Apukuna On The Sounds That Heal

In this week’s episode, Amrit interviews John David, “Apukuna”, a DJ, music mixer and ceremonial medicine musician. He is one of Amrit’s favourite artists on SoundCloud, a huge music and audio online platform that lets people discover and enjoy the greatest selection of music from the most diverse creator community on earth.

Amrit and Apukuna, talk about Apukuna’s journey of creativity, his electronic music, ceremonial medicine music and how it has all come together.

Transcript

We have with us Apu Kuna.

So this episode is dedicated to basically one of my favorite favorite artists on SoundCloud.

It was such a pleasure and a blessing to connect with another dear brother.

For those that are tuning in you know a little bit about me.

Music is medicine and medicine is music.

It's something I find myself saying again and again and the medicine that is in the music of Apu Kuna's mixes is by far and large some of my favorite music in the world.

These mixes are safe to say some of my favorite mixes in the world.

So I'll put a link to a couple of the mixes in there.

At the end of the episode you will find a gorgeous little mix that he's created just for the Inspired Evolution Triads.

You can get a bit of a bit of a yummy little taster in terms of what I'm on about when it comes to Apu Kuna and his music.

He's a beautiful brother.

It was really wonderful to connect with him and just to feel into his journey of creativity and how this has all come together.

Him cultivating a particular sound and how he's found more and more of himself on the journey of finding his sound obviously.

And then from there the more he stepped into giving himself permission of being even more himself in his expression and sharings with the world.

How he's becoming more and more well received on that path.

Music is medicine.

If you feel the same way tune in to this yummy little episode and please do me a solid go check out his work on SoundCloud.

The links are in the show notes just below and as always if you enjoy this video whenever you get that moment that goes man this one's dope give us a thumbs up.

I really appreciate it.

Love you so much your brother Amrit.

Welcome to the Inspired Evolution.

A show dedicated to helping you actually live the life that you love.

I'm your host Amrit Sandhu,

International speaker,

Global coach and loving podcaster.

As a gift for tuning into this podcast I have something really special just for you.

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You can download it now at www.

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Learn how to meditate in just seven days.

Sit back relax and enjoy this powerfully insightful conversation.

Don't forget to hit subscribe so you don't miss any of the latest episodes launching every Monday designed to help you live the life you love and keep you inspired to evolve.

Welcome to the Inspired Evolution and it is an audible treat here today.

We have with us John David also known affectionately as Apaguna.

How are you?

Welcome brother.

Yeah doing really well.

So nice to be with you.

Oh it is such a treat to have you here.

For those tuning into John for the first time,

Well your loss and my gain and I'm about to make it your gain.

So do yourself a solid please please please almost stop this podcast go over to SoundCloud now check out Apaguna.

A-P-U-K-U-N-A.

These are hands down some of my favorite mixes ever online.

The music that John puts out literally has transformed my life and I'm not even just saying that lightly it has actually transformed my life and I know that's a massive claim for music but legitimately when you start listening into these mixes you will get where I'm coming from.

Some of them are called Return of the Bird Tribes,

Surrendering Fear Into Love.

My favorite one is Spirit Bear if you want to go tune into that one.

That is one of my favorites Traveling Into You.

He produced one recently called Breath Medicine and I'm just here saying look it's called Breath Medicine 001 which implies there might be hundreds of them on their way which I'm very grateful for.

No pressure John.

But yeah guys there's a wealth of music there and check him out on SoundCloud.

I cannot I just cannot rave enough about it so when I've had the opportunity I was like dude I've got a podcast and I love this music it would be an absolute honor to get John on and I reached out and he's been gracious enough to grace us here today.

Brother thank you so much for doing this with us.

Thank you so much what a nice introduction.

I'm glowing you can't see it but it's out here which is a big glow.

Oh no now your ego's not going to fit through the door.

It's medicine for me to just remind me that you know this is a path I want to keep working on.

Oh blessings thank you for what you do.

So how did you get onto like music let's just talk about it for a quick sec because there's so many places we could go in this conversation but when you tune into your music there's like a you can feel just like you really hear and you're really present to creating an energy through the sound.

Where did your journey with music palpably begin for you?

Surely it's probably been a lifelong thing but you know where did it palpably become like ah I'm actually going to start putting together mixes or something like this or start exploring more music.

