Mistical (Bajareque)

‘Mistical (Bajareque)’ is a collab project with Parmigianna and Saige Spirit.

Covert art for ‘Mistical (Bajareque)’

AFC in the house.

AFC is Ancient Future Collective, founded by Savej. After a handful of in-person retreats for music production, Savej expanded the vision with 12-week online training cohorts. Cohort 1 lifted off in July of ‘25 and went through September. Amongst the participants: Parmigianna (Gianna), Saige Spirit (Mollie), and myself.

As part of the course design, the cohort was split up into “pods” (small groups) of 3-4 participants. Gianna and I were 2 of the 4 members of our first pod. Somewhere in that span of time we tossed around the idea of eventually working together on a track.

Months later, in December, I had a seed idea that I pitched to Gianna. I started the seed on Ableton’s mobile app, Note. I imported the project into an Ableton project, made a few adjustments and submitted the demo as a potential collaboration project. Gianna dug the vibe, and the project was in motion.

As mentioned in the ‘Premonition’ post, after the first cohort completed the curriculum a remnant of ~10 or so from cohort 1 kept meeting weekly. One of the outcomes is a monthly call for collaboration projects. In January, Mollie and I were paired up for a collab. After working with Mollie on another project, it dawned on me that her touch would be a nice addition to the piece that Gianna and I had begun. I ran the idea by Gianna. Gianna dug that vibe, too, so a 3-way collab project was now in motion.

Gianna and Mollie both put heavy doses of their magic on the track. I added my bits, did some bass design, and mixed the track.

This track had a nostalgic, chill vibe from the start. While the project was coming together, Amy and I were experiencing our first dry season in Panama. Prior to moving to Boquete, we had no idea there is a rainbow season in the highlands due to a natural phenomenon called “bajareque.” It’s a very fine mist that appears to move sideways, mostly, being so easily bossed around by the wind. January through March is also a windy season with gusts up to 80 kilometers per hour.

This mist can and often does occur on sunny days. Meaning → rainbows. Lots of rainbows when the sun is low—ish, like 8am and 5pm.

Amy and I walk into town often, a time we sometimes use to listen to the projects I’m working on. As this track was in the mixing phase in January / February, we were often listening to it while walking in the bajareque.

At the same time, our li’l trio was contemplating concepts for the title of our track. I was already thinking of pitching ‘Bajareque’ when, one morning, the word “mystical” came to mind. Mystical. An attribute of this magical mist.

Mystical. Mist.

Boom! “Mistical.”

And like that, ‘Mistical (Bajareque)’ was a thing.

We pitched the track to High Vibe. They dug the vibe. And on 4/20/2026, we put it out into the world in hopes that many others would dig the vibe, too.

Premonition: Synchronistic and sublime

I had a feeling you might like to know about the track ‘Premonition.’ 😎

Cover art for ‘Premonition’

This track is a collaboration with Just Too Lazy, Adam Enough and myself.

Last year (2025) Amy and I decided to move to Panama at the end of September. Knowing that it may be some time before we return to the States, we made a whirlwind road trip to visit family.

While visiting my kids in Michigan, we were sitting in the living room of my son’s (Shea) apartment that he shares with his partner and 2 friends. One of the 2, Boone, picked up his banjo and began playing a riff. I asked if he’d play it again so I could record it on my iPhone. This story would be boring if he didn’t oblige.

A few months later Amy and I were settling into our temporary digs in Panama. I remembered the Voice Memo recording of the Boone’s banjo. I call it Boonejo. I dropped the recording into Ableton, pitched it up a bit and slowed the tempo quite a bit. It was a groove I knew I could work with. I built a seed of a track using the banjo.

As mentioned before, I was with a cohort of other budding producers to learn the ways of the Ancient Future Collective. The cohort ran through the end of September. A remnant, ~1/3 of the group that began in July continued to meet on Monday evenings. One of the outcomes of those meetings was the decision to pair up each month with a fellow producer to collaborate on a track.

For the month of November, my collab partner was Just Too Lazy, aka Kerry Rodgers. This coincided with the development of the Boonejo joint. I submitted the seed to Kerry. He gave the green light. I handed off the file, and Kerry added his magic and passed it back.

I had Ableton for all of 6 months, which is about the same amount of time I knew of this sacred bass genre. That so, I continued to produce the track (for way too long) through the month of December. When the track was pretty close to done, I kept hearing a section that seemed like it could use a rhyme. I searched for a sample just to test my theory. I dropped in a sample, and it worked. Yes. This is what needs to happen here. But not a sample. I want the real deal.

My brov from Asheville, Trevor, could certainly do it. I contacted him. Sure, he’d love to take a crack at it, but he’d be leaving for 8 days to visit family. Right after would be Christmas, then NYE… etc.

So, it was looking like the track would be on hold for a minute.

