What you hear is the first thing that came out - it just appeared in response to the words.” I put my headphones on and with Ram Dass’ voice inside my head, I sat at the piano and improvised. He sent me some starting points, including the beautiful choral vocals he recorded which open the piece. He was given access to several lesser-heard talks from the 70s, and asked to set them to music. “I was contacted by East Forest, who had spent some time with Ram Dass in Hawaii before he passed. “‘Sit Around The Fire’ exists from one of the deep synchronicities that ushered this thing (Music For Psychedelic Therapy) into being,” comments Hopkins. That place ended up being Tayos Caves in Ecuador, where Hopkins went on a life-changing creative expedition in 2018. “It felt like time for a reset, to wait for music to appear from a different place,” says Hopkins. For this collection, Hopkins wanted to make something that faced the opposite direction, something egoless and introspective, made with total, raw honesty. Music for Psychedelic Therapy is Hopkins’ first full-length since sister albums, the GRAMMY-nominated Singularity (2018) and Immunity (2013).