Yeah you know like yeah music's been a part of my life forever and but you know really like focusing in on like where this kind of Apokuna sound that you're talking about first came through.

It was you know three years ago specifically where the Apokuna name came in and it was this like it was it was following on this experience of having like grown up in the Toronto Canada rave scene from the 19 late 1990s into the early 2000s and spent you know every week going to at least two three clubs a night like just dancing my face off and and I developed just this real like taste for for electronic music but to kind of like people who drink wine you know like they go out and they really try to find that amazing wine and they put it in the cellar and my relationship to music was like that you know like I had these like folders and folders and of course back then it was CDs of of music that were like really carefully curated.

So that was something that's been with me since like you know I'm now 41 so 20 plus years ago that that was going on and and the journey into Apokuna really emerged through my relationship with with the ceremonial world you know working in plant medicine ceremonies breath work ceremonies and I began developing a love for playing ceremonial music on my guitar.

I mean you see some instruments here in my room I've got other instruments down here and and so that was about 12 years ago where I started to really fall in love with the music of some of the people you've interviewed like Darpan you know he's one of the guys who I play like at least 10 of his songs yeah and I noticed you played Murray Kyle as well yeah yeah well there's another one you know Murray Kyle who kind of came into my world maybe about five years ago now and so these are the artists who I'm playing in ceremonial settings and meanwhile of course I'm all always maintaining this love of electronic music and kind of growing with that and I just got to this place of realizing you know what it's time to blend both of these experiences into what became Apokuna right and so three years ago the name came to me I had been toying around with DJing a bit and you know for your listeners who I'm assuming actually don't know what Apokuna means yeah Apokuna is Quechua so Quechua are the one of the indigenous peoples in what's now Peru and Bolivia and Ecuador and they're descendants of the Inca and so the word Apu is translates to mountain but of course as in a lot of indigenous language it's not just some sort of geological feature like you know we call a mountain in our language Apu actually means mountain spirit so there's a lot of indigenous mountain spirit so there's a lot more embedded in the word Apu and Apokuna is just plural mountain spirits and so this name came to me and I started like you know coming out and playing some parties with it and starting to post mixes on SoundCloud so my mixes go back to three years ago now and so anyone who goes to the SoundCloud page and listens to my mixes you'll see the first year and a half or so the mixes were like a lot more dance floor friendly you know so they were that sort of like classic like you know you got an hour and a half of just good dance music and in this case you know the music that was being curated was being inspired by ceremonial medicine music and so at that time there were already many producers producing this kind of music and so even though it was very dance floor friendly it was still being inspired by that that frequency right and and what really propelled me and I think you know most of these mixes you've just now spoken of like your favorites like Spirit Bear and Return of the Bird tribes and Surrender Fear into Love which really have each become their own little world to themselves on SoundCloud.

They've got a distinct energetic signature to each of them man like yeah.

Yeah they're each really different and the way in which they connect with people is also very different like I receive a lot of feedback from people from all over the world and everyone has a different experience with each mix and some people just really gravitate to one mix and maybe to a few and and so these ones the ones you mentioned those just started emerging well Spirit Bear started was almost the transition mix it was like coming into that actually it was this transition mix of like opening myself up to feeling comfortable to really bring through what felt true to me and I think what you would hear in the first seven or eight mixes I posted on SoundCloud three years ago you'll hear now that I'm telling you you'll you'll hear that what what's in there is this like oh how can I remain accessible to a lot of listeners so I was trying to remain accessible right and then Spirit Bear was like you know what I'm ready to like just let go of trying to be accessible and just like just drop into my love and do me yeah just do me I like you right yeah yeah amazing amazing yeah which is which is hard you know in the DJ world because there's so much demand for DJs and the demand generally is can you get a dance floor moving right and and luckily you know in our in our global dance community now there's so much more spaces that are open to so much more than just that that are that are open to using dance as a spiritual practice using dance as a way to connect without having to you know order a drink at the bar and you know this is where I felt the freedom to start stepping into that and so Spirit Bear was that transition and then when this global pandemic that we're in began in early 2020 that's when Return of the Bird Tribes came in and that's where this new sound that I really have found is my sound this is the sound I want to keep cultivating that's when it emerged and it really emerged very clearly and very quickly and that's mostly what I've been working with and as you alluded to there I've started to expand into some other work now with making breathwork mixes which we can talk about but it was really the beginning of this pandemic that really allowed me to sink into my sound and who knows you know a year from now I could be telling you that yeah that was then and now I've got a whole new sound this is where I'm at now and this is what I'm working with yeah I love it I love it can we nerd out a little bit on the fact that your previous mixes the ones that you're little too before Spirit Bear you know they've they've been received very well like you know we've got about 5,

000 plays and I should probably temper this because I'm gonna say that you know Spirit Bear as we speak has 35,

000 plays but then maybe this whole question that I'm about to ask you is moot because maybe 30,

000 of those plays were just me.

