How To Unleash Your Creativity, Heal Your Pain & Find Your Voice | RY X (LIVE)

Estimated read time: 1:20

Summary

In this enlightening and heartfelt interview, André Duqum sits down with Grammy-nominated artist and producer RY X to explore the intricate blend of creativity, spirituality, and personal growth that defines his life and music. RY X shares profound insights into how his upbringing on an Australian island and connection with nature have deeply shaped his art. The conversation delves into themes of vulnerability, creative discipline, and the transformative power of art. He also reflects on the intimacy of his musical performances and the spiritual dimensions of parenthood, offering listeners a genuine glimpse into his soul and artistic journey.

Highlights

RY X shares how his connection to nature inspires his artistry, emphasizing spaciousness and clarity. 🌿
He discusses the importance of creating art from a place of honesty and personal truth rather than seeking external validation. 💡
The conversation touches on the vulnerability of live performances and the deep connection between music and spirit. 🎶
RY X opens up about the transformative power of fatherhood and how it shapes his life's priorities. 👶
The interview explores the importance of having a structured yet fluid approach to creativity and spiritual practice. 🌀

Key Takeaways

Unleash your creativity by reconnecting with your inner child and seeing art as a form of pure expression. 🎨
Vulnerability and honesty in art make it universal and relatable. 🌍
Spiritual practices and devotion can profoundly impact your creative journey. 🧘‍♂️
Parenthood is a transformative experience that redefines your sense of self and devotion. 👨‍👦
Finding joy in the simplest moments can be a powerful practice for resilience and gratitude. 🌊

Overview

During the interview, André Duqum and RY X dive deep into the influence of nature on RY X's music. Growing up on a small island in Australia, his connection with the ocean and natural world has deeply informed his art, bringing a sense of spaciousness and emotional clarity to his music.

The discussion also highlights RY X's approach to art as an exploration of personal truth and vulnerability. He emphasizes that true artistic success comes from honesty and deep personal connection rather than external accolades or validation. This authentic approach enables his music to resonate universally.

RY X also sheds light on the profound effect that fatherhood has on his life and creativity. His experiences as a parent have broadened his understanding of love and devotion, influencing not just his personal life but also his artistic expression. Additionally, his commitment to spiritual practices continues to ground and inspire his work.

Chapters

00:00 - 05:00: The Universal Connection of Voice and Emotion The chapter titled 'The Universal Connection of Voice and Emotion' discusses the deep connection between human emotions and the voice. It reflects on how certain feelings such as love, fear, and passion are universal. The artist's role is highlighted as one that involves deep introspection to connect with personal emotions and experiences. These personal expressions, when sincerely crafted, resonate universally, transcending boundaries and touching on fundamental human experiences such as growth, change, and spirituality. The chapter underscores the profound, almost spiritual, impact of emotion conveyed through the human voice.
05:00 - 10:00: The Journey of Self-Discovery and Artistry The chapter titled 'The Journey of Self-Discovery and Artistry' explores the innate need to create as an essential part of the human experience. It highlights the majestic nature of stripping away distractions to focus on artistic expression, emphasizing the importance of the creative process itself. The act of making art is portrayed as a beautiful and powerful practice, integral to personal growth and self-discovery. The chapter encourages engaging in artistic activities, such as playing the guitar or piano, as a means of reinforcing this journey.
10:00 - 15:00: The Influence of Nature on Creative Expression In this chapter, the author explores the profound impact of nature on creative expression by delving into the insights of a Grammy-nominated artist and producer. The guest has an extensive career, having toured globally and collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the LA and London Philharmonic. He has also worked with high-profile artists like Drake, Diplo, and John Legend. The conversation goes beyond professional achievements, offering a reflection on personal connections and the deeper understanding of the world that these experiences foster.
15:00 - 20:00: Authenticity in Art and Personal Experience This chapter emphasizes the authenticity and heartfelt connection the artist, Ry, brings to his art. Highlighting his grounded spirit, the discussion reveals how Ry integrates his connection to nature and spirituality into both his artistry and music. Readers are left with anticipation for a live musical performance by Ry, reflecting his genuine and deeply rooted creative expression.
20:00 - 25:00: The Discipline and Devotion of Being an Artist The chapter centers around the concept of art being an integral part of one's identity. It features a conversation where one person expresses admiration for another, emphasizing that for this individual, art is not merely an activity or profession but a fundamental aspect of who they are. The chapter highlights the seamless integration of artistic expression into all facets of life, reflecting a deep devotion and discipline towards being an artist.
25:00 - 30:00: Spiritual Practices and Personal Transformation The chapter titled 'Spiritual Practices and Personal Transformation' begins with a discussion on the concept of a 'creative adult' as a child who survived. The conversation aims to explore the speaker's personal background and story, focusing on how their upbringing played a crucial role in shaping their identity and personal transformation. The narrative delves into the idea of creativity as a soul-expanding practice and invites reflection on inspirational influences throughout life.
30:00 - 35:00: Vulnerability in Music Performance The chapter discusses the theme of vulnerability in music performance, beginning with a personal anecdote from the speaker about their upbringing. Growing up on a small island in Australia near the ocean, they developed a profound connection to it, influenced by their surroundings and family. Their father was an early proponent of the permaculture movement, and their mother practiced as a midwife, homeopath, naturopath, and yoga teacher. This unique environment shaped the speaker's perspective and appreciation for nature and vulnerability, perhaps tying into their approach to music performance.
35:00 - 40:00: Expression Through Devotional Music The chapter "Expression Through Devotional Music" starts with a personal account of the speaker's mornings, waking up to their parents practicing pranayama. This routine influenced the speaker's own practices, particularly in integrating youthfulness and play into their spiritual and daily life practices. They reflect on a quote from a Sur film they watched during their childhood, discussing its impact and the wanderlust it inspired for cultural exploration.
40:00 - 45:00: Authenticity vs. Perception in Creation This chapter explores the theme of 'Authenticity vs. Perception in Creation.' It delves into the human quest for eternal youth and belonging, illustrated through the metaphor of searching for the 'Holy Grail' or the 'cup of life.' The chapter suggests that true belonging and a sense of eternal youth can be found through genuine interaction with nature. This idea is connected to surfers and others deeply linked to the sea, who find youth, play, reverence, and a sense of place within nature. The narrative suggests that these elements offer a balanced understanding of one's identity and place in the world.
45:00 - 50:00: Transformational Experiences and Spiritual Growth The chapter titled 'Transformational Experiences and Spiritual Growth' explores an individual's deep connection with nature and how it influences their well-being and artistic expression. The narrative details how being close to nature, particularly the ocean, serves as a source of vitality and connection. This relationship with nature not only enhances personal well-being but is also intricately linked to the person's artistry, influencing the visuals and music they create.
50:00 - 55:00: Navigating Deep Grief and Personal Growth The chapter explores the deep connection between nature and personal growth, emphasizing how the spaciousness and the non-linear comprehension of time in nature inspire personal development and creativity. It discusses the idea that while human life is brief, nature operates on a much broader time scale, offering a different perspective on existence. This perspective influences the way individuals experience life and express themselves, notably through music. The chapter reflects on the concept of finding a sense of expansiveness within the natural world, which aids in navigating grief and fostering personal growth.
55:00 - 60:00: Finding Joy and Connection Through Nature The chapter "Finding Joy and Connection Through Nature" focuses on the concept of negative space in art and music. The speaker emphasizes the importance of allowing space and breath within creative works, whether in video editing or music composition. They mention using a particular quote with collaborators: 'Now that we have it, can we reduce it to its maximum?' This quote underlines the idea of stripping away unnecessary elements to enhance the core essence of the work, thereby finding joy and connection in the simplicity and purity of nature.
60:00 - 65:00: The Role of Consistent Practice in Mental Health The chapter discusses the natural cycle of chaos and planning in nature, using the metaphor of fire and rebirth. It highlights how this cycle can beautifully demonstrate consistency, and relates this to the process of making art. The author describes their intuitive approach to art, emphasizing the desire to simplify and enhance the power and space of the work. This reflective on-going process is analogous to maintaining mental health through consistent practice.
65:00 - 70:00: The Transformational Impact of Fatherhood The chapter discusses how growing up in a natural environment away from the noise and dogmas of society can foster creativity and intuition. By having a quieter and more spacious upbringing, individuals might find it easier to connect with their inner voice and intuition.
70:00 - 75:00: Redefining Success and Artistic Devotion The chapter explores the theme of redefining success in the context of artistic devotion. It highlights the concept of guidance and direction in life, specifically in exploring one's artistry and its development over time. The narrative suggests that artistry is closely linked to youth and the personal growth during that time. It raises profound questions about the perception of one's artistry and the essence of being an artist. The chapter describes the artist's role as delving deep within to establish a connection to the broader human experience.
75:00 - 80:00: The Importance of Personal Excellence in Art The chapter delves into the collective human experience, emphasizing the universality of emotions such as fear, love, passion, and grief. It underscores how art serves as a medium to express these emotions, making them relatable across diverse individuals. The discussion highlights personal excellence in art as a vital aspect due to the shared elements of the human condition, suggesting that harnessing one's personal experiences and emotions can resonate on a universal level. The narrative further implies that understanding and embodying personal grief, among other emotions, enriches artistic expression and connection.
80:00 - 85:00: Encouragement to Embrace Creativity The chapter titled 'Encouragement to Embrace Creativity' focuses on the importance of creating art from personal experiences and connections rather than abstract ideas like grief or spiritual connections. It emphasizes the value of authenticity and rawness in artistic expression, suggesting that deeply personal truths tend to resonate more broadly with audiences. This chapter advocates for embracing the minutiae of one's own truth to create art that has a wider impact.
85:00 - 90:00: A Message to Aspiring Artists In this chapter, the speaker delves into the essence of lyrical expression, emphasizing the power of detailed and intimate experiences. The speaker reflects on capturing 'photographic moments' such as a cheek, an eye, or a specific feeling—highlighting the significance of these small yet profound experiences. These vivid snapshots of life, described with emphasis on the way light or emotions were at that moment, are what seem to resonate deeply with others. This resonance is because people are moved by the emotions conveyed through such precise and personal detail. The discussion underscores the value of conveying genuine feelings and moments that listeners can deeply connect with.
90:00 - 95:00: The Lifelong Commitment to Artistry In this chapter titled 'The Lifelong Commitment to Artistry,' the discussion centers around the profound and spiritual role of an artist. The artist's journey is depicted as one of exploring the depths of human experience, delving into themes of death, rebirth, and spirit. The artist's mission is seen as breaking through the barriers we build in ourselves, represented metaphorically as scar tissue, to access deeper truths and emotions. By doing so, artists create connections and present universal themes that act as powerful tools for healing and forging connections among people.
95:00 - 100:00: Closing Thoughts and Invitations This chapter discusses the idea that good art should serve as a reminder for people to connect with their own feelings. It emphasizes the power of planting a seed of emotion rather than dictating how someone should feel. The chapter suggests that creating something honest and true to one's own spirit is a way to ensure that art becomes impactful and resonates as good, as opposed to striving for impact directly. It also raises curiosity about the 'alchemic' process of transforming one's life experiences.

