Songwriter and musician Annie Hart joins Ethan Nichtern for a conversation that touches on the intersection of meditative practice, activism, and music.
Annie Hart is a New York City-based composer, songwriter, and performer. She made her name with David Lynch favorites and Twin Peaks alums, synth trio Au Revoir Simone, and has since branched into a swift-moving solo career. Annie continues to break boundaries by composing music for patient listeners in her own distinctive self-taught style. Her new album, A Softer Offering, explores deep emotional content with a paradoxically lush spareness in sound. Find Annie’s music at anniehart.nyc.
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And Here We Are
Annie speaks about how she got turned on to making music and learning to meditate. She and Ethan talk about the connection between her band Au Revoir Simone, legendary filmmaker David Lynch, and transcendental meditation.
The Bridge Between Meditation & Music (7:15)
What is the link between the practices of meditation and making music? Annie shares her experience of how meditation practice and music-making inform each other.
“The aspect of breath meditation, of just observing yourself as thinking without judgment, really opened this huge door for me as far as being able to observe my own feelings about things without judging them. That helped me, astronomically, to understand what I was trying to create and how I felt about it.” – Annie Hart
Art & Ethics (17:45)
What ethical responsibilities, if any, do artists have to use their spotlight for the greater good? Annie speaks about her personal ethics and the value she finds in using her voice to help cultivate a better world.
“I think an artist’s ethical responsibility is the same as every other person. For me, what helps justify – to myself – the existence of being an artist is to present what I consider to be an ethical view of the world, one of empathy and a kindness to the environment. I feel a strong need to use my platform for that.”- Annie Hart
Virtuoso guitarist and meditation practitioner Julian Lage speaks about creating a vision for what we have to offer the world and how we can hone our creativity with meditative practice on Ep. 10 of the Creativity, Spirituality & Making a Buck
