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A Week with Erykah Badu
Merasa Festival 2024 celebrated wellbeing and self-regeneration, fostering deep connections among participants and practitioners alike, a testament to the power of collective experience in promoting personal transformation and cultural reverence within the inspiring setting of the Desa Potato Head property.
After a sunrise morning practice guided by Erykah Badu, office had the opportunity to sit down and chat with her.
On Practicing Wellbeing:
Erykah Badu — Let's talk about what wellness is. Because the retreat is not the wellness. Yoga is not the wellness. Those are evidence of wellness. Wellness is the notion that I want to be, well, that's what wellness is, and you start your wellness journey when you decide that you want to be well and you started with one little thing at a time. It could be just discernment between the words that you decide to let come into your mind. That's wellness. Wellness is making sure that you keep your boundaries when you say, I'm not going to do something or I'm going to do something. Keeping those to yourself is wellness. Wellness is telling somebody how you really feel. That's wellness. Wellness is despite how you feel doing something that you know need to do. That's all wellness. Start that journey at any moment, any time, and start over at any moment. Go down a rabbit hole. Where else is well add those things. Flow.
On Social Media:
EB — I believe social media is social evolution. It brings us closer to one another. It brings like-minded people closer together. It brings families who don't know each other close together. I have a group chat with my family members now that rarely talked to, but now we get to talk every day and see who has the same sense of humor, see who has the same illnesses or whatever. I mean, it's social evolution, but with anything comes people, and we put people into the scenario. You got some people who practice wellness and some practice unwellness and you get a mix of those and have to deal with all of it if you're participating in social media. So the good of it is: it's evolutionary in bringing minds together and hearts together, downside is it's bringing hearts and minds together and not everybody's evolved.
On Breathwork:
EB — Breathwork is the most important thing for me because if I'm not in a great mood, 9 times out of 10, it means my heart rate is fast and my breathing is shallow. I'm thinking about something that I either have to do, didn't do or something else. When I can recognize the breath, I sit down and I regulate it. That's really the only thing that I have. I take as much time as I need. I have to give a lot of energy all the time and I receive a lot all the time. So there has to be moments in between where they have to wait for a minute.
It's all kinds of breath work. There's so many different types of ways to read and recalibrate yourself so that you can go back out to the world and do what you have to do and you can do it any time you need to reset. People say, Oh today's a new day. Well actually today's a new day, but right now is a new moment. If you don't feel good, it doesn't take anything, go where you need to go to get yourself together. That's what practice is for, the bad days. So if you practice something every day, when one of those days comes along when you really need it, you're in practice.
On Grounding After a Big Performance:
EB — I get a lot of help. It's an ecosystem that I'm surrounded by — where even the dudes with the cameras, they aren't just dudes with cameras. They're my family. So we serve each other. When I get back from the show, I get served by my family. People that help keep this going, We laugh a lot. Comedy is my coping mechanism. Everything is funny and nobody's sacred. Don't take yourself seriously around me.
On Her Five Doctors:
EB — First, sunlight — we all need it, we are all plants of some sort. Second, nutrition — I’ve been plant-based since high school and became vegan in 1997, I eat clean food because I see my body like a Lamborghini; I wouldn't put poor-quality fuel in it. However, you eat the nutrients that are right for your body. Everybody's not a vegetarian. There are different blood types and foods that are right for your body. I challenge you all to find out what that is and put it in your body. Third, exercise — I do at least 15 minutes of physical activity daily, even when I don't feel like it. Fourth, sleep — it's crucial for repair. You should try to sleep two hours after sunset, aligning with nature. It's when the birds sleep. So I try to wake up with the birds and go to sleep with birds. Finally, practice — keeping my word to myself and staying connected to whatever higher power there is. These five elements are my doctors for maintaining wellness.
As the festival concluded, we were excited to hear from Kim, the Wellness Director, about the week's events and its significance for Merasa and Potato Head.
Firstly, congratulations and thank you for the most incredible week. How do you feel after 7 days of Merasa?