How To Unleash Your Creativity, Heal Your Pain & Find Your Voice | RY X (LIVE) Transcription

00:00 - 00:30 I don't know that there's a more personal thing in the whole world than the voice as people we have the same unifying things we all have fear we all have love we have passion a lot of the role of an artist is to dig deep inside of ourselves to find a connection to our emotion our experience that then becomes Universal to go to that place where the veil is thin to go to that place where death and rebirth and spirit live all
00:30 - 01:00 that really matters in there is your need to create is the essence point there is something deeply Majestic about taking away everything else that you are to be in those moments go and do it pick up the guitar pick up the piano your art is Meaningful process itself of making it is one of the most beautiful powerful practices I've had in my [Music] life hello beautiful beings welcome back to the know thyself podcast for every
01:00 - 01:30 single week we get the honor and privilege to sit down with a brilliant mind an open heart sometimes a dear friend to learn more about ourselves and the world around us at deeper and deeper levels my guest today is a Grammy nominated artist and producer he's toured all around the world and collaborated with uh incredible establishments and orchestras like the LA and London philarmonic he's written and produced for you know many big names like Drake and Diplo and John Legend um but as a friend he's somebody that is
01:30 - 02:00 just so connected to his heart such a grounded Spirit um and I I feel like he really does pour his heart into his art and he uses his connection to Nature and spirit to inform and Inspire his Artistry and his music and we might be even lucky enough foreshadowing to get some beautiful live music here today in the studio which I'm so excited for um Ry is just uh it's been such uh pleasure to get to know him more and more and he's an individual like I said that is is a very grounded spirit and super
02:00 - 02:30 inspiring he's somebody that I feel like is not um art isn't something he does it is it's something he is and it fuses into everything that he does so Ry thank you for coming on today bro wow thank you I mean I want that intro everywhere I go I'll do I'll just follow you around thank you it's beautiful to be here man beautiful yeah yeah so good man so I want to start because you're somebody that like I said I'm been getting to know more and more um and uh as a friend but then like also I'm just a you make
02:30 - 03:00 such Soul expanding music that I'm also a huge fan of so it's a pleasure to have both um inspiration on both fronts uh I feel like the there's a saying that the creative adult is a child who survived yes absolutely and and so I would love for you just to share a little bit more about your own personal background and story and what would we have to know about you and your upbringing to help uh get get a bigger understanding into how you are and who um what informed you to become who you are today yeah I mean the first thing
03:00 - 03:30 that comes to mind with that that quote or that idea is um you know watching growing up next to the ocean on this little island in Australia and having such a deep reverent connection to the ocean um I was born on you know a property that was essentially a permaculture Farm my dad was one of the guys that was early in the permaculture movement in Australia my mom's a um Midwife homeopath naturopath yoga teacher so I really kind of grew up in it you know eating from the garden
03:30 - 04:00 waking up to my parents doing you know pranayama in the morning and and in some ways it was easy to continue to follow that thread um and I think one of the main threads um that I followed or continue to follow was the one of of Youth and play and making that a part of practice and um this beautiful quote in a Sur film I used to watch growing up which was you know there was these travels all over the world to find the
04:00 - 04:30 Holy Grail or to find this eternal life to find the the cup of life this idea this identity of people searching for for you know a way to belong forever and and a way to be young and meanwhile all they had to do the whole time was jump off the side of the boat to just play in the ocean every Surfer every person that's connected to the sea in that way knows Youth and knows play and knows reverence with nature and knows kind of the belonging and the place within nature so I think I grew up with that balance you know nature as a
04:30 - 05:00 friend and nature as a place to go Revel in and to remind me of of of who I am as a part of Nature and also to be in to be in play as we go along yeah I've known you as somebody that really does use your connection to Nature and the ocean and the waters to um just find your own source of of connectedness and well-being Vitality but then also that goes hand in hand into your art yeah and so how do you because it's very obvious you watch your music videos you listen to your music um you see your imagery um
05:00 - 05:30 in the visuals it's all kind of connected with nature and so how does your connection through nature really inspire you as an individual and your being but then also through your music I think one of the major things is like the spaciousness within nature and the the nonlinear time understanding right like we're here in such a kind of short brief Connection in this physical experience and nature has a much longer understanding of its role and so growing up there was always spaciousness there's
05:30 - 06:00 always this idea of like negative space and I think for me in my art and in my music it's a lot about that if I'm editing directing or editing video it's like how long can we keep this shot how long can we keep breath here or in music how much space there's a there's a quote that I use with some of my collaborators it's like now that we have it can we reduce it to its maximum so can we take away what doesn't need to be there for its Essence to be even stronger right so
06:00 - 06:30 and nature does that in this beautiful way you know with fire with rebirth with it's just this constant kind of um beautiful dance of of chaos and perfect planning at the same time and um you know for me making art with an understanding of that I think is more inherent and intuitive I'm not too cerebral in that process but I find myself constantly wanting to strip things away constantly wanting to find what makes it most powerful and most spacious and I think that's a lot to do
06:30 - 07:00 with not growing up around a lot of people and growing up you know immersed in a connection with nature yeah it's unfortunately most people aren't able to have that experience growing up there's a lot of noise there's a lot of opinions conclusions dogmas kind of put and shoved into into youth uh and it makes perfect sense that you allowed your creativity and your own connection to Nature and that spaciousness to really Blossom within you and then you get to listen you're there's less Noise Within you and around you and so you can actually listen to that intuitive process what your uh the the inner voice
07:00 - 07:30 wants to guide you through in life and and what direction to move in and explore and so your Artistry and the development over the past you know many many years it's so hand inand and I see how directly correlated it is with your youth how do you view your own Artistry and what it means to be an artist h i mean what a vast question yeah you know a lot of the role of of an artist is to dig deep inside of ourselves to find a connection to to our
07:30 - 08:00 our emotion our experience that then becomes Universal you know as people we have the same unifying things there this egalitarian nature of like we're human we all have fear we all have love we have passion we have our grief a lot of us have trauma I think we all have trauma but you know we all have these things that we carry and a lot of the time if you know grief if you've experienced grief all the way down embodied it learn from it go into that
08:00 - 08:30 place and make art from it of course that's going to resonate for a lot of people but I can't make art based on the idea of grief or the idea of connection to Spirit I have to make upart based on my connection to those experiences and the deeper I go into the finite minutia of my own truth and and communicating that truth with authenticity and rawness what I found is the more that resonates the wider that resonates which is a bit of an ironic uh pathway
08:30 - 09:00 because you think you're going to talk about something that nobody understands lyrically for me a lot I speak about these tiny experiences which are like photographic moments in my mind you know these tiny moments of of a cheek of an eye of a feeling of the way that the light was in that moment and what's really interesting is they're the things that seem to resonate the most because people understand the feeling that's conveyed within that so I think a lot of
09:00 - 09:30 the role as an artist on a on a to zoom out is to go to that place where the veil is then to go to that place where death and rebirth and spirit live and to be Excavating and pushing away the scar tissue that a lot of us build around that to keep that place open so we can reach in we can make heart reach in but also reach in make heart from that place and share it and then it then it becomes a universal theme and it becomes a powerful tool for healing and connect and more than anything I think a
09:30 - 10:00 reminder I think good art is a reminder for people to feel in themselves and planting that seed is much more powerful than telling somebody how to feel it's powerful I think a lot of people probably get cut up and just trying to make something good or impactful but the more you can make something honest and just true to your own Spirit the more that it actually will be translated and those who resonate as good and impactful uh and so I'm curious for your um like alchemis process of your own life experience
