090 Equanimous: High Vibe Musician

Equanimous is a music producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist with over 100+ million streams. He gathers elements from the world around him to create a sound that defies genres, pushes boundaries, and can only accurately be described as a one of a kind heart-expansive experience. His music resonates with a variety of listeners and creates a joyous high vibrational atmosphere on the dance floor. Equanimous up-levels the electronic music experience by playing live djembe / drums, keys, and beatboxing along with his tracks. He's known for his deep bass, beautiful melodies, live looping, and creative rhythmic beats that take people into a state of euphoric dancing and heart-centered bliss.

In this conversation, Cam and Equanimous explore themes of meditation, spirituality, and personal growth, discussing the importance of grounding practices and the journey of self-discovery. They delve into the role of psychedelics in personal and musical evolution, the creation of High Vibe Records, and the significance of humor in spiritual practices. Equanimous shares insights on his multi-dimensional musical identity and the influences that have shaped his journey, while also reflecting on future aspirations and the importance of healing through joy.

Connect with Equanimous:
Website: https://www.equanimouslove.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/equanimouslove/

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Transcript

Welcome back to the trip sitting podcast. Today's episode is sponsored by Fun Guy. Fun Guy uses Kanna, which is a succulent found in South Africa, known for its mood enhancing, stress relieving, and euphoria inducing properties, sometimes referred to as nature's MDMA, but it is completely legal. They've blended this Kanna.

in some really, really incredible products such as chocolates, fruit juice, and tinctures. It's something that you could take at the beginning of the day. It helps to open the heart. Or you could take it during a night out. If you don't wanna drink alcohol or engage with any other substances, it's really good for helping you socialize and stay open and energized throughout a night like that.

So be sure to grab those products at the link in the footnotes of this podcast and use the code trip sitting for 15 % off your order. Once again, use the link in the footnotes of the podcast and use code trip sitting for 15 % off your order of fun guy products. Make sure that you are following the trip sitting podcast on whatever podcast platform you are listening to this on.

And give us a rating if you feel called to do so. So that way we can please the algorithm gods and get in front of more viewers and also make sure that you are following us on social media at underscore trip sitting underscore. Now today's guest is a master of vibes. He is a powerhouse in the conscious music scene known for his unique fusion of electronic and world music. It's performed at iconic festivals like lightning in a bottle and in vision.

He's got over 100 million streams on Spotify. So get ready to dive into the heart of his creative process and the deeper vibrations behind the music. are joined by Equanimous.

I meditate with my eyes open. I'm weird like that. So, I just sometimes my eyes are just open. Have you always meditated with your eyes open? No. Is that just like a new thing? No, probably like the last like eight years. Okay. Gotcha. I do Vipassana. And so like once you practice enough where

you're aware of your whole entire system all the time, then I feel like the next step in that is to be aware of your system while you're engaging in the outside world. And so for that, you need your eyes open, or else you're in the inside world. Damn. Yeah. That takes a lot of skill for sure, something that I've imagined you've probably had to cultivate over a long period of time.

Yeah, I appreciate that. You know, I don't know if it's skill. just feels like, like, I don't feel like it's like hard. It just it's just practice. So it's like the same thing. It's like, it would be like if I was like, do you have skill at like speaking English? You'd be like, I mean, I guess but like you're better than you are now when you started as a baby. Yeah, that's very true. It was like that. It wasn't like I had to do homework.

And then I got to learn how to do it. There wasn't like a goal of mine. Yeah. It just like happened from doing it. Interesting. Yeah. It's like, it almost kind of makes me think like the goal, like a lot of people who are, think, getting into mindfulness or meditation, there's like the goal of meditation is to like be present and do these things and, you know, maybe be more productive at work or whatever it is. like meditation is

the goal essentially, like it's just being there. Like, you you can't be doing it for a purpose. You just have to be doing it. Right. Yeah. Well, I guess you can be doing meditation for a purpose. Yeah. Like you can get into it that way. But it is, I agree with you. It is, it's like a, it's a way of being. Yeah. A hundred percent. When did your like,

spiritual journey start like have you always considered yourself a spiritual person or was there? I think you know there was a time where my spiritual ego became more important than my like material ego and I think that once my spirit once my ego got more gratitude got more that's the word like got more

gratification from being rewarded spiritually than materially is when my spiritual journey started. you know, is when it's like really took off more. So for example, like when I was a kid, like I used to look up at the stars and even the stars in my ceiling and be like, I wonder what's up there. And you know, that all that, like there's must be some more to life at a very early age. But it wasn't until

my ego really got to feel the rewards of being more evolved spiritually or more further along in my path. For example, in college, we kind of transitioned more in college. So I'll say like at the beginning of college, if I went out with my friends, drank, got drunk, had a great time, slept with a girl, it was a great night.

