Ep. 41 - Jarell Perry

You're listening to MindPod Network. This, this is synchronicity. Welcome to episode 41. How to think about that. How to think about what episode it was. But I believe it is episode 41 of synchronicity. My guest today is Drel Perry. Drel is a musician, a songwriter, a thinker, a philosopher of sorts. He runs an excellent blog called Still Mind and releases tons of awesome music. Just a really cool dude. And I'm continuing with the trend of just giving a little bit of information about Drel. And if you want to find out more, you listen to the episode. I don't need to tell you exactly what happens.

But suffice it to say, Drel is very, very cool. He also has a very cool Spotify playlist. You know I'm a fan of those. I put some of those together for this podcast. Which I am betting on the podcast page. Which you can find on synchpodcast.com. That's S-Y-N-C, podcast.com. And mindpodnetwork.com/no-a. Or just mindpodnetwork.com by the time you're here. This should be on the front page. So I'm going to embed that playlist that Drel has put together. Which I've been listening to. A fantastic gov it in. Nice. Okay. So book giveaway winner from last week is Gene. You want a copy of Women by Charles Bukowski.

One of my favorite books. Not particularly, well, it is spiritual in one way. It is consciousness related in one way. But a very earthbound book that I think is, I think you will enjoy Gene. If you are listening and haven't heard the book. Or haven't heard the book makes no sense. Haven't read the book. Pick a book copy. It's really excellent. I highly recommend it. One of my favorites. So this week's book giveaway. If you don't know what I'm talking about every week, I give away a book. You get entered in the contest to get a book by joining the Synchronicity community. Which you can do at the website, synchpodcast.com.

I send you an email once a week. And you have the chance of winning a book. So if you can tolerate the emails every week, then you have a chance of getting a book. So it's kind of a fair trade-off, I think. Anyway, I saw a documentary this week. I've been on a huge Netflix documentary kick for the past few weeks. And this week, I saw a bunch of them. I saw Jiro Dreams of Sushi. That's a really cool. Oh man. That's awesome. That dude's awesome. But I saw a movie called Monk with the Camera. Which is the story of Nick Vreeland, who is the first person in charge of a Tibetan monastery who's a westerner.

I think he was born in Switzerland but grew up in the United States. His grandmother was editor of Vogue. But in the 80s, not but. I mean, oh, awesome. And in the 80s, he became a monk. And studied hard and then to this day remains a Tibetan monk. I highly recommend checking it out if you haven't seen it. It's called Monk with the Camera. The reason I bring it up is because I got a book or I ordered a book from his teacher who is Kyungla Rato Rinpoche. That's K-H-Y-O-N-G-L-A. So I probably said that wrong. Sorry. I don't think he would mind. Anyway, he's a really interesting guy. You can read about him.

I'll have a link to him on this episode page on SyncPodcast.com and MinePodNetwork.com. Very cool stuff though. He basically gave the debate questions to the Dalai Lama when he was getting ordained the Dalai Lama. So he's been there. He's done that. And he's pretty cool. And he has a book. And this is this week's Synchronicity Book Giveaway. This is the book. It's called My Life and Lives, The Story of a Tibetan Incarnation. So that's what I'm giving away this week. A really cool guy founded the Tibet Center in New York City. Just watch the documentary if you can. I highly, highly recommend it.

Okay, next order of business. The Synchronicity Generosity Experiment is going excellently. We are overfunded. That doesn't mean you can't still contribute. It's basically going to be running throughout August. On August 17th, I'm going to put up a poll on the website. You can also send me an email. And we're going to be choosing from a few different places where we can send the money to. So that's going to be a fun thing. And we're going to collectively do it. If you don't know what I'm talking about, this is where we're collectively raising money that we're going to send to a person or persons, you know, to make an impact.

Someone who's maybe going through a hard times could use the money, could use the support, could know people are thinking about it. So that's what this is. I think it'll be cool. Like if we send, you know, let's try to get to $1,000. We're at $700 right now. I think we can do it. I'm going to kick in some more money. So yeah, I think that would be really cool. If you're interested in contributing to that, you go to syncpodcast.com/generosity. Really simple. We can go to the website, find it from there. It's also want to go fund me. So that's going really well. And thank you so much to everyone who's contributed.

I think that's really cool and awesome. For you to do that. Okay. I think we're going to keep this one really, really short. When I say this one, I mean intro. Not the episode. The episode is of regular length. Nothing to be concerned about there. But I think this is it. Rate and review, synchronicity on iTunes, on Stitcher. If you like the show, even if you don't like the show, I encourage you to rate it. Not that hard to do. I will give you that iTunes is a nightmare. If you are someone who enjoys using iTunes interface, then please write to me and let me know at know@syncpodcast.com because you're an insane person.

It is a terrible, terrible, terrible thing. The iTunes store is a nightmare. Yeah. So I understand that. Having said that, if you can rate and review, that's a great. I love it. It really does. I don't, again, I don't know why I went into the Mario It's a Me Mario Italian accent. I don't know. I apologize for that. As always, I won't do it again. Going to get to the episode. Oh, yeah. If you want to donate to synchronicity, there are operational costs associated with running the podcast. Believe it or not, and not just in the form of time, actually in the form of money. If you want to contribute and want to help out, I appreciate it.

I love it. I will love you for doing so. You can do that on the website. I trust it to you to figure it out. Okey dokey. Without further ado, here is, and I think you're really going to enjoy this episode. I certainly did. Here is Jarrell. How you doing, man? I'm good, dude. It's always a busy day or a busy day in my up here. Let's just jump right in and start there. First of all, thank you so much for coming on too. I'm super. I've been looking forward to this one. I'm actually, I'm honored. Thanks for having me. I'm really, this is going to be a good one. I just started doing this thing that my friend recommended to me.