10:00 - 10:30 through difficult relationships through difficult challenging experiences but then also really beautiful ecstatic ones how uh how you use that to then alchemize it and transmute it into something that can be shared with the world in your art form right it could be various different things for other people but for you it tends to be music yeah yeah I mean it's I think when you become when you learn prowess is an arst that transcends genre you know if I'm directing if I'm producing if I'm writing if I'm you know get behind something and you feel like you start to
10:30 - 11:00 have an understanding but music obviously is my first medium of expression outside of just being a human and there's something really powerful about deciding to go deep as we've talked about deep into these understandings but behind that there has to be an element of also being good at what you do and being dedicated to that craft and I think it was yoga or such beautiful quote with complete discipline comes complete Freedom mhm and for me
11:00 - 11:30 that really landed in my 20s when I kind of left the music industry at one point and went into more spiritual study and and yogic study and I really learned and and in my mind I almost changed the word discipline to devotion because discipline has a lot of negative connotation so if we reframe that with complete devotion comes complete Freedom what that means is like waking up for me moving my body being in nature connecting to myself and then diving into my art and diving
11:30 - 12:00 into the practice and the and the Devotion to the art that means sitting through that itch to not be there it means writing 12 verses instead of three for the song it means referencing all of the books and the people that inspire you around you from the different lineages and reading their work and going deeper into way that they understand so that you become a bit of a vessel for this if you're waiting for some divination moment in your art it will come but very infrequently and if
12:00 - 12:30 you want to be an artist making work I think even in the sense prolific just means to create a lot it doesn't mean it's all good but to be prolific you have to open that channel that we talked about that creative Channel you know to that to that kind of other world and leave it open and then with the discipline and with the devotion and with the work it can come through and it doesn't mean it's all good a big part of the process as an artist is to learn how to edit and refine your work and some times that just means letting go of
12:30 - 13:00 whole ideas and remembering that when your ego goes like yeah but you know that's really good you're like yeah but it doesn't feel right and for me so much when I'm working it's how does this feel rather than how does this sound how does this feel rather than how does this look and So within that for me I think there's a framework then I can use my my kind of lineage of studying work and becoming a vessel for it and being meeting place of these two things and
13:00 - 13:30 within that you're then like the center point you know there's this notion that I love that that as far as the Universe goes outside of us it also goes inside of us that we that's Center Point kind of and I think in some way as an artist you live is that center point between the emotional and the spiritual and how to communicate that to the world but you have to have tools and you have to do it well yeah yeah I think we both have found our own individual Tools in life that kind of allow that vessel to open but I think you're so right dis plint does kind of have that negative
13:30 - 14:00 connotation of using willpower and force to really like you know make what you want happen a lot of people think that freedom comes from just like being able to do whatever you want and if you follow that path for very long not very long you'll experience a lot of lethargy and buildup in the system and not feel very free where you're speaking to devotion finding those spiritual practices that you can stay committed to and devote yourself to something bigger than just your own compulsive pleasure seeking then you can actually discover a different kind of Freedom it tastes like true liberate freedom and expression um
14:00 - 14:30 and so I know that you've had spiritual practices and yoga and meditation has been a a big part of your life and practice and that goes hand in hand to shaping you as a spirit and you as a being and that of course infuses into your art uh so before we can maybe get a little taste of your music I would just love I would love for you to share a little bit more about your spiritual practices and how that's informed sure yeah I mean I as I said I grew up in it and there was a maybe uh naive presumption that because I grew up
14:30 - 15:00 in it I was the thing you know because I grew up in permaculture and yoga therefore I just knew those things but again that moment really in my 20s um in a deeper way when I chose to lean away from kind of the external need for a validation creatively or in what I was doing and more into who I was being that for me is a big part of the spiritual journey I'm not what I do I am who I am I'm my actions I'm who I wake up and what I'm doing you know and within that
15:00 - 15:30 what do I need to refine and what do I need to work on so that I'm kind compassionate loving witnessing and observing my shadow doing some work on it not putting it back you know and letting the ego kind of run and I've been through some beautiful ego deaths you know and for me personally I really needed to go through those things there was a lot of um kind of gravity in those moments where looking back they're the most grateful and they tore apart my spirit spiritual practices here I was
15:30 - 16:00 thinking I was a great meditator that I was devoted that I'd taken you know Refuge with z and SOI R and these Tibetan kind of Buddhist lineage teachers and I was studying Ashtanga and I was doing you know living in Bali and doing this whole work and then I get completely destroyed you know a few years later and it's like the constant reminder that there's a million Pathways to get there but on the way are we being kind on the way is our heart open on the way of we being honest that's a huge
16:00 - 16:30 spiritual practice just honesty just being really honest knowing your own inner landscape and choosing to speak your landscape to other people so that those around you know who you are and how you're moving otherwise again I think what can happen is we get this Duality between the idea of the spiritual self and who we are in our shadow and who we are how can we combine that turn it over there's only Shadow when you're when it's when it's in the dark as soon as you turn your hand to it
16:30 - 17:00 it's in the light so a lot of my spiritual practices now have come through the different modalities obviously Still Yoga um connection to the ocean connection to Nature breath Prana moving your body and getting Chi to flow out of your body body sematic release um the spiritual kind of lineage of the the mahamudra meditation that I studied for many years and my commitment to specifically so or or
17:00 - 17:30 long and a lot of that was based on the meditation of death and impermanence and you know we sit in this room and we have this moment where we imagine each other dying we imagine that could not be just in 40 years but tomorrow and then what do we want to be doing here today and how do we want to speak here today and how do I want to live and how do I want to act to the people that I love in my life and what do I want to put in my art if that art
17:30 - 18:00 is going to go out to millions of people if at some point I'm not going to be here to receive the agulation what do I really want to belong in that as I as I move through this life so that's the Cornerstone I would say but un underneath and on top of that and around that is this very Human Experience that we have of uh up and continually wanting to grow and develop and be more Roar and be more authentic as I continue my practices and stay in
18:00 - 18:30 Devotion to those things too yeah so beautiful man so well said so articulate there's many doors that that were just opened that I'm excited to explore and dive into uh but will you play a little something for us I will I mean like yes absolutely it's always a it's always vulnerable for me to play music um because I enter that space yeah and and I would love to do that here a little bit amazing yeah beautiful oh get all these little things set yeah
18:30 - 19:00 [Music]
19:00 - 19:30 hot nights [Music] coming keep the [Music] car the fingers
19:30 - 20:00 [Music] swallow my [Music] P gold I fell into your spell on the light of God we fell you a plh and I laar you have me Hing cold I fell into your skin on the night you left me under your
20:00 - 20:30 sin you help me Hing you help me Hing pleas [Music]
20:30 - 21:00 wo [Music] BL bless golden s under expose me
21:00 - 21:30 come lay your weakness down on the floor in the back seat go I fell into your spell on the right of God we fell you were plush and I laid bed you have me
21:30 - 22:00 Hing cold I fell into your skin on the night you left me under your sin you help me Hing you help meing woho [Music]
22:00 - 22:30 [Music] bless [Music] bless man so good I'm I'm just the biggest fan this is like the best job
22:30 - 23:00 ever I just get to sit down and have conversations with Brad humans and get serated to share that man your your art is just so so beautiful like uh I'm just such a such a lover of it I think it can really feel like for me it just gets me in a place of uh calmness but like lifts the spirits and um and I know so many millions of people around the world feel the same way you know so just thank you for what you do bro such a gift thank
23:00 - 23:30 you man I mean it's a weird thing cuz you just entered this for me I like enter a little portal I enter a little space when I play music and when I come out of it even just here in the room with you it's like I feel somatically that I've been in that place and then it's like I have to not that I have to I just gently put myself back together I put my like clothing my emotional clothing back on cuz you're really like undressing to a very naked Place yeah um yeah imagine any just imagine if you're here I'm just
