Exploring the Comfort Zone: A Musical Journey in Cape Verde
As I am sitting on the old, wooden pier, I can almost taste the strong salty breeze and the scent of fish embedded in the thick chipped planks of wood which lie about 2 meters above the clear blue bay of the Island Sal, the great Cape Verdean island off the coast of Senegal. I'm sitting on the edge and let my legs tumble off the side of the pier, while the Cape Verdeans are fishing fresh yellowfin tuna and other catches from the ocean at the front of the pier. Tourists stumble back and forth to get a feel for this beautiful scenery. I've been here for a month now, and the locals know me. They started to call me "Brazileira" because of my black curly hair and golden brown skin tone. I started to walk around the city barefoot, and after being here for several weeks now, I start to walk real slow too and greet almost everyone I see on the street.
This and London are the two cities where I mainly created the album "Kind Regards." I will tell you more about London later; heck, that was a crazy 2 months. But the first song on the album, which is called "Atlantis," was created in Santa Maria, Sal. I recorded and produced the demo in the little apartment, which was a 2-minute walk from the ocean where I was staying for about 6 weeks.
"Atlantis" is one of my favorite songs lyrically on the album. I love how simple it is, how strong the message is, and how visual the song is. It really captures (for me) the essence of the island.
In this song, I try to communicate the importance of exploring the comfort zone, contemplating on one side the risk (sharks and piranhas in the oceans) and, on the other, the beauty (Atlantis and all the colorful corals by your feet). The song doesn’t really come to a conclusion. Even though the song is set up to encourage getting out of the comfort zone, the last words are still about the sharks in the unknown waters... Is it worth the risk?
The chorus captures the message of the song really well. The great image of the "iceberg." I love that image and the truth that comes with it. We always think we know everything, we know what's right and wrong, and we’re so knee-deep in our swamp of beliefs that it takes a lot to shake them, rethink certain things, and change our intrinsic belief system.
So there I was, staring into the clear blue water just 2 meters beneath my feet, and that's when I saw it. IT WAS HUGE. This thing, which at first appeared to be a black rock about 2 meters long, slowly started moving. At first, I thought the waves must have nudged the rock or the burning sun rays were creating an optical illusion in the moving water. But then, I looked closer. It was definitely not a rock or an optical illusion. It was, in fact, this huge black manta ray coming to eat the rest of the fish the fishermen threw back into the water just before sunset. Yes, there were people swimming by the shore, literally 2 meters away, completely oblivious to the camouflaged humongous manta ray in the water drifting around them. And I had just taken up surfing 2 days prior, exactly there at that bay.
That's when I was directly confronted with my fear of the unknown waters. That’s the moment this dilemma of “safety” and “exploration” hit hard, and I was able to translate my fear of the oceans to a wider spectrum of my life. That’s when I decided to write a song about it. The song is placed first on the album because it is the core of the album. The comfort zone relates to so many areas of our lives, and in my eyes, it is the key to living a happy life as well. Hold on, I’m not trying to say that means jumping out of a plane or cage-diving with sharks, because hell, I’d never do that. I mean it’s the little things, like speaking up to a parent who is disrespecting your boundaries, or applying for the job you think you’re underqualified for, or even talking to a stranger or whatever.
For me, "comfort zone work" is a daily thing that appears in all areas of our lives, and it’s leaving our comfort zones that makes life worth living because that’s when we grow most! I kept on surfing, and I and all the other 100 surfers over the weeks have never been attacked by the big manta ray in the water.
Atlantis (1:29)
"the illusion of security
keeps me stuck to the ground
I really want to run
but is it worth all the fun
what if I get to close to the sky
to close to the sun
I might burn
I might disolve
there's an undeniable feeling I must resolve"
This song was produced by Samuel Vuilleumier & myself and by myself.
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