room with you and
just just being able to like listen to whatever that
is that day. And I can definitely hear went for myself,
(15:27):
like when I'm making things where I'm thinking about it
and I can think and make something that I think
sounds cool. And then there's other times that are so
special where you're just so open and it's like just
this flow that comes through. Like a few of the
songs on the project, I just woke up and they
were like already written. I just woke up and I
started playing guitar and I just played the song and
(15:49):
it was like, oh, that's a nice song.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Nice What was one of those songs?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I Love You for a Lifetime was one of those songs. Yeah,
and it's so cute, like anyone I would play it
for that week that I wrote it, or I don't
even know if I wrote it. It was just a
song that appeared, but anyone I played it for just
instantly started crying and it was so cute, and like
a few of my friends just recently got married to
(16:31):
that song.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But yeah, it's just really precious.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Like my older brother that's like, you know, super macho
kind of guy on the surface, like he's just weeping
his eyes out like so I was like, I guess
that one was needed for for some reason.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I received that one.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I love that song and there's just so much deep,
deep love in it, and you can't not feel that
in all of the songs. It feels like you're planting
such love within and I mean, thank you for doing that,
because it's we need more of that kind of energy
(17:17):
force in the world. And I'm sure throughout creating that
and really expounding upon and excavating that kind of love
and stories, certain lessons were then brought to you. Is
there one that you could share about something that water
perhaps gave you.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, so a specific lesson kind of through the process. Yeah,
many things. I think this project was my first time
being able to express the depth of grief that I
(18:00):
had experienced at that time, and it was really just
a beautiful realization of how the depth of the grief
really shows the depth of the love and the depth
of the vulnerability that you accessed through the loving. And
(18:24):
even though it's so difficult, it literally feels like moving
through what concrete when you're in that state of loss,
what it feels like loss. But once you make it
to the other side, you realize what a profound gift
it is to just experience these things. Even though grief
is so hard, it's also such a gift that shows
(18:47):
us the depth, the depth that exists through the vessel
of loving people and loving the world.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Wow. And it's amazing just how nature holds us through
that process of death and rebirth. And I'll say it
a billion times. I am just so appreciative of your
bringing that forward to the collective because I think that
that is the answer. Our connection to nature is the answer.
(19:19):
And I want to talk about the visuals because they're
also just equally stunning. Where was that beautiful forest where?
I mean, where was this a central location or did
you go to different beautiful environments?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So this the whole film was shot on the Big
Island of Hawaii, and it was directed by my amazing
friend NB. So many beautiful people were on the project.
I wrote the project with my three best friends, so
it was NB, me and one of my great friends, Hannah,
(20:01):
who's an amazing Hawaiian artist. But we filmed it on
the Big Island of Why. I grew up going to
Why a lot as a kid because my dad trained
professional surfers, so I was there constantly. It was like
one of the foundational places that I developed. My deep
(20:23):
connection with nature was there, and especially in the ocean,
so profound, like the amount of reverence and respect that
I developed through being there, and how immensely powerful the
water is, and how she has the spirit of you know,
being able to take in a glimpse of a second
(20:46):
like the Yeah, the the intensity and the weight of
that understanding was really like ingrained in me as a kid. So,
especially having family there and friends there and so many
memories and experiences, I knew that I wanted to go back,
(21:07):
and it also on the Big Island, there's like such
a vast just respect, just so much respect for the
land and so much respect for for each space. Before
I and before we entered a lot of the locations,
I was with a couple of my friends who would
(21:29):
lead us in a ritual of asking permission to enter
and also like a prayer that blessed our spirits to
be there with safety and with grace. So it was
it was like a song and then there were like
certain parts of it or chant, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
It was.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It was just such a beautiful experience to be there.
There were so many, so many many places that just
had such lively spirits, and it was it was just
the perfect place for, yeah, for the story that we
had crafted to kind of come alive.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It's amazing to know that you are an incredible collaborator,
but you also do so much on your own. Can
you talk about how the collaborations for this project really
informed it and maybe on the music side some of
your favorite stories on that end of things.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, So it was interesting. So with the with writing
the music and with producing and recording most of it.
I did it all within like six months, probably six
months to a year, and most of it was just
(22:59):
alone and this room in this studio. And as I
kind of like grew and developed those songs, they they
existed just as like these demos that I made.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And then.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Slowly I was like, who what does this really need?
Like what is the most key components of what would
really make this come to life? And there were just
a few people that I was so excited to. When
I thought of.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Them, I just like immediately smiled.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I was like, yes, that feels so right, like the
way that I love fellow musicians and creatives so deeply.
Like my main intention whenever I want to collaborate with
people is like how can I best uplift your gifts?
And how can I make you feel in your purpose?
Like or how can I help you feel connected to
(23:56):
your purpose? Like That's my main goal anytime I'm with
any person, I'm like, how can I just make you
feel like so uplifted and loved and like connected to
your purpose? Like we gotta talk about this, We gotta
like jam out on some stuff. Do we have to
you know, make a painting, do something super random?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
So I just love bringing that energy into things.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So when I was thinking about the people that would
really make this come together. The first one that came
to mind was Hailey Niswonger, who I have a band
with called Oma. She is my absolute soul bond, like
fellow human that just instant connection. She plays every woodwind
(24:40):
instrument and is such a brilliant composer. And the songs
that I sent to her, there were several in the project,
she really just elevated and took them to the next level.
And I would kind of just explain like the general
intention and the feeling, and she would just send me
back like these crazy, insane worlds where I'm like, oh,
(25:03):
I didn't even know it.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Could sound this good. This is so exciting. So she
was one of them.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And then the next person I thought of was this
another one of my best friends who's named Eve Mattin
and she lives now in Berlin. She was living in
Spain at the time, and we were working on a
project together for several months, kind of in a similar
(25:30):
vein to this project in terms of the thesis, and
she's just She's a Peruvian Persian harpist with Flamenco inspirations
and so much insane depth, Like when.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I go to talk to Eve.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
She's just talking in actual poetry and also prophecies like
she's she's just a prophet. It's crazy. So I was like,
if anyone speaking through their instrument, Eve, I gotta have
her on whatever she wants to play on. I'm just
gonna send her the project she could play on whatever.
