11-04-21 We All Need a Dose of Comfort with Kip Baldwin and Evan Hirsch
Description: Comfort You is a song, a video, and an inspiration for a global movement for our human family to connect in a new way. Soul Twin Messiah, who wrote and recorded the song, have planted the seed and created the hashtag #comfortyou as a gathering place for all who feel attracted to the idea that offering comfort, support, and LOVE to one another is a worthy step on our journey toward creating peace in the world. The more united we become, the more we can heal past damage and trauma, and move forward together in harmony as we create a world in which we are all better supported. This will give us the bandwidth to make significant enough change happen to be on the road to recovery for ourselves, our planet, and all of the other forms of life with whom we share this sacred home.
As we witness the dramatic transformation from the current chapter in our collective story of humanity – which is largely rooted in fear – to one of LOVE, it is impossible to ignore the fact that (as futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard put it) our crisis is a birth. Birthing can be painful, and change can be a challenging thing to accept. We see symptoms of the transition all over the place. Systems don’t function smoothly, customer service has become a rare thing to find, technology foils us constantly, business just keeps on growing, and the bulk of money and power are being funneled to a very select few, while so many humans continue to suffer from a lack of resources, support, and influence. To a sensitive person, it can be heartbreaking. We carry around frustration, confusion, and loneliness, which can lead to hopelessness, desperation and isolation, which so many of us are experiencing as we witness and feel empathy for those who are suffering.
Since it feels like none of us are quite sure what will happen next, and so many feel powerless to impact significant change, we need something to bolster our motivation to stay the course for doing the work and helping to accelerate positive transformation. This is why a movement to bring comfort to one another feels vital now if we wish to narrow the growing polarization between us, and build a path to peace and thriving.
Comfort You is here to soothe the tensions of a lifetime of challenges for us all. The song reminds us to give one another the full attention, compassion, and support that we all need. We won’t always have answers and solutions, but we will always have LOVE to give. A hug, a sympathetic ear, and our time and attention are valuable things that we have to offer one another in support of healing, growth, and an acceleration to a healthier, more sustainable way to be.
Follow #comfortyou to join the movement and be part of the action. Be among the first to hear the song and see the video once it premieres. And come check out Soul Twin Messiah at soultwinmessiah.love and on all the usual social platforms.
STM Bio
Soul Twin Messiah is an Evolutionary Rock band for the 21st century. Evan Hirsch (The Blue Rocker!) and Kip Baldwin (Oshalla) represent the creative core of the band, and do all of the songwriting as a team. The music ranges from light rock to hard rock, and even metal, with some downright soulful (and even gospel) moments and a few ballads thrown in for the LOVE of it. Call it “neoclassic rock” if you will, and that gives a hint of the groove, but know that the music is so much more than that. Each song is highly thematic, topical, and intended to awaken and inspire people through the universal emotional power of music and the intellectually stimulating content of the lyrics and messaging.
The concept for the band’s name was introduced by friend and author Dr. Jamie Turndorf (“Ask Dr. Love” website), who declared founders Kip and Evan “soul twins” while speaking together over the phone for the first time and feeling the almost identical vibration in their voices. The soul twins LOVED that concept and sought to raise it to Infinity! They believe that we all share an even more fraternal and innate connection than that of twins; we are truly one; with one another and the Universe. The name “Messiah” was initially jokingly suggested, but they quickly realized how profound the idea of Soul Twin Messiah actually was. Not only does it represent the aforementioned universal connection shared by all, but also their mission of promoting the practice of conscious evolution, as it sets us on the path to becoming our own gurus, sages, saviors, messiahs if you will.
STM has recently been working with renowned producer Joel Jaffe to develop and record a number of their songs. Since the core of the band is the duo of Kip and Evan, Joel helped to assemble a group of world class musicians to accompany the recordings. Evan plays all guitars, bass on a few songs, and even drums on one track, as well as sings co-lead on a couple of songs and backgrounds on most. Kip sings lead on all songs, and background on many. These first recordings of eighteen songs are only the beginning, as the guys have so many more waiting to hit the recording studio.
While they did provide a couple of songs for the soundtrack of the S.O.U.L. documentary A World Worth Imagining, Comfort You will be their first official single and debut music video. Head to soultwinmessiah.love to see and hear more, and be sure to follow them on social media to stay on top of the latest!
Evan Hirsch – The Blue Rocker!
It was obvious to all who knew him at age seven that Evan was massively inspired by rock music, as he used to carry a cassette boombox to school every day and blare rock tunes. Singing, dancing, and spreading the love through music were activities he was clearly born to do, and the rock and roll lifestyle was his destiny.