I think this fits in to what you're doing with still mind and the community you've set up with the email list there too, but he recommended that I started keeping a checklist for what I wanted to do throughout the week for the next day. I am someone who can get shit done pretty much everything I need to get done without a checklist, but I found with the checklist, I'm so much more productive. I'm so much more calm. I have so much more of an awareness of what I am good at, what I'm supposed to be doing, what I'm not doing, what I actually care about. It's been totally transformative in terms of how I'm getting stuff done and I'm loving it.

I just feel better and it's crazy how something simple. The general premise is your mind and your head isn't a place where you store ideas and thoughts and things to do, it's a creativity machine and letting it function as such actually increases everything around your creativity, what you can focus on, who you want to focus on it with. It's interesting you mentioned, because I get it, it's always busy in my head too. I'll be honest with you, I'm kind of a list fanatic, but also I go through ebbs and flows like sometimes I'm not writing anything down and then the other times I'm just writing everything, but I do agree with you, it's kind of like a faucet, right?

You have to let it go, let those ideas flow, get them out and onto a page or I carry, obviously I have my phone on the time, but I use Evernote, that app. Because Evernote for so many ideas, whether it be for songs or for blog posts or just general thoughts. I have Evernote on my computer and on my phone, ever since I switched over to an iPhone from a blackberry, like however many years ago, I still hate typing on my phone, so I actually keep a physical blackbound journal that I write in because there's something about the process of tapping that it hasn't gotten. The only thing I feel like I can effectively do on my phone in terms of writing is Twitter, like I've used it for so long that I'm fast enough, that I'm doing I want, but I don't love texting on it, but Evernote is so cool, I just feel like the barrier between me having the ideas and always being on my device, I can't get over it, but I know so many people love Evernote.

Yeah, I like Evernote just because for me going back, I'm much more likely to go back into my phone or into this app to see what's going on in there and then I could actually, I could finish it on the computer if I'm going to flesh out a full on essay or my life's memoirs or something I can do that. Whereas when I write stuff down in an notebook, it's usually there for the day and then it's gone or I lose it or I forget it, but I try to find a balance, but sometimes I even had a back of a receipt that I was writing on, it kind of looked like a mini micro whiteboard of sorts, ideas but also tasks, but also just like just everything.

I have those two, I have them on the back of envelopes, these weird hieroglyphic looking things and notes and stuff they were doing, so okay, let's talk about what you're up to though because I first got tuned in to you by Yoshino who has a podcast on my iPod network which I run and I think the first thing I saw from Yoshino was the video for relapse, right? Right. Oh man. And I was literally, I was like, holy shit, like really like visually incredible, of course, but the music also like, you can't, can't bullshit that, it's like really good. So I was like, ooh, I was like, oh, that's my buddy Jarell, it's like, you guys should talk, we spoke a few weeks ago, we set this up and I've seen your release song since then.

So talk to me a little, and we spoke obviously before that about kind of what's been going on with you, but talk to me about how you started getting into music, what'd you grow up by the way? I grew up in Orange County, so California, so California. And yeah, music has always been a part of my life, both of my parents did music, not professionally, but I grew up in church, singing in church choirs, doing that whole thing. I was like a super Jesus freak church kid and then I came to Los Angeles for school, I went to UCLA, and I didn't really know what was going to happen, I just knew that if I was in LA, a place like LA or a place like New York, there was the chance that I could end up doing music for a living, I didn't really know how I wanted to make that happen, I didn't necessarily want to be a superstar, but I knew I wanted to do music.

So I started out just songwriting, I did background vocals for some people, I started a couple bands in college, and there was just something that went off around, like between my junior and senior year, that like a switch flipped, and I'm like, I think I really want to pursue this and make it my life's work, however, it's, however that's going to happen. So I graduated, and people started, and the industry started to come to me and say, hey, have you ever thought about being a songwriter? I always tell people, I think back then, I was still pushing myself on my space, like this artist, and I felt like people looked at me like, oh, you write really dope songs, but you're definitely not cool enough to be an artist, so they're like, hey, come write songs for other artists, you actually have this thing going on, it sounded like something that was like a perfect match, because I didn't necessarily want to deal with all of the extra baggage that goes along with being a public persona at a point in time.

So I was songwriting for a couple of years, I met a ton of people in the industry, and really got my songwriting chops up, but long story short, by the time I made any kind of headway, placing a song or an artist, I was completely burnt out on the process, because really a lot of it was just, we would get these briefs for these artists, or get basically an assignment, it says, okay, it needs to be, you know, Missy Elliot needs Shania Twain, like whatever it means, I don't know why I'm like going back to 1995, it's good music though, it's good music then, you know, and it's like, it was kind of like, it became a very mechanical process, and instead of a creative one, and I realized, you know, if I'm going to succeed or I'm going to fail at this, I might as well do it, making music I want to make, and doing something that's a little bit different, and just constantly looking for new ways to express myself, I didn't want to do what had already been done before.

So I started working on an artist project with a producer that I had met through just the writing world, Hassan, and a manager at the time, and it was just the three of us working out of my apartment, I had this, like, pretty much a similar setup as I do right now, and I recorded my first project, it was like 13, 14 songs, release it for free, and yeah, it just kind of took off from there independently, and now, at least my third project, the one with relapse on it, the song relapse, it was a collab with a producer out of Toronto named Deepse last year, and that was really the first time I felt like I had full control, and was able to do exactly what I wanted to do, creative with.