So she's on several of the songs. And then the
(26:12):
last person I'm making sure I'm not forgetting on anyone.
Tim Binder, is a cellist from her from Germany, and
we haven't spent that much time in person together, but
he's another person. It was just like instant soul bond,
Like anytime we talked, it was just great energy, great vibes,
and I love his composition. So he was another collaborator.
(26:35):
And I'm trying to think Jason Later, who's one of
my best friends. He's an amazing engineer and composer and
he has just been one of my best friends for
years as well. So I was like, Jason, come over here,
what do you think. He's one of my mentors as well.
He's like really taught me a lot since I was
(26:57):
like eighteen, So I think, no, you haven't. I don't
think you've met Jason yet, but he's amazing. He worked
on Anastasia's project as well. And then I'm making sure
I'm not forgetting anyone. Oh yeah, one of my friends
quickly quickly, who's an amazing producer. He played drums on
(27:18):
one of the songs. So those were the musical collaborators,
and then the visual collaborators were another group of my
best friends who every single person involved. I was just like,
I'm just so honored and lucky to have you in
(27:39):
my life, Like however you want to be involved in this,
I'm just I'm just honored and grateful for your existence.
So Kyla Raine was the film producer, Zela was on
executive production. He literally just came in like an angel
and was just like here, what do you need?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Can I help?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Like I'm just ready to be here and be the
director's like creative mastermind, like really just next level Hannah
best friend, painter, animator, like crazy crazy person Minhan, just
creative direction. Like these people I just I can't even
(28:22):
make up, like how absolutely magical. I feel like every
person in my life is like all these little like
just oceanic nymph people just channeling like beauty and wanting
to bring goodness into the world. So I just feel, yeah,
so lucky to be surrounded by pretty much just people
that like I love so much, and I'm like, I
(28:45):
just feel lucky to be around you.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So fascinating hearing you talk about that, because the way
watching you play music, it's just you can feel it
just effortlessly flow out of you. And that's what it
feels like when you're talking about these collaborations. The co
creation just kind of effortlessly flows with this you know,
(29:12):
connection to water that you are bringing forth and your messaging.
But it's remarkable just the flow. And I'm sure that
was a lot of your own due diligence of of
becoming more and more you and connected to all of
(29:37):
all of what you know, the core of everything is.
I think that's like the process of being a human
being for for everybody. But thanks for sharing all of
those incredible names and what a what a team, what
a cool uh a cool co creation. But also just
(29:59):
going back to you, I'm gonna clout give you a
little bit more love because it's just remarkable how many
how much you can do within music and also what
message that you allow to flow through. I'm so excited
for people to hear the rest of the album. I'm
(30:22):
so excited to hear it. And when when you're playing live,
(30:43):
what is that process like for you? I'm sure it's
very different than what it was when you're supporting people
like you were saying, beautifully, you want them to feel
like all they can feel. But when it's your music,
what is that process?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Mm hmmm, yes, this is great. So when it's my music,
it's kind of just I think the way that I
do everything is the way that I do anything. So again,
it's just intention based. So I like to just set
the intention for whatever it is, specifically for that evening,
(31:21):
Like the album release is coming up in LA. I
don't know if you're going to be around, but if
you are, I would love to have you there on
the twenty first. But the initial foundation of intention is there,
and for that first album performance, really the goal is
(31:47):
just is just for me to actually experience playing the music.
Funnily enough, like it's been so long, I've never played
the music live before. And I mean, of course, like
with every performance, you want to transform the hearts of
the people there. It's like, how can we tenderize these hearts?
(32:11):
How can we soften them. How can we get the
people when they're walking out of the room to walk
out feeling just a little bit lighter or lifted or
realized in a different way. And yeah, for them to
just feel held and loved in some way that they needed.
(32:31):
But for this first performance, I'm so excited. Right before this,
I was just working on the the arrangements for the music.
But I'm gonna have such just an all star band
that I'm so excited about. I've never really played my
music with like this dream team band before, so it's
(32:51):
gonna be woodwinds, drums, keys, strings.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Like a whole situation.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
And on top of that, they're like all women that
I've been a fan of for years, like so many years.
So I just feel so excited to actually just experience
playing the music.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I mean, it's fascinating hearing you talk about listening.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That is.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Such a hard thing to actually do, I think, and
within just watching you listen while you play, it's such
a gift for others to tap into that frequency blow.
I got to witness that at Anastasia's show, and it
(33:41):
was just you feel like you're a part of something
much larger than what you're visually looking at and it's
really remarkable. I love how you bring in all of
these elements beyond music, and I'm very intriguing to ask
in this time. I'm sure different chapters have different different
(34:06):
calling upons, but are there people outside of music? Is
there things that you really tapped into for this time
that you feel is important and more people should either
know about or more people should tap into.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I absolutely love Rex. I'm constantly like asking people for
recommendations for things, and also just like asking about what
people are inspired by these days, because there's we live
in such an insanely vast time within information, there's so
many different ways to get things. So yeah, I would
(34:50):
say that, actually I have the book right here, but
the one of the most foundational texts I love reading.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I love like.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Using literature as a way to filter through the world
and like to get into other people's mind spaces. So
I would highly recommend The Mysticism of Sound and Music
by hasra Ya Khan Sufi legend that just breaks down
(35:19):
music and in a way that is so elemental and
so important, very deeply spiritual, but also just good for
any person to read, not just musicians. Another book that
I love is called Emergent Strategies by Adrian Marie Brown.