Yeah maybe close close to that.

But what I was going to ask was do you is like has there been some sort of like is there a moment of sort of oh like where you go you know like I was trying to remain accessible and things were going well like definitely by no means poorly like that's a lot of people tuning into a mix but then when it's like you know what I'm gonna just do me and then all of a sudden that is even more well received than you remaining to be accessible can we nerd out on that for a moment?

Yeah you know I think part of it too is like the platform so like my main platform particularly over this past year and a half has been SoundCloud right has been posting mixes to an online platform so right there like the listeners who are tuning into my music are not out on a dance floor they're at home right there and so I've spent some time like reflecting on this and this is also what helps me design my mixes is I'm designing them for people to actually work with on their own like you know I get messages from people who are using them and different types of ceremonial work or just kind of meditation movement practice or I've got you know a friend here in the area who uses it up uses it in her treatment room as a Chinese medicine practitioner.

Awesome.

So but the first place people are going to hear it is in likely like a setting where it's just them they've got their headphones on so those early mixes yeah you know this was me trying to be accessible but I was also realizing well you know I'm also just making mixes here and posting them on SoundCloud this is the kind of music I'm playing maybe at parties for sure but when it comes to you know what has I think started to create a little bit of a community around the mixes I'm putting out it's being the SoundCloud platform and so you know if someone was to invite me to come play a party or a dance music festival ecstatic dance festival you're probably going to hear a different sound from me you know it's going to it's going to evolve and adapt to the setting and the time of day and the people who are there and what the intention is for the event and so a lot of the sound that's emerged is really very much to do with the platform that said I would love to take those mixes and be able to present them in a live setting which because of the pandemic I haven't had too many opportunities to do right and so this is sort of this birthing you're kind of catching me at this time where I'm like gearing up to kind of go out more into the world hopefully and start to bring that sound into some settings that who knows what those are going to look like but yes you know so that's kind of where those two places are there those sounds are all me you know the earlier mixes and the mixes I'm producing now you know I played a birthday party like two weeks ago and you know the sounds I was playing two weeks ago like they're like all over the place like a lot of sounds you don't hear in any of my mixes you know I'll play funk I'll play jazz I'll play hip-hop you know I play it all right and I play it all right and that's just that was the setting that I was working with there but the the frequency of sound that comes through with the mixes you're talking about I'll do whatever I can to bring that love and that energy into all of my mixes and I'm starting to figure out ways how to do that you know so make it accessible draw the dancer the listener in to something that's familiar maybe and then kind of blast them with some like love frequencies right that you might not know I love it I love it and I'm excited for yeah what these potential live constructs could look like because I first to put both hands up to want to try and check one of these out even though you're all the way over there in Canada but yeah it sounds sounds sounds really intriguing so man if you continue to build upon a sound and a frequency and I like return of the bird tribes was the first mix of yours that I came across and it was you know it was just filled with music from people that you know we absolutely adore here as part of a particular type of community as you alluded to and yeah like I think it was it's amazing just feeling into how each like song flows into the next and it's just this natural smooth transition but you've actually curated a journey through there like I'd love to sort of just peek inside the artist's head and sort of go you know like the journey that you construct like how much of it is intentional how much of it is this is the natural flow and this is you know the the songs sort of present themselves into that order and does that reflect anything back to you on your journey in something like that like as you like is there an intentionality towards the natural store is there a story arc in there yeah really nice question you know I learn a lot about myself through putting these mixes together and you know one of one of the things that like I've always recognized about myself and I get reflections from a lot of the people around me is I'm very like meticulous with a lot of what I do and sometimes I look at that as a bit of a burden you know it's like oh wow like everything I'm doing is like has to be this way and I put everything into like a neat nice order and and it can be sometimes a burden I can notice that part of myself and it's sometimes it's a burden to other people but it's so funny to like watch how that part of myself that I find to be important has made its way into how these mixes come together because it's actually only been just recently where I've started to realize you know this is what makes these mixes possible is this meticulousness and maybe a year or two from now I will require that meticulous nature to put these mixes together but that's what's required now and I'm able to see that now as a gift because I don't think I can put these mixes together without that part of myself and so I've sort of fallen in love with that part of myself without you know having to look at it and be like oh you know there's that part of myself again that's always