84: Music Is Magic

Weird things Happened in the backyard and weird weird, weird. Wow. Hello everybody, Hello, Welcome to today's wonderful episode of Oh bhead So Said So Today, Ryan, Alex and I and d D show her on the camera. Make sure the camera can see her. D D. Hey, Ryan and Jenny's precious little kitty d D is here. She she couldn't be separated from us. We're gonna be talking about one of at least Ryan and I's

favorite things to this gus, which is music. Music. If if you don't know, for those of you that don't know, uh, Ryan and Ay, Ryan and all Yan and Ryan and ally musicians. I I was thinking, we're all at the seagulls from oh yeah, but they're in Australia. So yeah, they are in Australia. So we're talking music today. Um really, I mean, I guess it's kind of gonna be a conversation about art in general. But uh, you know, the art that Ryan

and I connect with the most would be music. And I think it's probably it's the art form that we've explored the most. You know, Yeah, so why are we talking about music today? It's not it's not just because we want to talk about music because we're interested in it. But um, we have come to find that art, music, whatever medium of art it is that you participate in, is psychic. It is art is a psychic form. I fully believe. You know, we've said, we've said many

times on this show that we believe everyone's psychic. Yeah, you know what I mean, like to some degree, and there are different abilities, different levels, YadA, YadA, whatever, everyone is psychic. Well think about that. I thought about it the other day and this thought popped into my head. Well, hang on, if everybody's psychic and art is a psychic medium, does that mean that everyone on the planet is an artist? And I'm really into Rick Rubin, who's this amazing, like one of the most

prolific producers in American history, probably just the history of the world. I mean, he's he is responsible for you could pretty much name an artist and he has produced them at some point, Red Hot, Chili Pepper's jay Z, Like the list is endless. Anyway, he just came out with this book called The Creative Act, A Way of Being Um, and it's it's just things that he has found over the years to be true to him about art, and you know the art form that he engages most in like us.

When I was in elementary school, that was how I thought you drew a boob. Look at Okay, So for those of you that are watching the video, look at this. This is what Ryan thought a boob looked like. We were in a computer class in the third grade and I drew on Microsoft Paint when I was supposed to be doing maybe speacon, I drew two very large all chemical symbols of the sun, and my teacher caught me, and I got in trouble. Yeah, risen Early, you were Risen

Early. So yeah, so so no, this is not a boob. Uh this this picture is not a boob, nor is it a record. But what it actually is, which is super cool, this is the alchemical symbol of the sun. It's just it's a circle with a dot straight in the middle of it. So that's the cover of this of this book,

in every single chapter also has that symbol on it. So when I saw that, and you know, I've seen many interviews from Rick Rubin, I'm like, hold up, this guy is tapped in, I guess because of his book just coming out, but like he's he's there are clips of him really viral right now? I've oh yeah, like not like I've watched his interviews, but I've even seen a few of his clips, not even knowing who he was until you, like, you know, showed me who he

was. And yeah, I mean I've only known about him for maybe i'd say like two years or maybe three years at most. He's literally been doing this since before I was born. In fact, many attribute him to the

reason that hip hop became successful and the way that it did. Basically, he tells this incredible story about how he would go to see some of the very earliest hip hop artists and like in the eighties and nineties maybe oh oh yeah, yeah, like early to mid eighties, Like I'm talking the very beginnings, you know, like Queen Latifa, like the Furious Five, like

the first the very first rappers on the scene. And so he would listen to the records that would come out of these rappers, and then he would go and see them live and he noticed something. He noticed that live they are capturing this like lightning and a bottle type vibe that is like so palpable and so tangible and so strong. And then when he would hear the records. He was like, Okay, so the source material is the same, but it just is not carrying the same vibe. It's like it's almost too

overproduced, too overthought about, and there's no life in it anymore. And so he basically just had the idea. He was like, wait a minute, I bet if these songs were just performed as they are performed live and we capture it in the right way, we can capture the vibe on the recording. And so he just rolled the dice and just asked one of his favorite rappers that he was seeing live, like, Hey, do you think I could just like sit in with you next time you record a track?

I have some ideas or whatever. The guy asked him, like, oh, what kind of ideas? He told him, he gave him a chance. It became it became an extremely successful record, and then from that point forward he has been instrumental in the world of hip hop. And so many people don't even know about him. Yeah. I just found out about him, like, you know, a month or two ago when he told me about him in it. And it's mind blowing when you listen to him speak.

Yeah, and even me like as prolific as he is and as interested in music as I am. I only heard about him a few years ago, and he's been around the whole time. He's produced Metallica. I mean, is he is massive. This is where it gets really really interesting. If he says in interviews all the time, if you listen to him, he says he knows nothing about music. Nothing, he says, he says, I don't I don't really play yeah, yeah, yeah. He's like,

I don't play very many instruments. I don't know how to work a soundboard, I don't know how to engineer any any of that. And people are like, what do you what do you do? Then, the thing that he offers to the artist that he works with is he understands the medium of art. He understands that it doesn't come from us, it doesn't come from anything human. It's out there somewhere else. It's in the collective conscious

consciousness. And he literally says that in this book many times. Um, there are examples of this idea, going back even to Greek mythology, to Babylone mythology. Yeah. Uh of, Like you know, you guys have probably heard of the muses. Like I've talked about the muses a lot because I believe that that concept is a real thing. Right. It's like the Greek myth is all you know, as we understand from an esoteric respective,

it's all metaphor, but the metaphor is true. You know that there is the concept that the gods are in this case, you know, consciousness speaks through us through some active force or as the Greeks would say, the muses. Music is like, yeah, I mean it comes from somewhere else, it does, and and like it's not like anybody knows exactly where it comes

from. But I guarantee that every person out there, even if you're not musically inclined or don't consider yourself a musician, I know without a doubt you have had original music pop into your head. For sure. You have two alex. Everyone does I promise what you get? Mine's all classical. Do you play any instruments? No, I can't. I mean you haven't been able to at the level that keeps me entertained. Is that something you'd ever like to do or not? I feel like I haven't found the right instrument.