That one is about different strategies for humans to observe
(35:46):
that naturally occur in nature and implement them in their
own lives for social change. Adrian Marie Brown's work in general,
her sense of humor, her writing, her way of seeing
the world so beautiful. So she's definitely been super foundational
in in the way that I kind of think and
(36:08):
perceive things. Yeah, and really just a ton of different
different mediums. I'm forgetting her last name, but there's this
painter named Rajny that just has like such an insane
way of building worlds. Hilma af Clint and learning about
(36:32):
her whole life and her paintings and her way of
connecting to the divine and channeling has been super super
inspiring for me to develop my own practice and the
way that I that I allow things to come through.
But so many, so many different yeah, different kind of
(36:55):
like influences and flows and and really yeah, just pivotal,
pivotal things that come in the past couple of years.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, one more question about influences. I mean, this room
behind you, there's all of the energy that I am
sure is teeming with when you're physically there. I can
feel it from across the zoom. But it sounds like
that's where you created most of the project, but like
it feels so tapped in with nature. Do you find
(37:29):
I know you were just in Japan for a while,
do you find when you're in different locations that is
deeply inspiring? Like being in nature is a place you
create from. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I think one of the biggest reasons I love being
in nature, especially like more rural scapes of nature where
you don't really have too many people or cars or
construction around, is because there's so much spaciousness. Yes, to
(38:01):
listen and to actually hear, And a lot of the
times before I start a song, I'll just hear it
in my head and it'll just come through, or like
start humming and it's just like a song that comes
through and I'm like, oh, I like that song. But
if it's too distracting outside sonically or even visually or
just energetically, sometimes I find it much more difficult to
(38:26):
have that experience. Sometimes when you're in very highly intense
and fast paced environments like New York or like La
there can still be a lot of inspiration that comes
with those times, Like I lived in La a little
bit of the process while I was making this album,
and there can still be, you know, that exchange, but
(38:48):
it's just it's a very different pace and a very
different energy. And yeah, I think the one of the
biggest reasons I love being in nature is because it
always teaches me so much about how easeful things can
be when you just like allow them to happen. Like,
(39:12):
not everything has to be perfect. Sometimes the stream will
be blocked in a certain way because of the tree,
but the water just keeps flowing around it and it
carves its own little path on the side, and.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
It does.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah, it doesn't always have to be easeful, but I
don't know. Just the way that things can exist harmoniously
and together and just as one kind of ecosystem is
really inspiring. So yeah, I think just kind of implementing
those philosophies into the way that I go about life
(39:49):
and the way that I see things in the landscape
of my life really just helps me gain perspective and
go about things in a gentle way.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I remember hearing you play guitar years ago for the
first time on the internet, and I was just blown
away by how natural it feels and beyond natural to
just your ability, like literally natural, like natural geometry, like alignment,
(40:21):
you know what I mean. I'm sure it took a
bit of time to find the language because you had
such a connection to that with your musical flow. But
then intellectualizing it, we we get that brain after the fact.
Maybe I don't know, Maybe I'm just projecting.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
But.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Is there anything that you wish people would ask more about,
either with music or outside. Is there a question that
you're that you ponder yourself, perhaps that maybe you don't
have the answer for.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I ponder a lot of questions. Let me think about
this one. I gotta go through my pond let's see. Yeah,
you know, it's interesting. I think I think for it's
I just kind of came out of a process of
a lot of deep pondering. I was constantly asking questions.
(41:25):
I was in the depths. I was like in the
bottom of the swamp, and I was very confused. I
was just like, what is going on? What direction is up?
I don't know what's happening. And I was really pondering
my purpose because it's not always super obvious or super
(41:49):
clear when it feels like there's many paths to choose, right,
So even within music, I was like, okay, well I
do film scoring, and then I also love producing, and
then I also love writing, and I also love, you know,
like doing these more experimental sound installations, and I also
love like helping other people with their projects. And it
(42:12):
just felt like there was like this big web of confusion.
And then to add an umbrella on top of that,
it was like everyone's like the music industry is not
the good place. It's not a good place. All these
things da da da da da, which you know we
are aware of. There's a lot of corruption in several industries.
You know, industrialization is just a very intense thing that
(42:37):
tech it don't usually just kind of constricts things and
tries to put them in a box where it's very
difficult to grow inside of a box, and it's not
usually mutually beneficial to whatever is inside the box or
the box itself.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
AnyWho.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So I was feeling as feeling a lot of things.
I was feel the weight, and I kind of just
kept asking, like what is my purpose? Like what am
I supposed to be doing? Like please just give me
signs and symbols that I'm on the right path. Give
me signs that I'm doing the right thing, because I
(43:20):
really just want to be of service, Like I just
want to be here to give as much as I
can possibly give and to leave a legacy of helping
and every person I encounter and I'm just like, how
can I help you?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
What do you need?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Like, how can we do something together to make this beneficial?
So I was feeling lost, and I think that over
the past few months I kind of came to the
realization that number One, it's totally okay to just sit
(43:57):
in the lost feeling as well, even though it doesn't
feel good, it's actually a really good thing because it
makes you find different anchor points that you need to continue.
So i was at the bottom of the swamp and
I'm like, wait, oh my god, I found this rock.
It's this shape, and it's actually the perfect house for
a little bit. So let me just climb in here,
(44:17):
hang out for a second. It's gonna be fine. And yeah,
through finding those kind of anchor points in terms of
direction and purpose that I just had to define for myself.
Once I started defining those things and asking for guidance,
like things started coming in slowly, very slowly. It would
(44:40):
be like, oh, this little trickle of hope and this
little person is inviting me to do this, and Okay,
this feels really good and exciting to try to do this.
And the universe has been asking me to do this
my music for a long time, and I've actually been
avoiding it. I avoided making music like my own music
for so long. I've been producing my own music since
(45:01):
I was sixteen and I just went twenty five. So
it's like that's a ten year basically a ten year
stretch of like avoiding you know, sharing my own music
for so long for so many reasons. So yeah, it
was just, uh, it was just returning back to the
orbital nature remembering and being like, oh, okay, all these
(45:24):
things can exist and you can still just overcome them
and then just keep going.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, I mean the depths of the pond. I love that.
That image. To me, there's always like mantras that would
get me out of out of the funk, and the
music that you make is so in alignment with that.
