The Medicine Cabinet #17

FELIX IS IN THE HOUSE

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.

Felix by Nayt Housman

Oh hi there Felix! Can I peer into you brain for a moment? I can? AWESOME! Oh what an awesome brain it is. This is a 29yo brain in the noggin of a man whose life passion is a form of curiosity most of us are familiar with, learning. Felix says, “Wanting to develop my mind and keep my integrity,” is what makes him tick, which is something I can relate to in wanting to learn what makes others tick musically. Let’s peer into the window.


Thinking of music as medicine:


Who are the musicians and/or bands that flick your switch and turn up the volume?


Felix: The Pixies simply because I have a good memories of them, they’ve been around at good times, then probably Mogwai and also Midlake.

Why are they the pills that cure your ills?


Felix: There’s a philosopher who I’m trying to think of. A 19th century German philosopher who talked about music as being the highest form of art but more an art form that would let you lose yourself in it. Because when people listen and become lost in it they forget about their suffering. In some of the songs those bands play like maybe Roscoe by Midlake, the complexity of it is enough that I find I’m able to lose myself in it.

Is that an umbrella feeling for all three bands?


Felix: I think of each band as not only different, it’s like it’s own different musical style, but it’s had the context for me. With the Pixies I’ve been sort of drunk and it’s jived with that. I guess with Midlake I’ve also been intoxicated and what have you so…


What kind of high do they give you?


Felix: Mellow and comfortable.

 
When do you find yourself craving music for relief?


Felix: Traffic’s not a bad one, crowds of people and I need a distraction. It makes that lubricant for social interaction.

Where in life, home, and your world does music take you?


Felix: Introspectively even when I’m around crowds of people, even when I go to crowds of people, when there’s a gig on or something I find music makes me more introspective.

Some bands I guess like the Pixies takes me back to memories of really dingy house parties after punk gigs.


How do you share your music love?


Felix: I was a radio presenter on 4zzz for the best part of a decade…

Probably just linking things to people on the Internet, that’s how most people seem to do stuff these days, that’s mostly it. No one does mix tapes anymore.

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“The very last person you want to lie to is yourself.” These are the words left with me by Felix. Do they ring true to you? They certainly sit heavily yet in a comfortable place within me. Why you ask? Music. Music has, maybe surprisingly or not, taught me a lot through life. I listen to the lyrics, which describe experiences, feelings and processes of the individuals who wrote them; I’m captured by the beats and melodies that carry the lyrics and suggest the tone and themes held within. From these experiences I can process my own and find comfort in a sense of unity that I am not alone in this world. Music is after all a tool for sharing and communicating among other things. The kind of music I connect with most is the kind of music that shares the truths of life, love, loss and longing and it’s the, which provides me an escape/distraction from the continuing cycles around me.


I shall dub this “The Scopolamine Effect” - music as a truth inducing, reality distracting, psychoactive experience. It has the ability to change our mood, open our minds, enhance our experiences and gives us an opportunity to reflect and critique ourselves based on the lives and shared experiences of our music heroes.


Doctor Nayt’s prescription tonight is, when life is spiraling out of control, the happenings around you are clouding your judgments or you simply need to be grounded within yourself, you should employ the services of the musicians who for centuries have created a kind of high provided by nothing else in this world. This after all is a high that can connect with our deepest feelings, can be felt through vibrations and the chills created down one's spine, can be seen in the words on pages and bodies on stages, can stimulate memories of smells, tastes and experiences of places and people and can be heard in the familiar highs and lows of instrumentation that carries our favourite lyrics. You should do this every night and day if necessary. There is no risk of detrimental addiction and it can be used over long periods without specific complications other than acute tiredness from dancing, hoarseness from singing too loudly or wetness in the ocular region from weeping.