Rishi Keshe Hirway

I would get a lot of song ideas while driving or something like that on long stretches, you

because you'd be on a long straight stretch of freeway and you can't completely zone out.

It's not like you're going to go to sleep, but there's a minimum of brain activity required and your mind starts to wander and then you start to make connections and phrases come to mind.

That would often be the first DNA of a song, would be those phrases or ideas or something that would come while you weren't really doing anything, essentially while I was bored.

And I think one of the hardest things now is finding space to be that kind of bored, you know, where I'm not completely unconscious, but I'm just a little bit occupied because normally in that moment, you know, you're waiting in line or something.

It's like, oh, you take out my phone and see what happens.

And you get that little spike of dopamine, but that's antithetical, I think, to the act of creation.

Yeah, it's a song that I think started a couple years after my mom passed away, the time when my dad was sort of newly a widower and living by himself.

And we were all kind of adjusting to the new shape of our family.

My dad was living by himself in his apartment in Rhode Island where he and my mom had lived.

And he was getting ready to take a trip to India.

And one day I got a call from him.

And, you know, my dad and I have a strange kind of relationship.

We've often felt like we're built quite differently.

And I think this is probably true for a lot of people with their parents, especially children of immigrant parents where you're like,

okay, you know, we're going to have this call.

And it's hard to get into something deep, but this call was strange in other ways as well.

My dad sounded a little strange.

And then later our family friend said, we were just a little concerned about your dad.

And then the next day he called his doctor and was complaining of like a really bad headache.