Ellen Johnson Interview - The Final on Vinyl Podcast

I had a very enlightening conversation with Ellen Johnson regarding her recent project, Elemental Essence-A Neurosonic Journey.

Keith "MuzikMan" Hannaleck

Transcript

Speaker 0:03

Hello everybody, this is Keith MuzikMan Hannaleck and Elect with the Final and Vinyl podcast, and today we are with Ellen Johnson, who just released her newer album, Elemental Essence, a Neurosonic Journey, on June twelfth. Welcome, Ellen.

Speaker 1 0:20

Hi, Keith. How are you?

Speaker 0:23

Good. Thank you for coming on board. Hope you're doing well.

Speaker 2 0:27

Yeah, my pleasure. Thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 0:31

Well, I did take a look at your website and um tell me your past work. It looks like you did a lot of jazz, and you also have vocal training um recordings available for people as well, right?

Speaker 2 0:44

Yeah, I'm uh I'm sort of uh uh eclectic in my uh my background. I've I've done everything from classical music to music musical theater. Started out in and actually in theater and um did pop music and all kinds of music and I settled into jazz a bit because I really um it just spoke to me in terms of the nature of the improvisation and uh freedom of expression. So um yeah, that's been a a good home for me for a long time. But I've been involved with healing music way way way beyond that. So that's been a thread through my entire life. So it's just sort of they've sort of all come together now. So that's how I look at that.

Speaker 1:31

So you had some challenges in life and you overcome them through using music and sound, and you decide to put this album together and let everybody else know that they can heal as well.

Speaker 2 1:46

Yeah, I mean I think that music has been the other part of the thread of my life of uh and I think other people who who either are in music or who use music, uh whether they're aware of it or not, it it is a it is a healing tool for us. And I think more and more it's coming out uh because of the research that's being done by uh a lot of people, a lot of organizations, um, and making the connection that the arts are not just our enjoyment, but it's also feeds our mind. It's uh part of um uh you know helping us uh neurologically, but also in our um our health. And so I think that we're gonna find in the future that you know it's already starting to happen, is you know, you may we may be prescribing the arts for some of our well-being. So that's the direction it seems to be moving in.

Speaker 2:40

Right. I've covered a lot of music in the new age realm where people have PhDs in music therapy and uh all different subgenres of that kind of work. And when you decided to create this album, what exactly triggered that for you and how long did it take you to get this together?

Speaker 2 3:05

Well, uh for me, uh it kind of happened sort of organically to start with. I it was almost like a foreshadowing of events. The first song that I created was Amphitrides Longing, which is the water element, and it's Amphitride is the goddess of the ocean. And um uh at that time I was not planning on doing a full album. It was it came out as a this as a single, and uh it just was a foreshadowing of what was going to be happening in my life, and um from there I think um also learning the technology. I did this on Logic, and um that was sort of something new for me to uh to take over my own recording. Nor normally most of my recordings have been done in the studio uh with someone else you know engineering it and doing all of that. So it was uh it was uh quite an undertaking from that point of view. And then um the rest of it came out of um trying to really uh find a way to whether it was conscious or unconscious, to uh walk through this um time in my life that was uh and still walking through it actually, but you know, trying to deal with some traumatic um experiences of my life that I was trying to heal myself with this. And um so I you know it being creative and doing music has always been um therapeutic for me. So um that's the direction I went in when I created this.

Speaker 4:36

I see. So, what were some of your influences as you grew up listening to music and learning how to uh play instruments and so forth? Well, how did how did that develop over the years to bring you to where you are today?

Speaker 2 4:53

Well, I grew up I grew up with a mother who had an incredible singing voice and wasn't uh could play the piano. She was an amazing musician, um, although she wasn't able to fully uh you know become a professional because she decided to have a family and then she was tr dealing with her own traumatic experiences around that. And I so I grew up listening to music uh as a child, and that's where I learned that music heals because I watched my mom when she was going through really tough times, and if she sat down at the piano and and started singing, I I I even as a child I noticed some transformation and I didn't know what it was. And you know, so I was I b I was influenced by all kinds of music because uh there was a lot of music in our home. But you know, I mean I was a big Joni Mitchell fan. I started out doing folk music. That wasn't you know, that was in the early days that's that's what I did. I did, you know, pop music and all kinds of things. I was uh you know, and even um experimental music, um electronic music, uh everything. I for me it I mean I'm interested in all of it. It's it to me it's I'm not a I don't have to be with any particular explore of the quality of the and the than the the actual genre. So I have an appreciation for some and I guess that's why for me it's easy for me to kind of integrate things because I see this the intersections between things you know.