Okay, yeah, no, that's that's like super super comment. Well, let me ask you this since we're kind of more generally talking about art. Is there an art form that you feel most drawn to and and you might have to think outside the box a little, Uh, probably what we do here, so like writing or filmmaking. Absolutely, yeah, And this is this is totally art. And that's another huge misconception. So I think

that I think so many more things are art than people realize. I think that, like even the person who works twelve hours a day comes home and the only thing they have energy to do is watch TV. I think watching digesting processing. I think that's all art. You know, Okay, follow me here, think about this outside the box a little bit. You know, we said this on a previous episode. Everything that we experience in life is all our mind. Everything that you see, everything you hear, it's

all your brain orchestrating this beautiful symphony of experiences around you. But it's all the computing power is happening right here up in the top of your head, all of it. So everything that you see and experience is literally your mind. So when you think about that in that context, that like, Okay, everything I see here, everything that I'm experiencing, it's like your brain. Even justin puting everyday life. It's this beautiful symphony. It's a creation

in its own like your your brain's constantly literally creating your reality. Yeah, it's like the universe in itself is one big creative act. And that's what this book talks about. That's why it's called the creative act. The universe is literally a creative act. Yeah, and your life is very similar to the way a song is. There's a beginning, there's an ending, there's

highs, there's lows, there's a chorus. And that's that's possibly psychologically why we like music so much is because there's a finite beginning and a finite end. And then in this physical form you have those two very same things. Wow, and like to take it a step further, how many how many Biblical scriptures are there are like psalms? The psalms are supposed to be songs, songs, you know, and like David played the Secret Chord before the

Lord. He was a musician and he could wow the king and the court. And then you know, the Hindus supposedly believe that the universe is a cosmic song and dance, and that's why Shiva's depicted as dancing and the voice of Brahma, Brahma Brahmas the singular right, the voice of Brahma is singing

ome, which is constructing reality. And even it was it was a Plato I believe, or maybe it was Pythagoras that said, all the celestial bodies in space are like different chords, you know, the harmony of the spheres, like even the universe is making music with the arrangements of the celestial bodies. And through intuiting that he figured out the placements of you know, the

divisions on the string to find the scales. Yeah, yeah, and I think it was Pythagoras, even if it was one hundred percent, was because he created what we know today as like the modern twelve note scale, which is this is a hilarious little tidbit, but did you guys know that there is a note on every piano on the planet. That is incorrect. There is a note on every It's just the way that piano strings specifically resonate with

one another. One note had to be detuned by like sixteen cents. I believe a scent is like a fraction of a semitone, so like almost imperceivable to the ear. So there is one note on the piano that is sixteen cents off so that it resonates correctly. Or E minor. Uh, well E minor E minor is a chord, Okay, see um E flat would be the note that you're talking about. But I don't know the specific note.

I don't remember it um, but I know that like, like high level professional musicians are able to like like pick out that note and do it properly with voice. It's really interesting anyway that that was a little side tangent. But scientifically, we've proven that everything in the universe, literally everything is frequency. Every it's light frequency that has that has slowed down to create an

illusion of matter of hard stuff. Yeah. So like if you, if you just if that is your foundation of understanding, it is not far fetched to get to the fact that art is magic. Yeah, And I'm making that seem like a big leap on purpose because hearing art is magic sounds like that's it. That's well, maybe maybe not an episode title because it's specifically about music. Maybe music is magic. That's kind of what I was thinking, because because it it is, it is magic. So what is magic?

Magic is using higher knowledge, will and intent to I guess you could say like manifests things in reality or bend reality to your will or alter in some way the forces of nature. Yeah, and like creating reality would go into that as well. Yeah, you're you're changing your reality in one way or it's crazy when you think about it, because you know, I've had a long time to think about this, like, you know, just trying to learn drums and always trying to think about like how to allow realizing this.

Realizing what we're talking about is what allowed me to progress in the drums because you know, admittedly being self taught at sixteen years old with no real professional lessons and when you're a kid and you're immature, you just want to play with sounds cool. Oh yeah, you know. And then finally growing up almost thirty now we're making music for single out by the way, it's out now. It just came out yesterday for Us Covolini's The Storm by Us,

which is twice born twice. Um, and I'm so excited for people to start picking apart when all of it means. But um, I'll just leave it at that. But anyway, coming across this, like understanding like what Nick's talking about helped me excel at the drums. It's like, it's not about having skill, it's not about being good or being great at it, which is like cool, that's that's that's that's that's level one. That's like the immaturity of playing a music, a musical instrument. It's adolescence.

It's it's it's like being immature. And I liken it too. How I've been playing a Jedi Survivor Fallen Order so this week because I got a free on PlayStation. It's this month right now. I think it's free and something about that. I was playing it last night when you showed up, and there's a line in that that I applied to this conversation. It perfectly fits from Star Wars. Yes, the whole point of the game is Cal the

kid who survived Order sixty six. Yeah, he you know, he survives and then he's found by the ex Jedi named Sayah, who disconnected herself from the Force, and she's trying to bring him on this mystical quest to go to ancient Jedi tombs. And these these ancient Jedi were sages who in the words of Master Cordova, which is the guy who's like through the hollow Crons he's you know, you're following his messages, messages to find these tombs of

these sages, these Jedi sages. The point of the game is to learn from these sages so that they can perceive the deeper mysteries of the Force. Yeah, and that clicked in my brain for this conversation. And when you understand that it's all about how you perceive music and what it truly is is when you begin to connect with it and let it flow through you. And like, to me, music I used to think about it the opposite. I used to think you had to like be really good, you know,

to play something. But now I'm realizing it's about like being a vessel. It's about being a vessel. What's about being a channel and and and deepening your understanding of it so that it operates through you. You're not forcing it, you're not making it. Yeah, it is using you, yea to make its entrance into this realm. It's I It's like the force, it knows man. Yeah. It Another thing that Rick Rubin said was that like

everything in the universe has everything in the universe produces something. Yeah, everything produces something from it. It's everything has a purpose and from that purpose manifests a product bro and cabala Um, which for anybody who doesn't know what cabala is, it's ancient Jewish mysticism, so like like very esoteric Judaism. That's

where you get the whole tree of life and all that um. When I first found out about cabala I started reading some of their texts like the yeff Far sets it's the it's hard to say, the yef Fears that's a raw and the Zohar. And in one of these two texts it says that for every created object in the material world, it has a hidden, invisible soul, which is exactly what you're saying. Think about this couch. People say, a couch doesn't have a soul, Well, yes it does. What