You know, I was a win. You know what I'm talking about. Great. And my ego was like, yes, good. You know, I was like, yeah, let's go. Let's go. play, you know, wake up, eat some food. Next day you play some basketball, smoke weed, whatever. Like, you know, and it's like, you did it. You won life. Right. And of course, doing that enough, you know, it gets to be a little less gratifying or less rewarding. And then

And then I was introduced to, through some substances, but also through just reading Eckhart Tolle's Power of Now, introduced to the feeling of, once I felt myself as the watcher, I was like, whoa, this is cool. And then I started getting feedback from my friends, like, whoa, that is cool.

then that started to outweigh the other stuff. Yeah, like the external versus the internal, realizing that I'm not gonna find whatever it is that I'm looking for from looking outside myself. has to Well, no, no, no. I would say I still, I would actually say, that's like the core of the lesson, but I would say no, no. I would say at that time, I still was being more spiritual, quote, spiritual, because of the external.

you know, enlightenedness I was getting or the feedback, my God, look at how cool he is, he's enlightened or whatever. So I think it still was, you know, a part of my ego, which is fine because ego is natural and it's healthy as long as you have a good relationship with it. But no, it wasn't until many years later, probably when I did the Vipassana where I went inside. So all that was still external. Even like, even when I had these experiences of like feeling

Like I was nothingness and being nothing, you know, that experience. I don't know if you've had that, but. I have. Yeah, you know, yeah, you know what's up. So like that's very internal, but like unless you're committing yourself to living in that state all the time, typically what happens is we come out of it and go back in for a second and come out, you know, it's a practice. so, yeah, I say that as well.

and kind of transitioning from the external validation to the internal validation like you were saying. And then the internal validation becomes, you the ego starts to say, my God, look at how cool I am. I don't need the external. And then it gets boosted that way. so, you know, and so I think that's like, that was the process of my spiritual journey as far as it comes to like, you know, self-awareness and that kind of thing.

When you got introduced to Vipassana, was that through like a 10 day? Yeah, I it my goal. I'd never heard the word equanimous before. I learned it in the Vipassana. I went through my own process of becoming equanimous and still like, you know, sometimes on my sets I'll play Koenka's voice where he's like, of it and so also remain equanimous. you done a 10 day? No, I haven't. I've got some friends that have.

they're intense. Yeah. They, they sound, they sound very, very intense right now. My, I'd say my like thing that I do that I think is deep in my practice the most is, working with ayahuasca. and that was actually the first time that I heard of a boss and I was cause somebody that was there with me told me that they, they had first, they had done Vipassana and that eventually led them to, do you have like a,

church you go to or is it more just like trying all different kinds of? I've tried a couple different kinds. Like the first time was was a Shopeebo where I went to I went to Iquitos and found like a really nice retreat center. And it was I mean that it kind of blew the lid off of everything I thought I was. And I had experimented with substances at that point and thought that I was doing things and like thought that I had like a pretty good grasp on on on who I was and and what was going on here.

It kind of just showed me it's like, nah, like you are just beginning to scratch the surface and it humbled the fuck out of me. Had you done a five MEO before that? No, and I still haven't actually done five MEO. Gotcha. That's one that, like it calls to me a little bit, but it's not, like it's not the time. Yeah. And I understand that's the time. was once in like eight years. I mean, I've done a lot more before that.

I haven't done that in a minute. How have psychedelics kind of shaped your musical growth and then also like personal growth since you started your relationship with those substances? Yeah, so like at the beginning it was huge, right? Cause I was getting all these like drastic differences from reality to being on medicine. You know, now when I take a medicine, there's not that much of a difference. mean, there's not that much. I'm not taking enough to like, I'm either microdosing or just taking like

full dose. I'm not really macro dosing. And so there hasn't been too much of a difference. There is, but not like it used to be. You used to be, my God, this is a new reality. All these things. yeah, of course I made some brilliant songs from that space. But once I did Iboga, I kind of just stopped trying to trip. It was enough. I'm like, all right.


I got what I needed. Spirit was like, you got to stop trying to heal and you got to just do your Dharma. And by doing your Dharma, you'll heal through Jail and all these great things. But I was like, I was like, chasing the up leveling. How do we up level Nate? How do we up level the economist? How do we up level me? And what I really feel like I bite, you know, by the end of

chasing all the medicines and after the iboga, it was like, that's actually not the right way to even think about it. Just do your Dharma, align with your Dharma. There's a path for you, get on it. And that's sort of when Iquanimus started to make moves. When was that, if we were to put that on a timeline? That was 2017.

