Trouble Maker Interview Series: The Mind Traveler - "Everybody has their own story, needs, fears, dreams… The hardest part is to find your truth in the chaos of our own feelings and the standards imposed by society."

I met you one year before the actual meeting, in May 2015. I was booking a tour around Europe for my collective of independent artists based in Paris, JamBus Experience. I reached out to all my contacts and posted in several Facebook music related groups, saying I needed to connect with similar communities and wanted to build a European network of help between independent artists. A busker friend from Berlin, Pan Chimzee, advised me to contact you as you had a similar local goal with the Berlin Street Music collective. I had just watched one of your videos and was blown away when Steffi wrote me, after seeing one of my posts on a Facebook group. So, at first, it felt like an interesting synchronicity of ideas, before it became a musical and a human connection.

LOSING MY TIES

Losing your Ties is also the story of my life! I was a dotcom entrepreneur since I was 19 and then had comfortable jobs in marketing. I had always played music, but saw it as a hobby because of the conditioning I had been exposed to. Then, right after I turned 30, I got fired from my job, got dumped by my girlfriend, and on top of that my rock band split. That felt like a calling from Life saying « hey bro, is that really what you wanted? » So, I flew to San Francisco with no other purpose to get some distance, and I busked for the first time, which was a revelation. When I came back to Paris, I started doing it too. Then I tried it in Vienna, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam… It naturally became my new lifestyle, so I went on an even bigger busking trip from Dublin to Istanbul. In a weird way, I didn’t really chase my dreams at first, but they chased me because I had lost sight of them in the loudness of the capitalist society.

YOUR TRUTH

Everybody has their own story, needs, fears, dreams… The hardest part is to find your truth in the chaos of your own feelings and the standards imposed by society. But if something doesn’t feel right, it means your brain is telling you to change something. So, follow your instincts. Experiment. Travel. Meet and connect with as many people as possible. Surround yourself with positive energy and those who can uplift you. This is the only way, you will find what feels right, what makes sense and what’s meaningful to you. Step by step, you will find your truth and that will help you trust yourself and trust life. Don’t focus too much on the dream itself, but live in the present to enjoy the journey. Then, once you reconnect with your truth, if you work towards what you want, anything is possible.

THE POWER OF INSPIRATION

One year ago I told you, I was more of a storyteller. To this time I was struggling with my musical creative process. If you had asked me one year before, I would have told you that my mission was to manage the younger artists from the collective, because I didn’t believe I could create anymore, as I was at the end of a 6 years writer’s block. Today, I see that I needed this experience to feel the urge to write again. It was a long process and it came step by step. I’m writing a book about it, and a blog about the process of inspiration behind the EP I just released. But to sum it up, it came through meetings with people who inspired me. It wasn’t a coincidence that you came to Paris when I was struggling with my music because yours pushed me to dig dipper while creating my own.

For me true inspiration comes from people, connections, emotions and stories of humanity. The power of music is that it can transform this inspiration into sounds. That’s what struck me when I got to know you guys more in Paris. I had never truly talked to Bennet, but I realized that everything I found out about him, I had heard through his violin. It reminded myself that I needed to make my music sound more like ME and everything I am. I got a lot closer to this self fullfilment when you invited me to Italy in May. We met many inspiring people every day, in every city. The book I’m writing is called « another day, in another city, in another life », so everything felt connected. After I returned to Paris, I wrote « See you in another life » in 30 minutes. On some level, it was the most honest piece I had even written… But on another level, it felt like a mystical inspiration gave it to me, like it was a gift from the Universe. People say that music is a universal language… But I feel like music is the language of the Universe. So that’s what inspiration feels to me now, it’s some kind of access to a wider consciousness.

To learn more about The Mind Traveller and listen to his music, visit his website : www.themindtraveller.com

We meet you in every city that we travel to, magicians – likeminded souls that we want to portrait as The Troublemakers. Our mission is to give each one of you a voice. Life is about exchange and sharing a picture. We believe all of you have a unique and individual connection to The Trouble Notes and therefore we want to digitally bring you a bit closer together. Even though you all are spread around the world. We believe we can grow together. This project is the brainchild of our manager Stefanie Tendler (@lalalopoberlin), who is responsible for connecting our troubled universe.