Kim Herben — The gratitude is mutual; it was truly so special having you as part of the Merasa experience from beginning to end. I’m still flying from our week, feeling grateFULL and expansive, I think we are all still feeling that buzz.
What was it like collaborating with Erykah on this project? How did her involvement shape the Festival?
KH — The synergy with Erykah was really special, from the very beginning she has been very involved and shared her vision. We really curated it together, ensuring we had the right flow for the week and a good mix of practitioners, bringing a variety of practices together. She was really interested in the practitioners we brought to the table, researched them, and added some incredible practitioners to the mix from her side. For example, it was her idea to work with the duality of day and night. During the day, all classes would be more accessible for anyone interested in wellbeing and at night we would go a bit deeper into knowledge and matter. Everything we finalised was approved by everyone involved.
In your opinion, what distinguishes Potato Head’s approach to wellness, as showcased at Merasa?
KH — Wellbeing should be for everyone, no matter where you are in your journey. We always challenge ourselves to create unique experiences. How does it feel? How does it smell? How does it taste? How does it sound? What is the ritual? We activate on so many levels. Every detail is thought about to create the optimal environment to feel.
Is there a personal highlight or moment that sticks out to you from the week?
KH — There were many, on different levels: heartfelt encounters and conversations with participants, getting out of my comfort zone and into my body with the intuitive movement workshop with Waangenga. I was joined by incredible musicians, Raffi Muhammad and Kevin Suwandhi, for my own session “Under the Rising Sun,” who created magic by translating the energy of the rising sun into a musical journey. But also, getting a blessing at the temple with Erykah and all the practitioners to open the energy portal for the week of Merasa, and asking for permission and support from the ancestors of the land, was truly the most special moment.
Did you have any key takeaways or lessons learned from the festival this year?
KH — When all is good from within ourselves, it ripples out to your environment. From the beginning, we made sure the teams working together had time and space to do so. We don’t rush or push; we prepare well and make sure the experience of working on Merasa is as optimal for the team as possible. We nourish ourselves to the fullest before the week starts, making sure our own cups are filled before we pour into others.
Another thing that stays with me is something Ms. Badu shared during the talk on the rites and rituals of life and death: “There are two deaths, one when the soul leaves the physical body and the other when people stop saying your name.” So I have re-integrated speaking the names out loud of my loved ones that have transitioned into the next realm.
Celebrating Father's Day with Hit-Boy and Mitchell & Ness
[Fatherhood] is the backbone of my existence.
My son saying, 'thanks, pops'... That's all I really needed to keep going day to day.
You don't know until you get a kid, you can't explain it... It's powerful.
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Inside Primavera
You’ve heard about our antics as we navigated the crowds of Primavera, and now you can delve into our conversations in depth with office favorites SCOWL, Chino Moreno of Deftones, Dorian Electra, DJ Spanish Fly, and Nick Leon. We sat down to discuss superstition, the red-pill vs blue-pill dilemma, dreams, and rituals.
Chino Moreno of Deftones
office— All right, first question, red pill or blue pill?
I don't really know what each one is, I'm gonna assume…
I'll give you the context. It's a Matrix reference. Neo is offered two pills. The red pill gives you all of the answers to the universe, but it means that you now know everything and you have to deal with the knowledge of knowing everything. The blue pill means choosing to stay ignorant.
I think I was probably a blue-pill person for a lot of my life, I didn’t pay a lot of attention to a lot of things. And for a while, it worked. But at some point I had to realize that I had to pay attention if I wanted to be successful — not successful as a musician, but rather in life. To get through the day, you actually have to assert yourself and do things and follow through and, usually, you have better consequences. So there’s that. Also, you know, I've never seen The Matrix.
What is your biggest vice?
Coffee — basic vice. But yeah, it's the first thing I do when I wake up. And now I'm one of those people that drinks coffee after dinner.
I was just saying I couldn't do that!
That's my jam. The second I'm done eating now, I'm like, alright, I’m ready.