is the purpose of the couch? It has a reason to exists, It has a force behind this reality that through the intention of this created being. So to say, even though it doesn't have flesh and blood, it is an organic it has an intent to be manifested by our will into this reality. That's the soul of the object, and that could be applied to music

or anything. Everything truly does have an invisible spiritual purpose in another place and we're just reaching out and someone sat around, Oh what if I made this? And then boom, now we have couches, Now we have everything. You know what. Sorry to cut you off, but it gets really interesting about that physical soul, like non organic god. Just having that soul is when you get into like the family heirlooms or the lucky tokens, the things

that you are giving that too on purpose. Yeah, and then like the family heirlooms, where you hold something inanimate but feel so much, that's rot. The Rosa Crucians called that vibroturgy, which which is like being sensitive to the vibrations that are impregnated into an object. That's the words. And it's like, dude, music is the same. It's the same thing. Well art art in general. Yeah, so so yeah, the thing he says,

like everything in the universe has a product. It produces something, and like a like a tree, it produces fruit or or whatever, like a vine produces grapes or fruit or whatever. And he says that art is the fruit of humanity. It is what grows from us. It's what comes from us. And uh so, when when you start thinking about art in this

frame of mind, from this reference point, you will realize. Like I said earlier, I'm sure all of you have had just an original song pop into your head out of nowhere and you're like, where did that come from? Or it could be a line that would be in like a book or a movie, or I know, like everyone has a creative imagination in some

way, shape or form. You could see a scene of a movie unfolding in your brain or whatever it is that is the fruit trying to find the place on the vine where it is going to be able to spring forth into this world. And so every time you have one of those things pop into your head and you don't do anything with it, the fruit is still ready to be ripened and be picked from the tree. So if it can't find its way through you, it's going to go and find somebody else to come

through. And you know that's happened with me many times. I'll hear, dude, I M this past year twenty twenty two, for Casey's birthday, I wrote her a song. I made her a song, and it was just like a cute little song whatever, and this melody kind of popped into my head and I you know, I made the whole song in a day. It just I'd worked on it, maybe eight hours or so, and

I just finished the whole thing and I gave it to her. And then literally like a month or two later, Joji released his new album, and there's a song on it with the same melody and the same tempo. You want to know something crazier about Joji, Well, remember all those years ago I was doing the mister Hollywood videos. Oh yeah, and then very shortly after, Joji comes out with a song called mister Hollywood. Come on, bro, this is what I'm saying. So it doesn't come from us,

It's coming from another realm art inspiration. Let's be creativity, Yeah exactly, creativity. It's coming from a different elm, or a different layer, or or you can even just say inspiration. Yeah exactly, That's what I'm saying. And in the ancient Greek Times they described that by depicting these these like beautiful, like inspiring women whispering in people's ears, whispering in their ears ideas and like every invention ever or every I mean, you know, like we

talked about how JR. Tolkien, the entire Hobbit just popped into his head and He's like whoa. Okay, I'm gonna write this downund live the hobbit exactly it is. It is art, inspiration, creativity. It comes from outside of us, and so the most it's really weird. But if you listen to any actor, any performer, any musician, any artist in any capacity, they will all tell you the key is getting out of your own way. Remember in the Nicholas Cage movie I can't remember the name of it,

the Unbearable Way of massive talent. You remember that, and and and multiple instances in the film he said verbatim the shamanic act of acting. Remember, yes, he's programming you, you know, like this is a shaman shamanic. It is in every sense of the word. It is magic. We are think about it like a wizard we were talking about, yeah, thinking about I think about it like a wizard who does subtle rituals to to gather magical power. Alex and my wife fought as wizards the other day on

one to switch that I want. Yeah, yes, you did. That's profound, man. When you think about it, Yeah, imagine it like a like a wizard. Imagine if you're an artist. If you're an artist, you're like a wizard. You are pulling something, You're pulling energy from another place, and you're materializing it. You are making it appear in this realm. Like with art, you're seeing these these you could say, impressions

in your mind. And then if you're gifted like Casey is, you know, or whoever out there is gifted to art, you see these impressions in your mind and then your coordination is so psychically tuned to these impressions your body

can just manifest it on paper with paint and dies and all this. And like with music, you know, when you really think out of the box, music is only possible because we have you know, maybe through Pythagoras or maybe even the ancients beyond him, discovered the principles of vibration and frequency, did a little bit of math, figured out these scales, and then created these gadgets. I mean, instruments are like gadgets to harness these vibrations and

capture them into the material world. And when you really think about it, it is psychic medium ship recording a song because you're creating these arrangements of truly pre existing frequencies and vibrations, but you're capturing it and like almost telling a story with it. Oh yeah, man, I mean everything. One of the things I've learned doing the show is that everything is metaphorical. Everything has

a higher meaning. You know, everything tells a story. Everything, every everything, everything has a subconscious layer of symbolism, myth, and ritual. That's what I learned in my religious studies in college. I took a class. It was called let me think of the name, Yeah, religion in movies. I don't know, but I don't know the name of the class. But the purpose of the class was. It was technically a night class, so we met once a week, but it was for like three hours,

and every class we would watch a movie. And we were watching stuff like The Godfather, The Matrix, and lots of other movies like some Gilliam Terry Gilliam. Does that sound right? No, I don't, he's a big director. But anyway, we were watching these movies and then we would have to do these templates where we had to analyze the symbolism, the myth, and the ritual. Not necessarily ritual like they're in robes and plenty hats

and doing spells. That's not the that's not what the definition of ritual was. But what's up your spot on with the director Terry Gilliam. He's a huge director. What is he directed? He's a British filmmaker. Let's see, he makes kooky money, Python, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Oh my god, Life of Brian Parnassis, maybe Doctor Parnassus. Oh those are really I'm just those are some. Yeah, he's a big director, and we watched some of his films. They're they're usually koukie. Yeah,

and he got a lot of like Christolph Waltz appearances that anyway. So you know, in movies there's always a subconscious myth ritual symbology. I think it's the same with art. But I'm not saying that that's conscious necessarily from the creator. No, And I think in most cases it is subconscious because I think I think that the psychic realm, whatever you want to call it,