23:30 - 24:00 like hey can you sing for me it is a very vulnerable thing exactly yeah but there is this distinction with I think you know a lot of what people would say is performers versus sometimes artists that can show up vulnerably and it's an offering it's a gift I know you've shared that before I would love for you to Rift on that and how energetically it's different for you when you share your music than maybe some people are familiar with yeah I mean for me I think there was this really defining point where I realized I didn't want to
24:00 - 24:30 perform and what I wanted to do was like have kinship and relation to to my music and my art and in a way sing to higher Place sing to Spirit you know and be witnessed in that communion um there's something a lot more powerful about that that is is engaging on a much deeper level it doesn't belong in all environments though so you have to be very conscious and aware you know where and how you share um because you are
24:30 - 25:00 going into that undressing and that kind of communion and people are witnessing that communion so obviously at a huge music festival um which I play a lot of too it can be challenging it can be like how do I how do I go this deep into this connection of vulnerability and rawness while there's also all of this happening in all this range and I think the idea of Mass Appeal at least in my world has died where for me it's about if I'm going to connect deeply to to some people through my art that's what I want
25:00 - 25:30 to do and I want that to be meaningful to those people to double down on that rather than how do I make this song more appealing to a wide scope of people and So within that fold uh it's a very easy easy Veil to see through it's like am I making this to appeal to a lot of people or I'm making this and singing this and communing here and then are people going to witness me in that communion and have their own inspiration of like that's all that's all I want you know at a show um
25:30 - 26:00 all I really want is and and all that I've worked for including the set and setting the energy around it working with the orchestras bringing in these beautiful bands lighting projections video art is like how can I create a space that is a catalyst for people here tonight where I'm playing but people are having their own individual experiences within the whole and then when they leave what are they taking from it that's up to them but the seed is planted and you know there have been some great
26:00 - 26:30 teachers for me I mean watching like Kali music and India music ravish shanar and like harat and you know noat Alan these people like when I witnessed them singing to singing to God sitting on a stage not standing you know putting their hands in the air I was like that's it that's what I want and I and I found obviously an amalgamation of coming from this lineage of like playing a more traditional West an instrument and singing But in many
26:30 - 27:00 ways I see and feel my music as a very devotional practice so beautiful and I just love the way that you shared that um because it's funny I was just having a conversation a couple weeks ago with another friend who's uh you know is's a pop artist and um he's in this transition there's this old version of him using his voice in a certain way um and his new found self-discovery process in realizing that he really enjoys and feels the spirit lifts when he sings devotional music and it good say that actually theery of
27:00 - 27:30 that in typ music into whatever your style is you know um so I'm curious how has there ever been points where the perception of how others will receive your music has changed your own creation process you got to rule that out yeah you you you got to just throw that out the window straight away if you're thinking about other people when you're making your art then it's not your art anymore it's not from a pure authentic place of your need
27:30 - 28:00 to create that's all that really matters in there is your need to create is the essence point and so stay in your creation stay in what you want to be doing once you finish once you come out of that you can observe it maybe as a you know as as a person that's steep back and looking at your own work hopefully in a healthy vein without self self- judgment but the act of creation and and going into the depth of that creation is really what matters being in the process of creation and sitting as
28:00 - 28:30 we mentioned earlier just sitting there and letting that happen and creating the time and space the discipline to just be there and make that work and then you refine and you refine and you refine if you're thinking constantly how will this be received by other then your message is already diluted and you're already taking in tens hundreds thousands millions of people's opinions into your thought process and there's nothing wrong with that but what you're going to end up with is very different so for me it's
28:30 - 29:00 like when I close the door to write when I close the door figuratively speaking into that creative process am I in tune enough have I taken care of myself enough or at times am I living in the beautiful like swirl of chaos enough to touch this other place am I in darkness am I deep in my shadow okay let's go let's right from that place doesn't always have to be from love and light you know actually the best art isn't from that place the best art carries the Shadow with it at all times and it
29:00 - 29:30 honors the shadow you know but the choice is to be over here and I think that's something that I just try to implore and bring into my work is to always carry this and always carry the depth of the the sadness and the Beauty and The Melancholy of the human existence while also honoring that in context of the much larger you know oh this doesn't really mean anything but let's honor it let's bring it in let's have a conversation with it I think it's super important to make space for that part of ourselves that wants to be like
29:30 - 30:00 that of course wants people to perceive us in a light in a good light but then as we were speaking to earlier and as you were sharing you know it's more important for you to create something that is just honest for you and where you're truly at and that will actually connect with people the most because it's real um so I would love for you to share a little bit more about some moments where you know you have to let these parts of you die in order for more of who you truly are to come online to truly be activated MH and so you spoke too briefly a couple of the those
30:00 - 30:30 moments where you got completely destroyed you know by whatever was happening through your life and um those death moments when you're really in the you're in the shadow um of course they can be incredible inspiration for what gets transmuted into art and a lot of your music I'm sure has come from that place it it is important I would just love for you to reflect on a few of those moments and how it's been transformational for you yeah let's go deep let's go um oh you know I'm some body that um I'm
30:30 - 31:00 strong I have like a strength in me and a will and like a a power that I carry in myself we all do I'm conscious of mine I'm aware of mine and these situations broke that in just the right way Spirit had just the right dance for me you know and spirit being me you know in my calling to want to do that work and and and work through some of this and I'm constantly there it's just there's less excavation you've already done a bunch of it but the
31:00 - 31:30 refinement process is continual um I would say one of the most formative moments you know for me was probably five six years ago in the separation of family this idea you know not a lot of people know that I'm a father because I haven't put that in a social Spotlight um and a cultural Spotlight because I really wanted my son River to have his own life growing up just being him and what he saw around him was his world and then he can engage with the outside world when he feels ready um but I'm
31:30 - 32:00 deeply devoted in my fatherhood and my my single fatherhood and my co-parenting and the the the process of becoming a father is or becoming a parent as all parents will know it's the first time where the self-centric view has to dissipate because finally you're in true devotion and service to another being and people that are in devotional work in their lives know this feeling too the parenting one just you know comes with a big push all at once and to
32:00 - 32:30 go through The Narrative of becoming a father and a stepfather at the same time River's older brother tave who's my second boy um and to be deeply diving into that while I also had the birth of my art and I was away and in devotion and service to the world in creation I felt split and ultimately a relationship couldn't survive that Duality within me I hadn't my shoulders weren't broad enough yet to
32:30 - 33:00 hold it all you know and that's been such the beautiful practice to learn the things won't stop coming it's just how strong how able how how much can I hold with ease and Grace it's a beautiful word grace and in that time there wasn't Grace and I wasn't graceful and the fumbling and the falling apart and then going to the Shadow Self and those things that come up those trigger points through all of that though underneath the letting go of this identity of the traditional nucleus
33:00 - 33:30 family and letting go of the identity that to be an artist you need to be in your pain and struggle and to be a father you need to let go of your art or to be a good artist you need to like run from responsibility there's all these narratives and for me I just looked at it all and I was like through this deep grief through this deep pain moments how do I find what is beautiful in my life and in this life as a human person spiritual person and double down on