taking so much time to put to do anything which is all to say that these mixes take a lot of time to put together you know I can tell you right now like I just finished one just on Thursday last week so this is a week ago now I finished one it was a from an invitation from echoes from venus I'm not sure if you're familiar with them it's a little collective from Switzerland they've got such a beautiful following and they put out podcasts mixes of all of my favorite producers and I got this beautiful invite from them and put one together and and it probably took about five full days of curating the folders and sitting with the music eight hours a day at least for five days and my process that has emerged for these mixes has been like what are the sounds that are resonating with me at this time you know and that's usually what starts the folder and often those are the new sounds I'm coming across like the new releases that I'm getting in my inbox and that will start to populate a folder and I might end up with maybe 30 or 40 tracks in there and then you know usually from those 30 or 40 tracks there's a bit of a an energy that fills the space that seems like oh this is kind of what's wanting to come through and then I'll dive into my crates which nowadays are my you know computer folders my computer folder crates and I'll look at like my years and years of music like usually going back about 10 years and start to collect sounds that kind of work within that new energy that's coming through so all of these new songs get some new friends in the folder which are the 10 years of music I've been collecting and so this past mix I did it's about to be released you know maybe by the time you release this podcast it'll be out there that folder started with 200 tracks well I literally had 200 songs in there without any idea how that order was going to go and then at that point that meticulousness kind of gets pushed aside and then everything else just kind of comes through on its own at that point so you know usually a few songs will emerge as this is what's going to open the space of the mix and once that settles in that usually sets the trajectory for the rest of the mix and it doesn't just flow from the beginning into the end like normally my process has been I will create small little micro mixes I'm like you know I listen to this one track and I'm like okay this is going to go really well with this and I'll create maybe three or four songs and I'm like these four songs are sticking together and this is how I think a lot of DJs prepare their mixes it doesn't just flow from one to the next it's like a bringing together of little mini mixes and that's kind of what happens for me is I'll have this little like collection of four or five songs okay this this works together here this works together over here and then what starts to happen is those five or four four songs get like moved around in an order right and that's how these mixes emerge they emerge like that and but yeah I mean you know I say I say it took me five days but it could have been more it's a lot of work it's a lot of work and and I think that's it's the amount of work I'm putting into it that I feel is what's being received you know and I feel like you know a lot of the feedback I'm getting is sort of acknowledging that effort and so that feedback I'm getting is like a feedback loop that keeps me commit committed to that approach you know that I have yeah it's a blessing isn't it so I'd love to tune into because I'm like I know SoundCloud and I'm not sure how much there is a yeah like I'm just not sure how much financial reimbursement there is for the sound through SoundCloud obviously it serves well for people to connect with you and your sound but how much of it like you know I think yeah just following the meticulousness that you described feeling into just you know I think I'm trying to ask the question for the listener that is you know probably feels into the sound and goes oh it's it's amazing because it's so polished and it's so well put together but sort of granting that person that's listening in that's always wanted to sort of create something to give them permission to sort of feel like yeah and it's potentially not just about making a career out of it like how much of this is a career and how much of this is you following your passions I guess is the question I'm asking yeah mm-hmm yeah well like I like I say like you're catching me at a bit of a transition moment in my life you know which I think is really in line with what seems to be the theme of your podcast right this inspired evolution and for me my relationship to music and my work as a musician and a DJ is still a small part of my life that is able to sustain you know the things I love to do and spend money on right it's but my dream is to keep deepening into this and so that is happening so like you know if I was to look at myself three years ago this was very much on the side wasn't trying to really put too many mixes out and now I'm saying to myself okay this is where I want to be this is what I want to do and you know for me what my goal is is to transition fully into this and to also bring in the other piece that I was mentioning too which is I play guitar and you know this is the year 2021 that I'm going to release some songs that I'm going to be recording a few songs that's going to be coming out this year and and you know so this is all my dream to kind of move out of what's been my other work which is we were talking about before the podcast has been as a journalist you know this is what mostly being my work for 15-20 years I've hosted podcasts I've done television I've done I've written a book and and and I've decided yeah music is my is my next love I mean that was my passion too and it still is and I'm still doing that work and this is where I kind of want to be and it's been a nice incubation period this past year and a half because there hasn't really been too much opportunity to come out of the sort of creative cave that is this room I'm in right now.