symbolic, but it's also subconscious. I think that's how that's where our real psychic abilities they come from, the subconscious, they come from beneath the surface. Think about it, bro, That's what Carl Yung was trying to say. Why do you think every motherfucker dreams and animals? Yeah? Because it's a universal symbol since primeval times. Yeah, when we're being chased by saber

tooths and shit. So, like the subconscious mind operates in symbolism. Animals just happen to be universal symbols, and that's why everybody has an alligator dream or a shark dream, or a bear or a spider or whatever. But like what when Nick and I were talking about this last night, I just I had this download. Like, you know, that makes a lot of sense that the symbolism exists in the realm subconscious. But then when you have individuals like us and many others who are in Rick Rubin, you know,

look at this book. It's the alchemical boob when you when you have people who are finally not only aware, knowledgeable of, but in tune with these subtle perceptions of the psychic world. That's why folks like us with our podcast Symbolism and Twice Born Symbolism, and Rick Rubin and many other artists are So it's like a compulsion, like a desperate need to put these symbols on your work. And I believe that maybe when you are an individual who is conscious

of the of the necessity to incorporate these occult symbols. It's because the psychic power of your creativity is trying to find some sort of ritualistic ceiling of its energy. You know, oh absolutely, yeah, No, I think your spot on. But it's unconscious. It's not no, it's unconscious. It's unconscious. It's it's whatever. It's like, it's like scymatics, it's weird. It's like, yeah, it's like the symbols and the lines and they

just appear through you. You're like when it comes to all of this psychic stuff, that's that's what you really have to realize, is that it is not you, Like, it's a different thing. So that's what. Yeah, I'm sure everybody has heard all these artists say you gotta get out of your own way, you gotta get out of your own way. And for a long time, like I didn't even know what that meant. Yeah, but what it literally means is get out of the way and just let it

help. Be judgmental, be egotistical about it. That's a problem that I've had that Nick's had to guide me through with like recording drums, and it's it's it's not egotistical, Like what I say, egotistical I mean in the reverse way of what you think, like I'm having a negativity on myself, like a judgment like, man, this isn't good an offer this or that, and next like shut the fuck up. Just play what you feel and we're gonna play. And most importantly, have fun. Yeah, have fun.

Enjoy this, dude. We're we're we're making music together. We've always dreamed of this, Like, throw everything else out the window. If you have fun right now, it's gonna it's gonna happen. And it's true. It is true. It's true. I'm learning that over many of our sessions together. And the reason is because it does not most people when they want to get good at an instrument and when they want to create great works of art, even not an instrument anything, what they will do is they will

practice the techniques. They will and and that you know, you do have to do some of that stuff to establish a foundation. It's like learning how to write. You don't. You don't start by creating a massive, complex story. You start by literally learning how to write. As a foundation, you start with like literally learning the letters. Yeah, you start with the bare minimum basics. But people that have been engaging in their art form for

you know, maybe they're they're in their intermediate phase. They're not quite a beginner, they're a little past that. Your first inclination is if I'm going to make impressive stuff, I have to improve my skill level in order to match others who have created impressive stuff. It's like tagamal Z power scaling, bro. That's how I see it now, Honestly, yea, Honestly, it's like it's a spiritual thing. It's not a physical thing. It's not

because I'm learning. Dude. The more I now that I'm older and more mature and I'm trying to take it really seriously, it's like I'm realizing that when I go back. We talked about this last night. It's like working on the super advanced crazy stuff does not enhance your understanding of the fundamental stuff in my experience, but working diligently on the fundamental stuff is like the trunk

that supports the entire tree being able to nourish absolutely. You know. So if you if you are looking to improve your skill level or whatever, rather than going and saying I got to learn how to do more difficult stuff, don't do that. Focus on the basics. Focus on the foundations like what we were talking about last night with drums. We were like, you can do the most impressive stuff in the world if you're not in the pocket, which for those of you who don't understand as a when you're a drummer,

you're the backbone of the music. If you are not on time, pocket means but it just essentially means the groove, you know, the main groove that's carrying forward the song, not all the fancy fills and all that crazy shit. The pockets, the basic part of the drums. Yeah, like you can, you can play the most technically simple thing in the world, but if you are perfectly in that pocket, it is gonna move people,

move people. One of the best examples of that that that every time I hear this song and there's there's a bar downtown and my wife and I like to go downtown and walk sometimes, and every you know, every time at night I walk by this bar, there's these cheesy little live well I shouldn't say cheesy, but I just mean like little live performers who are paid by the this U restaurant. And every time I walk by at night, there

is always a live band that plays brickhouse. She's a brick Go listen to the pocket on that and tell me it doesn't just move you to your soul. It's simple, it is, so it's but it's yeah, but like when you hear a drummer play that exactly in the pocket, Yeah, you're like he is not even doing anything crazy right now, but like I want to move Yeah, that's that's the foundation. There's a pocket in surfing too, it really, and it's what moves you way. You're not in the

pocket, you're not going forward. Well, so surfing is art, So so what specifically is the pocket like as is it like a state of mind or a literally a standpo It's a spot on the wave that generates the momentum, So you would you basically like surfing is going in and out of that pocket. But you always have to come back to that pocket if you want to keep moving forward. If you go too far out in front of it or too far behind it, you're gonna lose the wave. Dude. That's

cool, man, It's crazy the amount of parallels there are. Man, It's like the whole life imitates art thing. That's because life is art. Like literally, every honestly is art. Nothing but respect from surfing because I see that as like you're you're harnessing the power of gravity and nature and you're literally just writing a wave like flying over wall. It's amazing, it's incredible. It's just like ice skating. You you might not know that, you

know, it's fun. Man, think about how long that wave traveled? Oh to be surf like thousands of miles? Maybe wow? Do they really? Yeah? Man? Whoa like especially some of the bigger breaks like that. Honestly, that is mind blowing. And then you like and it's never that one wave is never going to break again. You just surfed it. That's spiritual, dude, It's definitely spiritual. Yeah, yeah, no, it absolutely A thousand percent is that's That's That's what I'm saying, dude.