33:30 - 34:00 those things how do I build pillars now of my existence where the Temple of who I am can sit upon these pillars and what are those pillars and how do I shape them and how do I show up for them every day and that became the compass for me and that became the compass that I still live by that I'm still refining but there's such clarity now in the pillars and there's such beautiful co-parenting my devotion into fatherhood my devotion into my art my devotion into Community my devot into spiritual practice would be four pillars that I could name
34:00 - 34:30 and with that Compass everything else can exist prior to that I had no Compass which I think a lot of us still struggle with so a lot of it is how do you find what those pillars are in your life and if you want to be a person touching art touching the depths touching uh the the where the human emotional spiritual World connects your work's going to be a little more fiery a little more watery a little more to to deal with in that space so how can you get even stronger
34:30 - 35:00 how can your shoulders get even broader how can your heart get even bigger the Lim I mean the limitation the idea of the limitation of Love is the biggest one right I'm fearful because there's not enough love or I'm fearful because I need to be loved in this way and there's something incredible that happened es especially in becoming a spiritual father to tave my older boy and staying in his life post separation was learn learning how to become a father to all children because
35:00 - 35:30 I learned how to become a father to one that wasn't my blood this concept and and then how to broaden that understanding with my son River and the love and double down on that and double down on the love from River back to tave and back out to the world and realize wait there's no limitation here in love if I am opening my heart wider there's just more love that comes out and I'm being fed by the universe behind my back people may not see it or feel it some
35:30 - 36:00 people say like how do you have so much energy to do all this stuff and two of the world and I'm just like oh this is like the lifeblood this is what I live on and when I come back I pour into my fatherhood devotionally and and when I go it's the hardest thing to leave them but I know that also in being service in service in what I do I'm also teaching them to follow their hearts I'm teaching them what it looks like to walk a path devoted to the self to Spirit to your heart and the you wouldn't get there unless
36:00 - 36:30 you had these deep moments of falling apart because you can't recreate a structure if it's pieced together with glue and sticky tape sometimes you have to pull the whole thing apart and then find the way that it can fit solidly together and for me that's one of the most beautiful processes and then you write you include that in your art you include that in your conversations yeah when all that's falling apart you know it's it's a beautiful process especially once you feel like you're on the other
36:30 - 37:00 side of it but I know in those moments when you feel like you're not going to make it out you know you feel like you're you're in the pits of Hell your own experience and it's really tough is there one moment or period of time I suppose that sticks out when like can you take us into that okay yeah yeah absolutely the way that I would describe it my mind works a lot in analogy and and I've I've worked hard over the years in this kind of poetic brain of mine at times to like be more logistical and be more clear in my communication but I
37:00 - 37:30 think in this case there's a beautiful analogy that makes a lot of sense and if we look at emotionality and grief as a body of water which is often often seen as in in you know the likening and analogy space for me you're swimming on top of the surface and you're always afraid a little bit of what's underneath because you don't know what's there but you kind of block it out and then all of a sudden when these things start happening is you get pulled down and you get pulled down where color
37:30 - 38:00 starts to leave the first thing that you do is you're panicking for your breath in in life in this life you're panicking for breath because you're afraid of Letting Go and at some point even though you're out of breath you're still you're still alive you're still looking at the world and you feel like you can't make it out of that space But you're still functioning and people are still doing things and the grocery store is still open and you're still driving your car and then all of a sudden the color from the world starts to dissipate you know
38:00 - 38:30 and the Reds go first the warmth goes first and then the eventually the blues start to go you get down and then light itself starts to disappear and the water's getting cold you're going all the way down and at this point you've kind of forgotten that you needed to breathe at some point and this place in grief is like such a scary place because you don't know if there's a bottom and you don't know if you're ever going to hit it and I think what can happen is in the space of grief is you get weirdly
38:30 - 39:00 comfortable not comfortable but you you weirdly accept that things may never change and you you just think you're going to fall forever and eventually your your feet hit this Soggy Bottom of the ocean right and there's no light and you you still haven't taken that breath but you're still okay you're still there and it's cold and then it's about making peace with that and and there's some part of you if you're going to fight that this is the place this is as deep
39:00 - 39:30 as it goes i' I've been there I've been on that edge point where you go I don't know if I want to live this life anymore I don't know if I want to be in this body anymore my choice is to not be in this body or not be in this space or to come to grips with maybe this is the reality now and from that place this is what's so beautiful from that place where you come to peace with the mud around your feet and the cold and the lack of light is one day the silt and everything just shifts a little bit
39:30 - 40:00 there just a baby earthquake somewhere in your heart somewhere in the world and the ground loosens up and you just start floating up and you're not desperate to swim to the surface because you know how far it is and you don't know where you're going to stop where the buoyancy will be but you just start coming up Suddenly the water gets a little warmer and there suddenly some light coming back through again and you're like wow light this is so beautiful h this place is so beautiful right oh the
40:00 - 40:30 warmth on my skin and you come up and suddenly you see blue for the first time you're like oh blue wow this is amazing right and you come through the color range and suddenly you're coming up to the coral reef of your life and you're looking around meanwhile you've learned to breathe underwater but you're looking around and you're seeing Turtles and coral and you're just like what is this place this life is such a beautiful gift holy I didn't know that when I was on top of not the world but on top of the surface of the water and you come
40:30 - 41:00 up eventually and your head comes up over the surface and what was really interesting for me from this place it's I didn't gasp for air you just suck it in real slow and deep and you look around and you go okay now I start living now I know and that place once you've been there and touched it becomes a Cornerstone of every breath that you take cuz you're not afraid of the depth of life and you're not afraid of the death of things anymore you have an understanding of what it means to be in
41:00 - 41:30 that place at the same time the rry the beauty the the gratitude that you have is a million x and yet when you meet somebody else in grief you see them and you're like I get it and you don't even say I get it you just show up and your presence is like yeah I know this place I'm safe for this person and it's probably one of the greatest gifts that I ever received was knowing that from this place I could then understand grief
41:30 - 42:00 as a universal theme real grief and how to show up for other people in life with that and how to be compassionate and how to hold space without going into their world without getting into their well and their water but just knowing hey it's beautiful day up here I'm not going anywhere you know when you come up to the surface for breath we're going to be right here and we can't wait to see you again you know so poetic that was so that was so beautiful that was like a song a little journey that you just took us on and you ask deep questions you're going to get the Deep answer no I love
42:00 - 42:30 it and it was just so beautiful in the uh in the analogy of your own experience you know with the things that were happening in your life getting to this point where there was no light you know it was so heavy in depression and grief and um I think for people that have been going or either in that right now that are listening to this or have been gone through it um you energetically being willing to continue to release the parts of you that are no longer you and die to the version of yourself that you thought you were over and over and over again
42:30 - 43:00 then like you spoke to you become a safe space an energetic permission slip and safe space for people to be around you and to know that they're accepted that their process won't be judged yes and that's like that that's the best thing to feel you know like you're with family in that space and so for you I know part of it is just like allowing Life Time the Cycles to kind of do its thing and you started to slowly Rise Up from the pits of the bottom of that ocean but there's also things that you can do to you know support you coming up getting
43:00 - 43:30 getting that air and so for you in this process of really honing in more on your own mental health therapy you know the different modalities spiritual practices nature um if there's anything else you want to touch on or what really supported you in coming getting that air again and coming back and seeing those colors I would love for you to touch on some more yeah absolutely especially anybody that's going through it yeah I think we will really resonate with some of this stuff um there's I'd say the biggest thing is looking into your life really examining