Just for sure yeah yeah yeah yeah.

And so you know this little global community that's been emerging around the Apakuna Sound has has been that incubating of what I'm hoping will be the opportunity to come and connect in what's a much more powerful space I think which is the space where we gather together and and so that is actually on the horizons right I mean a lot of these groups that have been inviting me to do podcasts they host events in different parts of the world I've received a few invitations to go play at Burning Man if that ever happens again invitations to go play in South America and so you know what's nice though is like okay if this is where I want to go now I need to prepare myself for it and so I'm in that place of preparing myself for it because this is I'm in I'm a I'm a new DJ I'm and this is all new for me and I'm working to bring myself out into the world in this way and the nice thing though you know as far as like putting all this time in is is for me this isn't just about as it is for a lot of artists it isn't just about trying to find a new vocation a new career you know for me this is this is what nourishes me to put this music out like what I try to do with the music is create mixes that are actually first and foremost for myself and then just share them as a gift and if if what wants to happen with this is it wants to then pull me in that direction in this direction you know I'll listen and probably say yes and allow that to just flow however it wants but first and foremost it starts as something that's a gift for me and gift to offer and it's turning into it it's turning into something I think that will help me transition more into this work full time and maybe get a bigger bigger studio so I don't have so much equipment in here I love that thank you so much for sharing that because you articulated it so well it's very similar to how I feel about the podcast even you know it's like following in the intuition of what really feels good for you and trusting that you know just sharing that and gifting that to the world and seeing where it goes and if anything flows from there is yeah so following your passions thank you so much I wanted to ask do a little bit of a rewind and go deep into something which was you know we often have these parts of ourselves that we sort of go ah that's annoying and you mentioned you know the meticulousness and I'm sure it's got its blessings and it's also got its challenges which you mentioned but the thing that came through for me was you know sometimes we carry these things around for quite some time not realizing the boon of that virtue to some degree and then only like like you said it's only been like you know potentially the last three years or you know when you started putting this together it's like oh that meticulousness it's really come to a head like now I can really see you know like ah like I put up with that for a long time to reap this reward you know and I'm just tuning into like yeah like just you know sometimes we carry around certain elements of ourselves for and beyond besides ourselves kind of why am I carrying that you know like why is that part of my frequency only to realize potentially down the track that it's something that actually really serves us is that part of your experience is that that's been my experience you know and I think I've tried to find a balance with giving myself over to the reflection so if the reflection is like oh this part of myself will save my meticulousness or whatever it might be because there's certain other qualities that I have and that we all have that we all have them we all have yeah I probably got double most people have but you're going well we get to see them right like when we're out there like connecting with each other and you know I live in an intentional community here among 75 people like 24 houses and I live in a small community and so I've had lots of experiences for like reflection of who and what I am and and so I've tried to strike a balance between like really listening to what that reflection is and taking that in and saying oh you know what what can I learn from this reflection is this something that I can grow from and then at the same time also holding as much as possible the idea that I'm not going to give my power over to that reflection so it's really about like for me recognizing that how I see myself is entirely up to me it's not up to anybody else I'm not going to give my power over to anyone else and so with this particular piece being able to kind of reaffirm itself through my music and through the aqueuna sound it's being recognizing that you know what like I'm proud that I kind of stuck with this despite all the reflections that seem to like annoy people because I'm so meticulous with things you know what like I'm going to call this my superpower and and often you know a lot of the kind of work I do on myself and in community and in ceremonial settings a lot of that work is is looking at these parts of ourselves and starting to love them more and so that's kind of been my process of just like realizing you know what this is my power and and some of those things yeah they're gonna like rub people in ways that are going to be uncomfortable for them but you know that's their journey and look you know it's now working for me over here and it's such a blessing it's such a blessing yeah so you know I I appreciate and then I'm also open to the possibility that it's this meticulousness that will also then accelerate me into a place of not having to be meticulous with it you know and so I'm just being meticulous with it you know maybe it's my like training reels to get to a place where I can just let whatever wants to flow through flow through without it and I'm open to that too and I actually can see that possibility happening right it's it's like you know I'm around people who are trying to learn instruments all the time and you know often people who are playing the type of music that they're playing and the music we listen to often the most crystalline sounds that come through are those musicians that like didn't go take lessons they didn't do any training they're just like they're able to play anything right and then those of us who can't play are always like I wish that could happen for me and so you know a lot of folks like a friend I was chatting with the other day was telling me about her experience with learning music and learning guitar and there was a lot of resistance to having to maybe learn a chord and learn chords like they really just want it to go and play and these pieces are like training wheels you know they're little training wheels for us to get to that place of allowing things to flow so I think where my work is right now with the appicuno music that I'm putting out is I'm still kind of in a bit of a training wheel process like I'm learning new a new new software new controller and in order for me to do what I'm doing it has to be the way it is right now and eventually you know I'm hoping this machine I use behind me is going to be much more of like an instrument than it is a device I need to understand and take apart and figure out and that's I'm only like a year using this particular piece of equipment and so I'm still kind of on a journey with this as well.

