Inspired Evolution with Amrit Sandhu: A Mind, Body & Soul Podcast

In this week’s episode, Amrit interviews Jon David, “Apukuna”, a DJ, music mixer and ceremonial medicine musician. He is one of Amrit’s favourite artists on SoundCloud, a huge music and audio online platform that lets people discover and enjoy the greatest selection of music from the most diverse creator community on earth.

Amrit and Apukuna, talk about Apukuna’s journey of creativity, his electronic music, ceremonial medicine music and how it has all come together. They dive deep into him cultivating a particular sound and how he found himself during the process. They also cave into how being even more himself expressing his gift to the world helped him become more well received. 

Apukuna has been involved in electronic music for more than 20 years now. In the last 12 years he has also been playing ceremonial medicine music on his guitar with amazing people such as Darpan and others. In the last 3 years he has begun to blend/mix these two worlds together into something unique called Apukuna, sharing it on SoundCloud where he is building his own community. In the Quechua language “APU” means spirit of the mountain (Apukuna plural)

Three years ago he was creating more dance floor friendly mixes trying to remain accessible to his listeners, but at the beginning of the Pandemic, he decided to let go and drop further into himself, his own love. He opened himself up to feeling comfortable and brought through what felt true to him. He began to cultivate a new spiritual sound, his sound, one of love, energy and healing that is being highly praised globally. Something out of this world.

Apukuna is looking forward to, once things get back to normal, take these new sounds and adapt them to live settings. He wants to bring this love and energy into all of his mixes. His intention is to draw dance and listeners into something that is familiar, and then blast them with this new frequency of love. 

There has been a lot of learning about himself through putting mixes together. The mixing process is tough and takes a long time, it can even take weeks. It requires patience, perseverance and being somewhat meticulous. Apukuna is very meticulous and recognizes how challenging it is to others as it is to himself, but he sees it as an enormous gift and is grateful for this “superpower”. 

Having had experience with reflection of who and what he is, he now takes a reflection, listens to it and tries to learn from it. Being meticulous is the part of himself that has helped him live and sustain his life doing what he most loves to do. He strongly believes we must learn how to look at and love more those elements we all carry in ourselves that can be either a blessing or a challenge.

What he does with music is for himself and then shares it as a gift. He is following the intuition of what feels good to him and he trusts it. He is following his passion, wants to share it and then see where it goes. 

Furthermore, he shares a little preview of what is coming next. Breath Medicine Mix 002 is brewing up right now and there is an intention to use it in breathwork sessions. 

Apukuna’s dream is to be in front of a crowd of people where he can play mixes, bring in his guitar, bring in his voice and integrate all of them together. Nobody knows, but it is quite likely Apukuna not only will be about mixes but about producing songs too.

Towards the end of this episode, Apukuna shares a jaw-dropping mix he has prepared especially for the Inspired Evolution Tribe.  

“Music is medicine and medicine is music”

Tune In: 

• Welcome Apukuna to Inspired Evolution!: (00:00:00)
• The beginning of exploring music and mixes: (04:04)
• From remaining accessible to doing what was true to him:(11:12)
• Learning about himself when putting mixes together:(15:36)
• How much of putting mixes together is his career and how much of it is his passion:(21:44)
• Realizing that challenging elements we carry can serve us:(26:52)
• About dream mixes and mixes that are brewing:(32:23)
• Last words to the audience:(39:09)
• Special mix for the Inspired Evolution Tribe:(41:43)

Mentioned Resources:

• Darpan: https://www.darpan.com/

Connect with Apukuna:

• Website: https://soundcloud.com/apukuna 
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ApukunaMusic 
• For just a glance of this beauty, listen to Amrit’s favourite mixes: 
• Spirit Bear:https://soundcloud.com/apukuna/apukuna-spirit-bear 
• Return of The Bird Tribes: https://soundcloud.com/apukuna/mix-apukuna-return-of-the-bird-tribes-2020

Join the Inspired Evolution Community:

• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InspiredEvolution/    
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inspired_evolution/   
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/InspiredEvolution/  
• Website: https://inspiredevolution.com/