Are you someone that is particular about the beans?
No, because I'll drink regular gas station coffee sometimes. I mean, I do enjoy a good cup of coffee. But I am not a coffee snob. I just enjoy it. I'll use the [coffee makers] in hotels. People always tell me to not use the machines there. I've heard crazy stories of people using them for all kinds of nasty stuff—
I've seen people who go to hotels and cook shrimp with the base of the coffee machine because it's the only appliance that radiates heat.
Yeah, they use them to like clean their underwear, in the steamer — I don’t know. But knowing that, I’m still down to use them.
Are you superstitious?
Yeah. Definitely.
Is there anything specific that you're superstitious about?
A lot of things. I nudged my wife earlier today because she put her hat on the bed. My grandfather was a cowboy. There's some cowboy superstition where you don't put your hat on the bed. I don't know what it means or where it comes from. But he would always get mad at me if I threw my baseball cap on the bed. So now it’s my first instinct — if I see a hat, a beanie, anything for your head and it’s on the bed, it's gone right away. I haven't researched where it comes from. It's something that stuck with me through my grandfather since I was young.
I like that. I'm curious what the background of it is, but there's something even stronger about having superstition about something and not even needing the background context.
Yeah, it can get really crazy. When I used to get on planes, I wouldn’t let the insides of my feet touch. It’s fucking weird. I used to walk on the sides of my feet the whole flight. If I walked on the plane flat-footed, it felt wrong. I don't know why. No one told me anything that made me believe that — I just did. Maybe because I was in the air. I would do it until I got back on solid ground.
When you wake up, do you put both feet on the ground so you don't wake up on the wrong foot? There's also something about that. There are a lot of things about feet on the ground.
I guess it is about the ground. I used to never go into elevators either. If I was in a high-rise building, I would walk up every single flight. But I've chilled out since then.
There's something very intrinsic about superstition. You don't necessarily need an answer or someone to tell you to do it — your body knows what feels right and what feels wrong.
Definitely, and I still do little things. When I’m walking and there are lines in a pathway, I always have to put my right foot first. If I don’t, I have to slow down and start over.
Me too. Many times. Do you have any sort of pre-show ritual?
I always have two Red Bulls before I go on stage. And that's usually it. I had been drinking alcohol since high school. I’d never gone on stage without having a drink — not saying I’d go on stage wasted, but I’d always have something — at least a beer. The routine of that was the hardest thing for me when I stopped drinking two years ago. It wasn't even about just the alcohol itself, more just a ‘what do I do now that this is something different?’ And now it’s two Red Bulls.
Would you say that you’re a romantic?
I grew up surrounded by romantics but I don't consider myself one. But I've been attracted to it ever since I was a kid. I grew up around a lot of British new-wave music, which was heavy on heartbreak and romance.
If you had to change careers tomorrow, what would you do?
I used to always say that I would love to move somewhere really cold, where they have ice rinks, or people ice skate; I would drive the Zamboni. I think it would be a really peaceful job. You’re kind of mowing the lawn — which I grew up doing as a kid. Going along with the mower, you can zone out. You just follow the lines and you don’t think too much. I used to always wear my headphones mowing the lawn. So I really have always thought, if all else fails, I'm just gonna move somewhere where I can drive a Zamboni.
Oh, that's awesome. I have such a strong association with the peacefulness to it. I used to ice skate as a kid. The feeling of skating on ice that's been skated on for an hour versus skating on like, freshly cleaned ice – it’s so therapeutic. The practice in itself and then what it provides for other people too. That's an awesome answer. Last question — favorite media source?