43:30 - 44:00 your this is universal for anybody anybody listening examine your life and see where Joy exists and arises not happiness happiness is very conditional happiness is a thing that comes music is a place that makes me happy but it's conditional I also have a duality it also takes me into other spaces so what's the place in my life where I have a natural arising of joy and the the definition of joy for me is really where
44:00 - 44:30 is love coming through without the condition of what it is itself you know where am I feeling love in my life without it based on being a certain way for me especially in the place of grief but generally and for me that relationship when I really looked and examined my life in the core Parts it was pretty simple it was the ocean and the ocean growing up on an island growing up going through family
44:30 - 45:00 stuff going through a whole bunch of things growing like in my my movement through adolescence into young adulthood and realizing the ocean was the place I always went to so I brought it back to that place because when I go to the sea I don't wait for the waves to be good to Surf I don't need it to be a certain way for me to find you know love and peace there I just go and my whole being goes like yes it's a full yes it's a melt into her into that and for me it
45:00 - 45:30 was like my practice and discipline in this place is to just go to the Sea every day regardless of the conditions to go and make that my practice and to start finding and looking for what is beautiful in those tiny moments the way the water comes off the surface the way the wind does something and start to magnify those moments in your life like concentrate on the way the wind is through the trees look at that and stop there and stay there just for long enough where it expands and you start becoming an expander in your own self of
45:30 - 46:00 what is beautiful in your life and then your energy starts going to that place and it can be tiny there's this beautiful quote where it's like if you can't get out of bed it's fine if a week later you get one leg out of bed it's fine if another week goes past and your other legs are you know whatever it takes for you to get to that place and I'm not just speaking about grief but in general if you want to go into your spiritual practice if you want to go into your artistic practice
46:00 - 46:30 devotionally just start doing and start walking and start showing up for that path and look for where Joy arises and double down on that place and start to take the energy away from conditional realities and put it into that place of unconditionality cuz that is the place where you really then have a foundational understanding of not being separate from things but belonging within it and belonging to it and that I think is one of the major things that starts to pull away from the idea of
46:30 - 47:00 loneliness and pain is realizing like oh I do belong I do belong here I do belong as part of this existence yeah yeah I could talk about this for hours oh it's great it's it's so beautiful I think we all fundamentally crave feeling connected to to life around us you know when we fall into the illusion of Separation you know and um we live into the mental person that we've created for ourselves and the perceptions that we have of the world it's very lonely like
47:00 - 47:30 non- enjoyable experience but having those practices and for me for sure being in nature is like the got to be one of the best ways to be able to just feel connected because nature is connected to everything else we are nature um as opposed to the definition it kind of separates us from nature actually uh and and so that's uh that's I can think about now that you're even speaking it like kicks my mind in and it can be a lot more analytical too move your body yeah every day move your body
47:30 - 48:00 you know go to Nature you know be around the people that you love regardless of how you are in that room just be around the people that love you being you those three things and then commit to something higher you know devotionally in spirit with that if that's the Cornerstone of your life at any point but especially when you're going through a hard time move your body get breath release it through your body absolutely that's a practice of mine every single day I wouldn't go to the ocean and just
48:00 - 48:30 sit there I'd go to the ocean and run and Surf and Swim and play and move my body that became a part of my dance with her so I'd say there's there's more foundational analytical things that you can place on it but whatever is right for you yeah you know but I think breath moving your body every single day being in nature every day if you can being around people that love you and that you love you know I mean we could bring this back but like the in death right in the
48:30 - 49:00 conversation of impermanence was at this beautiful talk recently and we did this uh meditation on death and it was like at the end of life there's really only a handful of things and it's like do you forgive me I forgive you thank you I love you that's pretty much it you know and so what are we doing in our lives to live by that code every day if that's all that really matters at the end and we have to have some understanding of this realization
49:00 - 49:30 of impermanence in our life to give us the the block to move towards to give us the goalpost to move towards it's just you also have to include that while you're waking up and moving your body while you're being in your spiritual artistic devotional practices you have to have something that's larger than all of that to frame cuz then you always have a balancing Force in whatever you do it's such a powerful uh framework and
49:30 - 50:00 understanding to not just have the intellectual idea of you know what it's going to be like when I die you know YOLO you only live once but to somatically feel what it's like for sure to be in touch with your own mortality like I'm here I'm experiencing I'm in this vessel and one day I really won't be here in this way in this form it's it's wild you know wild our energy make take different forms different shapes maybe outside of our own field awareness at this moment and uh to the degree that
50:00 - 50:30 we're aware of our own mortality is to the degree we're going to actually have access to more life and that source of intelligence within us yes and uh so I think that practice for you with mahamudra and reflection on your own death like that's got to just be so fundamental in your own prosperous and your own growth yes uh before we continue I do want to touch on one more thing with fatherhood because I know that by being a parent by stepping into fatherhood uh I'm just curious what has what do you feel like genuinely within you has transformed the most in that process from them coming you know from
50:30 - 51:00 River first you know you know being born and then uh becoming you know stepdad also and you know that whole process what has really transformed within you the most and how that impacts how you show up in the world I mean you know if you were to meet me and you would to say like who are you the first thing I would say is like I'm a father um you know and I'm a man of the ocean of nature of spirit and I'm a friend and I'm a member of my world and my community I also play music you know so for me
51:00 - 51:30 it's the Cornerstone fatherhood and letting go of the narratives of success in certain ways and other framework to devote that time and energy into fatherhood was a very conscious decision um fatherhood like my whole life my whole week my whole existence is cornered uh around not cornered it's it's
51:30 - 52:00 directed it's compassed around that and so when I'm doing anything when I'm on tour and I'm in Europe and I know that I'm going home in a week my orientation is already grounding it's already shifting it's already changing so that when I show up I'm not somewhere else energetically I'm fully there and I'm fully present and to my management to my agents to my teams around me that helped me um accomplish and move into these
52:00 - 52:30 kind of bodies of work in the world I made a call to them you know and I said like I realized I was sitting at a laptop and I was answering these very important emails uh which are really not that important at all compared to fatherhood and I watched River look at me playing Legos and he was just came over and he's like Daddy could you get off the computer and I was like yeah yeah in a minute you know classic daddy thing and then I remembered this moment where my father who I love who I have a beautiful
52:30 - 53:00 relationship with back in Australia the way that he worked the way that he poured into his work and I remembered this moment of wanting his attention and presence and his energy towards this work in the world which was sustainability and permaculture and deep ecology meaningful things but as a son I just wanted him and I remembered in this Flash and all of a sudden in that very moment which is incredible in our human experience that we have this power I closed the laptop I pushed it aside and
53:00 - 53:30 I went I'm done with that idea not just in this moment but for the rest of my life and I got on the floor and I played Lego and I started shifting my whole being into real presence doubling down and then I called my management my agents everybody next day and I was like Hey guys when I'm Dad I'm not going to be available in that traditional sense I'll get back to you when he's asleep I'll get back to you later but my devotion is here now and and from that point on I started building uh I mean
53:30 - 54:00 this is he's very young anyway but it still took time to understand this fully I started becoming his best friend and him my best friend and tave too and I started becoming uh a a father that led through respect and Trust rather than any idea of punitive authoritarian you know Parenthood I never raised my voice at the boys or a team we do everything together I stay by my word entirely in my fatherhood and anything that I'm