I love that thank you so much for sharing that that was super personal but it was super open so thank you so much for sharing that's really useful for those that are tuning in.

So I wanted to ask like if you had potentially a couple of questions like if you like a dream mix like is there is there anything like do you like is there a dream mix in your head that's brewing or is it the next mix is already like you said is cultivated through that process of there's new music coming in and we you know we feel the energy and the inspiration around it or has there started to be like you know what I'd love to you know potentially get you know x y and z together to produce specific music and sounds for your own mixes or is that potentially where the birth of you know you bringing out some of your own music with the guitar is I'm looking for a particular frequency and sound coming through can you tell us a little bit about that?

Yeah no I have some dreams for sure like where I want this sound to go and I mean the first one that I'm really excited to work on is the one you talked about earlier right these breath medicine mixes and so you know this is something I'm looking to start doing like frequently like at least once a month bring out a new breath work mix and awesome I it's optimistic but that's going to be my goal I got one sort of brewing right now like 002 right yeah is going to be coming out and it first and foremost it's like for my own breath work practice like I have this mix the one that's out there on soundcloud that I've been using now for a year and it's my go-to mix that like helps me through my breath work practice and I generally do like a 45 minute breath work practice at least once a week and I just did one today and decided okay I got to start doing this every day because part of every time I do it is now I'm starting to listen to you know what wants to happen with the music in this moment you know because with the particular breath I work with which is similar to like holotropic breathing breath work there's a very specific flow that the music wants to go in my in my experience and just moments where it's like okay once you kind of push through the first part like the climbing of the mountain you know then the music wants to come into this frequency and wants to end over here and so I'm starting to just hear new information as to what wants to emerge in these mixes and so that's been really exciting because breath work is becoming I think more popular than it was a few years ago oh for sure and you know if you go out there and look for breath work music it's out there but there's not a lot of like really constructed mixes that are out there yet so I'm seeing that as an opportunity to just kind of fill that space and and offer that and so that really gets me excited and I've started to be able to practice it in breath work sessions so I'm leading breath work sessions now and I'm able to like tune in to how the music is actually affecting a room of people like so this this isn't me now just making a mix and sending it out on SoundCloud I'm now like in a room with people we're in a circle and I'm leading them with my music through that experience and so this is sort of where I see maybe the appucuna sound going is I can be showing up at events and I can offer my my dance music mixes I can offer maybe journeys and I could also offer breath work sessions and so this is kind of one of my dreams right and then the other is is to start to integrate my guitar playing into my music and so this is I geek out at home all the time with my guitar you know so like I plug my guitar right into my controller back here and I got a microphone and I haven't released any of that yet you know onto SoundCloud like for me right now it's just a fun hobby and I've got a playlist of like oh yeah this song from this producer works really well with this song that I play and you know my my dream is to be able to be in front of a room of people or a stage or a beach you know and be able to play these mixes bring the guitar in bring my voice in and start to really like integrate all of this yeah this is this is the goal and this is what I've been working on and I know you know there's quite a few people out there doing this now and and of course anytime something like that happens there's always these other instruments that want to come in and people and voices and so I've started to play around with some recordings of a friend of mine her and I have been playing together she plays the handpan oh awesome I've taken some like loops of her handpan and my guitar and started to create just sounds that sound like you know what that's a track that might be able to be released and so this is starting to like emerge as well as like perhaps the Apokuna sound will turn into something that is not just about mixes but about producing songs as well some live elements in there as well that's beautiful elements yeah I'm so glad I asked and yeah just another kind reflection back to you like we were speaking about this my wife gave birth everything's turned into one long day because I had no sleep at all but I was gonna say last week but I think it was the week before it's been about 10 days and yeah the breath work mix was was on during yeah during her labor yeah totally bro