The evolution of his musical discoveries helped him broadly expand his range of tastes and collect many genres of music to enjoy throughout his life. Initially attracted to the pop of the day, an early babysitter soon blew his mind with classic and hard rock. After moving, a new babysitter talked him into checking out some new wave. He was resistant at first, but soon found himself extremely attracted to that sound and culture. At age 12, he got a Billy Idol haircut, and by high school was full on new wave, goth, etc. Then a friend sold him his first three punk albums, and it changed everything. Something about punk music really resonated with him like none other before (or after). The energy, tempo, and passion attracted him, and he went deep into the scene, including the crossover to metal. Then, hanging out in front of a punk/new wave club at age 15, a new friend introduced him into the fascinating, wide world of the one and only Grateful Dead. He dove deep, and jumped into that late 80’s Dead culture, going to many shows around the west coast. A musician friend from work shared with him the rest of the San Francisco psychedelic sounds, all definitely listen-worthy guitar and Hammond B3 organ driven rock. While wakeboarding in Florida in the early 2000’s, he was exposed to underground hip hop, and finally felt an appreciation for beat-driven, rap-spoken music as well. After living half a century, these are some of the enduring bands that rank among his lifelong favorites: Rich Kids on LSD, Bad Religion, The Living End, Metallica, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, The Cure, Grateful Dead, Cadillac Tramps, The More I See, AC/DC, Foghat, Gamma, and UFO.
As for playing instruments, he grew up with a piano in the home, and dabbled in violin and saxophone in elementary school, but it was soon clear that formal music education wasn’t the path for him. It wasn’t until age 16 that he finally got his first electric guitar from a friend who also taught him those simple power chords to jam along with his favorite punk music of the day. Ironically, after watching his guitar heroes all play Marshall amps, he accidentally bought an Acoustic brand bass amp at the pawn shop. At 21, a coworker sold him his first drum kit, and that became another form of musical expression, including on some recent recordings. And ultimately, it was out of necessity, for demoing his solo tunes, that Evan started playing the bass and keys as well. Now he has even recorded some official bass tracks for STM songs. Evan played guitar in the Band Armagetiton from 2000 – 2006 (RIP Jen Slatten). He uses Gibson, Schecter, and Paul Reed Smith electric guitars and basses, Breedlove and Eastman acoustics, Mesa Boogie amplifiers, the Kemper Profiler, and DW Drums.
Kip Baldwin – Oshallah
Kip’s first LOVE and lifelong passion in the creative realm has always been music. Early memories include dancing and singing to Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made for Walking for his Great Grandmother Ruby, listening religiously to Casey Kasem’s Top 40 on his AM Radio, and pawing through his parents’ vinyl collection, which ran the gamut from the rock of Paul Revere and the Raiders, to Marty Robbins’ country classic El Paso. In High School Kip joined the choir, did theater, and saw his musical tastes go from the pop of AM radio to the hard rock and heavy metal of FM, with some his favorites being Nazareth and Judas Priest. Kip’s current musical fascination is talent shows – like The Voice and America’s Got Talent – where he finds constant inspiration from children as young as seven (Angelina Jordan) of whom he could only hope to have half the talent.
In 1985 Kip’s passion for music saw him make the move from Camas, WA to San Francisco via semi-truck, knowing no one and with only a quarter to his name. When asked, “Why S.F. and not L.A.?” he often jokes that he came to S.F. looking for the 60s, but was 20 years too late. The ironic thing is that what he found in S.F. was pretty much the same 80s hair band scene that was going on in Hollywood. And while Kip looks back fondly on the musical and performance experience gained with his band King Roach, the scene and the industry left him creatively unfilled, burned out, and with a severe drinking problem. So he made peace with the fact that music did not seem be his career path, but instead just something he did for personal enjoyment. He then set out to find something to fill the hole in his soul that leaving the pursuit of his beloved music behind had caused.
He spent the better part of the next decade focusing on local and sustainable foods, and while a worthwhile pursuit for sure, it did little to satisfy his need to create and share. After a near death experience left him with the realization that he either had to find what his purpose was and be happy or find a quicker way out, he quit drinking. This led him to heed the call of the entertainment industry, first as an actor and then ultimately as a producer, with some success co-creating the influential cannabis series Weed Country for the Discovery Network, co-founding the United Filmmakers Association, and starting the Just LOVE Movement (his life’s purpose being sharing LOVE). Eventually this led him to co-founding S.O.U.L. Documentary with creative partner Evan Hirsch, after Kip had been recommended as a producer for a Bernie Sanders project for which Evan was looking for help. But it wasn’t until a year into doing S.O.U.L. that Kip and Evan – who are both musicians – formed Soul Twin Messiah and began writing songs to perform at the Peace in the Park Festival that S.O.U.L. co-produced with the Brahma Kumari’s in the Music Concourse/Band Shell of Golden Gate Park.
Through all of this what Kip has come to realize is that while he and Evan have done so many amazing things in the past six years with S.O.U.L., it was truly Soul Twin Messiah that he and Evan were drawn together by the creative spirit to do. And how could Kip have known when they started S.OU.L. that it would ultimately not only fulfill his musical dreams beyond his wildest imaginings, but also his longing for tribe, and his unable-to-ignore drive to share LOVE…
STM PROMOTIONAL LOVE PARADIGM VIDEO LINK:
https://youtu.be/rhmJolWeEjY
Video Version: https://youtu.be/RZFZtaywwVM
Call in and Chat with Dr. Jamie during Live Show with Video Stream: Call 646-558-8656 ID: 8836953587 press #. To Ask a Question press *9 to raise your hand
Tune-in to “Love Never Dies” and discover for yourself why reconnecting and Dialoguing with Your Departed loved ones is the only way to dry your tears and transform your grief to joy! For more information about Dr. Turndorf follow her on Facebook: askdrlove and Twitter: @askdrlove and visit www.askdrlove.com.