54:00 - 54:30 doing is in relation to that so I mean again we could just do a whole podcast on on parenting totally but the idea that everything that we do in our lives is somehow self-centric not in a negative way but we pick a partner because we kind of like who they are and how they make us feel and how we respond we pick our spiritual practices CU we like how they fit in our world we pick our workouts or our way of moving cuz it
54:30 - 55:00 feels good and our friends cuz it feels good when you become a parent um and when you have that responsibility with a being you're not in ownership of them you're a guide and you're there you're there to to move through the world with them and teach them and protect them and support them and in that you really are selfless for the very first time at least in my experience and that became you know the the the ch of the book pre fatherhood was closed and the the next book was opened
55:00 - 55:30 and here I stand and how I sit as a father that also plays music yeah yeah so beautiful yeah love it man ah the the process of your own individual Artistry you know I mean I know parenting in fatherhood has been such a transformational um time in your life and how you show up in the world I'm curious how you view what success is or what what that means to you because a lot of times it's mostly kind of fetishized in the west you know that
55:30 - 56:00 it's like your numbers like how much money is in your bank the number of followers you have the number of plays you have on Spotify is like that's how well you're doing you know in the world what does success mean to you what is uh it mean to feel successful for you yeah I mean those things feel good too let let's honor aspects of those things but also put that aside in in this conversation in a way because success I had a beautiful conversation
56:00 - 56:30 with a group of people that quite um have a lot of gravity in the world recently and there was a conversation about Legacy what are we leaving what are we leaving behind when we go and I was like raised my hand I was like can we can we change the word to responsibility like can we talk about what our responsibility is with gravity in the world if we start to have a place of um you know people coin the word power but just we have more gravity in the world what do we want to do with it and success to me really looks
56:30 - 57:00 like am I am I doing things with my gravity in the world that are meaningful when I go out on tour am I in service to the people in that room that night is there change and catalystmlm Millions is irrelevant what matters to me in terms of success is How
57:00 - 57:30 Deeply that lands and impacts the people that do connect to that work the accolades recently you know there's been all these things that have happened in my life in the last year of um you know being on the cover of Rolling Stone and uh the Grammy win with um with black coffee the the nomination uh you know just like the Drake record and all these different things where people suddenly started going like whoa yo blowing up and I'm like nothing has changed you know for me this is just the
57:30 - 58:00 constant path there's just more eyes on it it's just more Awareness on it it's just the consequence of you staying devoted for a while yeah and and also growing not just Devotion to the singular thing but the devotion of growth and the Devotion to say when when Drake's team calls or when Rihanna's teams called me and these people and they're like hey could you do this for us me going I love these people as artists I love what they're doing they're Front Runners they're Paving their path they're not following people they're creating that's who I want to
58:00 - 58:30 connect and work with but also when I go in there can I bring myself and can I bring who I am and add that to their story because if they've reached out that's what they want anyway so how can I go to that raw place and vulnerable place and bring some of that to this collaboration and success is not working with these artists success is doing some dope with these artists and doing things that is Meaningful that is catalyzing growth artistically that is catalyzing other people to like oh we
58:30 - 59:00 want to go create oh this is dope we haven't thought about making music like this or bringing that super emotional like deep vulnerable self into hip-hop or into you know club music like let's go that for me is Success absolutely staying true to yourself not sacrificing your own internal truth no matter what Heights or people you connect with yeah remember we were just talking about pillars one of the pillars for me is making art of Worth to the world not based on success on the on the cultural
59:00 - 59:30 definition of success making art that's of worth that to me is successful it's totally apparent for anybody that hasn't I mean listen to uh rise music but then also seeing the beautiful like uh uh orchestras that have been put together through philarmonic and the Beautiful capturing is like so so gorgeous uh where where does your own personal commitment to Excellence and high quality Beauty like where does that come from has it been cultivated I know it's
59:30 - 60:00 like you really take your your Artistry and how you show up in the world in that way with uh it's like a it's a very sturdy pillar you know yeah I think like most people meet me you know Barefoot at my house some surfboard string around old truck and be like oh this dude's going to show up and just be so relaxed on set or whatever and I show up and I'm like let's make the most powerful piece of art we can today and everyone's like oh this is a little different from what I thought thought we were going to have a flowy day and I'm like no let's flow completely but let's make sure that
60:00 - 60:30 everything that we do is at the highest level for me if I'm going to show up in a practice that's what I want to be doing um and art I love all forms of art personally um music but film photography creative Direction Concepts ideas so if I'm going to lean in that's how I want to give myself and how I want things to be received talk about like medicine Journeys or something you talk about set and setting you talk about these ideas where people are opened you know if
60:30 - 61:00 you're going to go on a Meditation Retreat hopefully the conditions allow you to drop in deeper it's the same with art if the video becomes a piece of art in itself that allows the music to sink more deeply in it's doing its job if the music video is trying to capture something to get people to listen to the music because the music isn't strong enough let it go you know that's kind of how I operate um add more Beauty add more gravity add more weight to what you're doing through each step and that's been weird for me because it's
61:00 - 61:30 meant that I've had to learn how to be a lot of things editor producer a creative director and how to change those hats and say I was on a conference call recently and about to do this beautiful project in Sahara and I said on the call everyone's like oh we're so honored to have you Ryan we love your music and everything I said guys today I'm a creative director and I'm a director you know I have to put the artistic cap of the singer side so that we can just rap and relate to each other in that way and then we can talk about this idea and get
61:30 - 62:00 that to be powerful and then when I step in front of the camera I can trust that and I can be myself entirely then I don't have to play a character to try to get some energy into the into the camera I know it's all there I can trust it so a lot of it is just trying to imprint myself as honestly and and deeply as I can in everything I do wonderful it's translated it's very much so fell uh this is a deep conversation under we going deep that's what we do here at
62:00 - 62:30 Noto we we dive deep into the deep Waters um but there's so many beautiful Golden Threads and themes that have been coming up throughout this whole conversation and I'm excited that I mean you haven't this is like one of your longer formal kind of formatted podcasts that you've come on this is the yeah this is the first one that's sick I'm so stoked that you're here for that yeah yeah I haven't I guess I haven't felt called in some ways to be in this intimate of conversation knowing you as a friend and
62:30 - 63:00 knowing you as a person and and and your work and that the the choice to dive in with intent um is a beautiful thing so I'm here for it thank you thank you for trusting me and us to to come on here uh it's so so rewarding for me to kind of dive deeper into the heart and um energy of you as a person and and you know show that side of things because there's always going to be you know it's going to be translated in your music and people can decode the lyrics of your songs and feel the essence of your work
63:00 - 63:30 uh but to actually hear the stories firsthand of what's really gotten you to this point I think is really important um was there anything I just wanted to bring up with uh with the first song Howling that you played here was uh was there any context you wanted to provide for that song The Period of your life and then also potentially the next one that you'll do just like give me some more um you know I think the again we spoke about like the the writing uh lyrics from a deeply personal place my lyrics are
63:30 - 64:00 tattoed on people's bodies around the world or my my you know my songs are in people's weddings and when their children are getting birthed and these different things what a deep honor you know what an absolute honor and sometimes there are songs that are played which are completely wrong contextually in terms of what the lyrics actually mean compared to the moment but their beauty is the transmission of the energy in that space right so in some ways I don't like to decode lyrics too
64:00 - 64:30 specifically because what I'm singing about is deeply personal to me and what matters is how people resonate with it the song Howling is really uh I a lot of the time I'm writing about my relationship to the feminine as as a as a man in in lust in passion in love in enamoring in the Muse energy in all these places and in a Sufi kind of way I also Place Beloved the same way that roomie