And that includes the visuals too, collaborating with Yeshino on that video was a huge step for me. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting that was the first one you feel like you have full creative control, because that one definitely, it shines through, so that's always awesome, and I'm sure that's a huge, like, validator for doing that. So it's interesting, so, right, I went to a music school, and what you described about moving to LA or New York, those are pretty much the options at the time for me when I graduated was like 2008, the only other place you could potentially go, there are two other places would be like Miami, but it really wasn't as cool as the other two places for production, and Nashville, if you wanted to be a songwriter in that particular vein.

But really, it's very interesting when you're in a creative field like that for music, there are only, like, so many real places where everyone consolidates. I find that, like, a fascinating thing, because, like, so many of the people I speak to, who I was friends with in college, who are afterwards there in LA or New York, like, those are the two places, but then also trying to kind of, I don't want to say hedging your bets, but trying to find something that allows you to do kind of what you're doing, but not fully what you're doing is such a tempting, and just everyone, I did that, right? It's also really hard, I think, on some levels to make the decision that I'm going to be a creative as a living, right?

Right. Especially for people who, like, really don't, you know, the starving artist mentality is not something everyone wants to latch into. They want to have some security in their lives. They want to have some, and they seem like kind of mutually exclusive things at times, but they're not always, and if you don't fully commit to it, if you can't ever really get the results that you want. So talk about a little about your process through the music world, and your evolution as an artist, and how still mind, which is an awesome blog you run, it's a community, it's so fucking cool. Like, I do this for a living, I set these things up, and I told you, as soon as I got your emails, your automated emails, I was like, dude, this is awesome, this is exactly how you do it, you're using all the tools I'd use.

So where did still mind kind of, how did that emerge, and explain a little bit about what that is? Yeah, so, okay, so we talked about, there was a first part of that question, right? Yeah. Which is like, okay, how do you find your center really between being the creative person you want to be, and also making your living? And I think that, you know, everyone's heard about this 10,000 hour rule, and that's definitely no joke. I mean, starting out, I really had to, I just really wanted to make music. No matter what, you know, and I kind of, I did a lot of things that I wouldn't, I wouldn't do now because I was just so hungry for the experience, and just open to any and every opportunity, which I think for most people, like unless you have a certain kind of privilege that others don't have, like that's really how you have to start it up.

You have to, man. And you're going to make mistakes. Yeah, and work with weird people. Yeah. It is. Yeah. There's so much stuff, like I will not mention it, but it's out there, and you can find it. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I was like, I was doing everything from YouTube covers to like super crazy EDM stuff in foreign countries to everything all while working a nine to five job too. So I graduated with a degree in political science and communications, and I had, I worked at a law firm and then I worked in advertising for a couple of years, and only recently was able to like break out of that. But it took a lot of sleepless nights to get to a point where, okay, not only am I confident in my skill set, but I also have the experience to, you know, like to know intuitively, you know, what are the decisions that I need to make at a certain time, like for my career for me to stay sane and for me to also sustain myself.

And I think, so for the second part of that question with still mind, really, that was basically the second phase of my artistic career. So the first project I did in 2013, and the second one in 2014, it was a really tight knit group of people, it was me, my producer, her son, and my manager at the time. And you know, basically we were grinding for two, three years nonstop without ever really stopping to think, okay, what's the end goal? You know, we thought that the end goal was to get signed to a major label. We thought the end goal was to, you know, become the next, I don't know, then just the next us.

Yeah, yeah. To have a number one hit, you know, but really I wasn't sure within myself if that was what I wanted, you know, but like I said before, when you're starting out, you'll really do anything and everything to make it work. And really what happened was we just came to a complete breakdown in just communication in our visions, like all three of us, our visions were different, and we were kind of sticking together for the team, but also completely miserable, like all three of us. And there was just a point where I said, you know, like, I don't want to do this anymore. I was actually, I had a residency here where I was playing every Monday night at a venue called Bootleg in here in LA, and even a friend had come up to me a couple of weeks into the, well, this is downtown Los Angeles.

Hey, man, I lived in New York right in the heart of it, I know exactly how it goes. Yeah. So, so basically like a couple weeks into that, into that month, that residency, I had a friend came up to me and she said, like, you're giving these great shows, but I can tell there's something missing, like what's wrong, you know, I said, you know, honestly, like I'm kind of just going through the motions, like trying to get to a point where where I don't know. Right. Right. Right. I feel like I'm trying to get somewhere. And if I just keep going, we'll get there, but I don't even know what that thing is anymore.

And and so we all decide all three of us decided to take a break for the next month, month and a half, I said, I don't, we're not going to talk about music. We're actually like, two of us were actually living together in like a studio apartment at a time, which is also a whole other situation. It drove me crazy. So I was like, okay, like, you got to move out. I got to have time on to just get my shit together. So we did that, I took a break. I started really deep diving into the personal development space, like reading books, like we talked about the war of our Steven Pressville, like that book really like changed my whole perspective because it was so what I needed at that time.

And all of these other things leading up to that point had really led me in this direction of, of mindfulness as, as really a strategy, like a long term strategy or in lifestyle, you know, for, for surviving, like it was really like a survival mechanism for me. I'm like, if I don't get my mind right, and then I don't think I can do this. Like, I don't think I can be an artist and I don't think I could be a happy person and I don't think I'm going to make it. It's amazing how many people do not factor that into the equation. It's pretty, pretty nuts. I mean, I would say the majority of people don't actually think about that.

They do set, you set a goal or an idea or something and you work towards it. And then like you said, you, it was getting signed to a label and then we wanted a number one of them and we wanted this, but then you don't necessarily realize the why's behind it. Exactly. And yeah, no, continue not to cut you. Yeah. No, yeah. And so we were getting really close to that point, but things kept coming up where it's like, all right, if we signed to this label, then what does that mean? And you know, they like this, but they don't like this. Like what kind of compromises are we going to have to, have to make and like I said before, all of these signs were leading up to it.