Like I've gone back and listened to self so many
times with that kind of mantra mindset of having that
(45:53):
be the cyclical orbital remembering I guess yeah, and and
just locking into that frequency. So it's remarkable just all
of the different things you're pulling into this offering. And
I can't wait to hear more. Anything you want to
(46:16):
add that we didn't talk about. This is such a
juicy conversation.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
So good. Yeah, I really wish it were two sided.
I have so many questions for you. I feel like
we just need to drop in.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I would love that.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
I would love that someday it would be yeah, I'm true, Yes,
we gotta do it, but nothing that I can think
of now. Just thank you so much for your time
and for yeah, taking taking the time to explore these
things with me. It was beautiful to be asked such
thoughtful questions like it really helped me discover some things today.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Well, it's beautiful to tap into people that are so
in service of and HM, it's so healing to hear
that and to share that, and it's yeah, it's uh,
it's going to change the world. It is changing the world.
Do the work that you're doing. I really believe it.
(47:16):
I believe it too. We must believe if it is
to come perfect.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Ending h
So I'm here with an incredible Mio Garcia, musician, composer, producer, extraordinary.
You just radiate so much soul, so much depth, and
you have your debut album coming out in one week.
How very exciting.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for your kind words.
I'm so grateful to be here with you. The project.
The project is something that started as an idea maybe
five years ago, and it kind of just came as
(00:45):
a vision where it was this all encompassing feeling of
the purpose of the soul and why anyone is here
at all, and how it's such a universal experience to
be brought from somewhere else into this realm of existence
(01:09):
on this earth and then to live out a life
in whatever color, shape or form that takes place for you,
but essentially the through line being the same, which is
to evolve and to learn and to grow and to
really just do your best, because everyone in whatever degree
(01:32):
they can is doing their best. So yeah, the project.
The project started as an idea and it was kind
of just this image of a being being borne onto
earth through water and the vessel of water was very
(01:55):
important for me because it's something that I've always thought
is like the great connector. So I always believed that
water is just like this ancient messager that carries so
many beautiful things for us to remember. And pretty much
the entire Earth.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Is made of water.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
There's so much here and then we are too, so
it's like the parallel between us and the Earth being
one and the same in that kind of like foundational
makeup was really important for me. And from there there
(02:37):
were a lot of yeah, a lot of logistical things
unfolding from there in terms of like the actual process
of making the album, but I would say that's the
that was the origin of the beginning.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
That's amazing. I recently saw a photo of Earth from
space and there's no land on like one side. Don't
recognize how deep water is. And your congruence of using
water as an inspiration for music so inspiring. It really
(03:14):
feels like you're in service to nature. This podcast is
called in service of and it's incredible how many artists
talk about being in service of something greater than themselves.
If you had to form a message of what you
are desiring for people to take away from the whole project,
and perhaps something else that you feel in service of.
(03:38):
In this respect, so many things I know, but what
comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
That's a great question. Yeah, I think that when people
listen to this music, the main intention is first lead
to listen, to really listen, because I find that a
(04:05):
lot of the times when we're able to open ourselves
to listen enough to music to really be open to
that experience, what we find on the other side is
just ourselves, a reflection of sorts, and it can be,
you know, in so many different textures, but like it's
like this reflection of something that maybe we haven't seen
(04:26):
in ourselves before, or something that we've always wished to see,
or we wish to grow into, or we want to
access little key components. So yeah, I hope that everyone
takes the space and time to really listen and through
the process of listening, to listen to their own feelings
(04:47):
and what comes up, because a lot of the songs
go through the cycles of deep loving, whether it's you know,
nature or you're self or other people, and through the
depth of love, what you find on the other side,
(05:08):
or as maybe like a through point, is grief because
a lot of the times the cycle of loving includes
grief and grief as the testament to love. So the
bravery that it takes to put yourself in a space
to be vulnerable, to listen to yourself, to love fully,
and then to embrace the cycle of grief that comes
(05:30):
with that loving is really one of the key components.
And the idea for the album and its fluidity kind
of came about in a fully realized version for myself personally.
(05:52):
When I realized that I was judging myself for feeling
certain things, I was like, oh, I don't want to
feel angry about this, like or I don't want to feel,
you know, upset by this happening. And I just realized
I was like, well, I don't get upset when water
changes its state. I don't judge water for evaporating. I
(06:15):
don't judge it for freezing. I don't judge it for
needing to flow in a certain direction. You just accept
that depending on the environment and its experience in the temperature,
it reacts in certain ways. So then I learned to
give myself that type of grace and empathy and fluidity.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
Wow. So wise, I feel like you were one of
those small children that were just like staring at the
world with all the wisdom already like somehow implanted.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
In them.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
A lot of questions, a deeply transformative year that you
learn to listen to yourself or was this something that,
like Jane Goodall says, she was born with this profound
connection to hope. So for you, yeah, was there a
(07:11):
time that you could share that you kind of found
that for yourself or was it just always yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Yeah, So it's it's interesting when I think back on
on kind of like the architecture of my life and
how the foundations were built and how I exist. Now,
there's this phrase that I have. It's actually a title
of one of the songs on the album, and it's
called the orbital nature of remembering. And I think that
(07:44):
we all come to our own realizations, you know, we
all come to our own realizations at some point and
then we forget them. We're like, oh, yeah, I learned
that lesson totally forgot And my friends and I always
joking about it because like we know each other so
deeply that we're like, you know this, So it's interesting.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
I think my spirit came into this life with a
lot of knowledge about the world and about emotion and
about recognizing the way that I feel and learning to
listen to my own voice and my own needs and
what's important in the internal world. I was kind of
(08:25):
like very insular as a kid. I was very like
in my thoughts in my heart, like writing songs in
my room, writing poetry, not really like super social.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
I was a bit shy.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
So that was the foundational seed of how I existed,
and I think through time my experience in life led
me to want to show up a certain way in
the world in order to make other people around me happy.