I scour the internet a lot for music, There are a few different music blogs that I love. I don’t think I should say what they are. I’ll find someone's personal music journal. I just downloaded a mixtape from one guy’s blog today. A lot of it's unknown stuff, really rare. The guy who’s mixtape I downloaded today will write a full paragraph explaining the mix. In this one, he said that he doesn't have an aux chord in his car, only a CD player — so he wanted to make himself a mix CD. He said, he's listened to it the last three weeks in his car, and every time he gets his car, it starts off where he left off. It’s different than where music is out these days. In a way, it’s great for kids because anything is at their fingertips. But there's something that's missing when everything is so accessible. You don't have the ‘you get what you get’. Getting someone else’s mixtape and dedicated yourself to listen to it is a really neat way to experience music. And people.
People are so trained out of listening to albums now. Even the difference between a playlist on your phone and the process of burning a physical mixtape is so drastic. People in general now have a different relationship to music and artists.
I think when especially if someone makes the mix — this goes back to fate and romantic — you're getting a piece of them even though it's not their actual music. You get to live the same thing they're living the same thing right now. It's kind of this weird connection.
How are you doing? How are you feeling?
Dorian Electra— I'm good — slightly nervous — I didn’t realize how big the stage is.
You're on the main stage!
I was like, what the? It's funny, I'm never usually nervous to be on stage. But I also learned like an hour ago that it's all live-streamed. So I'm not only performing but I'm also on this Amazon Prime Twitch chat. I guess I didn’t realize that I signed up for it… But I'm excited. I'm really excited. I fucking love this festival.
Have you seen any other sets?
I saw A. G. Cook. I saw Snow Strippers. I saw Arca. Troye Sivan really blew me away — incredible.
We were just saying that we were stood around the largest collection of the most beautiful gay men that you've ever seen at Troye. They were all dressed in Prada. It was like one huge product placement. We're like, what is going on and where did they all come from?
Gay psy-ops.
Exactly. Red pill or blue pill?
I say take them both. See what happens. You need a little bit of both. Sometimes, it’s a blue pill kind of day. Sometimes you need the slow drip IV of the red pill.
I like that. I've never heard that answer. I keep saying blue pill because I'd rather just be ignorant at the moment. But every time someone asks me why blue pill I can’t find a valid argument.
Fuck yeah, there’s a great meme where it's like some guy all really fucked up and it's like, fucked around and took the red pill and the blue pill.
What’s the last dream you remember having?
Damn. That’s funny. I write down all of my dreams. I write them down before I remember them. Then I can pull them out because you never know what an interview will be like. Well, first of all, this note is locked because there's some inappropriate things on there that I don't want anyone else to see. So I have to keep a password on that. Okay, if I can remember the password... Here we go. Oh, wait, that's the wrong one. I'm sorry, but it's going to be worth it. Trust me. *Dorian accesses the note* No, this is awesome. Okay, well, that's not appropriate. It’s about a woman fucking a dog. That really was the last one. That's legit.
Just some random woman?
It was a tall blonde. She was sort of of fucking this dog for a second but then the dog was trying to fuck another dog. This was last week when I was in Berlin.
Biggest vice?
I'm actually pretty good in terms of in terms of vices. My biggest one would have to be not relaxing in a healthy way. It's not that interesting of a vice. My brain is sensitive to most substances. Actually, I take a tiny bit of Ambien to fall asleep. I know It's bad for me, but I'm like, but it's my treat. You know?
Have you ever looked at the Ambien subreddit? It's my favorite thing in the world.
It's amazing: buttering cigarettes, eating raw bacon sandwiches, driving places blacked out. My parents both were prescribed like three times as much as I take. Once my dad woke up on his friend's couch across town. He was like, how the fuck did I get here?! He was taking Ambien and drove and so he threw them all away the next day. And then my mom ate an entire party tray of apples and carrots; she thought it was my friend and I and we got blamed until she figured it out. Anyways, she threw them away and got freaked out. Gotta be careful with that shit.
Are you superstitious?
Generally, no. I don't believe it in a larger sense. I'm very much a fedora-tipping Red Pill guy, not spiritual typically, or historically, but I'm trying to be more open-minded. Weirdly, I can be wiith some numbers. When it’s 11:11 on my phone, I'll just be like, I wish everybody is happy. When I feed into it, it's almost like a tick.
