The widespread interest in psychedelics that we’ve seen penetrate the cultural and scientific mainstream over the last decade has largely been defined on medical and business terms. Major news outlets cover the stories of veterans utilizing Ibogaine for mental health, Bloomberg covers the rise of psychedelic stocks, and the commentariat zero in on changing policy at the state and federal level.
In the process of the scientific and business communities legitimizing psychedelics, the way that people actually engage with them in the real world often becomes something of a sideshow. The first wave of psychedelic experimentation in the west gave rise to the infamous ‘Hippy Era’, which was largely held within a musical container rather than a clinical one.
The Grateful Dead circa 1970
The Beatles implored people to ‘give peace a chance’, while the Grateful Dead performed for tens of thousands of people at Golden Gate Park’s ‘Love In’ – Carlos Santana transmitted mescaline-driven frequencies to an estimated 500,000 people at Woodstock, and Jimi Hendrix set the night – and his guitar – on fire in Finsburg Park, London as an act of rebellious liberation at the height of his success.
Today, the cultural markers that accompany the renewed psychedelic social experiment in western culture are curiously detached from musical expression in regards to how the transformative potential of these substances are represented in the public sphere; you’re far more likely to hear about clinical studies corroborating the potential for psilocybin to alleviate PTSD or Treatment-Resistant Depression on the evening news than you are to hear about a popular artist who took mushrooms and penned a career-defining hit.
Radiohead. From left to right: Thom Yorke, Jonny Greenwood, Colin Greenwood, Ed O’Brien, and Philip Selway / Photo credit: Raph_PH, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
For many of us in the psychedelic space, music remains the vehicle through which we navigate, experience, and integrate the psychedelic experience. I’ll never forget the first time I started peaking on mushrooms, standing in front of a wall of speakers between musical acts at a county fair and experiencing the opening chords to Idioteque by Radiohead – it went beyond ‘hearing’, fully consuming my being and instantly blowing the roof off of my imagination.
The beating heart of today’s psychedelic zeitgeist continues to be driven by artists, performers and weirdos who have found an outlet for synthesizing meaning from their psychedelic experiences and integrating by creating and expressing through the medium of music. These are some of the people on the inside of the psychedelic space who are carrying the musical torch on to the next generation of artists.
“Yelawolf is a visionary artist, whose music and creativity span multiple genres. I’m personally inspired by his ability to almost shapeshift creatively speaking and switch genres in an extreme fashion while appearing to do so effortlessly,” says music industry executive and high dose mushroom ceremonialist Edward Crowe, who manages the hit rapper.
Also, I’m inspired by his desire to embrace his age in a world where artists specifically tend to do the opposite. In the song ‘You and Me’ he says ‘Like a raven over the grave, I get lost over the page, I’m in tune with my spirit, doin shrooms trip for days’.
I’m most excited about his forthcoming album ‘45’, which is another genera flip, Wolf comes back with a singer songwriter masterpiece.
Reggie Watts is the epitome of a psychedelic artist – his body of work is so creative, original, spontaneous and captivating that it closely mirrors the relationship that an individual has when their corporeal being dissolves into the kaleidoscope of colors, sounds and sensations of a psychedelic journey.
His work is largely improvisational and carries a sense of humor, wit, and musical virtuosity that is an exceedingly rare combination. That he’s managed to make a career out of it and tour the world as a performer at highly respected venues is an even rarer feat, as his body of work sits largely outside of the traditional pop music canon. Reggie Watts blows my mind every time I see him get on stage, and he is a keystone musical ambassador for psychedelic artistry.
Poppa Cap represents an emerging class of artists that make conscious music educating people about mushrooms while never skimping on the production quality and lyrical flow. In his own words:
“My music is my own journey I tell through lo-fi, funky, modern, and acoustic sounding music. Every track is a different trip, like every mushroom experience I’ve had. Some songs are dreamy, some have a hard urban pulse, others lean into acoustic warmth. But all of them are steps toward healing, growing from pain, seeking wisdom. – Poppa Cap
Ajanimf is a producer and rapper who incorporates alternative jazz into his musical stylings, infusing educational content about growing mushrooms and leaning into a healthier lifestyle while making music that slaps.
Rob Lopez is a Bay Area rapper and mushroom educator who brings a decolonial lens and nature education into his musical craft. He appears at festivals and events as both a rapper and as an educator.
William Padilla-Brown / It’s Cosmic
William-Padilla Brown is a well-known citizen scientist and community organizer working at the intersection of regenerative ecology and mushroom entrepreneurship. He hosts the annual Mycofest gathering in Pennsylvania and lectures at universities and festivals worldwide about cutting edge topics such as native North American truffles and permaculture design. He’s been making music under the name It’s Cosmic for years, and has managed to integrate his multidimensional personality and approach to business into educational hip-hop.
“So far the most succinct description I’ve heard was from our first album’s producer Jesse Cannon who said it sounds like Math Rock Animal Collective. It threads together the lineages of melody centered psychedelic pop, like The Beatles, Beach Boys, Tame Impala, and Panda Bear from animal collective, with the technical flurry of math rock like The Fall of Troy and Texas band Hikes.”
Tyler Saucier, lead vocals and guitar for Sunrise & Ammunition
A group of Palestinian and Israeli musicians that collaborate in a peacebuilding coalition. They’ve performed at venues worldwide, including at MAPS’ Psychedelic Science in Denver in 2023. Psychedelic researcher Leor Roseman and peace activist Sami Awad lead the collective, which focuses on musical performances and psychedelics as tools for peace building and healing generational trauma incurred by the Palestinian – Israeli community.
The diversity of genres that now span the psychedelic music canon are a reflection of the growing populations and subcultures interested in the psychedelic experience. Whereas the term ‘psychedelic music’ in the 1960’s largely evokes images of acid-soaked rock bands like 13th Floor Elevators and Grateful Dead or the iconic guitar stylings and vocal timbre of Jimi Hendrix or Janis Joplin, today’s psychedelic musical community is an amalgamation of every imaginable genre framed by a socially and environmentally conscious aesthetic. While the scientific and business communities may generate more headlines in relation to today’s “Psychedelic Renaissance”, the impact of the growing movement on the musical output of our time continues to expand in scope and influence.
Dennis Walker is a global mushroom industry consultant and avid traveler. He is the founder of Mycopreneur, a platform dedicated to advancing the mushroom entrepreneurial ecosystem. His work has been featured in Rolling Stone. Forbes, Wired, Vice, High Times, and many other outlets. He is also the founder of Mycoday mushroom chocolate, an adaptogenic mushroom chocolate brand.