Okay. Yeah. Early 2000, like the very beginning. believe. Yeah. Could have been 2018, but I think it was, it might've been 2008. It was either 2017 or 2018. Were you already making music at that time? Yeah. I had started Equanimous, but I had like a couple, like a couple releases. Gotcha. Yeah. Like nothing was really happening yet. So when did, when did your, musical journey start? Like going, going way back, assume. Out of the womb, you know, I was.

When I was a two-year-old, was playing drums on trees and playing the bands.

started early. My parents were taking me to concerts when I was in the womb. I feel very blessed and grateful for my parents. Always music. There's videos of me as a little kid playing music. It's just always. I took maybe like a three year period off. My guess would be from maybe when I was like seven to ten for basketball. But then after that I just went right back into music. And I still play basketball, but you know those three years I really need to focus on my game.

Did you know that music was something you wanted to make a career out of and that was something that you would eventually do? Was that a goal when you started or did it happen as you progressed as a person? I think my parents sort of made me feel like, my whole family, I love them all, but they sort of made me feel like it was unrealistic. And so I always kind of thought it would just be a hobby.

Like, maybe, you know, they were like, we could do sound for movies. No, but to like be an artist was kind of off the table. And then when I was in college, I made a song and it like hit a little bit of college radio and it did all right. And it wasn't my vibe at all in terms of music I wanted to be putting out. But it showed me enough to be like, whoa, you could like maybe do this. And then I was in school. I just lived with Drew Taggart from the Chainsmokers. He really did it.

And then I was like, damn, well, if he can do it, I can do it. So now I'm doing it. Yeah. Did you, did you have any like odd jobs or other things that you did in the meantime that was, that was supporting that? yeah. I mean, I worked at like an herb shop for probably about almost a year. I worked at a guitar store for a few months. taught music lessons for like seven years. I had a mobile app company with some people who worked with me in India.

I had a coconut oil business for flavored organic coconut oil for oil pulling. And I gambled very successfully, which is how I supported most of my life until being an economist. I stopped. I don't think it's a good calibration. bet on sports tournaments and I once won $120,000 overnight in a fantasy football tournament. Jesus Christ. That's how I supported a lot of my life until music kind

Did it for me. Yeah. Not just, yeah. Sometimes it takes a, it takes a little bit of luck to, get people to the places that they need to be. you're also the founder of a, high vibe records. What was the kind of like the inspiration behind that project? And I guess like, what is the goal and mission of high vibe records?

Yeah, so, you know, I could speak a lot on that, but I'll just kind of sum up and say that.

My own personal mission is bringing consciousness to the party and bringing party to consciousness. know, to cut consciousness and to awaken and up level the planet through, you know, living from a healthy heart, healing joy, all that. High-Vib Records is just an extension of that. I feel like High-Vib Records is a place where people can come to listen to great music where it's safe. When I say where it's safe, I mean like the lyrics are going to be uplifting. They're not going to be negative affirmations. They'll be positive affirmations. They'll be good for you.

And that's just high-vibed music, it's good music, you know, and so it's just part of the movement. We're doing our best to spread and share those songs and, you know, we hope that it brings joy to people's lives.

That's beautiful. Your music, absolutely. like I can just from like listening to it myself, I discovered you honestly, probably about like a year ago, to be honest. it was at, I saw you at Dream Rocks opening up for LS Dream. And it was just like, again, on like most of the times I'm not paying too much attention to the opening acts. And I remember being there and listening to you and feeling like this sense of like,

upliftedness and like energy and like community within what you were doing. And again, like it just, it had this beautiful energy to it. Thank you so much. So like, how do you think that sounds and vibration like influence people's spiritual experiences and, personal growth? I mean, it's, it's everything. It's so much. mean, it's there, they are codes. are health codes.

Sound is a health code. Frequency is what we are made of, the different vibrations. We are vibrations vibrating, that's it. So you give good vibrations vibrating other good vibrations, they're gonna vibrate good. If you're giving bad vibrations, they'll vibrate bad. It's that simple, I think. And so, you know, it's like if I were to go,

It might not sound very good or feel great. Now there might be some people that resonate with that because that's where they're vibrating. So they're like, I feel at home. Yeah. You know, those kinds of people, typically I don't feel like I my music very much, but if you are open enough to receive peaceful, harmonious vibrations, it will bring more peaceful, harmonious vibrations. And for me, any, you know, of course, like my core is making beautiful music.

But I also love having fun. love the vibration of fun. And so you bring those two things together. It's like beauty and fun. mean, beauty and fun is a strong combo. That's where laughter comes from, orgasm, a lot of great things. And so for me, it's like combining those things. You know, it's like blissful base. It's beauty and fun. It's just kind of like all of it.

Yeah, spreading that vibe. feel like if I can just be that vibe and spread that vibe, then you'll feel the vibe and you'll spread the vibe and we'll spread the vibe and then everything will just take over to be that amazing vibe. Yeah. Are you like consciously incorporating like elements into your music that are specifically meant like, this has more of a healing frequency or like this one shifts energy.

for the listeners that are there, especially those who might be in more vulnerable or even altered states? Not yet. I think it happens naturally through the inspiration, through the tones of what I'm putting out. Because it's like I'm holding a vibe. I communicate that vibe into the music. Someone else hears that vibe. But when it comes to specific frequencies like 528, 431, different things like this, no.

But I do plan to get more into it. Two reasons I'm not into it right now. One, it's like super illegal and not safe. mean, it's safe, but it's not safe in the sense that if that technology gets into the wrong hands, the universe explodes. like, you know, I don't know if you've heard of like a rife machine. Yeah. Okay. So like I actually own not a full rife machine because those are illegal.

but I own a type of device that can pretty much emit any frequency. And I tried it one time eight years ago. I was like, let me mess around with this. Turned it up all the way and for miles, cats and dogs started barking. I couldn't even hear the tone and it freaked me out. I was like, my God, this is way too powerful. I put it away, haven't touched it since. I think it can be used as a weapon and I also think it can be used to heal

disease, which of course is a massive threat to our medical system and pharmaceutical companies. So I just don't feel like I'm personally ready to go into that space yet. I feel like if I'm going to go into that space, I want to be protected. I want to make sure I have security around me.

Or at least I'm living in a secure space where I'm not necessarily traveling a lot, where my family's kind of more grown up, secure, all that kind of stuff. But I feel like if I were to get into it, I might find out some interesting stuff. And I know some people who have cured the incurable diseases with sound frequency and have gotten people knocking on their door being like, hey buddy, you're not going to do this anymore. Share about this or your family stuff.

And I care about my family, even though I don't have one yet. I mean, I have a family, not. I do plan to have kids someday, hopefully. And so, you know, I don't feel like we're at a position yet where I'm ready to kind of like stand up to that. Yeah, I get that. Now you, you kind of touched on your name a little bit, but so your name, Aquanimous, it represents like a state of like mental calmness and balance.

Balance. equal non-reactivity. How do you maintain that balance within your life, especially being a DJ and traveling around so much? Like how does that play a role in how you go about scheduling and moving and, you know, doing everything that you need to do? Yeah. well.

I view equanimity as sort of the opposite to impulsivity, where sort of, where equanimity and being equanimous is really about being in a consistent state of non-reactivity. Meaning, if someone tells me some really exciting news, I'm not like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, even though sometimes I do that, you know, but I take in and I can feel

my system expanding to be able to receive more excitement. Same thing with fear. If I'm afraid or something, just try to be an equanimous. I can't say I'm like that all the time, but I certainly tend to carry a level of equanimity around with me. When it comes to planning things, I just...

do it as I do it from a place of my system.

I do it from a certain type of awareness within my system that if there were to be a level of stress or something come through like this, my system would naturally...

adjust itself to not react to the stress. If that makes sense. Yeah, it does. I think it comes back to also what we were saying at the beginning, like it's a practice. Like it's something you have to practice over time. It's not just like you just are. Right. And then what happens is eventually real life becomes the practice. Yeah. And then I think that's when a human will transition into like they just are.

which I don't know if I just am, I think I'm still in the process, but I'm certainly more now than I was before because of the life practice I've had. Yeah. Of being a quantum is right. now I want to talk a little bit about your, latest album, a multi-dimensional, which you released over the summer. I guess what were some of the inspirations behind

this project and like what were some of the elements that you incorporated into it that like got you really excited and kind of made it different from some of your previous projects? Yeah, you know, it kind of all stems from this place of like, who am I as an artist and what genre am I? And I feel like a lot of talent buyers who are booking, I aging one? It's like, well, what are we pitching you as? You know, if you're a bass DJ, then a talent buyer is going to know what they're going to get. You're not tempo if you're doing half.

And my truth is like, I did the best I could authentically to fit in somewhere, but I don't like that. Like I'm a high vibe artist and I play multi-dimensional, multi-genre music. And that's okay. And I just need to embrace that. And instead of trying to change who I am, I need me and my team to figure out how to best convey that and communicate that to people who are going to potentially book me. And so multi-dimensional.

Multidimensional was kind of this statement of like, this is who I am. I'm multidimensional. Like I am not a genre. I'm multidimensional. And my God, so are we as humans, we're multidimensional and everything is multidimensional. Really, depending on how you look at it. And so, you know, that's why the first track is this like beautiful down tempo track. The next one's this heavy bass. It's a heavy fucking bass. And then it goes into like piano and... Right, the piano right after this. That's the vibe. I just went with it, you know? And I'm like, all right, this is who I am.

and I wanted to embrace that.

I people like it. I would say that if you're looking to put some music on in the background, it's probably not the album for you. But if you want the time and go on a journey, it's a great album for that. that's kind how it all came to be. And I I wanted to have different genres on the album. So I made sure I had an on the piano track, made sure I had multiple down tempo tracks, an ambient track, a piano track, a hip hop track, house tracks on there.

You know.

I just, yeah, I guess I did my best to hit the genres that I work with. I think there are of course more, you know, there's not a country song or a metal song on the album. But like there's some classical elements which I threw in and you know, really a lot of what makes me, me, that album was just kind of about like, hey, this is the kind of stuff I like. And it's multi-dimensional.

Yeah, it's, it's, it's cool to listen to. And it's something that like, for me, when I've listened to it, like, it takes me on a journey and like, it's, something that like, I have to sit down and like consciously listen to it because like, again, I know I'm not just going to throw it on the background. especially if I'm like around people and they're like, yo bass. then like, yo, what's going on here? And I have music for that. And I have playlists for that. like, you know, I'm working on a base EP right now, actually.

nice. But a lot of the stuff coming out in the foreseeable future space. that's not just who I am. I do. I'm glad you can appreciate that journey that I've created there. For sure. I mean, how do you see your role as an artist, especially during your live performance, in creating that holistic experience for somebody who's going to one of your sets? That's what we're figuring out now.

Because I know what the energy of it is. I know what the vibration of it is. It's a journey. It's a heavy, beautiful, emotional, melodic, bassy, dancey, fun, all over the place journey. And I'm still in the process with my team of figuring out how best to convey that. That's kind of like the million dollar question for multi-genre artists is how do you convey who you are?

How can you put that in a couple of sentences? And we're still crafting and refining that. And I wish I had a better answer for you, but for now I'll just kind of say, it's a journey. The same way that we're going through a journey, you're also going through a journey and figuring that out. Yeah, of course. That's part of my path. That's part of my inner path.

And it's, you know, it has to do with the English language. Really. That's what has to do with finding the English words to use for the sake of expressing a feeling and their experience. When you found yourself like gaining, you know, let's say like more like mainstream success and some of your music getting like more plays early on. Did you find yourself ever.

kind of getting pigeonholed into that and wanting to kind of like, how do I reproduce this? How do I do this? Like, dopamine, dopamine, dopamine. Well, I would say that I pigeonholed in the down tempo space. Yeah, whiplash looper. terrible space to play live music. mean, it's just chill. And that's not who I am live anyways. It works great for sunrise sets and sunsets and those are the best and I'll play those all day. But outside of that,

It's not really what people want. so people want to listen to that stuff. So it works well for Spotify. And so I wanted to my live game, you know? And so that was an experience I had of how do I leave that space as a live artist and go into a heavier space. And one of the solutions we did is we took some of my songs and we put them on the Bliss Looper account. I just started, now I release all my more chill stuff on Bliss Looper.

I'll still have some chill stuff on, know, Equanimous, like that track, Hope, and different things that are, I think, more, you know, journey-based, you could say. But for the most part, my chill stuff, which I love making chill music, it's also really easy for me. And so I do that on the BlizzLooper channel, and then I do my piano, and then Nathaniel Key's channel, and then I do, you know, the more dancey stuff for Equanimous. Yeah. Something about your live shows that...

I really like is the fact that like you incorporate beatboxing into it. You'll actually be playing the piano when you're up there and also you play the fucking djembe which is a sick instrument and you've got some mad skills, dude. Have you seen me play the djembe live? got one of those. I have not seen it live. I've seen videos of it and I'm like, dude, I need to do that. I just got a djembe like four months ago or something like that.

started playing and I'd go on Instagram and find accounts and stuff. And then you hadn't even posted any Jembe videos that I had seen up until that point. And then I saw you and I was like, shit. You can just produce so many more sounds from that than I was learning at the time. And I was like, okay, cool. I was trained by some really great players. I mean, I was a drummer, so I wasn't really trained. I didn't even take lessons.

as a djembe person, but player. there was one man in particular that, his name is Kyan, that I actually sat next to in an ayahuasca ceremony one time. And in that ceremony, I learned a lot from him. And it opened up enough to be able to run with just from that one ceremony. And then I've had other experiences where I've learned things.

Once you figure out that the djembe can make more than one tone and that you can pitch it by putting your hand down, you know what I'm talking about. Once you realize that. You like roll your hand on top of it. Yeah, because you can choose the note that way. And I have not ever thought, I thought djembe, butta, butta, butta, butta. But once you realize you can mute notes and change the pitch of the notes, it opens up a whole new space.

Is, are the drums still like the instrument or I guess like the element in your music that like you kind of always come back to being a drummer as like what sets the stage or what lays the foundation? I'd say the keys. Which is, which to me is, mean, it's piano is a percussive instrument, know, a drum with notes, literally. It's a drum with notes. So yes, I come back to percussion, but I come back to piano.

So when you go into like the creative process of your music, like sitting down to make something, like do you have any personal rituals or kind of like meditations that you do or things you that can like channel? Gotcha. Yeah, I would say every time though when I go into the studio with someone and we're starting a song, we pray. I pray. And I pray basically, you know, this is from someone who grew up as a Jew, not praying at all. Same. Yeah.

Now I, now I, you're Jewish as well? Yeah. cool. So now I, now I pray, but in a totally different way. I hippie pray. Yeah. I, I very much do too. And that's something that I've only like recently started doing like blessing, blessing my, like just giving, giving thanks for just what's in front of me right now, not in like the dogmatic way or anything like that.

And honestly, a really, really, really funny story about that. was, I was once over at a friend's Thanksgiving, his whole family's Christian and like, was just, you know, visiting, I happened to be in Ohio and I didn't come back. And his, before we started eating, his grandpa was like, you know, we're going to say grace beforehand. And I'll invite our, our, our new guests that we have to say grace instead. He had no idea that I was Jewish and I was just like a deer in fucking headlights. And literally at the time was just like,

You know, it seems like this is something that you do every year, so I appreciate it, but I'm going to let you take it. Just was like, I had no idea what was going on, but you know, I think if I were put in a situation like that, I would just say what comes from the heart, which is all prayer is. It's just like saying what feels alive and what comes from the heart and, you know, putting out those vibrations into the world, like the same way I was burning the Palo Santo before this. Like, I'm saying a prayer as I'm doing that, clearing away negative energy.

creating space for openness. I will say it's a great way to connect to family too, because you don't have to be a hippie to pray. Now when I go back home, I'm definitely the white sheep of the family, you want to call it. If I go home, everyone's more kind of by the book. Still great people, I love them all. they wouldn't pray before dinner. But when I come home,

Before the meal, they all look at me, don't even say anything. They just look at me like, come on, do your prayer. And so, you know, or sometimes they'll say, okay, let's pray. And then no one will say anything. Do the prayer. Yeah. So I just pray for the family and I always, I always do the prayer and I like it. It makes me feel, you know, makes me feel like I'm connecting with my family in a way that they can connect with that I also resonate with.

We're kind of coming from different angles Have you had them attend any of your shows like have they yeah been there and yeah, like a lot Yeah, not like the big ones yet, you know, no one was that Red Rocks none of them Because they live in the East Coast, but they've they've been to like the five-hundred person, know three-hundred person like more intimate kind of conscious festival kind of I have things yeah Is it

I don't know, what does it feel like to be able to share that side of yourself with them? Because I imagine that there's a lot of disconnection. No, it's, mean, my parents still are like, but shouldn't you get a nine to five soon? I'm I'm not ready to knew my long-term. They still don't get it. And I love my parents, they're very smart people. And I think maybe they're just starting to, but they're still kind of like, at first they were like,

Yeah. So I don't understand. Like people play your music on Spotify and you can pay a house with that? they just, you know, they didn't get it. cause to them, they grew up in a time where most people don't make it. And if you do, you gotta be huge and everything knows you. And now we're in a time where there's lots of people like me who are not like mega, mega famous.

but who can support themselves. And that's like a new breed of musician. I would say I'm probably, I feel very grateful. I might be a little more than like kind of your normal, hey, I'm just paying the bills kind of musician. think I'm in probably a pretty good situation right now. It just keeps getting better. So I don't know if I'm necessarily the

perfect spokesperson for that, but at least I'll say that...

there are far more successful musicians now than there were 30 years ago because of Spotify. Yeah. And the ability to, I guess, just release things without having to be attached to a major record label. Yeah. With social media, all you need is a good Instagram account and TikTok and Spotify, and you can pretty much make a living. You know, as long as you've got hard work ethic and talent. You know, if you don't have those things, you're not going to get anywhere.

Now some of your Instagram posts, you incorporate a lot of humor into them and you also make fun of, or make light of the spiritual community too. Why do you think that's an important element in all of these spiritual practices that we talk about all the time that half the people I talk to are like, dude, what the fuck are you talking about? What do mean, like?