Like everything is art. Everything in the world is art. And and so when when you say, like get out of your own way, what that means is allow yourself to be a vessel the artist not I know. You know a lot of people take pride in their art, and that's great. You should. You should take pride, but don't take pride for the wrong reasons. Don't take pride because like I came up with this sick thing, bro, It's like, no, be proud that you were used as a

vessel. Take take pride in the accomplishment through your effort. Yeah, but don't. But but my a big thing that I've realized is so key is never comparing yourself to other artists or own missions, because it's not about that. And what did I tell you, man? When when we when we first started working on this uh twice born, I was debating on whether or

not we should announced the thing, but we won't yet. But when we started working on it, one thing that Ryan kept coming back with was like, man, I just think that like so and so is better And I'm just trying to get to where, like I'm I can at least be like this good, and like is anything that I'm coming up with, Like is this even good? Like I feel like it could be so much better this that the other, Like I feel like someone else could do this better.

And the thing that I told you was nobody on the planet can make whatever you're going to make. Nobody I don't. And that's not that has nothing to do with skill. It has everything to do with the psychic realm, the downloads, the perspective is huge because now this is where it gets real magical. Is so these ideas come to you right as we call them downloads, inspirations, you can call them whatever you want to call them. Then from that point forward, I see it as you are being honored with an

opportunity to bring something into this world. And so you now have the responsibility of bringing that idea into the world. But every moment leading up to that moment in your life is going to in some way influence what comes next, how you manifest that thing into the world. Every time that a girl dumped you after a date and you explode it a CD in your hand, every kiss you've ever had, every time you played freaking Hopscotch, everything influences your

creations. And because of that, no one in the world will ever make the art that you're going to produce. That being said, if you feel called to art in any way, shape or form, look at it as a blessing. Look at it as a gift, so that you are being

blessed with a gift. Because too many inspiration is fickle, it's so temporary, it's so unreliable, you could even say, because you know it doesn't mash up with your schedule, right, it's like, hey, Manna, we're gonna get together on these days and we're gonna write some songs together or whatever. It's like, okay, but that doesn't mean that the ideas are going to come to you just because you scheduled it out. That is why

it's so important that when these downloads come, you capture them somehow. It doesn't matter how you capture them. It is your responsibility as an artist to capture it. So literally, earlier today, I've been trying to work out this part in a specific in a song that we're going to be recording today, and there's one part that I'm like trying to figure out, and so I was like, you know what, I have a little bit of downtime, let me try to figure this out. I took a little walk outside

barefoot. I just looked around at the trees and like just kind of just walking around. And I wasn't even thinking about the song. I wasn't thinking about anything. I was emptying my mind, empty your mind, Yeah, yeah, I was emptying be water, water my friend. Yeah. I emptied everything in my mind and I made room for something to come in and on my way back, walking back here, something popped into my mind. There are ways that you can train, you can like like like fine tune

the antenna. There are things that you can do to fine tune that antenna. And so it's so funny because a lot of musicians, a lot of producers, when they're trying to create a great work, they'll do one of a few chemical terms. Yeah, great work, the great work, and that is you know, you know what great work is when you hear that when in the context of art, you know, it's things like the Iliot

in the Odyssey, Uh, citizen Kane, you know like that. You know, the great works when you hear them, see them, whatever, when you experience them. So, if that's your goal is to make a great work, most musicians, producers, whoever it is, they'll do one of a few things. They'll say, Okay, so what's the genre that we're trying to be? What what are we trying to sound like, what are we trying to look like? Who are the inspirations? And what do

we need to do to push the envelope and really impress people. And they'll sit around and they'll toil on those ideas and they'll they'll try to. They'll use different equipment, different whatever to try to get you know, a quote unquote better sound. The beauty of somebody like Rick Rubin is that when when he's in a room that is collectively experiencing writer's block, he takes the exact opposite approach. He takes the approach that like a yogi would take or a

guru would take. He's like, all right, let's do let's get a change of scenery. Let's let's go outside being the sun for a little while. Let's come back in sage the room. Let's uh, why don't you just like try to, you know, pick up a book off the wall, flip open to a page, read the first thing that you see, and it'll most likely speak to you in some way. You want to hear a crazy story about that. Yes, little band that Ryan and I are

obsessed with. Little band you might have heard of called System of a Down. They had an album, little album you might have heard of, called Toxicity Amazing. I think it's their best album. Guess who produced it, Rick Rubin? Yes, And it was like the platinum rock and roll album of two thousand and one. It's one of the most groundbreaking albums ever released. Yeah, how about this? What's the what's the song off of that album Toxicity? Well know, I mean, I mean it's the viral one.

How about this? This is crazy? This is crazy, dude. I've heard chop sue. Everyone has Angels Deserve too. How about this? They get all the way up to the part before the final like why have you forsaken? Like they get they get all the way by the way hold up, okay, hold up up. Yeah, they get all the way up to right before that part, and everybody in the room freezes. They're all like, wait, what what what comes next? Like? What what do we do? What do we do? After that? It was surged

specifically was like I vocals. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, I don't. I don't know what the next lyric is. I'm I don't. I'm not finding the inspiration. I just don't know. Like I've tried some things and none of it works, And like, I've been toiling over these lyrics for months. I can't figure out this part Rick Rubin. He says, pick a book off the wall, any book. He grabbed a book. He goes open it to a page, look at me in the eye, and point your finger on the page he opened the book. He points his

finger, he looks down, Father, into your hands. I commend my spirit, Father, into your hands. Why have you forsaken me? You know what? That's from the Bible, the Bible. Yeah, when he's on the cross, Yeah, why have you? Why have you forsaken me? Father? Into your hands? I commend my spirit, which is which is arguably like the big climax of the song. It's yeah, why have you force? It's like the big in your arm. Yes for say, dude, and then it talks about becoming the sun. Dude. It's so

weird that he was just like boom point. But what is that? What? But again, that's just evidence of for people who have incredible artistic or creative or I mean, let's just call it what it is, psychic potential, because art is truly manifested, you know, from another place. That just goes to show that there are higher forces that are subconsciously compelling the person to capture the essence of the mysticism to enhance the art. Because do we

talk about this on the show all the time? Art that's mystical art, that's symbolic, it's way better. And I think that is because they're drawing from the true source. That's what he calls it in the In the book, he calls it the source because he's like, no one knows what it is. Nobody knows what it is. We know it comes from our collective

