Can You Hear The Music

Create a soundtrack for your life

July, 2023
250.8 pounds

"The important thing isn't can you read music, it's can you hear it. Can you hear the music, Robert?"

Neils Bohr, speaking to Robert J. Oppenheimer in the movie Oppenheimer

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By the end of July, I was almost ready to leave for Singapore. Meenakshi’s mom had left the US in mid-July to get her home ready for my visit. We had finalized most of the details of Project Me - it was now time to execute. The only thing still outstanding was the music: what music would I listen to while I was in Singapore?

Music has always been a big part of my life. My dad loved music and I grew an appreciation for it early. I started playing the cornet in 3rd grade. My parents had to push me to practice piano, but not the cornet. I played that because I loved it.

In 1989, my parents bought a CD player and gave me a copy of Danny Elfman's Batman soundtrack for Christmas. A year earlier, I got my first Wynton Marsalis album (cassette tapes). For several years, I spent hours every day after school playing with Wynton and as part of Danny’s orchestra. I got to the point where I could play right along with them. My favorite song to play was Up the Cathedral, this incredible, epic score placed against Batman's climb up the cathedral to face The Joker in the final minutes of Tim Burton’s Batman. The brass instruments and organ in that song never failed to move me.

In high school I switched from cornet to trumpet. The trumpet was raw power, and I loved it. I played throughout high school but stopped once I graduated. I miss the trumpet, but I've lived in a dorm room, apartment, or condo since I left high school and it's hard to play a brass instrument in crowded buildings. While at the time, I let that part of me go, someday I would like to play again.

My taste in music has changed over the years. Throughout high school and into college, I listened to metal and grunge music. Around 2000, when Napster became available, sampling new types of music became much easier. I experimented a lot. I discovered Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, and shortly after, Armin van Buuren. When I went back to grad school in 2004, I discovered through trial and error that house and trance music helped me focus more when I studied. So did movie scores.

From 2000 to 2023, almost all of the music I listened to would fall into a few categories: house and trance, movie scores, and ‘epic’ music. My tastes had shifted from Tool, Korn, and Soundgarden, to Dutch DJs, Hans Zimmer, and Ivan Torrent. There is one thing all of these new music types have in common: they either don't have lyrics or the lyrics are not important. It's about the music. It's the music that makes you feel something, not the words.

In the summer of 2023, as I prepared for Singapore, I began playing with my music selection. I wanted a playlist that I knew would deliver the goods, day in and day out. A playlist of songs that was just the right length and diverse enough to keep me from getting bored with it.

Years earlier, I had learned a trick from Ryan Holiday that helped increase my focus: listen to a single song or set of songs on repeat, over and over and over. I tried it, and it worked. Very well, in fact. I have done it ever since.

My plan was to make one playlist for the trip and listen to it over and over. Music that never failed to create some emotional response in me when called upon. My very own, customized, personalized Rocky Balboa montage music and soundtrack for the movie I was making about myself in my head. That's what I was seeking.

While sound and music cannot be directly converted into fuel that can be used by the body in the same way that food can, music does have indirect effects on our ability to push ourselves to do hard things. When we listen to music, sound waves are converted into electrical signals in our inner ears and delivered to the brain via the auditory nerve. Multiple areas of the brain become active including the parts involved in sound, decision making, motor function, emotions, and memories. Music has been shown to release dopamine, serotonin, and endorphins, all of which combine to improve motivation, feelings of happiness, and even help to fight through pain.

This is why people listen to music when they work out: because it actually helps.

By the time I was ready to leave for Singapore, I had my list almost ready. It would include artists from my past and present. On Saturday July 30, my penultimate night in the USA for six weeks, Meenakshi and I went to watch Oppenheimer in the IMAX theater with our sister-in-law and nephews, who were visiting from Singapore.

I loved the movie, but what really grabbed me was Ludwig Goransson’s score. I fell in love with it instantly, and with one piece in particular: Can You Hear The Music, a powerful 1 minute 50 second song made using violins, harps, trombones, and French horns that picks up speed and layers throughout, and ultimately crescendos into a powerful finale. I felt it was perfect to add to my playlist, something I could go to when I needed two more minutes of whatever I was doing.

I added it to my playlist the very next day. After a few months of experimenting with a lot of songs, I had a finalized playlist¹ that I would use in Singapore.

It had 11 songs by 8 artists. I would add Travis Scott (FE!N) to the list in Singapore, bringing the total to 9 artists and 12 songs. 44 minutes of the best music I could find that got me moving.

Final playlist, August 2023

I wouldn't listen to any other music while I was there. The thinking had been done, the music was effective at getting me going, I just had to push play every day.

That's what I did.

6 AM

Singapore sits close to the equator, and at 6 AM, it is still dark outside no matter what time of year it is. I was not used to waking up that early, especially waking up to exercise. I needed to jump start my system every day.

Each day started in one of two ways: I either went for a 90 minute walk, or I got in the sauna and then swam 500 meters. In both cases, I started every morning with Zach Hemsey's Greeting The Menace.

It got my blood pumping every morning and it still does every time I listen to it. If you listen for yourself, you'll get a sense for what kind of mindset I was preparing myself for every day: battle.

Each song was especially curated because of how it made me feel. These songs work for me, and you'll have your own songs that work for you. Find them.

While I started every day the exact same way, I also finished every single workout with the same song: Can You Hear The Music. I called on that song hundreds of times over months to push myself for an extra few minutes, especially when I was climbing stairs and anytime my tank was running low and I needed to keep going. The music was a constant source of much needed energy and motivation. The power of the trombones in that song is incredible, it stands neck to neck with Up the Cathedral.

And there is another song in the list that, looking back, I am still amazed was there in the first place: the song I Am, by Markus Schulz. I had discovered this song in the spring of 2007 when I first met Meenakshi, and it was a song I played frequently throughout the years when I needed a boost of energy. I just liked the song and selected it for that reason, but I had no idea what those two words would end up meaning to me and my life.

The entire playlist was instrumental to my journey and it still is. As my journey has evolved, so has the music I listen to. Every few months, I completely change the music and design playlists based on what I am looking to accomplish mentally and physically. In the beginning, I needed intensity. Later I would want more calming music that helped me think and meditate. Today, I am looking for inspiration and power. It evolves as I do.

Looking back, I can confidently say that I would not have accomplished what I have accomplished without the music. Music gives us access to indescribable power that we can use to do amazing things in our lives.

My advice to anyone looking to push themselves to do hard things: make a soundtrack for your own life that will move you, and then, just press play.

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1. Link to the playlist on Spotify: