music as magic ✨
introducing my new book, Sonic Spells
I’m coming to you today with some exciting news about a project that’s very near and dear to my heart — one that I’ve been working on behind the scenes for almost a year now! It’s officially out in the world today, and this felt like the perfect space to share the story behind it, along with a little sneak peek at the final product. Keep scrolling to learn about (and read excerpts from) my new book, Sonic Spells, featuring contributions from some of my favorite musicians.
Sonic Spells features writing from an array of talented and inspiring musicians and music industry folks — including members of Speedy Ortiz, Osees, Guided By Voices, Bleached, and celebrated rock journalist Michael Azerrad (author of Our Band Could Be Your Life) — as a means of exploring the intersection of music and magic. In their own unique voices, contributors touch on everything from pre-show rituals to tools for staying grounded while creating and performing, giving readers a behind-the-scenes peek into their own personal practices and the intimate relationships they've developed with the art form that they love the most. At its core, Sonic Spells takes an honest and intimate look at the ways in which music can serve as a tool for healing, transformation, and connection.
The idea for this project first came to me back in 2021, shortly after I opened Ritualist, but it quickly got put on the back burner as all of my energy went into the shop. It was initially meant to be a little personal project that I hoped would help fill the void created by my exit from the music industry, acting as a bridge between my former career (music publicist) and my current one (witch shop owner.) I missed working with musicians, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow, there was still space for me to express and nurture my love of music while pouring my heart into my new endeavor. I really wanted to connect the world of music and the world of magic in a tangible way — because both played such a huge role in my life, but also because I suspected that they went hand in hand.
I’m so grateful to my friend
for encouraging me to dream big — rather than just ask friends and former clients to contribute, she urged me to step outside of my comfort zone and reach out to other artists that I admired. Luckily I took her advice, and as responses came in, I was absolutely blown away by the interest in my work and by the overall consensus that yes, there’s absolutely room for magic in the world of music: in writing it, recording it, performing it, and consuming it. Before long, I was trading emails about witchcraft with the manager of some of my favorite artists, chatting on the phone about tarot and crystals with a member of one of my favorite bands, and even reconnecting with a former boss that I’d lost touch with (who now had an altar in his office, go figure.) The whole process was such a wild journey full of vulnerability, validation, connection, and joy.
While not everyone I chatted with had the bandwidth to contribute (many were about to release albums or embark on major tours), having these conversations with so many musicians and fellow music lovers brought even more meaning to this project, and I’m so happy with the collection of pieces that ended up in Sonic Spells. I encouraged each contributor to express themselves freely — without any set guidelines on length, format, or tone — so that each individual piece would feel personal. I enlisted illustrator Mike Zimmerman (who’s designed some truly incredible show flyers and album artwork, among other things) to tackle the cover, set up a Q&A with tarot reader (and local friend) Lizz Truitt to discuss how musicians might want to utilize the tarot as a tool for navigating the creative process, and even put together my own piece (in which I out myself as a former emo fanatic.)
I initially intended for Sonic Spells to come out last year, but sometimes life has other plans: just as the final contributions were rolling in, the shop entered its busy season (followed by the holiday season — September through December is basically chaos in retail land.) The fact that it finally exists in physical form after so many months of waiting makes its release even more exciting. I’ve chosen excerpts from a few pieces to share with you below, and you can grab your own copy here if you’d like to read the rest.
Thank you so much for letting me gush about this project — I hope it resonates with my fellow spiritually-inclined music lovers out there!
Selected excerpts from Sonic Spells:
Practicing a spiritual life I believe is not one of perfection, but one of acceptance and manageability. How do we manage our day and the emotions that come up? What language do we use with ourselves to stay motivated and creative? How can we replace the word "when" with "how?"
— Jessie Carter Clavin (multi-instrumentalist & co-founder of the band Bleached)
I am very quick to sever my brain-body connection, especially when I’m dealing with any kind of uncomfortable feelings. I’m very prone to analyzing my thoughts or the facts surrounding them (through lyrics or otherwise), but less good at actually observing my emotions and processing them and letting them run their physiological course. Something nice about playing instruments (or any other kind of physical art form) is it forces you to connect corporeality to your perceptions and moods. I really value musical performance for providing that kind of outlet.
— Sadie Dupuis (guitarist / lead vocalist / founder of Speedy Ortiz)
While I don’t wholly subscribe to any one particular religion or belief system, I do feel spiritually connected. I have a deep respect for the mysterious and powerful forces in the universe that are ever-present, and so much larger than us. When I perform music in a live setting, it’s the only time in my life when all my overactive, pesky thinking vanishes entirely, and I’m left in a state of complete calm and total presence - one with everything. The connection to my fellow bandmates, and to the stage, and to the audience, is perfectly and wholly felt. This place is everything to me.
— Mark Shue (bassist of Guided By Voices, guitarist / leader of Beech Creeps)
The recording studio. It’s a world where, in those moments - excepting take numbers, the amount of measures until the bridge, or the number of beverages the band wants to purchase and subsequently consume over the course of a session - very little is quantitative in nature. It does not matter how many times you play a song, your sixty-fifth take is not going to be sixty-five times better than the first time you played it. The twenty-third time you sing a song will most likely not be better than the first few times. You are not a robot, and rest assured, we are all very happy about that.
When one accepts those ideas: there is a place for magic, indelible.
— Jeff Berner (producer, engineer, mixer, and multi-instrumentalist)
When I used to tour, I loved it but I needed a lot of alone time! That would recharge me and help me. And I really struggled with singing live and getting my body to relax in front of a crowd. I used environmental cues like feeling the heat from the lighting and letting the lighting wash over me to help me into a different dimension and cope with my anxiety. Now I know that I was playing with some of the same techniques used in somatic work and even self hypnosis. So singing and performing have been great teachers for me for being in my body and staying grounded in the physical even when I get uncomfortable. Performing also required me to coordinate so many different variables at once, it was totally a practice of getting out of my thinking mind and being in trust.
— Erika Spring (founder of Au Revoir Simone & Nice as Fuck, Reiki practitioner)
Humans have been sharing sound together for at least 35,000 years. It makes sense to me that a show is a place that moves me to tears. The experience is almost innate to us and is certainly central to my personhood. Watching music with others allows me to connect, so if crying people feel more connected it makes perfect sense. My sound-induced tears are a signal to those around me. I am here. See me. I feel. I am real.
— Anika Pyle (singer-songwriter, poet, & writer)
I still lean on my friend Music all the time. A few recent snapshots come to mind. My grandfather was born and raised in Hibbing, Minnesota, home to Bob Dylan, and when he passed away, I played nothing but Dylan for days. “I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests.” During the darkest COVID days, my go-to album was Gang Starr’s album Hard to Earn whenever I needed to summon a little extra dose of resilience. “It’s a long way to go when you don’t know when you’re going.” And I’ll never forget that first indoor show I saw when the world was slowly finally opening back up (Mdou Moctar at BAM). It was a truly transcendent experience that ended with the artist’s arms stretched toward the heavens while we, the live-music starved audience, leapt to our feet for a thunderous standing ovation. It felt as if we all wanted to keep rising, higher and higher…
— Patrick McNamara (co-founder of music listing website Oh My Rockness)
This is amazing!!! Just ordered :) Congrats, Dana!!