Sometimes, I think my phone listens to my conversations too well. I only see targeted ads for things I’ve discussed in chats everywhere. Most of the time, I get ads on my phone for stuff I couldn’t care less about; but other times, some strange alignment of the planets brings me the perfect ad. That happened a few weeks ago.
Jagjaguwar released a spoken word record called Dilate Your Heart to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Don’t worry if the Jagjaguwar record label means nothing to you. If you know Taylor Swift and listened to her last two albums –– folklore and evermore –– then you heard her collaborations with Justin Vernon: a renowned member of the music ensemble Bon Iver under the Jajaguwar label. Ross Gay is the acclaimed poet & voice of Dilate Your Heart. When he came to do a reading at my university in 2015, it was the same year he released his book Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude (which is featured a lot on the Dilate Your Heart vinyl). He urged his audience to pursue joy at a time when I was torn between my passions.
When I was getting ready for college, I had bold assumptions about what I had to study. I didn’t know how to make time for all my interests. Growing up, I dabbled in artmaking of all kinds. Maybe it was my wandering attention or my curiosity running rampant. When we get older, we decide what time we will dedicate to practice & growth. The time for wandering attention seems wasted when we could be practicing on our instrument, but how many poets do you know making spoken word vinyls with musicians? Maybe your pursuit of joy as a musician brings you to make music videos with your friends because you love film. Perhaps you combine your love of painting and drums into a colorful performance piece.
What makes you a unique musician and artist is the multitudes of your passion. What inspires you to ask new questions is something to be treasured. Think of all the new ways you can combine other hobbies with your love for music. Kendrick Lamar produced & curated the soundtrack to The Black Panther after being inspired by some of the film’s first recorded scenes. Some of rock’s greatest musicians were also established painters: Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Kurt Cobain, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Nicks, and David Bowie. One of my professors even found a way to incorporate live ice hockey into a music composition because one of the students in the class was on the varsity team. All the hobbies, passions, and pastimes will change the way you look at the world, make you ask new questions, and open your mind to different possibilities in your art.
I bought the Dilate Your Heart vinyl, in case you were curious, and I listened to it a few times as I wrote this post. How cool, I thought, that we could create something like this. I knew I had to encourage others to make something new, weird, and unheard of. Ask questions, and make new answers.