consciousness, because these things only appear to humans from what we understand. So we know it comes from the collective consciousness, but we don't know what it is, where it is, how it works, if it obeys the rules of time, which like he thinks it doesn't and like it can't, time is literally a human construct it. You know, it doesn't really exist. Time is a big ball, but you know it. You have to you have to understand and accept that it's not you. If you are an artist,

you're it might sound a little weird, but you're a tool. You are a You are a utensil, like you're a vessel. You're a vessel for it to flow. It's almost like the human operating the instrument is another inst multilayered instruments that force of music. Absolutely, I fully, fully believe that, like we ourselves are instruments, and the things that we call instruments are man made extensions of our bodies that allow us to just capture vibrations,

capture the vibration. What what capture vibrations mathematically? Bet? Yeah, what are you gigging about? My bodily instrument makes some vibrations sometimes explain yourself please, like, yeah, why don't you go into excruciating detail? And you know what, while we're saying weird shit, I just have to say I've always been obsessed with rock, hard rock and roll. Alright, alright,

dude, rock card bro't Yes? Yes, I think it's so funny by the way that it was like rock, and then what's harder than a rock? Like hard rock? Yeah? And then like, what's even harder than like a really hard rock metal? Yeah? It's like, what's harder than that heavy metal? Oh right, yeah, it's like heavy dude, it's like what's after twice born? No, okay, I got another fun example. I told you this about this one already, Alex. Are you familiar

with the song ninety nine Problems? Yes? Okay, So how about this? Do you remember how the song starts? Maybe by chance, it's it's really iconic how it starts. Do you know off the top it's a piano? No, no, no, no it So I'll just tell you the story. So Rick Rubin was working with jay Z at the time. This was like the height of jay Z's career. It's actually right before the height of jay Z's career because when he released this album that he worked with Rick

on, that's when he really exploded. Um, I mean, he was definitely huge before that. But anyway, they're working on ninety nine Problems and jay Z is like, you know, stuck. He's like, I don't I don't know how to like, I just don't know how the song starts. I don't know how it starts. You're talking about the lyrics, Yeah, it starts acapella. Yeah, I know it starts. So he's like, I don't, I don't know how the song starts, and and uh

and whatever. And Rick's like, let's go outside for a minute. Let's just step in nature, meditate for a second. Nobody talked, nobody do anything, and and the funny thing is is like that's jay Z was obviously like, all right, that's a little woo woo like or you know or whatever. But he's like this dude has Grammys all around his house from working with Johnny Cash. By the way, he looks like a hobo. Oh yeah, he looks like he wears greasy shirts and he's barefoot all the time,

and he's got huge hair and whatever. So he's like, let's go outside, let's walk around for a little bit and don't talk nobody, you know, just just make room for inspiration. Comes back inside sages the place and they're sitting there for a minute. He sits down on the couch and he's just like bobbing his head like this, and then he goes, oh, dude. He's like, oh, what if what if it starts off Acapello? And jay Z's like, what do you mean? And he's and

then he just wraps it acapello and then he's like hit me. And then the song starts and jay Z's like, oh, that's it. That's gotta be it. It's one of the most iconic songs, like, it's probably jay Z's biggest song ever, and that's how it starts, and it's because Rick Rubin made room for the inspiration. So it's so funny, like the way we all try to get better at art is actually so counterintuitive to making

true great art. It's ego. But you know, when you put it in those terms, you got to remove the ego from it and just allow the pure meditative state of receptivity. Yeah. Another thing is like a like childish Gambino. One of his biggest songs ever is called three thousand and five. He's like, I woke up with that song in my head, and you're in a fetus state when you first wake up exactly. Oh yeah,

I learned another really bizarre thing the other day, dude. The day our song came out, I like pulled out my phone and started streaming it, and I almost had a panic attack because I was like, this sounds way too fast. I was like, I don't I don't know. I thought the same thing, dude. I woke up yesterday and my wife started playing it and I was like in a half asleep state, and I said,

are you is that sped up? Dude? This is weird. This is really really it doesn't make sense to me, but apparent I googled it because that happened more than once. I would wake up listen to it and I would be like, why does this sound so fast? And then I'd go and make coffee and eat and go sit down and listen to it again, and I'm like, oh, okay, it sounds normal. Now, that

was weird whatever. I thought that, like, maybe it was something with the program I was playing the music through or something like that I did. I had no idea. So it happened the other day after our song released, so yesterday, right, and I was like, oh no, what happened? Like why does it sound so fast? I googled it and apparently when you're fresh from rim sleep, you hear things at higher speeds and higher pitches than they actually are in That's so weird that we had the same experience

of this. Well it is. It is very weird, and it turns out it's like a real thing. I googled it and there's tons of people online talking about why does everything sound faster when I first wake up? You know what's the funny part about that? Is Nick and I? Okay? So again, the date today is January twenty eighth, Saturday. Our song came out yesterday from our time here recording January twenty seventh. But Thursday night,

we both, you know, from our remote locations. We kept checking on each other, like every hour you still await, you still away. We played video games together till like nine thirty, and then I'm gonna keep texting you till midnight, And we stayed up till midnight and then texted at midnight. Got a lot of comments, messages, things like that we're engaging with people. I stayed up to two am listening to the song on repeat and had phones while talking to people in our discord about the song. Yeah,

go to sleep, wake up at like seven thirty. My wife is just waking up and hearing it released for the first time, and I'm telling you, it sounded three times as fast, and I panicked. Pan I literally was like, are you speeding that up? That doesn't sound right, and she laughed at me. Yeah. I was freaked out. I was like, I do not remember playing this ship that fast exactly. And it's fast already, It's very fast. It's supposed to be a fast song,

but like I heard it and I was like, that's impossibly fast. Yeah, Like I cannot play this. How did I do this? Yeah exactly. I was like something has to have gone wrong here. Yeah, that's weird that we had that. I wonder if that has anything to do with like the whole don't talk to me until I've had my coffee thing. Oh, bro, gotta be wow, because you're in a it's proven you are in a FATA brain wave state, and then you wake up talking to you

normally and it's just like you're talking. I can't handle. Yeah, I'm a bad I'm bad for that. I'll tell my wife all the time, so you know, she she's got the Capricorn brain. I'll wake up She's like, we need to do this as and I'm like, stop, give me an I love you. Yeah stop it is it is so I don't that's just like a weird random phenomenon. But um, yeah, the point the point here is that I think, at least for me, I have

I'll just speak from my own perspective. I have been thinking about art the wrong way my whole life, and just within the past you know, year or two because because so this is I honestly had like you know why, right, what what? Because we're finally actually making it, That's what I'm saying. So we're perceiving it in a deeper way. It's weird because like, I never I never fully stopped making music, even for the like four or five years where I wasn't making metal music. I was making like low

fi and hip hop and like electronic music. Just it's just always like I've always had to do it. It was in frequent, it was infrequent, but I just it always just kind of came out of me, and I never I never like consciously noticed, but it was always coming through downloads always.