But sometimes that meant sacrificing my own feelings and not
(08:56):
being fully authentic with myself about how I was doing. So,
you know, forgetting that internal base knowledge and then growing
up a little bit and being like, oh, you had
this when you're a kid, you know, like you know
all the answers. So this project was really about kind
of circling back to that initial seed that I feel
(09:18):
like I had when I was younger, and growing into
the wisdom that I had when I was a kid
that a lot of us have that we forget and
kind of have to circle back to.
Speaker 3 (09:30):
I remember, I.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Love how you talk about spirituality. It's such a necessary
thing and proven via MRIs to really protect parts of
our brain, et cetera, et cetera beyond just you know,
the faith components. But to me, spirituality and intuition are
kind of very linked. And you're creating music since you
(09:54):
have such a profound facility with so many instruments, and
as a producer and as a composer and all. So
you know, I'm sure the work that you do in
film really stretches you in different in other ways, but
you still feel like you really create from a place
of intuition.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Do you sometimes feel like you're.
Speaker 1 (10:12):
Fighting yourself because you have such a profround ability to
do very hard things, So sometimes the simpler option is
is not really what's called upon in that context. But yeah,
i'd love to hear you talk about like your connection
to intuition in creating.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Hmm, I love that. Great questions, Ah, intuition, Yeah, this
is an interesting one, the intuition, so that there's a
lot of levels to it. I think intuition comes very
(10:56):
clearly in feelings and like bodily feelings and a motive
feelings and energetic feelings, even in dreams. There's a lot
of ways that intuition can kind of come to give
you messages. And I think depending on what you're creating,
(11:20):
it can be more clear or less clear, but there's
always a way to kind of like tap into it
in a feeling sense. So I think that, Yeah, I
mean my baseline and tens many times when I'm making something,
I ask myself before I'm making it, is what does
(11:45):
the world need the most right now? Like? What can
I possibly offer? What can I possibly offer if there's
anything that I'm offering or contributing to creation right now?
What does the world need? And maybe it's like on
such a personal level, go to give my mom a
hug and she needs that feeling of a hug and
it's that simple, or maybe it's even you know, something
(12:07):
more complicated, where you know it's in relation to a
specific issue or topic that's coming up on a recurring basis.
So before I create something that's kind of the baseline question,
and then through feeling and exploring that question, I think
a lot of things will just naturally kind of land
(12:29):
into place.
Speaker 1 (12:30):
From there, there's such a stunning ritual feeling to your
work and a renewal in all the songs. Feels like
a meditation, It feels like an offering, feels like a hug,
feels like you're really tapping into what humanity and this
(12:53):
very bird's eye view and a mother earth that kind
of and I sourcing that material. It makes so much
sense of why you're creating this kind of music. I
think within that to make music that is of that spirit.
(13:16):
There's a lot of your own personal rituals that go
into kind of conjuring that go into bringing that forward.
Could you share some of how you get into calling
that in and where maybe the initial seeds come.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
Yeah, that's an interesting question. It's there are many ways
that songs will come through, And I think the greatest
ritual that I have when I'm in the practice is
the first one is just being ready to receive on
(13:56):
like a foundational level. And for me, that really means
like tending to my body a lot. So I love
like having a lot of movement integrated in my day.
I like eating really clean, I like drinking like a
bunch of water. I like giving myself a lot of
self love. And having that foundation set so that my
(14:20):
vessel actually feels like light and ready to receive and
healthy is really like where it starts, I think. And
it doesn't mean I have to be happy that day either.
It doesn't have anything to do with the feeling like
I could be so sad and still like trying my
best to just get through the day and just trying
to do those things that I know like will kind
(14:42):
of open me up a bit. The other thing I
think that's really helpful for me in terms of the
ritual is writing a lot, because the writing can allow
you to be empty, and sometimes when you empty yourself
even more, there's like more room for things to just come. So, yeah,
(15:06):
I think a lot of the times it's yeah, it's
just making enough space for creation or source to just
come through and be in the room with you and
just just being able to like listen to whatever that
is that day. And I can definitely hear went for myself,
(15:27):
like when I'm making things where I'm thinking about it
and I can think and make something that I think
sounds cool. And then there's other times that are so
special where you're just so open and it's like just
this flow that comes through. Like a few of the
songs on the project, I just woke up and they
were like already written. I just woke up and I
started playing guitar and I just played the song and
(15:49):
it was like, oh, that's a nice song.
Speaker 3 (15:51):
That's cool.
Speaker 4 (15:52):
Nice What was one of those songs?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
I Love You for a Lifetime was one of those songs. Yeah,
and it's so cute, like anyone I would play it
for that week that I wrote it, or I don't
even know if I wrote it. It was just a
song that appeared, but anyone I played it for just
instantly started crying and it was so cute, and like
a few of my friends just recently got married to
(16:31):
that song.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
But yeah, it's just really precious.
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Like my older brother that's like, you know, super macho
kind of guy on the surface, like he's just weeping
his eyes out like so I was like, I guess
that one was needed for for some reason.
Speaker 3 (16:50):
I received that one.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
I love that song and there's just so much deep,
deep love in it, and you can't not feel that
in all of the songs. It feels like you're planting
such love within and I mean, thank you for doing that,
because it's we need more of that kind of energy
(17:17):
force in the world. And I'm sure throughout creating that
and really expounding upon and excavating that kind of love
and stories, certain lessons were then brought to you. Is
there one that you could share about something that water
perhaps gave you.
Speaker 2 (17:38):
Yeah, so a specific lesson kind of through the process. Yeah,
many things. I think this project was my first time
being able to express the depth of grief that I
(18:00):
had experienced at that time, and it was really just
a beautiful realization of how the depth of the grief
really shows the depth of the love and the depth
of the vulnerability that you accessed through the loving. And
(18:24):
even though it's so difficult, it literally feels like moving
through what concrete when you're in that state of loss,
what it feels like loss. But once you make it
to the other side, you realize what a profound gift
it is to just experience these things. Even though grief
is so hard, it's also such a gift that shows
(18:47):
us the depth, the depth that exists through the vessel
of loving people and loving the world.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Wow. And it's amazing just how nature holds us through
that process of death and rebirth. And I'll say it
a billion times. I am just so appreciative of your
bringing that forward to the collective because I think that
that is the answer. Our connection to nature is the answer.
