The Pineal Effect

There’s a place I travel to from time to time, a place that exists both in, and outside of lines. A place that, when things of value are placed inside, become timeless and removed from the measures in kind. This place that I describe to you, 14 carats worth its value to, images opaque in seven styles of Blue, is my mind. And within it lies a deep, spiritual bond for music and the creation of it. Now the lines that I speak of tend to look something like this:

Notice the clear distinction in where the lines start and stop with both the Treble and Bass Clef. The areas one is supposed to musically color within. But also notice the notes that are much farther outside of where the lines end. The notes that do not conform to the norm and choose to live and play by their own rules. Which, in the world of music, one of the first things you’re told and taught is to learn all the rules in regards to chord structure, progressions, notes, keys, scales, over and undertones and anything else associated with “proper” music creation. Once you’ve mastered all the rules and guidelines, break them. In music, realistically, there are no rules. The only thing that truly rules over music is your ears. If it sounds good, then it is good. It’s “proper” music creation.

While sitting in my home studio, either at my drum machine triggering a multitude of drum sounds from a kick to a snare, to a conga or a tambourine, or at one of my many keyboards trying to find the perfect chord progression for an R&B song, I begin to see things differently. The world begins to shift from a place filled with shapes and sizes to one filled with head-nods and flowing vibrance. I begin to see notes dancing in my mind as clearly as a room full of people watching the Super Bowl on a 4K Television. I begin to hear colors. The blaring brightness of a yellow, or the deathly darkness of purple. Loud and clear as a passing train horn.

The most difficult part of being a music creator, or creator of any sort, whether an architect, clothing designer, sculptor or interior decorator, is getting what’s in your head, out. So the rest of the world can hear and see what you envisioned, just as clearly as you envisioned it. And in that process I find some of the purest beauty I’ve ever experienced. While in that moment or mode of creation, time doesn’t exist. Any and all emotions I may be feeling at the time, be it conscious or sub-conscious, are channeled directly through my fingers, into my instruments, and ultimately out through the music. And in that moment, the energy or feeling is forever and sonically captured, never to be forgotten or lost, but merely transferred when experienced by another. The power that music holds to heal, console, motivate, empower, captivate and educate is truly mind boggling. I firmly and wholeheartedly believe there are two universal languages that any and all man upon this earth can understand, relate to and come together with; Those two things are Love, and Music. Regardless if you were born and raised on a Tibetan mountain top and ended up in the Favelas of Brazil, or born in Moscow now living in the bush of Madagascar, one thing that can completely erase any and all lines of divide is music. Put the right tune on, and the entire left side of the room will be seamlessly dancing with the entire right. All the while neither side can speak a single verbal word to each other as they do not share a spoken language, but one language they do all understand is what brought them together in the first place, music.

So I implore you to take a trip inside your own mind from time to time. In it you just may discover an untapped cache of wealth only accessible to your inner self. What might you find once you open the door to that unknown place? A love for fashion, an innate knack for art, a strong desire to help people, or maybe a quiet place to just, be. Dare to take that journey to the unknown and find what lies within. I’d invite you to walk with me, down my path of discovery, but I can’t promise you safe passage back. Some have come and gone, some have come and never left. Though who said never returning was a bad thing? My internal peace is music… What say you about yours?

…”and those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” – Friedrich Nietzche