Like I had done some work with Russell Simmons after I had read this book of his called Super Rich, which also talks about meditation and mindfulness and giving as a means of really getting. Yeah. I feel like all of these things that were really resonant with me and then we were invited by Deepak Chopra to go down to his center and perform and that was like the whole other organization. Yeah. And that happened actually. We actually went down there a couple of months after we had taken that break. And I was like, I think, I think this is something, you know, there's, there's something going on here and, and then just the still mind, the concept for still mind just really came to me in that process and I didn't really know what it was going to be.

But I knew it was going to be a part of my, my life's work in the long term. I was, we had struggled to really find what my, my identity as an artist was going to be with the brand, what the imaging was, that was like a huge part of the problem. Sure. Because I wanted to live my life from the inside out and be transparent and authentic, but it was in competition with what we thought. Yeah. Yeah. That's the topic that I want. Like what sensational thing can we do? Absolutely. Like what are you, what are you going to address? Like how are you going to talk? Like all of these things that I was really uncomfortable with made me really insecure about myself.

Totally. And so when I finally came to a point where I was like, Oh, shit, mindfulness, like being, being who I am, like what a novel concept, I know, like finding out who I am, like discovering myself. That's cool. Like, I'm kind of interested in that anyways, you know, so I was like, well, why not, like, why not make this a part of Miami is like, why not make this a part of the, the, the larger vision? Yeah. Yeah. And so in, so let's see. So through that came still mind and started out as a collective and a personal development blog where I just shared my own introspective stories based on my journey at the time.

It's basically me saying, Hey, I'm an artist, I'm a creative and I've had countless conversations with other people like me, not just musicians, but painters, photographers, like you know, and we all kind of in the same process and journey together, trying to figure out, you know, how to maintain a balanced life and also create art that we believe in. Let's commiserate together and also and also rise together by being vulnerable and, and creating culture of empathy and, and self care and this whole thing. You know, I'm just starting out, but let's, let's do this together. Yeah. I mean, I love it.

And that's how we ultimately got in touch too, was through uschino, which is kind of what I'm trying to do with mine pod network and partnering up with as many people and organizations who are like minded because like, you know, you worked in the music industry, work in the music industry, a lot of these creative fields and models and systems that are in place do not foster any of that type of mentality. It is one of, it's, it's always been such an interesting thing to me that musicians and artists, they have to go to this place, this ethereal place to pull back where this stuff is ultimately coming from.

That's my general impression of how I'm creative, how other people were creative. You hear them talk about it. You really have to, that means opening yourself up to be extremely vulnerable, just to get that stuff in, to then have to translate that openness and receptivity into a business model for that thing. You can see where the trouble naturally arises. And we still see it going on, like, I mean, look at musicians who aren't direct to fan yet, who don't go directly for a self-contained community system, like you got to go through streaming services, good fucking luck making money from streaming services unless you're Taylor Swift.

And even as you railed against it to get them to do stuff, I mean, so it's, it's such an interesting time because technology is changing the levels of access and communication we have with people who respond to us. This podcast for me has been, like, one of the most eye-opening things in terms of my creative development because I have something that I have to do every single week of multiple recordings. I have to get it out. I've stuck in my music and the intros and the outros. It's a way to get me, get stuff out and the response has been incredible before. I mean, but this is, this is a uncharted territory for building any type of awareness about what's going on, but yet these systems still are in place.

There are still major record labels. There are still agents. There are still people who want a piece of the pie. There are still people who recognize some talent and see a way to make money from that exclusively rather than focusing on this holistic mission of, like, hey, like this place where we're getting this stuff from and that we're communicating and a lot of people, just to be clear. Even if artists don't know this, they do this to help people, to offer something of value, to either help someone in a difficult time, to express themselves, which is a way of helping themselves, which helps other people.

That's what the inherent real value is. Most talented, awesome artists do not start from the place of, I'm going to be rich. Nowadays, maybe people have the aspiration to be a pop star from Jump, but that's such a weird way of approaching anything, let alone being a creative endeavor. What I will say about this, I love coming in contact with people like you, people like Yoshino, other people are part of my important network, I'm sure other people are part of still mind who I don't even know, because it seems that the tide is rising collectively. It seems like more people are keying in, like, a way to make this evolve.

I don't think the systems have evolved yet. I also think it's going to be something that comes from both the bottom up and the top down. I think they're going to need to be major players in all creative fields who say no, enough of this bullshit, we can have a living, we can support our people and what we're doing and put good art out there and it doesn't have to be in this way. I get a sense it's coming soon, but it's exciting. It's exciting to see people actually all tuning in to this kind of idea that everyone seems to be tuning in to. Yeah, I feel like it's really this idea of a holistic sense and mindfulness and just like taking care of yourself is truly something that's trending.

I think it's just by nature of necessity, because we've become so connected and so glued to our devices and technology is something that's been hugely important. I mean, we wouldn't even be here without it. I know I would not be doing what I do musically, anything like that if it weren't for the technology, but we are now forced to face the consequences, like the downsides of that technology and how we're going to compensate for that, which is really just going back to who we really are, the things that are innately human, the things that you can't get from an app or from a streaming service. That's right.

And yeah, I agree with you, I think, where it's only going to get better. As far as the gatekeepers and the major label system, I mean, that's capitalism, I mean, like that's just another part of it's like a microcosm of the macrocosm. Absolutely. I mean, until the revolution, I don't know what's going to happen there. So let's talk about that. Let's actually delve into this because I, it's so, we live in such, you know, the old Chinese saying like a curse is you may you be born in interesting times, like then we are all super fucking cursed because this is the weirdest, like I, we're having this conversation amidst two things that are really at the forefront of my consciousness.