(19:19):
And I want to talk about the visuals because they're
also just equally stunning. Where was that beautiful forest where?
I mean, where was this a central location or did
you go to different beautiful environments?
Speaker 3 (19:38):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (19:39):
So this the whole film was shot on the Big
Island of Hawaii, and it was directed by my amazing
friend NB. So many beautiful people were on the project.
I wrote the project with my three best friends, so
it was NB, me and one of my great friends, Hannah,
(20:01):
who's an amazing Hawaiian artist. But we filmed it on
the Big Island of Why. I grew up going to
Why a lot as a kid because my dad trained
professional surfers, so I was there constantly. It was like
one of the foundational places that I developed. My deep
(20:23):
connection with nature was there, and especially in the ocean,
so profound, like the amount of reverence and respect that
I developed through being there, and how immensely powerful the
water is, and how she has the spirit of you know,
being able to take in a glimpse of a second
(20:46):
like the Yeah, the the intensity and the weight of
that understanding was really like ingrained in me as a kid. So,
especially having family there and friends there and so many
memories and experiences, I knew that I wanted to go back,
(21:07):
and it also on the Big Island, there's like such
a vast just respect, just so much respect for the
land and so much respect for for each space. Before
I and before we entered a lot of the locations,
I was with a couple of my friends who would
(21:29):
lead us in a ritual of asking permission to enter
and also like a prayer that blessed our spirits to
be there with safety and with grace. So it was
it was like a song and then there were like
certain parts of it or chant, but yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
It was.
Speaker 2 (21:55):
It was just such a beautiful experience to be there.
There were so many, so many many places that just
had such lively spirits, and it was it was just
the perfect place for, yeah, for the story that we
had crafted to kind of come alive.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
It's amazing to know that you are an incredible collaborator,
but you also do so much on your own. Can
you talk about how the collaborations for this project really
informed it and maybe on the music side some of
your favorite stories on that end of things.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Yeah, So it was interesting. So with the with writing
the music and with producing and recording most of it.
I did it all within like six months, probably six
months to a year, and most of it was just
(22:59):
alone and this room in this studio. And as I
kind of like grew and developed those songs, they they
existed just as like these demos that I made.
Speaker 3 (23:14):
And then.
Speaker 2 (23:16):
Slowly I was like, who what does this really need?
Like what is the most key components of what would
really make this come to life? And there were just
a few people that I was so excited to. When
I thought of.
Speaker 3 (23:33):
Them, I just like immediately smiled.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
I was like, yes, that feels so right, like the
way that I love fellow musicians and creatives so deeply.
Like my main intention whenever I want to collaborate with
people is like how can I best uplift your gifts?
And how can I make you feel in your purpose?
Like or how can I help you feel connected to
(23:56):
your purpose? Like That's my main goal anytime I'm with
any person, I'm like, how can I just make you
feel like so uplifted and loved and like connected to
your purpose? Like we gotta talk about this, We gotta
like jam out on some stuff. Do we have to
you know, make a painting, do something super random?
Speaker 3 (24:15):
So I just love bringing that energy into things.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
So when I was thinking about the people that would
really make this come together. The first one that came
to mind was Hailey Niswonger, who I have a band
with called Oma. She is my absolute soul bond, like
fellow human that just instant connection. She plays every woodwind
(24:40):
instrument and is such a brilliant composer. And the songs
that I sent to her, there were several in the project,
she really just elevated and took them to the next level.
And I would kind of just explain like the general
intention and the feeling, and she would just send me
back like these crazy, insane worlds where I'm like, oh,
(25:03):
I didn't even know it.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Could sound this good. This is so exciting. So she
was one of them.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
And then the next person I thought of was this
another one of my best friends who's named Eve Mattin
and she lives now in Berlin. She was living in
Spain at the time, and we were working on a
project together for several months, kind of in a similar
(25:30):
vein to this project in terms of the thesis, and
she's just She's a Peruvian Persian harpist with Flamenco inspirations
and so much insane depth, Like when.
Speaker 3 (25:46):
I go to talk to Eve.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
She's just talking in actual poetry and also prophecies like
she's she's just a prophet. It's crazy. So I was like,
if anyone speaking through their instrument, Eve, I gotta have
her on whatever she wants to play on. I'm just
gonna send her the project she could play on whatever.
So she's on several of the songs. And then the
(26:12):
last person I'm making sure I'm not forgetting on anyone.
Tim Binder, is a cellist from her from Germany, and
we haven't spent that much time in person together, but
he's another person. It was just like instant soul bond,
Like anytime we talked, it was just great energy, great vibes,
and I love his composition. So he was another collaborator.
(26:35):
And I'm trying to think Jason Later, who's one of
my best friends. He's an amazing engineer and composer and
he has just been one of my best friends for
years as well. So I was like, Jason, come over here,
what do you think. He's one of my mentors as well.
He's like really taught me a lot since I was
(26:57):
like eighteen, So I think, no, you haven't. I don't
think you've met Jason yet, but he's amazing. He worked
on Anastasia's project as well. And then I'm making sure
I'm not forgetting anyone. Oh yeah, one of my friends
quickly quickly, who's an amazing producer. He played drums on
(27:18):
one of the songs. So those were the musical collaborators,
and then the visual collaborators were another group of my
best friends who every single person involved. I was just like,
I'm just so honored and lucky to have you in
(27:39):
my life, Like however you want to be involved in this,
I'm just I'm just honored and grateful for your existence.
So Kyla Raine was the film producer, Zela was on
executive production. He literally just came in like an angel
and was just like here, what do you need?
