2021-05-10
1 小时 20 分钟Okay, so how does someone who despised himself for most of his life go from that to absolutely loving himself and his life and creating music that makes millions of people smile?
That's the journey my guest, Axel Mansoor has been on.
A singer, songwriter, and self described third culture kid, he's been known for leveraging technology to build community and intimacy with his music, and his songs have taken him from a daytime Emmy nomination to collaborations with some of the biggest brands in the world, Spotify's viral 50 chart, and even to your television screen as he pitched a song to her on NBC's Songland and Axl's debut ep, I hadn't ever loved myself, actually just dropped and is quickly climbing the charts.
And interestingly, until a few days ago, his image was the icon for the massively viral clubhouse social audio app appearing on the screens of tens of millions of phones.
And he's also the creator of the app's popular lullaby club, which is this nightly musical experience where your favorite artists sing you and the rest of the world to sleep.
But there's also this deceptively beautiful and creative ulterior motive, which is to help artists get discovered, build careers, expand their communities, and even disrupt the entire industry model.
In this conversation, we explore the idea of being a third culture kid, a phrase that I have heard more and more, and how literally living with a foot in three worlds led to this seemingly contradictory ability to fit in and make people like him, while also being brutally bullied and deepening into a place of self hatred that really tore apart his sense of self and belonging and expression.
And we talk about how music, along with a series of powerful, inciting incidents, turned his world upside down and became a source of joy and joyful expression and creativity, and to his surprise, eventually even profound self love.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I've heard you describe yourself using this word a number of different times, or two words, actually, or three words, actually, third culture kid.
And it's funny because that actually, yeah, that first popped onto my radar not too long ago.
We had Connie Lim, whose artist name is Milk, on the show a little while back, and she used that same phrase.
Her parents were first generation in the US, she grew up in LA, and she described herself as a third culture kid, where it's sort of like she had to constantly navigate the culture of her parents, the culture of LA, and she felt like she was not really part of either.
And I'm curious, when you use that word, what does it mean to you?
I mean, you basically just described it.
It's straddling identities and identity is you can attach it to geography, you can attach it to culture, you can attach it to a bunch of different things.
But for me, it really brings up this visceral scene of whenever I meet somebody and they go, where are you from?
And the real answer that I have is, well, how long do you have?
How much time do you got?