During that month Amy was teaching yoga at a studio here in Boquete. One Saturday a tatted-up dude, Adam, set his mat next to mine. We connected a bit after class. Cool dude.

A week later I arrived at the studio to pick Amy up, having skipped the class for reasons I can’t remember. Adam came out a few minutes ahead of Amy, so we greeted one another and had another conversation. We realized that we had both, individually, had a sacred medicine journey during the week leading up to that particular Saturday.

Me (roughly): “Let’s have dinner and talk about it.”

Adam: “Ahight.”

The next evening Amy and I welcomed Adam over for a meal (probably fish of some kind). He arrived while I was still preparing the stuff. I asked if he had any background in music.

“I used to spit rhymes for, like, a decade back in DC. That was 8 years ago.” Something like that.

Jigga whuuuuuuut?

I told him about the music I was producing. I showed him the Boonejo track. He was vibing, immediately. So we decided to give it a go.

Adam left our condo around 9pm that evening. The next morning I had a message from him with the text of the rhyme he woke up with. A bit later he sent a video of him rhyming over the track while driving to his gym class.

Amy and I were giddy with laughter. Pure joy. Like, jigga whuuuuuuuut???

It. Was. Spot. On. Beyond what I’d imagined, because, like Trevor, this dude has a gift with words and phraseology and all of that stuff.

A week or so later he came over to put his verse on the track. Oh, and I didn’t have some of the equipment I thought I had brought to Panama. The only option I had was to use my iPhone to record his vocals.

I mixed his piece into the track, sent it off to be mastered, submitted said master to High Vibe Records, it was accepted, and on April 1, 2026, the track went out into the ethers.

It’s a premonition, inner-vision of the mind,

This is intuition, synchronistic and sublime…

Uh, yeah. I’ll say.

GOLDENROD - Part of the mystery

“Why am I here?” This is the question I’ve started asking myself on the regs these past 3 years. There will be many a post about the eras, fortunes and misfortunes that led me to be open to even ask that question.

To frame the question, it’s not from the perspective of: “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, so tell me.” It’s more like, “OK, YOU. My path led me here. YOU know me. YOU know my values. YOU know what drives me. How shall I proceed at this time in this context?” Replace “YOU” with whatever label you use for the SOURCE.

When I moved to Asheville in June of 2023, my perspective began to open. A lot. I was asking this question almost daily. I can say with the clarity of hindsight that I now know for sure why I was there. Again, many a post forthcoming.

Before the move, my existence was 99% Midwest ‘merica. The south was a space that challenged my previous ideas about certain genres of music, folk and bluegrass chief amongst them. Turns out those genres are like all others, in that there are gems and there are stinkers. I’d never been properly introduced to the gems or their creators. And it turns out that, just like every other genre, the real stuff isn’t on the radio. And, like all genres, that is a shame.

Enter Rising Appalachia. Their work is soaked in desire, love, pain, joy, and heartbreak. From there I learned of other acts (too many to list) that evoke all of the things I’m drawn to in other genres. I felt cheated. But, at least I didn’t go to my grave without realizing… like, the banjo, for example, can move me to tears.

Asking the question, “Why am I here?” is the first step. The next is to be open to the answers. By June of ‘24 I was on a trip with my partner, Amy, to a yoga festival to perform live music yoga. I never thought I’d say those words strung together in that order when speaking of my life. Who even am I? Seriously.

It was on that trip that 3 very transformative epiphanies dawned. One of those… switching to Ableton (a software for producing and performing music) after over 20 years using Logic Pro. Game changer.

In July I joined a 12-week online cohort with the Ancient Future Collective, founded by Savej, a producer whose music was another of the epiphanies from that trip. I learned more about music, production, connecting spirit to craft, and about myself than all of my Logic years combined.

The third epiphany is a whole blog series. In short, move somewhere to make resources last longer while you essentially take a sabbatical to dive deep into this new craft. Amy and I were drawn to Boquete, Panama. And it has been amazing in ways we couldn’t have imagined. The timing, late September ‘25, was perfect, except for one thing. I had tickets to see Rising Appalachia on September 30.

I gave said tickets to some very dear friends. Gratifying, to say the least.

By the time we settled, I had a studio set up, Ableton humming, and time. I happened to see this Instagram post from Leah Song, one of the 2 sisters, leaders, power houses that are Rising Appalachia. I instantly captured the video of Leah singing “Goldenrod,” an interpretation of “Fall Down as the Rain” by Joe Crookston. I didn’t exactly know how I was going to “flip” it, or what a flip even is. I just knew her voice and lyrics were a palette to explore.

“As part of the mystery, as part of the mystery,
turn myself around again as part of the mystery.”

Holy shit. Could those words be more prescient? As for me, it’s a solid no. No they could not.

Cover design for ‘Goldenrod', the SAGRADOSE flip

My version of ‘Goldenrod’ is live on SoundCloud. I’d be super honored if you would take a listen, like, and share it!

Be well. Be inspired.