Favorite media source?
I love Wikipedia but I haven't been rocking with it that much recently. Now it’s YouTube history videos — I watch them all the time. I love this one channel Weird History. It's just really weird random dives, they’ve got videos on everything. It fucks hard.
Red pill or blue pill?
Nick Leon— Why not both?
Last dream you remember having?
I have a recurring dream of being somewhere in the mountains smoking large and sitting on a cliff over the ocean. Very zen but I haven’t dreamt in ages.
What’s your biggest vice?
Mary Jane & McDonald’s (pre-boycott).
Who’s set are you most excited to see?
Snow strippers, Arca, Eartheater.
Are you superstitious?
Only where it counts.
Do you have a pre-show ritual?
Smoke weed.
Fate or free will?
A little mix of both is the sweet spot.
If you had to change careers tomorrow, what would it be and why?
Food, critic or cab driver. I love food, I love critique, and I love to drive.
Red pill or blue pill?
Malachi Greene— I’d do red pill.
Kat Moss— Yeah, I gotta know the truth.
Bailey Lupo— Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue. Blue.
MG— You always gotta know the truth even if you don't want to, you know?
BL— I just think the blue is a safer option. The red pill, you go into a bigger, larger, more open "expanded universe" — and then It has another red pill for a bigger larger "expanded universe".
KM— It's red pill inception. Yeah.
Biggest vice?
MG— Blue pills. [everyone laughs]
KM— Picking my fingers.
Cole Gilbert— Junk food.
KM— Yeah. Sodas. It was vaping for a while. Now it’s just smoking weed.
Mikey Bifolco— Yeah, it’s smoking weed for me too. I’m from Philadelphia, so my weed pens called the Penjamin Danklin.
KM— I have the Stiizy McGuire.
The one I have right now’s strain is called mother's milk.
KM— Oh my god. That's kind of like… kind of sweet?
I mean, it knocks you out like mother’s milk is supposed to! (contd.) Are you guys superstitious?
Everyone— Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, very superstitious man.
Okay.
KM— We are a very superstitious band.
Do you share a superstition?
Everyone (in unison)— Crunchy.
What is crunchy?
CB— You know when you eat a corndog at the end of the stick with the crunchy bit? We just leave the stick with the crunchy bit in the van. It brings us good luck.
MB— Wait what?
BL (to MB)— You’ve been high on the weed pen. Penjamin.
So what happens to the crunchy? Where does it go?
BL— I threw away a crunchy when I cleaned out the van last month.
[Band scoffs.]
Red pill or blue pill?
White pill!
Last dream you remember having?
Oh god! I had a big ass humongous crowd following me and they wanted me to lead them to the path of doom! Come on Fly like go! To where all the dope pushers, sinners, bad money and people selling their souls are. They was right behind me, an entourage of millions of people. And when we got right down there to the finish line, I swerved and took them the right way to the light! No more stress and worries! It was beautiful.
What’s your biggest vice?
Cheese! Cheese on everything! My name should be DJ Spanish Cheeseburger Fly!
Who else’s set are you most excited to see?
I didn’t know that many artists there but I loved Beth Gibbons! She was casual as fuck. I thought that was so cool. It felt like she was just playing at home with noone around. She showed the fuck up and everybody loved her.
Are you superstitious?
No. Not at all. I’m god fearing as a result of growing up in church. I’m from a highly religious Baptist background.
Do you have a pre-show ritual? What is it?
I pray to thank God for letting me be the person I am, for having a positive influence on music and young people. I get so many messages from people saying if it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t be doing this shit making music. I pray for guidance and that everything goes as planned.
Fate or free will?
Free will. Freestyle just do it. Be different!
If you had to change careers tomorrow, what would it be and why?
Fireman. That was my first job. I was a junior fireman in Illinois at age 12. I was a boy scout before that and loved helping people out and being a fireman was the same.
Favorite media source?
BBC & CNN for news. NTS for music! I have a monthly show on NTS.