There's many, but there is the Republican National Convention, which is insane, like actually legitimately insane, and we're also in the midst of, we've been in the midst of it. The police seem to be really just shooting black people like it's like going out of style. Like today, today, this Charles Kinsey thing, this guy was it for people who don't know. This just happened today is in Florida. There was an autistic guy who got from a assisted living place. A black guy who was his therapist went out, you know, this guy went into the middle of the street with a toy truck and it's like obstructing traffic and someone called the cops.

Maybe something about him doing suicide, something weird. They might have thought the truck was a gun. Black caretaker goes out, caregiver goes out, like literally is on the ground with his hand straight up like it could not be in a more defenseless, like I literally can't do anything aggressive whatsoever. Somehow in this process, he gets shot by an officer. He didn't die. He's going to be okay. I'm sure, you know, all things considered, especially compared to some of the other shit that's going on, this isn't the worst of it, but holy fucking shit. Yeah. And I read somewhere that he asked, he said, "Why did you shoot me?"

The officer said, "I don't know." That's not an okay answer. That's literally like, it's, so I mean, this is an issue that, and I've seen you tweet about it. I see on my social media feed, I have enough people of color in my life that this stuff is at the forefront of my consciousness. I also recognize I have a vastly different experience because of the nature of my skin, the color of my skin. The only inkling of taste I ever got to what it kind of feels like to be a minority whose target is I had dreadlocks for six years when I was in college. And I was a white kid with dreadlocks driving up by 95 once, and I got arrested for smoking weed because of course there goes, who knows.

And I would get met with a lot of looks and a lot of scorns, you know, whatever it is. And it was horrible, and it was nothing. I didn't really have to worry about getting arrested or tackled or shot. So it's hard to put myself in this situation, but then something's got to fucking give here, man. Like, and I don't know what we do collectively to get to the point where enough people are like, "No, no." And like, I see it every day. I see it all the time. What the fuck do we, like, I'm not asking you specifically for answers, but like, what can we do? And I try to work on myself and be aware of it, but what do we, you know, it's tough.

Yeah. I mean, I think it's really about changing the culture. These things are not new, Black people have been getting shot by the police. Forever. Forever. Yeah. And it's also part of a larger problem. Just general anti-Blackness and just anti-people of colorness. It's about changing the culture, you know, and it's for, I think, it's important for people to realize that this is not our, when I say it, like, this is not Black people's problem. No, it's everyone's. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard sometimes as a Black person to live in the world and walk in the world. And I also, like, grew up in a predominantly White area, and I was really seen always as the exception, you know, to the rule.

And then I almost carried that as a part of my identity for a really long time until I actually got some knowledge of self and some knowledge of history and, but also balancing that with, with not trying to be everyone's educator all the time. It's important for us to be open and to be, for all of us to be open, be empathetic and to take things as they are. Like, we're talking about police accountability. That's all we're talking about. It's like, basic. We're right now. Yeah. It's like, for right now, can we just, let's just talk about that, you know? But then, but weigh it against, like you and I, almost everyone I know, I don't think I know any open, I don't think I know anyone who is like, no, we don't want that.

But I'm watching this shit go down at the RNC. I'm watching this woman potentially give a Nazi salute yesterday at the thing. And I looked at it and I want, I didn't want to believe it. I'm like, no, it's probably awkward. That shit looks like a Nazi salute. Yeah. That's what it looks like to me. It's not like I'm taking liberties with that, it's not like Twitter overreacted. It's like, that's not how you wave to people. But you see the level of hate and vitriol. And I think ultimately all racism is, let's be very clear about this. It's just unbridled fear. It is fear of not knowing because they say, you know, what cures, racism and xenophobia, more than anything else, travel the world.

Go see that wherever you go, regardless of what people look like, regardless of what they're doing, we're all the fucking same. So to go off a superficial thing like color of skin is pretty fucking stupid. We know that. We see that. But then we see people like Donald Trump saying, these people are afraid of these people. They're afraid of them. They're afraid of them. Let me blame all of their problems, which are real, in some cases, on these other people. Right. The problems that they created, like the problems. Right, it's just so, and realize, we're not talking about 15% of this country, 20%.

We're talking about damn near 50% of people in this country, in one way or another, are saying blue lives matter, not because they really believe that blue lives matter, because what they're really saying is black lives don't matter. That's not as important. And that just, it's so weird how my, this is my approach. This is all I can do. And I'm not sure this is correct. And in some ways, I feel like it could be more active in a lot of ways. I just take it all in. I don't turn away from what's going on. And I actively try to quiet and acknowledge the part of myself that gets angry, sad, overwhelmed by the horrible this that going goes on.

But be aware of it, but deal with it and say, at least work on myself to extend that out to the world. Yeah. And yeah, I would just pose to also, once you come to that awareness, it's like in the same way that I came to a self-realization that led me to still mind. It's like, okay, when we come to understand what this system is, what privilege is, and what's really going on in the world, let's go out and have that conversation on a daily basis with the people that we love, like with the people that matter, I have to have difficult, I have had to have difficult conversations with some of my family members about LGBT issues, you know.

So that kind of conversation carries over into all of these other arenas of injustice and just being vigilant and not just not letting that be acceptable, yeah, like on the smallest level of hate speech or jokes or, I mean, this RNC stuff, I really haven't been watching because I don't, because it's like torture. I don't want to, I just don't want to punk myself. I feel like the media is really going to get full out of us right now. This election is, this election cycle doesn't seem like an election so much doesn't it? Circus, especially the RNC stuff, and I'm just, I'm just individually, I'm not here for it.

