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David Block is widely known as the creator behind The Human Experience. He is a live music composer, producer, mixed media artist, and talented instrumentalist. Creating his symphony of sound he layers in elements of human emotion, world exploration, and sacred melodies. David is constantly pushing boundaries when it comes to music and art which has initiated collaborations with artists such as Android Jones, Rising Appalachia, Elephant Revival, Quixotic and Lucent Dossier Experience.
His music has been streamed over 35 million times and he has released over 100 different tracks, each piece taking the listener on a “sonic journey”.
His latest collaboration is with Danny Musengo, Mel Seme and Kat Factor. The synergy of these four creatives is called “Gone, Gone Beyond” and their album will be released on March 29th, 2019.
In this episode you will learn;
So how does David unlock and harness the creativity required to make over 100 tracks?
Here at 5 tips to supercharge your creativity.
For David, his success in his musical career required constant determination and deep self-inquiry. For 13 years of his life, he was medicated due to having displayed qualities of a behavioral disorder. Coping with his overactive brain, mixed with medications was a difficult time of his life, he has now learned how to utilize and leverage this perceived weakness into an expression of art.
Any weakness can be an overwhelming strength. In fact, one’s weaknesses are often the most powerful untapped strengths but have been seen with a diminishing perspective. What perceived weakness could you shine a light on in your life, and like David, use to your advantage?
David calls it “Equanimity Between the Mind and No Mind” which essentially means, “If you have no mind then you have super nebulous ideas that aren’t functional or accessible.” Practicing mediums such as “meditation, making love, dancing” allows one to get out of the head but still stay grounded in the body.
The mind has to be kept sharp and in tune. If you want to be able to play instruments you have to dedicate time to practice. Once you “train the faculty to do the things that you want them to do”, you can let go, explore and find the balance between mind and no mind.
Once these two elements are brought into harmony, you become the channel for the music to flow through freely.
Creativity and art have no borders, he says. Most of the time he has no set direction on where he is going but is simply exploring, discovering new pathways and trying on different mediums that could be incorporated.
When was the last time you experienced unfiltered exploration? Do you believe that creativity is a prerequisite for exploration? The “Do Something Principle” states that we just need to start and inspiration will be stimulated.
David is an avid practitioner of Vipassana meditation, which is the practice of observing things exactly as they are, ever-changing and flowing moment to moment. The practice of Vipassana helps him to remain equanimous throughout life’s inevitable shifts while remaining centered and focused. David has found that “Making art has been parallel with meditation.”
He encourages us to “be vulnerable and authentic and dive deep to excavate the emotions that are in your body to alchemize them into real art.”
When you listen to a sad song, how do you feel? Sure, there is emotion, but would you label it as “negative” or “positive”? This sadness allows you to feel deeply, to open into your full spectrum of emotions. Artists and composers who create art that instills this emotion often create it when they are in a similar state. Through sadness and anger, we are able to open up into a spectrum of emotion that is not always available and transmute that emotion into art.
His manifestation board says “I collaborate with artists and creators that push my boundaries.” He believes there is no easy route and constant evolution is necessary.
Problems are happily neverending, and finding problems that you enjoy solving is what keeps the cycle of advancement going. Life never stops and waits for you to catch up, you just get better at utilizing your skillset and evolving.
David received a message from a friend sharing a recent experience. She was having a panic attack and even considered taking her own life… suddenly she had the instinct to play his music and found herself calming down.
Listening to music releases a chemical in our brains called dopamine, it changes our cell structure and our cells can be healed when harmonized with sound. Being very aware of the shifts music has on the human body, lyrics in David’s newest project Gone, Gone Beyond such as “It all comes down to us”, “you can’t go wrong” and “ain’t givin’ up on love” are catalysts to heal the human race.
Receiving impact of how music aided someone in a drastic time gave David the fuel to keep making music, to continue to meditate and to dive deeper into himself so that he can be a vessel for art to be expressed.