Speaker 1 6:26

Can you hear me okay? Okay. I can hear you. Okay. All right, well that makes sense.

Speaker 6:35

Um so during your process you said you used Prologic, right?

Speaker 2 6:41

Yeah, Logic Pro, yes.

Speaker 6:43

Oh, Logic Pro, Prologic. I thought it was prologue. I had it backwards, okay. So that was that was your first experience with that, and um, like you said, it must have been quite the challenge. So how long was the process before you finally had it ready to be mastered and to put it out to the masses?

Speaker 2 7:01

Well, uh a couple of years, and I have to say, you know, I had I had help with um uh a wonderful pianist and uh you know somebody who's sort of an expert in that area was Jason Martineau, and um he he was definitely a nice mentor in that process. Uh and so I give a lot of credit to him. And then of course, um the other thing about this recording is it it is it has um uh brainwave entrainment throughout it, and um it's a brainwave entrainment musically but also um incorporated through binaural beats and um uh uh immersive 3D type of uh design. And uh so I worked with um Shea Thompson, who which is Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's son. Dr. Jeffrey Thompson's been doing this kind of work for over 40 years as a sensor in um uh San Diego for a long time, and so he's kind of known for this uh being you know, doing these kinds of broadcast recordings there with scientific sounds. And um so I had him um uh bring in the you know the other uh uh brainwave entrainment uh by Norl Beats and all that, and he did the some of the mix, some of the mixing on that end, and then also the mastering so that that was as accurate as it could be. So um we um originally when I did this, it was the idea of creating something that was about the five elements of nature, which for me, nature, music, and consciousness is sort of you know what I what I s sort of uh go towards. And so we took all the different elements earth, water, fire, air, ether, and we in put entrainment um with the binaural beams and um from different hertz from starting with earth was like four hertz, water is six hertz, fire is thirteen hertz, air is thirty-eight hertz, and ether is forty hertz. And it would be like a job uh like sonic journey. That's what we call a neurosonic journey. If you start from the beginning and go all the way through, it's uh it's like you by the time you get to the end, you're in this other brainwave state. Um however, you can you can you can listen to a single track and get something from that particular brainwave state as well. So this is kind of a musical and music meets science project.

Speaker 9:29

Right, right. Well, I remember you telling me um um that you wanted me to use the WAV files and not MP3s because of the compression, it removes those third elements. Is that right?

Speaker 2 9:42

Correct, correct. You get the the the most important thing is to is for people to wear uh wired headphones, that's really important, um, because you want it to be on both sides of your your your you know both both ears or both sides of your head. Or you can listen to speakers on both sides of your head. Um but uh my understanding, and again, this is this is over my my uh scope of uh understanding, but according to you know uh Shea, the the the Bluetooth is not as doesn't work as well, and of course uh um the MP3s are not as effective. So you want a WAV file go because the WAV file has all the data, so you get the complete experience of it. So if people can, you know, they want to really get the complete I mean you can still get a great experience on the MP3, and that's out there on all platforms free. I am I I do sell the WAVE files on my um on my website at Ellen Johnson.net, but if you just want to enjoy it and and you still get brainwave entrainment, it it's it's just that you may not get some of the binaural beat effects uh as uh as as well as when you do the wave files.

Speaker 10:54

Interesting. So is it the compression of the MP3s or is it another element that that downgrades that aspect of the music and the sounds?

Speaker 2 11:06

Well, my understanding, and again, I'm not this is not my wheelhouse, but is that because you don't get all the data in the MP3 files and the data is is is more clear in the in the WAV file. You have we have all the data.

Speaker 1 11:21

Interesting.