I feel like there's better things like it's been my time on, and it's really been a distraction to the real issues. It's like, oh, look how ridiculous this is, like it's not, it's not funny anymore. That's right. It's not funny anymore to me. That to me is what so many people, let's just say on the left who are more progressive and more tolerant, at least they think, is that this shit is set up not so we can poke fun and laugh at and say, look how dumb these people are and look how crazy they are. It's set up to provoke a reaction in people to set up an us first them paradigm. When you can easily demonize, and the same way that some of these people are demonizing black people, if you can easily demonize them for hating black people or being ignorant, you're falling to the same trap that they just fell into.

I try to watch it because I was talking with my friend, he's like, I can't watch this shit. It makes me too angry, like I'm not going to fall, I'm not going to be a manipulative, I'm like, dude, if you can watch it, recognize that this is the most wrong fucked up shit on so many levels from the media being complicit from what they're actually saying to the people they're trying to target, but if you can watch it and not get angry, then you're actually making a little bit of progress in life because then you're recognized, you're seeing a full situation, taking it in and being able to not get emotionally swayed by it, which is a very difficult thing to do.

And he's like, no, I can't do that. That's who are. And I was like, listen, just think back to when you take mushrooms, right, and your openness to everything. And you realize it's not so important, maybe what you were thinking before, it doesn't have the same hold on. He's like, well, that's the first thing you said that maybe makes me think I can do it. I'm like, listen, that's a point of awareness that you can actually cultivate without psychedelics, without anything. And these things are here to bump up against this, I believe, to get that out, to wear it away, the sandpaper, so we can actually start to engage with the world.

Like you said, not so we can go live in a, it's easy to go live in a cave and do nothing and not think about anyone can do that, right? To actually engage in all this craziness and try to have a positive impact in a real way that doesn't drive you crazy, that's a fucking game I'm into. I like that challenge. Yeah. I mean, I so badly want to hit the eject button sometimes, you know, but we're still here, you know, and I guess what, for me personally, what I'm really working on is cultivating just a little bit more bravery and power, like stepping into my power, like, yes, we are, we are aware now and that I feel even like the awareness is a privilege in some sense.

So how can I use my awareness and also my platform to, to make an impact and I know just, it's really about shifting the paradigm and shifting the collective culture. And when you talk about fear, fear is especially the, the ridiculousness that we're talking about now, it's really based on like a scarcity mindset as well, you know, and if we can all, really all of us come together and be proactive in really changing the systems and changing our mindset to more abundance rather than scarcity, then we can begin to deal with some of that fear. I don't think that fear ever goes away. No. It's just about acknowledging, look, y'all are afraid, but this is the truth.

You know, this is really our truth. Let's, let's all agree to start working on it together. Yeah. I mean, the fear, fear can serve a positive function in life. It can move you to things that you wouldn't do otherwise. I like the into Benton Buddhism. I was speaking to Lama Somo, who's a great teacher and she was saying, I was saying, well, like you, they have all these poisons. They refer to them as poisons and, and Buddhism and I was like, Oh, you transmute the poisons into something positive. She's like, no, it's not transmutation. It's actually just whittling it down. It's the essence of it.

It's not changing it into something different. It's just removing these layers until you get to the clear luminosity and essence of what's going on. So they're actually the same thing. It's our could, could be even an entryway into getting to those places. Admittedly, it's can be very hard to recognize that in the face of all the shit that's going on. Like watch the Alton Sterling video and try to maintain that. Like you, you're, unless you're a yogi who's totally tuned into this shit, it's not the easiest thing to do. Right. Yeah, it's, fear is can be a motivating thing, but it can also close people off to all of the important things in life, like truthfully, all of the important things that people get depressed because they're not engaging with the world.

Very rarely. I mean, people can get burned out from engaging with the world and depressed, but like when you close yourself off, that's when the world tends to feel constricted and not like a great place. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. It has this huge denial problem, right? And so until, and we're really seeing it because now with technology and cell phones and we're Facebook live and the news right now. So you cannot step away from that, you know? So through that, we're going to eventually have to face what you say is like the essence of that fear, which becomes racism, which becomes this craziness, you know?

Yeah. So what do we do, Drell? What do we, how do we, how do we, how do we solve the world's problems? I mean, I like you am tuning into this concept and it's funny because we haven't had the exact same paths, but I hedged my bets on my creativity and my passions for a really long time by get, I was always good at computers. I could always do what quickly evolved into blogging and Google analytics and marketing and all this stuff became like a support for me to support myself financially and my family, but I've never stopped making music and deep down. I know that that's what my real passion is.

So what I'm trying to do now is create platforms while working on my creative endeavors to get that out into the world because I've noticed when you are living your life, your truth, it sounds corny, but it's true when you're living who you really are, what happens around you in the external world is nuts, like things actually change. Like when you were talking about the generosity opening up these things, I'm doing right now this thing called the Synchronicity Generosity Experiment and it's a clever little trick that I'm hoping to trick people into giving money to because what happens, what it is is we're raising money collectively for someone to be determined at the end of August.

We're going to raise a bunch of money, it's got like six, seven hundred dollars in there now, hopefully it'll be like a couple grand. And then we're going to go look on GoFundMe, go look at Kickstarter's, go look and see if anyone has any personal needs or anything and then just send them the money. And the real trick of it is, is I guarantee every person who participates in that is opening up a little portal into this vortex where things start to flow in. I've seen it happen in my life, I've seen it happen in other people's lives. So I'm trying to create, as many of those little types of portals are entryways into allowing people to live in a more abundant place, not operating off scarcity models.