Just yeah, yeah, like, you know, like general like, like, you know, like, like, like even like when I say the word vibrations to people, some people will still look at me and be like, what are you talking about? Exactly. Yeah. I mean, it's important to be humble. like, I think that, you know, I have a I have a fairly radical view on comedy is that I think that if you really want to be

if you want to treat people equally, Like comedy is about not always making fun of people, but a lot of times it is. It's about making fun of the situation, making fun of yourself, making fun of a group of people, whatever it is. And my view is...

My view is that comedy is an evolution of humanity in that like

You know,

Let's talk about for a second, LGBTQI, all that stuff. At first, so at first, when comedy first started, people were saying gay and all that stuff. you're gay. Then, of course, the LGBTQI, all that stuff, people are very sensitive. It's...

less, it's a little more risque to say something like that. It's less accepted. Right. And I think what's sort of happening over time and what will happen over time, if it's already hasn't happened, I don't know the Commonwealth enough, is that once being LGBTQ or whatever is like just normal, like, hey, it's fine, one cares. They're going to be made fun of equally.

And I think we should make fun of everyone equally if we want to treat people equally. Now I also think that there's like a time period where a certain group of people can be, it's like too soon. You know, it's like, hey, that hit too close to home, don't say that. And I agree with that. But that's like the de-evolution and then not the de-evolution, that's like a step to awareness. That's like your awareness. And then eventually you involve in being able to make fun of yourself. And so for the spiritual community, it's like, you know, we're definitely there. We're at a point where we can totally make fun of ourselves.

and be equal like everybody else. And it makes people feel more connected. my God, they're human too. That's just what they're into. You know what I mean? Like you make fun of some, you got a friend and all they do is trade Pokemon cards. And you say to them, hey, you want to go out tonight? You just want to stay home and trade Pokemon cards. And you do it in a loving, fun way. And guy's like, good one, all right. And they laugh with you because they're comfortable enough and confident enough in their self to have enough self-esteem to be like, all right.

Yeah, I know it's kind of crazy that I play with Pokemon cards all day. You can make fun of me for that. It's the same thing with the spirit community and like, you know, and, and being gay or whatever it is, I think that it's like, eventually, like, let's just accept who we are and make fun of each other for that and have fun with that. I think once you, once you hit that level of acceptance with anything, but like you hit pure acceptance of just what is, it becomes much easier to see the light in all that is as well. Like I, my

my first ayahuasca ceremony, I got to the jungle, you know, sitting in the Maloka and medicine wasn't really hitting me. And then once the medicine did hit me, I laughed for two hours straight, like did not fucking stop like gut wrenching laughter. The more I would try to stop laughing, just the more I would keep laughing. And like, I was so confused and like almost mad, cause I'm like, this isn't what I came here for. Like I came here to fucking.

deal with my demons and shit. And I'm just stuck here laughing in this Maloka. And it was kind of one of those realizations that like, like I've been taking this shit way too seriously. Like I got a chill. And laughter was that medicine. I find that the most and best profound healing by far, you maybe there's exceptions, but probably not. Maybe I don't know. It's healing through

joy and celebration. Yeah. Bringing consciousness to the party. Exactly. Who were some of your biggest influences, both spiritually and also musically, that have shaped you into who you are? Spiritually, I'd say Eckertalli and Adi Shanti. Those are kind of like the two names that stand out. There was a guy named Bentino Massaro who

had a piece written about him he's definitely a culty dude but he has some really powerful like

things to share energetically that I think was supportive. And then musically, you know, all different phases of life, but I would say like the main ones over life have been like Paul Simon, Blink-182, Deadmau5, Welcome Back Sunday, YonC, Olafer Arnaldz, Odessa, Bonobo, Tycho.

Cone sound.

Have you gotten the opportunity to work with any of the people that you really grew up admiring yet?

No. No. But, you know, I very much admire Chloe, Clozee and Alice Dream, and I've like played djembe for Closie at some of her shows before, and I have worked on a track with Alice Dream.

But they were more newer people that I've been into. Obviously, Alistair took me on tour with him. That's how we got connected. He's a great guy. I haven't yet worked with someone who, I mean, I've worked with the chain smokers, but I used to live with them, like I said. But I'd say the biggest, or at least true from there, I'd say like, I would actually say there hasn't really been someone who I'm like.

absolutely huge fans of that I've worked with. There's been a few singers who I've been like, my God, I love her voice. I love Cat Factor's voice from Gone Gone Beyond. And she sang in one of my tracks. And I love Amethyst's voice. And she sang in one of my tracks that I just released too. I love Kayla Diana's voice. And we've done a bunch of tracks together. I mean, there's lots of things I love about other people. I love Ruby Chase's song.

how she writes her music. And so I love working with her. I love Hyperlite's production. I love working with them. So there's like lots of people that I love working with, but no one who I kind of like really looked up to as a younger individual yet. Yeah. Nah, it's all part of the evolution. Yeah. I'd love to do a track with all of her nods. Would love to do a track with Eon C. I mean, that would just be phenomenal. would absolutely love that.