Speaker 2 11:23

So oh and um there is a podcast uh of Shay and I talking about this on um Sound Creativity Journal Substack, if anybody wants to check that out. He he explains it much better than I do. Okay. I'm sort of the musician uh, you know, doing the br doing this stuff that's more on a musical level because um brainwave entrainment isn't just binaural beats. I mean you can get it through isochronic tones, harmonic layering. So like isochronic tones for the all for your audience would be like, you know, what the shamans used to do when they play drums, it's you know, repetitive beats. You know, it's it's why we love a groove, you know, when we hear a band play, and you know, we we all get entrained to the groove of the of the music, the beat of the music. Um, and then harmonic layering, the way that you layer the music can have an effect, like if you have um sounds that are uh moving, you know, can can be a part of a um a brainwave entrainment. Um if you just s uh don't sync a track, you say you have a double track and you don't sync it completely together, just slightly off, that can create it. Um there's so many ways you can create some types of these um brainwave entrainments, but of course the binaural beats are more accurate to exact you know hertz. So uh with with with Shea, we were we were really being trying to be as accurate as possible in what we were trying to create with these different um elements in terms of what the experience would be on that on those um uh using those frequencies.

Speaker 13:03

I see. Do you intend to take this on a road, do seminars or retreats for anything?

Speaker 2 13:09

Well, I would love to do that. You know, that's something I would like. I have I have online uh workshops that I do, um, but I haven't done anything yet with this project out. I mean I've done other things uh but not not with this one yet. So I I hope that's my hope to do some more with of that in the future. Yeah.

Speaker 13:30

Yeah, that would be great.

Speaker 1 13:32

You could uh integrate all of that.

unknown 13:37

Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 13:40

I'm sorry, go ahead.

Speaker 2 13:41

I was gonna say, oh yeah, and there's and there's so much more to it. I mean it's also um, you know, the experience of people being all together also makes a difference in how this is experienced. It's like, you know, the idea of you know, when we're all together, we create w if we have an intention together, we can create a very powerful experience. So um I think I think doing this with uh groups of people is it would be a great experience. And also some of the aspects of this, you know, for example, some of the like the 40 40 hertz is like the one of the most research frequencies in neuroscience, and it's it's connected to um you know maybe the possibility of uh I I don't like to say anything for sure because there's there's there's a lot of research and it's still ongoing, but they found um great improvement with Alzheimer's and um and also in that Hertz range is a very meditative state where they did a study with the Dalai Lama and and the monks. Um I should say the monks, he actually wanted to do that study, and they determined that that's a that's a brainwave state that they're at when they're when they're meditating. So I mean these are these are things we're learning about how we can get ourselves to these certain brainwave states and and help ourselves to heal different things.

Speaker 15:04

Wow, very interesting. Well, you mentioned getting getting people together. You know, music is very communal. I mean, you know, you look at how many people attend concerts and everybody's just there together taking it all in. So it makes total sense why you'd want to have groups, you know.

Speaker 2 15:21

Well, and you you know, think about yourself going to a concert, you know, like you walk out of there and you feel uplifted or something has transformed, right? You know, it's why people go, Oh, I love going to this concert. It's like it's it's it's the music, there's it's also the experience of being together, but it you know, we we don't give sometimes the arts the credit it deserves in our society of what it does for for humanity, what it does for us on a uh individual and a collective basis.

Speaker 15:53

Very true. There's a lot more to it than than meets the eye, that's for sure. That's for sure.

Speaker 1 16:00

Well it was a um, I was gonna go ahead.

Speaker 2 16:05

Research this is is more and more and more. I I want to tell people, your audience, that you know, there's a you know, we're w the the idea of um neuroarts, which is becoming a you know a a new thing, all it's new to some of us and not new to others of us, but it's a connection of res of music and the arts and and and meeting with science and all the things that qualitatively some of us have been doing as musicians or artists, now we've got the quantitative scientists researching why is that happening and because we have the more of the tools to do this. And so I think you're gonna see more and more in the future that these things are gonna come out of the importance of um you know the arts in as it in terms of uh human beings at wellness and uh like I said when I started. So it's an exciting time actually, you know, to the positive part of things in the world, this is one of them. It's a very exciting time.

Speaker 17:05

Well, it looks like you intersected uh right at the right time too with your music, Alan. And I really appreciate what you're doing for everyone that needs to hear this, and I enjoyed it and uh enjoy talking to you today, and I hope we can stay in touch and do this again sometime.

Speaker 2 17:24

Oh, I'd love to, and thank you so much, Keith, for um you know, I know you you wrote a beautiful article, I really appreciate that, and uh for giving me the time to talk about this, which is a a project that I is dear near and dear to my heart, and hopefully, you know, my intention in doing this was that if it helped me, that perhaps it could help others.

Speaker 17:46

Absolutely. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

Speaker 2 17:49

Thanks, Keith.

Speaker 1 17:51

Take care. Bye bye.