So what are you, what are we going to do, Gerald? I think that's amazing, that's a great project that I totally believe in that giving is the best way to attract the things that you need and the things that you desire. And you know, I've experienced it a lot just by giving my time, you know, a lot of, a lot of what I have now is the result of just being open to give and to give all of me. And I just really try to be generous with not only my art, but with my honey again, with my truth. I have an issue with like people pleasing sometimes and like I silenced my true opinions at a lot of points in my life which led to a lot of resentment, right.

But now I see that true honesty and coming at it from a place of love, not being an asshole. But that's being truly generous, you know, I mean, you can be truly generous with yourself. You know, that is the time when, when things come to you, you know, like you give truth and you get truth. Yeah. About to you. Yeah. And I mean, we just have to, you have to do your best and realize that everybody else is doing their best to, you know. And with whatever it is, like we might not be able, you and me know, might not be able to solve all of the problems, but we can, we can solve, we can, we can work on our own individual things and in our world and we can do what we do best, you know.

Like I might, I might not be able to, to run a podcast like Synchronicity, but I can be on Synchronicity and then I can be on somewhere else or I can create content for still mind, you know, that, that hits people in a certain place at a certain time where they need it, you know. So that's, that's the part that I'm working on. You're working on your part and together we're just kind of like putting the puzzle pieces together. It's what it feels like and I'm hoping people who are listening to this too, who hear us talking about this are also inspired to do that. Like, that's, if there's one thing, I usually do not talk directly to the audience when we're having a conversation, but I feel this is valuable.

If you do feel like you have something to communicate or contribute out there into the world and it is something that resonates inside of yourself, do it, like just fucking do it. Like everyone has the self doubt that exists and the people who don't are Donald Trump and look at that, like that is not how you want to be in the world. Like he has zero self doubt and he should have a way more. But if you do have it, just, just start creating, doing things. It doesn't matter if you're a painter, if you're a photographer, if you're a musician, if you're an actor, if you're a writer, like do those things that make you happy and, and take it seriously.

That's like the, what we mentioned it before, um, the war of art, Stephen Pressfield. Did you finish his latest book, by the way, the, no one wants to read your bullshit? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I finished it too. It's pretty good. I thought it was fascinating how he took the structure and laid out how that even follows the narrative, the war of art and how his editor helped put that together and sequenced it like the heroes. I thought it was amazing, um, but that book also, I think this is a hugely important thing as long as we're on the topic of creativity, taking your creativity and your passions seriously and professionally really changes everything that happens in your life related to that.

And that goes for anything. But if you really are approaching it, today I'm getting up and I'm going to work on my job, which is to be creative. That will change your creative output, your life, your work. And it's hugely important, um, totally important to do. So I, I want to also ask you some questions, like what kind of music do you like listening to? What were you inspired by like growing up, like you mentioned church, you were doing, and church music. If I have heard some of the best music I've ever heard in churches, like, oh, yeah, incredible. I mean, yeah, I, I don't even have to really speak on that like, you know, it is actually like this research that you listen to, like the lack of Pablo, like Chancellor Rapper, this whole like gospel thing coming into mainstream again.

But um, yeah, I actually listened to gospel music and Christian music almost exclusively for a period of like three to four years. And there was a time when I threw out all of my secular CDs twice, twice in my life. So I was, I was very fanatical back back in the day, but those CDs that I threw out, like they were definitely a lot of RMB, a lot of hip hop, um, and, and, uh, then I started to grow into like indie music. I was like, the postal service and like that type of huge, like, emotion heap and like all of this really interesting electronic music that was, that was, um, influencing me. This is way earlier, earlier on.

Yeah. And that really just opened up my, my mind to the possibility of, of creating more for myself than just what's in my vocal, you know, my vocal is like RMB and gospel influence because that's me, like, right. And my dad was always walking around the house saying temptations, saying, okay, that stuff, you just, I will never get away from that. You know, but, um, you know, recently it's just been all about experimenting with sounds. So I, I try to work with the producers that I'm a really a fan of their sonic texture. You know, even if they're not the most well known or the biggest, you know, some, some of the greatest music I've ever heard is in the underground, right?

I, it's amazing to me that people don't recognize that. I mean, it's, you wouldn't unless you know them and you're working and hearing their stuff, but I've heard stuff from people who literally are like me, there's very little creative output in the world, but you hear some shit and you're like, Oh my God, like finish, finish these guys was what's going on. Like this is incredible. Yeah. I, I described what I'm into right now. It, it definitely evolves over time, but for me, I think especially with, you know, this new found obsession with meditation and mindfulness, it's been all about this, like quieter, just vibey ambient music, so I'm going to shout out my Spotify playlist to have a playlist.

Oh, yes. You know, yeah, please, please do this and I'll tell you why this is totally appropriate right after it's called, it's called vibe forever. So if you go, if you go on Spotify, search my name, you'll obviously see my music there as well. My, my last couple of five days, but I also have a playlist, which it's like hours and hours. Oh my God. Like ambient mix of like soul, electronic, just like stuff. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Outside of that being amazing and I'm checking it out. So I do this thing for this podcast where I release playlists like every few weeks that I put together and then put out through my email list.

So I'll put an embed into this episode page so people can get it right there too. I love that. I mean, playlists to me. I know like for those of us who grew up making mixtapes and like actually like putting CDs together with stuff right when you could download stuff, I love playlists. I love people who tune in and take the time to curate and put things together. There's no better time to do it now because it's amazing. So much access, right? Incredible. And it's really cool because now it's, it's like a lot of the artists on my playlist are actually friends of mine and people that have collaborated with.