Speaker 3 (28:00):
Can I help?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Like I'm just ready to be here and be the
director's like creative mastermind, like really just next level Hannah
best friend, painter, animator, like crazy crazy person Minhan, just
creative direction. Like these people I just I can't even
(28:22):
make up, like how absolutely magical. I feel like every
person in my life is like all these little like
just oceanic nymph people just channeling like beauty and wanting
to bring goodness into the world. So I just feel, yeah,
so lucky to be surrounded by pretty much just people
that like I love so much, and I'm like, I
(28:45):
just feel lucky to be around you.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
So fascinating hearing you talk about that, because the way
watching you play music, it's just you can feel it
just effortlessly flow out of you. And that's what it
feels like when you're talking about these collaborations. The co
creation just kind of effortlessly flows with this you know,
(29:12):
connection to water that you are bringing forth and your messaging.
But it's remarkable just the flow. And I'm sure that
was a lot of your own due diligence of of
becoming more and more you and connected to all of
(29:37):
all of what you know, the core of everything is.
I think that's like the process of being a human
being for for everybody. But thanks for sharing all of
those incredible names and what a what a team, what
a cool uh a cool co creation. But also just
(29:59):
going back to you, I'm gonna clout give you a
little bit more love because it's just remarkable how many
how much you can do within music and also what
message that you allow to flow through. I'm so excited
for people to hear the rest of the album. I'm
(30:22):
so excited to hear it. And when when you're playing live,
(30:43):
what is that process like for you? I'm sure it's
very different than what it was when you're supporting people
like you were saying, beautifully, you want them to feel
like all they can feel. But when it's your music,
what is that process?
Speaker 2 (30:59):
Mm hmmm, yes, this is great. So when it's my music,
it's kind of just I think the way that I
do everything is the way that I do anything. So again,
it's just intention based. So I like to just set
the intention for whatever it is, specifically for that evening,
(31:21):
Like the album release is coming up in LA. I
don't know if you're going to be around, but if
you are, I would love to have you there on
the twenty first. But the initial foundation of intention is there,
and for that first album performance, really the goal is
(31:47):
just is just for me to actually experience playing the music.
Funnily enough, like it's been so long, I've never played
the music live before. And I mean, of course, like
with every performance, you want to transform the hearts of
the people there. It's like, how can we tenderize these hearts?
(32:11):
How can we soften them. How can we get the
people when they're walking out of the room to walk
out feeling just a little bit lighter or lifted or
realized in a different way. And yeah, for them to
just feel held and loved in some way that they needed.
(32:31):
But for this first performance, I'm so excited. Right before this,
I was just working on the the arrangements for the music.
But I'm gonna have such just an all star band
that I'm so excited about. I've never really played my
music with like this dream team band before, so it's
(32:51):
gonna be woodwinds, drums, keys, strings.
Speaker 3 (32:58):
Like a whole situation.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
And on top of that, they're like all women that
I've been a fan of for years, like so many years.
So I just feel so excited to actually just experience
playing the music.
Speaker 1 (33:14):
I mean, it's fascinating hearing you talk about listening.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
That is.
Speaker 1 (33:20):
Such a hard thing to actually do, I think, and
within just watching you listen while you play, it's such
a gift for others to tap into that frequency blow.
I got to witness that at Anastasia's show, and it
(33:41):
was just you feel like you're a part of something
much larger than what you're visually looking at and it's
really remarkable. I love how you bring in all of
these elements beyond music, and I'm very intriguing to ask
in this time. I'm sure different chapters have different different
(34:06):
calling upons, but are there people outside of music? Is
there things that you really tapped into for this time
that you feel is important and more people should either
know about or more people should tap into.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
Totally.
Speaker 2 (34:27):
I absolutely love Rex. I'm constantly like asking people for
recommendations for things, and also just like asking about what
people are inspired by these days, because there's we live
in such an insanely vast time within information, there's so
many different ways to get things. So yeah, I would
(34:50):
say that, actually I have the book right here, but
the one of the most foundational texts I love reading.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
I love like.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
Using literature as a way to filter through the world
and like to get into other people's mind spaces. So
I would highly recommend The Mysticism of Sound and Music
by hasra Ya Khan Sufi legend that just breaks down
(35:19):
music and in a way that is so elemental and
so important, very deeply spiritual, but also just good for
any person to read, not just musicians. Another book that
I love is called Emergent Strategies by Adrian Marie Brown.
That one is about different strategies for humans to observe
(35:46):
that naturally occur in nature and implement them in their
own lives for social change. Adrian Marie Brown's work in general,
her sense of humor, her writing, her way of seeing
the world so beautiful. So she's definitely been super foundational
in in the way that I kind of think and
(36:08):
perceive things. Yeah, and really just a ton of different
different mediums. I'm forgetting her last name, but there's this
painter named Rajny that just has like such an insane
way of building worlds. Hilma af Clint and learning about
(36:32):
her whole life and her paintings and her way of
connecting to the divine and channeling has been super super
inspiring for me to develop my own practice and the
way that I that I allow things to come through.
But so many, so many different yeah, different kind of
(36:55):
like influences and flows and and really yeah, just pivotal,
pivotal things that come in the past couple of years.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yeah, one more question about influences. I mean, this room
behind you, there's all of the energy that I am
sure is teeming with when you're physically there. I can
feel it from across the zoom. But it sounds like
that's where you created most of the project, but like
it feels so tapped in with nature. Do you find
(37:29):
I know you were just in Japan for a while,
do you find when you're in different locations that is
deeply inspiring? Like being in nature is a place you
create from. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
I think one of the biggest reasons I love being
in nature, especially like more rural scapes of nature where
you don't really have too many people or cars or
construction around, is because there's so much spaciousness. Yes, to
(38:01):
listen and to actually hear, And a lot of the
times before I start a song, I'll just hear it
in my head and it'll just come through, or like
start humming and it's just like a song that comes
through and I'm like, oh, I like that song. But
if it's too distracting outside sonically or even visually or
just energetically, sometimes I find it much more difficult to
(38:26):
have that experience. Sometimes when you're in very highly intense
and fast paced environments like New York or like La
there can still be a lot of inspiration that comes
with those times, Like I lived in La a little
bit of the process while I was making this album,
and there can still be, you know, that exchange, but
(38:48):
it's just it's a very different pace and a very
different energy. And yeah, I think the one of the
biggest reasons I love being in nature is because it
always teaches me so much about how easeful things can
be when you just like allow them to happen. Like,
(39:12):
not everything has to be perfect. Sometimes the stream will
be blocked in a certain way because of the tree,
but the water just keeps flowing around it and it
carves its own little path on the side, and.