But the thing that would happen would be I would have the download and then I would kind of fill in the rest on my own and just like, Okay, so I got that part from inspiration, and I'll just like fill out the rest with what, like I think would sound pretty good or whatever with the process. And I'm not gonna go too deep on this because you know what, dude, let's just announce it. You announce what the twice the twice four? All right, we have an EP coming out.

We have an EP, We have six songs. I'm very excited. Yeah versus. Yeah, Today we're going to record our final drum track and then it's just downhill from there. Yeah, it is, it is. We've been conceptual realizing this for two years. Yeah, from the very moment that we've been conceptualizing the podcast, we've been conceptualizing this. Yeah, but music, as it turns out, takes a lot more TLC. It does,

and really that's because we're learning as tender loving care. Yeah yeah, uh, it really does, and but that's that's because we're learning how to do it ourselves. What you guys heard with that single and what you're going to hear on the rest of our EP, which we hope to have out the last Friday of March, last Friday of March, that's our goal. But we're gonna forgive ourselves if you can't going to be able to. But anyway, it's up until this point, you know, we've made music here and

there, whatever, YadA, YadA YadA. But now that we're finally doing this together, it took a long time for us to learn how to do everything ourselves. What you got I have heard in Covellini's the single and what you'll hear on the full EP is literally for most part it's one hundred. There are some features, they're gonna be some features, but other than features, Ryan and I did everything everything everything you hear, like, we played

all the instruments, I did the vocals. I'm producing everything myself, and like I've been producing music for a decade or more, but like as a hobby for fun, for fun, never to do like a full serious release. I would release things on SoundCloud, like little songs that make or whatever, but this was the first time it was like, no, this is gonna be real and those are good. By the way, if it's monogne m O N O G O N, isn't there a period at the end?

Yeah? I think so, But y'all should go check that out like it's it's there's some great beats, yeah and there, thank you. I appreciate that, and most of most of it is like just psychic downloads. That was one of my favorite parts about making beats is I could just do it. It would just come out of me real quick and then boom, it's done and that's it. You know. Um with Twice Born it was very different, but you know, one hundred percent of it is me and

Ryan. It's it is us making everything. So it took a long time to figure out how to do it all. We know now how to do it all, and now we're just finishing so it'll it'll be out soon. But um, we are gonna do when when the EP comes out, We're gonna do an episode with you guys where we go over every song and we talk about all of the good little esoteric goodies. We've spent a lot of

time agonizing over every esoteric detail, every little time. I am just so patiently waiting for when the people out there start to ask what these things mean. Well, we're gonna tell you. We're we're gonna we're gonna straight up tell you when the when the EP's out, we're gonna do an episode. But what I what I will say now, I want to save a lot for that episode. But what I'll say now is every song on this EP, every part of every song on this EP it has is all psychic downloads,

all of it, every last bit of it. I even considered calling the EP download, like the Greek word for download or something like that, because like, the whole thing was all one huge download. And I kind of when I started writing the first song, it just appeared in my head and the whole song beginning to end just flowed out of me, and I was like, this is magic. It was the first time it fully connected in my brain, like, oh am I even doing anything? Like am

I important to this process at all? And when I finally gave in and was like, you're important, but it's because you've been chosen to bring this specific idea forward. Yeah, And like for anybody that doesn't play an instrument, it's not like you pluck a guitar until you hear is sound you like, and it's like, yeah, let's go with that. It's the opposite, and the same with drums. The way I work, it's like you hear it in your head first and then you just finally tune your body to

actualize it, you know. Yeah. And like even when we first did our like writing together and we were working on the second song or maybe it was the third opsianos m we, Nick came over for a podcast weekend and

he was like halfway done, literally and halfway. For months and months, I'd be riding in the car, I'd be hearing this rhythm in my head and I would even it would drive me crazy, and I would even tell my wife like, man, I just can't wait to get to the point to where me and Nick can like write this stuff together, because you know, initially we lived who hours apart. Nick was writing every bit of it, and then I'm slapping the drums on there, and now it's kind of

morphing and we're writing everything together and growing. Yeah, because here's the thing. You get into a room with artists or musicians or whatever, you're just multiplying the number of antennas, right Like, even if even if somebody's in the room that's not an artist or a musician, they're still an antenna. Yeah, they're gonna they could very well pick up on things. He's not a musician, He's not. He's just in the room. He's the same

with Tom Barber from Darkoh. He's I mean, he used to play drums a little bit, but he's told me his process. Like they even they even do it on the song Dragon Chaser hit him and his buddy Josh, He'll be like, yo, what if you're just like black la la la la. Yeah, And then they turn into a song and it's sick as fuck. That is how great works come forward. They come through download any way possible. You just get that idea out there, and then it's like,

how do we collect it? How do we harness it? Even even in writing the lyrics for these songs, what I will do is I think I'm comfortable with saying, at this point we can let this one little little detail out there. Every song on the EP is about a god from a different mythology. Yeah, that's all I'm gonna say at this point. Right, that's why they sound soretically different, But right, they sounds soractically different. So even with the lyrics, even with writing the lyrics, I knew

like, Okay, I want to tap into the source. I want to tap into the you know, the down wherever the downloads are coming from archetype. Yeah. Yeah, so I need I need to spark inspiration. It's like smack and flint together. It's like, you know, I need the spark. So what I would do is, if I was writing a song like Covalini's, I'll talk about Covolini since it's out or out. Yeah. I we decided that the song was going to be about the Japanese god Rygin.

