Interpretations of a Synesthete

  *If the song doesn't play immediately, skip ahead to the next song, it should be there. Forgive my tumblr ignorance, I'm new to the platform.

Synesthesia is one of those things that you just have to experience to fully understand it. I am not sure how much of the population experiences this, but it does not seem to be a significant proportion. I can only hope to articulate these bouts through these posts in this blog. Even then, I am limited by the human language, the English vocabulary. These posts are my attempts at doing so.

A lot of different textures come with this extra sense. The senses become enmeshed in each other. Above all that, it makes perfect sense to anyone who experiences it. It is hearing the color green. It is the number One smelling or tasting like peach. It is the musical notes coming together to paint the picture of a forest. At least, that's what it is for me. The enmeshment of my senses start to become one when I am seriously digging a piece of music. When I am really grooving to a song, that's when the notes begin to take the form of some sort of landscape...usually.

The song I am going to begin with is "Phototropic" by the band Kyuss. The band was one of the main pioneers of the desert rock scene in California during the 90s. That gave birth to stoner rock, space rock, psychadelic rock, and the likes. This band is no longer together but continues to be a staple in the doom metal scene. If you haven't heard them I suggest you take a listen. I've linked the song for your listening pleasure. This song gets regular rotation in my life.

    To my senses, this song has the sound of water. The way the water flows in a small creek. The kind of creek you find in the canyons of the Arizona desert, right after it rains. This song defines the ripples in the water as it moves from the top of a mountain, moving down stream, catching momentum as it flows over the rocks. 

  0:03 - It has the sound of the light flow of water as it begins to collect as it is raining. The dry desert ground is being saturated and absorbed by the earth. The more it rains, there begins a pool of water in a crevice of rocks.

0:55 - The collection of water begins to overflow and wash over the sides of the rock formations. That trickles down the sand and dirt and onto other rock formations. That tiny creek begins to form where all other streams have formed during other rains. Replenishment for the dry desert. The water flows in, over, under, through, around down the side of the mountain. It hasn't been touched by human hands yet. It is pure and clean. 

1:05 - The inflections of the notes are the sun glistening and reflecting off of the clear, clean liquid. The sound of the flowing bass is the form the water takes as it flows over the rocks, ever so clear. The electric sounds of the guitar are the twists and turns the water takes as the speed begins to build downstream. 

2:09 - There is now enough momentum to create falls of clear liquid that is Life itself. It nourishes everything it touches along the way. It is so powerful that it can be both the Bringer of Life and the Bringer of Death. So precious that it will start and maintain all life here on Mother Earth, yet so dangerous that it can take any form to wipe out life if the Mother needed it to.

2:34 - The water races down, sloshes and flows to bring life to those that need it in the desert heat. It continues to form around all solid forms, leaping up or down to touch those in need. 

3:24 - Who knows how long it has been since the last rains? That trickle or puddle is now a full blown river moving faster than one could realize. It has enough strength to move the earth underneath you. It is to be appreciated with all its gifts and might. Life or death? Choose wisely.   

     I have experienced synesthesia since I was a child, mostly while listening to music. It is said that less than five percent experience this phenomenon. I can't tell you where it comes from and why. I just know that it is normal for me to have these experiences. I actually wonder why most people do not experience music the way I do. I have read that there is research being done to explain this "condition." So, apparently it is being acknowledged.

I have always been a little different, I suppose. I felt that from a very early age. "Gifted" was the word used a lot in my elementary years and all the way through my high school years. I don't know that I would call myself "gifted." A little too in touch with my senses, maybe. The sound of music has always been my utopia, for lack of a better word. My earliest memory of music consisted of a particular bassline. I'll get into that at some point.

    Exposure to all different kinds of music was a constant in my life, even now. I grew up with my mother cleaning house to Sade, Carole King, Aretha Franklin, The Staple Singers, Anita Baker, Stevie Nicks, and Tina Turner. On the weekends, she would record videos that played on MTV and VH1 on an old, clunky silver VCR. The "remote" you would flick the switch up to record, flick down to pause. She ended up with these mountains of VHS tapes containing nothing but music videos. I have probably seen just about every music video made all through the 80's and 90's. Maybe.

    My father played six-string and twelve-string guitar. He played just about anything but he also used to play music with my Tata (grandfather). I don't really know how to describe that music. I guess you can call it Mexican folk music? Mexican country? All I know is that I have never heard it anywhere, ever, except when my Dad played that guitar and my Tata played his accordion. Now that they are both gone, I know that music is gone with them. My Dad was also very eclectic. Growing up, I watched him blast Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Creedence, Mexican Banda music, Norteno music, traditional Native American music, just about everything.

    So when it came to me and music you can only guess the love I have for it. Music has always spoken to me. I learned to read and play music in elementary school. I played reed instruments. I don't anymore, but the reading of music has stuck with me. So, when I hear a song that changes time signatures, or a song is played in an odd time signature, I get all goofy excited because I actually know what is taking place as it happens.

    As far as the synesthesia part goes, I don't know how to fully articulate, but I am going to try. This has always been a natural thing for me. I don't understand how someone else isn't as blown away as I am when something awesome in the song happens. Upon hearing something totally beautiful, I usually associate it with something in nature, like the ways waves in the ocean are formed. Or the way the desert canyon smells sweet after a good monsoon rain. This is also music in a different form.

    Now, if you know who I am and know anything about me, you know I love me some heavy metal, and more specifically I love doom metal. I listen to many genres of music, but metal has my heart. This extends to space rock, desert rock, stoner rock, sludge metal, and psychedelic rock. I do hope you are familiar. More than anything I love the slower, groovier metal. I adore heavy bass riffs. The kind that groove back and forth like the ocean does. I can get lost in bass lines all day, every day, probably for the rest of my life, and beyond. The connections to this blog will all come together by the end of the series, at least, that's what I'm hoping for. I'll pick a song each time I plan to post and I will dissect it according to my senses. I will also include a link and time stamps. Maybe you will find you are a synesthete yourself. Or maybe it will give you a better appreciation of the piece of music. All I know is, I am truly captivated by music and the way I experience it. Maybe my kids will find these one day after I am gone, many, many years from now, and they will appreciate it. Or they can say, "Shit man, Mom was bonkers!"

    I will warn you though, some of these experiences of musical landscape were done with psychedelic assistance. A few, not all. All that really did was intensify what I already experience on a normal basis. I am not telling you to do the same. I am not here to preach anything either. Take it for what is is. I hope you enjoy these next however-many posts. Share when you feel the need, comment as you feel the urge to do so. But if your vibe is at all negative, you know right where the hell the door is...Thanks in advance for reading.