Speaker 3 (39:27):
It does.
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Yeah, it doesn't always have to be easeful, but I
don't know. Just the way that things can exist harmoniously
and together and just as one kind of ecosystem is
really inspiring. So yeah, I think just kind of implementing
those philosophies into the way that I go about life
(39:49):
and the way that I see things in the landscape
of my life really just helps me gain perspective and
go about things in a gentle way.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
I remember hearing you play guitar years ago for the
first time on the internet, and I was just blown
away by how natural it feels and beyond natural to
just your ability, like literally natural, like natural geometry, like alignment,
(40:21):
you know what I mean. I'm sure it took a
bit of time to find the language because you had
such a connection to that with your musical flow. But
then intellectualizing it, we we get that brain after the fact.
Maybe I don't know, Maybe I'm just projecting.
Speaker 3 (40:42):
But.
Speaker 1 (40:44):
Is there anything that you wish people would ask more about,
either with music or outside. Is there a question that
you're that you ponder yourself, perhaps that maybe you don't
have the answer for.
Speaker 2 (41:01):
I ponder a lot of questions. Let me think about
this one. I gotta go through my pond let's see. Yeah,
you know, it's interesting. I think I think for it's
I just kind of came out of a process of
a lot of deep pondering. I was constantly asking questions.
(41:25):
I was in the depths. I was like in the
bottom of the swamp, and I was very confused. I
was just like, what is going on? What direction is up?
I don't know what's happening. And I was really pondering
my purpose because it's not always super obvious or super
(41:49):
clear when it feels like there's many paths to choose, right,
So even within music, I was like, okay, well I
do film scoring, and then I also love producing, and
then I also love writing, and I also love, you know,
like doing these more experimental sound installations, and I also
love like helping other people with their projects. And it
(42:12):
just felt like there was like this big web of confusion.
And then to add an umbrella on top of that,
it was like everyone's like the music industry is not
the good place. It's not a good place. All these
things da da da da da, which you know we
are aware of. There's a lot of corruption in several industries.
You know, industrialization is just a very intense thing that
(42:37):
tech it don't usually just kind of constricts things and
tries to put them in a box where it's very
difficult to grow inside of a box, and it's not
usually mutually beneficial to whatever is inside the box or
the box itself.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
AnyWho.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
So I was feeling as feeling a lot of things.
I was feel the weight, and I kind of just
kept asking, like what is my purpose? Like what am
I supposed to be doing? Like please just give me
signs and symbols that I'm on the right path. Give
me signs that I'm doing the right thing, because I
(43:20):
really just want to be of service, Like I just
want to be here to give as much as I
can possibly give and to leave a legacy of helping
and every person I encounter and I'm just like, how
can I help you?
Speaker 3 (43:35):
What do you need?
Speaker 2 (43:36):
Like, how can we do something together to make this beneficial?
So I was feeling lost, and I think that over
the past few months I kind of came to the
realization that number One, it's totally okay to just sit
(43:57):
in the lost feeling as well, even though it doesn't
feel good, it's actually a really good thing because it
makes you find different anchor points that you need to continue.
So i was at the bottom of the swamp and
I'm like, wait, oh my god, I found this rock.
It's this shape, and it's actually the perfect house for
a little bit. So let me just climb in here,
(44:17):
hang out for a second. It's gonna be fine. And yeah,
through finding those kind of anchor points in terms of
direction and purpose that I just had to define for myself.
Once I started defining those things and asking for guidance,
like things started coming in slowly, very slowly. It would
(44:40):
be like, oh, this little trickle of hope and this
little person is inviting me to do this, and Okay,
this feels really good and exciting to try to do this.
And the universe has been asking me to do this
my music for a long time, and I've actually been
avoiding it. I avoided making music like my own music
for so long. I've been producing my own music since
(45:01):
I was sixteen and I just went twenty five. So
it's like that's a ten year basically a ten year
stretch of like avoiding you know, sharing my own music
for so long for so many reasons. So yeah, it
was just, uh, it was just returning back to the
orbital nature remembering and being like, oh, okay, all these
(45:24):
things can exist and you can still just overcome them
and then just keep going.
Speaker 3 (45:30):
Hmm.
Speaker 1 (45:31):
Yeah, I mean the depths of the pond. I love that.
That image. To me, there's always like mantras that would
get me out of out of the funk, and the
music that you make is so in alignment with that.
Like I've gone back and listened to self so many
times with that kind of mantra mindset of having that
(45:53):
be the cyclical orbital remembering I guess yeah, and and
just locking into that frequency. So it's remarkable just all
of the different things you're pulling into this offering. And
I can't wait to hear more. Anything you want to
(46:16):
add that we didn't talk about. This is such a
juicy conversation.
Speaker 2 (46:21):
So good. Yeah, I really wish it were two sided.
I have so many questions for you. I feel like
we just need to drop in.
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I would love that.
Speaker 2 (46:30):
I would love that someday it would be yeah, I'm true, Yes,
we gotta do it, but nothing that I can think
of now. Just thank you so much for your time
and for yeah, taking taking the time to explore these
things with me. It was beautiful to be asked such
thoughtful questions like it really helped me discover some things today.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Well, it's beautiful to tap into people that are so
in service of and HM, it's so healing to hear
that and to share that, and it's yeah, it's uh,
it's going to change the world. It is changing the world.
Do the work that you're doing. I really believe it.
(47:16):
I believe it too. We must believe if it is
to come perfect.
Speaker 3 (47:21):
Ending h
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