The Medicine Cabinet #9

Music Is My Medicine

by Nayt Housman

Music is my medicine. Is it yours? I ask the public six golden questions to find out if and how they use music to feed the soul.

Walking through the doors of the surgery this week for a musical checkup is the enigmatic, charismatic and eccentric Bianca. At 36, Bianca, whose life passion is good-looking things, shares her expansive love of music, her daily devotion to it and what you’d probably find written on her grave stone.

Bianca: "I found it hard, it's hard to find, oh well, whatever, never mind..." as I died, my best friends were under strict instructions to quote me as saying that if I happened to die a little too suddenly.

Bianca by Nayt Housman

Thinking of music as medicine...

Who flicks your switch and turns up the volume?

Bianca: You mean as in sedates me or gets me dancing?

You tell me!

Bianca: Well if I needed to chill out I'd put on some Sonic Youth or old Magic Dirt, but if I was going to get loose and shake my thang I'd probably listen to something more like NERD, Klaxons, Moby, Kelis...
 

Why are they the pills that cure your ills?

Bianca: Well Sonic Youth are just really relaxed, more like background music. It has always had this sound to me where I picture sitting in an old NYC apartment with big glass windows all warm while it's raining outside. That's what they sound like. I've had guys over and they message me a couple of months later asking what the name of the album was.


Tell me about the other pills that cure your ills?

Bianca: Well I used to listen to Nirvana when I was like 15 and I remember it having a definite euphoric/calmative effect when I was upset, which was 90% of the time. I digress...


You mentioned NERD, Klaxons, Moby, Kelis?


One day NIN 'Head Like a Hole' was playing and my mum came into my bedroom and started screaming just over the chorus and I was just observing this obscure art imitates life situation. It was amazing. Yeah NERD is the shit; Pharrel is hot and rides BMX…

Klaxons? Moby? Kelis?

Bianca: Well Klaxons have done some good shit with a pulse; they're also quite well dressed. Moby's Bodyrock is just a standout classic for me. That was the 2nd song that would just make me get up and dance (after "Freestyler") and the film clip is just awesome. Moby was played at my uncle's funeral, but obviously not Bodyrock.


Kelis is the shit; I've been getting into her since she first released ‘I Hate You So Much Right Now’ (Caught Out There) and I love karaokeing to her before I go out to party.

What high do they give you?

Bianca: Well they don't get me high, man, but they get me into a party mood and Ke$ha will make me stay up and drink beer all night every bloody time. 

When do you find yourself craving musical relief?

Bianca: With coffee/alcohol/BMX/shower. Definitely can't drink without it though and well, my radio is permanently on. I won't ride without my mp3 player, I don't sleep without listening to Sonic Youth... So pretty much anytime I'm conscious and even sometimes when I'm not.

Where does music take you? 

Bianca: I'm not answering these questions right am I?


There are no right or wrong answers!


Bianca: Good then I'll assume it's right. Well usually to a party...


At least a party of one…


Usually a party of one.

How do you share your music love?

Bianca: I'm one of those terribly irritating people that hijack the sound system at parties and sing a lot; loudly and badly.

So not like this? 

--------------------------------------------------------

You breathe, there’s music; you eat, there’s music; you sleep, there’s music; you work, there’s music; you play, there’s music. Anyone see a pattern here? When music infiltrates every aspect of life, it becomes a religious experience. It’s meditation, stimulation, emotion, reflection, guidance, it’s EVERYTHING. I shall dub this ‘The Deity Effect’. When nothing feels right without the presence of that which you worship. It’s the words, the sounds and the feels, OH the feels.


Doctor Nayt’s prescription is to throw away that archaic diatribe and plug your ears with a pair of earphone buds, preferably attached to some kind of music device (unless of course there is music always in your head). There isn’t one single activity that can’t benefit from some musical stimulation. Not one. Ever. Nothing can’t be made better with music. Put it in you.