PT509 – Music for Psychedelic Exploration, and the First 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Album
Psychedelics Today
Psychedelics Today, LLC
4.6 • 598 Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2024
⏱️ 69 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Joe interviews a psytrance musician who has created what may be the world's first modular album for psychedelic exploration under his project, Held By Sound.
He talks about his background in the rave and festival scene, the moment he realized he wanted to make music, and the realization that he could create soundscapes specifically for journeys into non-ordinary states. And he digs into the 'choose your own adventure' framework of the free album: how he actually recorded 3 different albums and figured out how to transition into different moods based on which direction the listener wants to go – from more still to more expansive, to darker or more bittersweet. He has also created music for DMT trials in the UK, and talks a lot about the potential in extended-state DMT experiences.
He also discusses:
- How he came up with the flow of the album related to phases of the trip
- How much of a catalyst and safe container music can be, with or without a complimentary substance
- How psychedelics in a fun, festival experience with lots of laughter can be extremely beneficial – you don't need to do them the 'correct' way
- Graham Hancock, Donald Hoffman, and the concept of consciousness as the building block of all reality
- Psytrance, classical music, traditional Bwiti music, Lady Gaga, and what music he feels is best for exploration
and more!
For links, head to the show notes page.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, everybody and welcome back to psychedelics today. |
| 0:14.4 | This is Joe Moore coming at you from Breckenridge, Colorado. |
| 0:17.7 | Today on the show, we have Shahar Amit from Held by Sound. It was a really lovely conversation. |
| 0:25.0 | And we went all over the map talking about composing music for psychedelic sessions, festival |
| 0:32.6 | experiences, and we can get some Graham Hancock in here, DMTX and a bunch more. But I think talking about |
| 0:41.2 | his path towards music was really good for me and interesting to me. And then also, you know, |
| 0:46.7 | how we might progress this thing a little further. I think our understanding of music largely for |
| 0:51.3 | psychedelic sessions is a little more immature than we would like. |
| 0:55.3 | And I think there's a lot of hope here. |
| 0:57.5 | All right. |
| 0:57.8 | I think that's it for now. |
| 0:59.1 | Thanks Shahar for being on the show. |
| 1:00.5 | Really appreciate you being here and hope we can do it again. |
| 1:04.9 | All right. |
| 1:05.2 | Thanks everybody for tuning in. |
| 1:06.3 | We'll see you on the other side. |
| 1:10.9 | Hey, this is David Drabkin, Director of Education at Psychedelics today. |
| 1:15.5 | Are you a clinician or wellness practitioner who wants to learn more about the clinical and real |
| 1:20.6 | world practical applications of psychedelics? |
| 1:24.0 | In that case, take a look at our upcoming Navigating Psychedelics Live course. |
| 1:29.3 | This is our nine-week live-taught online course that will teach you everything you need to know about the safe use and integration of psychedelics. |
| 1:37.3 | In small learning groups, we'll cover topics such as the history, science and therapeutic potential of enthogens and psychoactives. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Psychedelics Today, LLC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Psychedelics Today, LLC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.