So it's like, it's always cool to like hear the song and they don't want to hear something. Yeah. And then I described it to, to someone in a meeting the other day, like the music I love right now is music you can cry to in the club. I love it. I have, I've made some music like that and I love that type of music. It's like the emotional stuff that hits you in your soul, but still has got a groove and you can still kind of, I love it, man. I hope more and more music starts to be, be like that. It's like, I've been a huge electronic music fan for 15, 20 years, used to go to the clubs back before.

I used to, this is how I used to get into the electronic music clubs. I, there was a Dutch online music magazine in the late 90s. I forget the name of it now and I wrote to them and like, listen, this person's coming to my area. I was in Boston then. I was like, Hey, you know, they're coming to DC or the Boston, I'll write a review of your thing. I'm like 17, 18, totally not allowed in these places would go to the place, get a VIP pass to get in for free and just like, and I wasn't, this is before I had any conception of drugs. Maybe I was smoking weed, but I was definitely not taking any pills or anything meant nothing to me and I would just stay out for hours at a time.

And that to this day, that music there and all this other stuff, when you can, when you develop the skill to hone in to like the real music makers, oh my God, you're going to be happy for the rest of your life because you will find them forever and they're always creating more and more. I love it. It's endless, it's so great. Completely endless. All right. So I'm going to end with one question. We'll have to do this again, too. And I know we're going to talk in plenty of other ways, but I'm going to end with what I end with for everyone, which is if you could share a practical tip that has helped you in your life for our people listening.

So something that is really helped you that, you know, may not be applicable for everyone, but something that has helped you practically. I would say write things down. We talked about it at the beginning. I'll just... We had to tie it together, yeah. Write stuff down because there was a time in my life when I felt like when I was really going through it, where I was not inspired, I felt like I had zero ideas, but then I came to a point where, you know, the faucet turned on and now I have so many ideas and the only way that I could keep getting more ideas without going completely insane is to write things down.

You've got to get them out. No matter what it is, like, even if it's just a word or a phrase, like three words or draw, like, do something, it doesn't matter where or how you do it. Just figure out a way to get those ideas down and let them live. And it's also a matter of letting your idea of perfectionism step aside, just putting things out there when they're rough, not necessary to a larger audience, but just putting it somewhere physical so that you can take a look at it and kind of separate it from your self-worth. In a way, yeah, because you are good enough as you are, you know, and you are loved and you are blessed and let that work be an extension of you.

You are not your work, like you are you, and just continue to love yourself. Like, that's, I guess I kind of rolled that into. No, that's like, you just inspired the shit out of me, so I think that is a great way to leave it. Man, Dural, thank you so much for coming on and doing this. We'll definitely do it again. We'll be in touch too. Thanks, man. Appreciate it so much. Thanks again for having me. Cool. I'm going to clip it there. Dude, yeah, awesome. Seriously. Really. This is going to be good. Also, I don't know if I mentioned this last time, but I'm starting to invite people. If you ever have anything that you want syndicated from StillMind on MindPod Network, even out to our email list, which is like 8,000 people now, and our social channels, let me know.

It's all, I took a look, it's all totally on point, and we have a real network, another place to get it out, and the more we can get the Venn diagrams crossing over, I'm all for that. Seriously. And no strings attached, no nothing. If you need something that you want out there, let me know and we'll do it. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. Let's just continue to work together and yeah, make those circles cross or whatever. Like, again, I really appreciate it. This is really one of the first times I've done a podcast like that, definitely the first podcast like this. Cool, man. Awesome. I'm thrilled.

And yeah, send me any music whenever, too. I love hearing music. Oh, yeah. So yeah, we got any music coming out, so I'll definitely send you some previews. Awesome, man. Dude, thanks so much. Yeah, have a good one. All right. Bye bye. [Music] I enjoyed that episode very much. I hope you did too. As always, you can rate and review synchronicity on iTunes. I don't know. Do I got to tell you to do that? I assume if you're hearing this, if you're listening to this, that means you've listened to the podcast at this point. Either that or you've fallen asleep, in which case I will subliminally tell you, rate and review the podcast synchronicity on iTunes and Stitcher.

Rate and review. Yeah, I'm just -- I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing. Again, Jarell, if you want to find out more about Jarell, which I imagine some of you, very, very -- hopefully all of you do, check out his blog. It's called Still Mind. You will be able to find it. There will be links on the episode pages for this show. Check out some of his music. Again, I'll have links to that. And also, check out the Spotify playlist you put together, which is also on this episode page. What other business? Oh, yes. Oh, yes, oh, yes. This mindfulness book that MPN, MindPod Network, is coming out with is going to be pretty cool.

I've been reaching out to people this week, seeing who wants to be involved with it. And I'm going to start listing off the names next week so you can get a sense of some of the people who are contributing to this. I think it's going to be very, very cool. I more than think that I almost can guarantee -- no, I can guarantee that it's going to be really cool. And I think you're going to be excited about it. So I will have more news on that. Check out some of the new podcasts on MindPod Network, too. Some really good ones. Kelly McLean just came out with a great dowel of comedy with Brad Williams.

Haven't checked it out yet, but she was telling me about it before she recorded it. And it just seems really, really excellent. So I'm looking forward to checking that out. There's a lot of other cool stuff coming out from MindPod Network. We have a new podcast with Corey Allen called The Astral Hustle. He also has a meditation course that's coming out soon. I'm going to be happy to share some news about that. There's a lot of fun stuff going on. Also, if you know of someone who you think would be a good guest on synchronicity, let me know. Write to me, Noah@syncpodcast.com. And I'll try to make it happen, really.

Truthfully, that's simple. Can't guarantee that I can do it, but I will try on your behalf. So that's it. Like I said, rate and review, donate if you want, do the things you want to do, whatever. Thank you, and I will see you next week.