So this is a segment that I'm bringing into this podcast that I haven't done before. And this is inspired by something that my partner and I do at the end of each week and it's called Rosebud Thorn. And so what it means is basically the Rose is like, what's alive for you right now. That's like really awesome. You're really jazzed about. Then the Thorn is like, what's something that maybe you're struggling with at the moment has been a little bit difficult for you to navigate.

And then, but is what are you looking forward to in the future? That's on the horizon for you. And so I'd love to open this up for you and we'll start with the Rose. So what's really alive for you today and lately that's got you jazzed.

I would say there's like this energy of possibility and potential that it's a new level that has come alive for me and I don't exactly know what it is that will connect me to that expansion. But I will say that

It could be in the realm of social media. It could be in the realm of my own music.

playing some big shows, although that one doesn't feel as strong right now, but I do hope that happens. It could be in the realm of, my kids book I just wrote, my children's book, it could be in the realm of a course that I'm launching, about to launch, a guide to musicbusiness.com is I think where we're gonna do that. Can you talk about the kids book a little bit? Yeah, sure, so the kids book I wrote in college, it's called Nature Plays.

And I just got it illustrated recently and so we're talking to different people about publishing it and I just feel like getting consciousness to the kids is huge. So I'm excited about that. And the school book kind of involves nature and kids and things like that. Yeah, I would just say that overall though the Rose right now is my potential. That's what's present for me right now is really seeing that possibility.

That's awesome. And then we'll move on to Thorn. What are some of the challenges or difficulties that you've been facing lately? I would say,

solidifying my team and feeling really grounded in my team. It's like almost put together all the way, but not there yet, but almost, it will be soon, I'm hoping. And as a consequence of that, you know, communicating my brand properly and just like how to execute.

the vision that we have.

Have there been people on your team that you have been working with like since day one that are still with you now or has it like just evolved a lot since you've started and as you've progressed? It's evolved for sure. I mean the person who's been with me the longest his name is Ollie Wah. You know he was with me from the start. I guess he was with me from the start. He's one of my mixing engineers. I have a couple different ones and he's been with me there.

start so he would be the guy I guess that's there from the start but yeah people for the most part other than him have kind of come in and out most of the people who've come in have stayed you know Cory runs High Vibe Records, Spencer my booking agent you know Jordan Geometry is another guy that's kind of been in and out helps me mix my music Sean and Audible on Audities masters my music he's been there for a minute

know, Areen and Aaron who run iVive Fest, they've been for the past couple of years. know, Oliwa has been there for like, eight years or something. So he's, he's got them all by like five years at least. And then, so moving on to, to the bud is like, what is something tangible that you are looking forward to that is going to be happening at some point in the future?

I would say both of my unreleased albums. So one is a full album with Ruby Chase, which we're kind of just waiting for the right time and label for. And then the other, which I'm probably even more excited about, is my cinematic electronic album, which is 18 tracks of just beauty, no bass, not even really.

down tempo, sorta down tempo, sorta house, sorta just kind of all over the place again. It's just a journey. But it's something that you could stream in the background passively, as there is kind of like a theme and a vibe to the album. And that, I feel like is going to be sort of hopefully my breakthrough after the breakthrough is kind of how I see it. So I'm hoping that some of this pop stuff is really like my breakthrough.

my breakthrough music and then after that it's kind of like, okay, that's my signature album. At least my first signature album after I had the big enough following for people to enjoy that. Hell yeah, man. Well, before we officially end, I guess is there anything else that you would feel that you would like to share with anybody before we officially leave?

You know...

I would say just keep following your heart and learn how to follow your heart and get good at it and heal through joy and love and alignment and harmony and whatever feels like the right thing to do.

I love it. Thank you, Aquanimous, for coming on the podcast and sharing your knowledge and your wisdom and taking us on this journey today. Very much appreciated. a of love for you.

Thank you everybody for listening and thank you again to Equanimous for coming on the podcast and sharing your vibes with all of our listeners. Very much appreciated and beautiful energy that you bring. So thank you again. That's all I got for this week. So if you're interested in collaborating or just want to shoot me a DM, please feel free to or send me an email at tripsittingblog at gmail.com. See you next week.