it was cool I mean like your music changed my life I'm not just saying that like you know and spirit bear is her like yeah is her favorite mix as well and so yeah you know that was that was playing loud and clear during during the birth process as well so that is so incredible yeah yeah we really really really appreciate you know and you know especially just thinking about you know how much sound can support us and how important breath is during those critical moments of life you know it's it's yeah it's been pure medicine for us the expression of your music and the way it's come through man I'm I'm so so so grateful that you have been so just dedicated to music and following that path and you know finding yourself yeah you know trusting your process and going into the depths of yourself to sort of share you know what's present and again you know like I love felling into the journey of like you know before it was this much for others and this much for myself and really now I'm just coming home to me and sharing what matters most to me and you know just feeling how that's being received across the world and you know just the inspiration that sparks in all of us to do more us you know just be more authentically ourselves and just trust that we'll be better received is such a blessing and then obviously the the jewel of all of that is the music that we get to listen to on SoundCloud man thank you so much for what you do is there anything that you wanted to share with the audience before I let you go today anything that's primed and ready for you well you know what what I'm smiling about inside right now is the possibility of creating like a series of birth medicine mixes I'm intending on having more kids so yeah yeah like breathing through breathing through um through labor both for you and your partner I'm sure it was important but like what if you know I could make a mix that's like very specific to that process ceremony yeah beautiful yeah there's so many ceremonies in our lives right and this is what I want to make music for is um just the ceremony of life and I love the idea of making something for that process for that beautiful entering of life into the world well even just that as a kind reflection back to you like it helped us connect deeper like even just having your music on in our life you know at home and you know the way we connect to it it has encouraged us to have more ceremonial context in our life you know and that is literally medicine in our lives so yeah it's a beautiful prayer that you're holding and I'm really grateful for it brother I love how you've reached out to me and like it means a lot to be able to kind of share my journey at this point and love the way you know the music's touched you and um you know so much uh there's so much fuel that comes from your relationship to the music that keeps me going so thank you so much oh I touch with thank you and again I want to thank you for your time and energy here again today uh but obviously we know that it's not just today's little moment that informed this conversation it's a lifetime to work so thank you so much for the way you show up in the world and for those tuning in um normally I put in a whole bunch of links to a whole bunch of stuff I'm going to be super selfish and I'm just going to put in the link to spirit bear that particular mix maybe return of the bird tribes too because I really love that one too it's like but it's so hard to pick but like those two are my absolute favorites um so you get a real taste of what I'm talking about um please go check them out on SoundCloud um yeah super easy to follow um Apakuna John here on SoundCloud and uh yeah brother it is an absolute blessing to have had you here today and uh from on behalf of myself the inspired evolution tribe the community here in Australia man wishing you all the best and what's coming up yeah big love to you and your family thank you you Machu sana Machu kata Una nana Machu kachi Machu kaha Machu Machu Machu kaha Una hiro yam sukando Kottu kanta mocha mama mare dhyara mocha Machu mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu sana Machu kata mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha mocha Machu mocha mocha mocha You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Make every bit of identity back There's a place we originate from Open your heart,

Stay on the path There is more than this dimension More for us to mention More than we've imagined Make every bit of serenity high Gear on the base of a journey from here Open your heart,

Love in a flash There is worth to our intention Purpose to ascension More than we've imagined You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up You are enough,

We are enough Welcome to the Queen room This is where we be from We are here to love,

We are here to love Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Love is what we're made of It is time to wake up Revolution of the earth As we move around the sun Consistent in its course Reclaiming our position Rearranging the old system Unwinding deeper wisdom Protecting ancient woodlands Protecting all the children Allow these hearts to open Revolution of the earth As we move around the sun Consistent in its course Revolution of the earth Revolution of the earth Revolution of the earth