64:30 - 65:00 would say beloved he's talking about God and spirit you know God ass at the same time as he's talking about a love and so for me I tend to do the same thing a lot there's a metaphysical element to the way that I write where I'm singing devotionally and I'm singing specifically about women that I've had deep beautiful relationships with or connections with and at the same time there's an element behind that woman of the universal so howling definitely brings in brings in that theme um
65:00 - 65:30 and I think I I think I'll play uh berin for you as well and that is a very specific very very very honest song where I'm literally saying you know um come down love bin in the cold all that fighting all that snow I've flown from Byron Bay where I grew up it's summer and I've flown into the middle of Berlin winter and I flew there for the idea of
65:30 - 66:00 love and I get there and I realize it's completely different and so here I am minus5° snow piled up darkness and my choice to be there my choice to fly there for an idea that wasn't real and the song and all the lyrics sorry love I'm I'm running home I'm a child of sun and the stars I love I can't do this this is not me I need to go back to the place that I am and the person that I am so every lyric
66:00 - 66:30 in this song um if you listen to it is just very very like a diary like writing in a diary and the Ron is you then go out and you play it to hundreds of millions of people you know through through online and in the world and yet you're singing about something so so personal beautiful well let's uh would you bless us again with our little makeshift Studio here let's do it
66:30 - 67:00 [Music] ooh [Music] come
67:00 - 67:30 down love peing in the [Music] cold all I F and all I [Music] S so [Music]
67:30 - 68:00 night on my [Music] mind tell me I'm not going [Music] home I st waiting B for [Music]
68:00 - 68:30 [Music] oh ooh [Music] [Laughter]
68:30 - 69:00 [Music] FL silence in my place I'm sorry love I'm running
69:00 - 69:30 [Music] home I'm a child of some Stars I love [Music] [Music]
69:30 - 70:00 [Music] damn yeah bro I I'm just uh so honored to have you here in jam and be able to have the effortless ease of going back and forth between singing and talking and you know it's not easy so thank you s yeah it's all really vulnerable to be honest um but you know that's that's the that's the choice in this life to walk that path and to to make sure that when
70:00 - 70:30 I'm doing it I'm doing it with my heart as as best I can yeah do you see the voice as something that's just an extension of your soul like how how it transmutes and how it shares with the world how do you view your own tonality in the voice and the way you sing I don't know that there's a more personal thing in the whole world than the voice you know if you think about like you if I asked you right now to sing a song for me or to just sing Everything Changes your whole being
70:30 - 71:00 is like oh somebody's going to see me it's like saying hey could you just take off all your clothes and just like stand there for a while and let me examine you you know and it really does touch that place um I think between that and dance I think those those things are like two of the most informative when you watch somebody move their body and you see that connection to their self or the way that they have rhythm and you Listen to Somebody sing you understand them on such a fundamentally different
71:00 - 71:30 level so for me with my own voice um obviously for me I just see it as an as it's a part of me and it's an extension and also in some ways I see it as the undressing like there I really am um in in a way played out to the world from a very very tender place and I think one of the most interesting things is within that context you have people that you've never met that feel deeply
71:30 - 72:00 connected to you or deeply responsive to you um and you've played a role in their life because you've been a part of their world and at the same time um behind that you're a human being and you're a father and you're a man of the ocean those simple things so my voice has become I think something meaningful to people and for that I'm really honored by that Journey um and don't take it lightly you know the commitment into continuing to make sure that when I sing and how I sing is with my full being and
72:00 - 72:30 with my heart um is really really important to me yeah sacred to me beautiful beautiful there is uh like I said we could talk for hours and hours and hours and luckily you're my friend so we can just continue talking uh but it's been such an honor to be able to share you with the with the audience today and get a little bit more into the crack into the crevices of who you are as a being in your soul and how it expresses itself um is there anything else that is on your heart that you that you want to share you want want to rip
72:30 - 73:00 on I think something has been coming up for me a lot lately is witnessing um you start changing roles as we grow and and I devoted deeply into the idea of um not the idea the practice of continuing to be an artist making work that feels resonant and has has an impact or means something to myself and therefore other um and we' talked a lot about spirit and other things and I think one thing is like a lot of people that I think
73:00 - 73:30 respond to me want to be artists themselves they want to dive deeper into that part of themselves and so it's just taking a moment to say go and do it you know and put down what needs to be put down and move things around to to give yourself enough space to devote um into that practice it's almost full circle from where we started into that idea but um even if it's just a a little bit be in your practice and maybe maybe make some gentle commitments in your life if you're wanting
73:30 - 74:00 to be in your art pick up the guitar pick up the piano you don't have to be good you don't have to know the things about everything paint go shoot photography um whatever it is whatever modality put your hands on Clay just go do and be and be in that cuz there is something deeply um Majestic about taking away everything else that you are to be in those moments and um so if anybody you know is connecting and and
74:00 - 74:30 really feels called do it now lean in you know and lean in and remember that your art is Meaningful not because it goes into the world and does anything other than the process itself of making it is one of the most beautiful powerful practices I've had in my life and continue to have and something I'd love everybody to know and feel in their world if they feel cold such a beautiful message I think that commitment to truth and honesty and exploration of your own creative urges and desires and how that
74:30 - 75:00 expresses as an artist is one of the most freeing things because it literally is your soul in motion yes and we get so stagnant we get so calcified so stuck in our Persona in our personality and our ways of being that we feel trapped we're like these little prisoners inside of these bodies and full circle moment the creative adult is a child who survived so for those that don't feel artists like artists or they don't have their creative um connection to themselves it's rediscovering that inner child yeah and and being in play with that inner child every day start seeing the world
75:00 - 75:30 that way you know and then and then f it in and pass it on to other and and um I can't you know I can't wait to hear all of your art and see it like like I'm here I love I love knowing that there's so much more going into the world we we need it and we're here for it in every form and yeah it's been beautiful Journey today thanks for having me yeah of course brother uh anywhere else you want to point people towards I know everything that we mentioned today with different videos um performances that you've done will be linked in the
75:30 - 76:00 description but where people can find you just any where you want to point people towards I mean if you want to find me you you'll find me you know I think that's the beautiful thing uh and and you know I think what's what feels really beautiful is is to just remind each other to have these kind of conversations and um it's beautiful that you're doing that here and using your platform for that and um you know I'm going to dive deeply into to the other things that you're doing and the other things that you're working on and anyone that feels called you know I'll be art
76:00 - 76:30 touring and sharing my art around the world for the next however long yeah um so so come and find that and um let's be in that beautiful dance together in communion yeah so good yeah what didn't even talk about like you just came back from tour you're going on tour it's a whole process my life is yeah my life is complex and beautiful and big and I'm doing some of the craziest things that I've ever done in my life the shows keep getting bigger um the way that I'm asked to show up keep keeps getting bigger um in my life as an artist and then in my
76:30 - 77:00 my life personally and let's get stronger broaden the shoulders and keep handling it and I'm doubling down on my devotion to Art you know there many times I've thought about leaving um and just being like well you know there's a lot to give to the world and to belong um as an individual outside of that world of Art and recently I just went no this is it this is this let's go so I'm here to to keep making art and keep pouring in and and I'm so happy for anybody joining that Journey with me thank you so much for
77:00 - 77:30 sharing yourself with us today and for everybody that's been tuning into this episode of the know thyself podcast thanks for coming on this journey of me doing my favorite thing ever and getting to be serenad and drop in with friends it's so good and if there was something in particular that resonated with you on your own individual path and journey uh let us know in the comments down below uh we share Clips on social media and you know everywhere you can find R will be linked in the description as well thanks for coming on this journey with us until next time be well [Music]