So I was like, I have to just do every bit of research I possibly can about Ryging so that I can write from his perspective. That's why the song sounds so chaotic, like it sounds like an angry, vengeful god being released from a prison and instantaneously the second he gets out of that prison, unleashing his fury on people who are say, well, he's the god of He's the god of lightning and storms. He's the god of thunders, and so the story that I I shouldn't talk about it too much because

we're gonna do an episode about that. But basically, I just did a bunch of research about that god, and I allowed the inspiration to come to me afterwards. So it's like I would get all the foundation of knowledge about that god and then I would meditate and just wait for the words to come. You know, this is honestly, I just read this yesterday, because you know, full disclosure, Like Nick is writing the lyrics and I'm giving him little ideas here and there. He's like, yeah, that's cool,

and then he'll run and he'll just write it. And like I, you know, we've got so much going on with the podcast, I'm not able to know every detail about every little thing. And I saw the Covalini's lyrics for the first time yesterday when they were uploaded, and I'm like, Yo, this is sick as fun. But you really think you ever stood a chance against the one who holds lightning? And as a lance, that's what I'm like. I had no clue that was in there. Really, no,

it's all screaming. I don't understand every word that's of screaming. I don't have the ear for that. That's possibly I like the sound. That might be my favorite line in the song. Yeah, that's that's it's it's like he's he's like cocky. He's like, I'm the god a thunder like you. You you're rolling up on the island that worships me, and you think I'm not gonna do something about it. It's like it's cocky. It's

like he he is drunk with his his confidence, in his power. You really think you ever stood a chance against the one who holds lightning as a lance? Like you think you got it in you like that far, Let's let's grove, let's let's get it popping in it's it's that's funny too, because he's a drummer. That's why he bangs these war Japanese board drums to summon lightning and thunders. That's why that's why the song says, bring the

hammer down. He's bringing the hammer down on the drum to call glory from the clouds in the form of lightning and hurricanes and tornado. Because yeah, and so I'll save the source story where I got that inspiration. I'll save that for the full episode. Yeah, of the twice born thing, but um, for sure, Yeah, I think I think that about covers what

we wanted to talk about. I was gonna say that, Oh yeah, I never got to say the thing, Like the fun part about Oceanos was for weeks, I was like, damn, I hear this thing in my head. And I would even talk to my wife about it, like I hear this thing and she's like, well, what's it sound like. I'm like, I don't know. Dot dot dot dot dot dot dot dot. And then we get together and and and we're and Nick is halfway through this

crazy ass song and I'm like hearing it in my head. And then he gets to this point he's like, I don't know what's next, and I said, how about this? And and then literally with your mouth, you're like, I've been thinking about something like this. Don don dun bum And I was like, yeah that that and then and then I just immediately recorded it and I was like, oh oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's it. That's it. And then and then within like two minutes,

you you were able to finish the rest of done. It was the rest of the song is because dude, when you when the universe. Think about it like fishing, Like I know that fishing sucks for fishes. I said fishes. That's correct, Okay, cool. Yeah, so it depends on if philosophers, if that's a real word. Yeah, it's it's fishes. If they're all the same species. But if it's like different, yeah, I'm pretty sure that's pretty But think about it like a like a llure.

There a little line is being dropped and it's like all you gotta do is grab it. All you have to do is grab it, and if your fish will die, But if you're released a bunch of fishes, yeah yeah yeah, and you know what, they had a transformative religious experience. Man pulled out of the water acted yes, okay, from another world exactly. There's a SpongeBob episode about that. There is, Yes, there is. I'm loving all these SpongeBob references. Bro, that's near and dear to

my heart. But but but the truth is, you have to accept those gifts with grace. You have to accept them with excitement, like, oh, the gods are granting me a glimpse him too, their world, Like because art is it transcends our five senses. Just remember David played the secret chord that please the Lord. Yeah, esoteric it is, and that's that's

what happened in that moment with It's like trans medium ship. Honestly, I was in that moment with Opcianos. I was able to latch on to the stream that you were connected to. I was able to say, oh, yeah, let's follow it, and we were able to latch onto it together and boom, the whole song got finished just like that because we followed the stream. You know, life is but a dream. You just merrily, merrily, merrily down there, like you gotta go with the flow, be

like water. This is all. There are reasons that people say these things, and you might hear it like get out of your own way, go with the flow, be like water. And you're like, what does that even mean? It literally means meditate being ego death and empty your mind into your mind, medal the ego out of it. You are not like you're just a vessel, like we have learned this to be true. We're wizards. Bro oh hell yeah, hell yeah. I've always kind of seen myself

as like a modern Merlin. Yeah, you're a modern Merlin man. Yeah. So, uh, music is magic to artist magic to all of our artists out there. I hope that this was like a cool insight, you know, and at very least it's something for you to try out. Rather than focusing on improving your quote unquote skills in whatever your craft is, focus on honing that antenna. Do things like meditate, be out in nature, appreciate good art. You know. Uh, find inspiration in random places.

Pick up a book, flip to a random page and read the first thing that appears. It's like, you will find something. Just realize you have to come to terms with the fact that it's not you. Yeah, it's not. It's not like we're saying, you know, don't develop skill. You have have you have to have skill for the vessel to be strong. But it's like you just gotta have the right attitude about it. Yeah, there are times to hone your skill in your craft. But when it comes

time to make great work, that time is over. That time's over. You get out of the way, make room for it to come through. Yeah, that's it. That's it. We love y'all, and uh stream that twice born shit. You know what I'm saying. Hey, Cobelini's the storm. We are now on Apple Music and Spotify and YouTube everywhere. It's every Follow us on Instagram or twice Borne band, twice Born band, check

us out. It's all linked to our personal profile. So if you follow me on Instagram, I have twice Borne LinkedIn there under the podcast link. Yeah, we are obnoxiously sharing tons of twice Born shit. So we love you all very much. We appreciate all the support. We're going to keep making music for the rest of our lives. Hell yeah, love you guys. Bye guys, Bye guys. Weird things but in the backyard, flits House said over us, descending, God, it's so weird coming closer to

players industry up like spiraling on the inside of it. No one knows. Wow, it's come right over time. Shide ain't camp