Ask The Music | David Redd

Ask The Music

If you’ve been following Shuffle Synchronicities return this year.

You may have noticed that I had the idea for a video format.

A shufflemancy show where when you ask music questions it seems to answer.

I shuffled and got the song “Synchrogazer” for confirmation.

It was also partly inspired by Laura Scarpati and her podcast The Woo Report.

And encountering Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend.

Who seemed interested in the concept.

I then did a loose pilot with Kenny Gray.

In my apartment ;0

And shuffled for more confirmation and got a song by him out of 120,000 songs.

I then wrote about how I was professionalizing it with a producer and filmer.

At a studio location.

Well, now, the fateful day is here.

We have our first show.

With David Redd!

David Redd

In support of his new album.

His second.

Love Is Everything & It Will Not Save You

Which releases today June 26th, 2025!

I already had the pleasure of listening to it.

It’s beautiful and wise and of this moment and eternal.

It reminds me of John Mayer and Maggie Nelson.

And Labi Siffre and Karen Dalton.

However traditional music writing has never been my forte ;)

Instead.

We will have two fresh shufflemancies of David Redd’s album.

And the transcript of the show below :)

Shuffling LOVE IS EVERYTHING & IT WILL NOT SAVE YOU

QUESTION

I am holding a polarity with someone and waiting for a communication, in the past I would have over-communicated more and first, but should I continue to wait for their promised and seemingly preferred form of slow communication?

🔀✨

“Someday” by David Redd from Love Is Everything & It Will Not Save You

ANSWER?

This is such a gentle, warm, affectionate, loving, and pleasant vibe.

David’s voice is calm and grounded.

But also romantic and attractive.

It starts with the lyrics:

Someday
Will come back to you
Someday
Maybe some afternoon

Which makes me think of holding the space.

The someday of the connection.

Will come back.

Maybe some afternoon soon.

Maybe a Sunday
Maybe a crescent moon
Just know that one day
Maybe someday soon

The plans were/are kind of for this Sunday!

And today is a new moon.

So this Sunday and weekend would be a crescent moon.

More importantly.

Just know that one day.

Maybe someday soon.

Someday
When your guard’s low
Someday
You’ll look around and find you’ve always known

Maybe you’ve been afraid
Maybe you’ve been alone
Just know that one day
We’ll find our way back home

Certain days are cold
Certain days are bleak
Certain days will cause you pain
Without a single reason

But then that’s when you know
When no one is around
That if you hang on long enough
Then it will come back around

I’ve been very alone this past spring.

One of the more cold and bleak periods in my personal life.

In finally releasing the graphic novel SHOULD WE BUY A GUN? after 11 years.

I realized what David Redd did in his album title.

The book was everything & it would not save me :)

There were times when I was afraid.

That I lost my chance at love.

Because my relationship with a different person ended last summer.

She seemed to happily move on to someone new.

And I was in a lot of pain.

That I dealt with by not dealing with it at all.

Only focusing on the book’s release.

But after doing some healing.

I’ve hung around long enough.

And recently while my guard was down.

Something new seems to have come back around.

I now find myself interested in someone else.

Someday
We’ll come back to you
Someday
Once we realize there’s nothing left to prove

Maybe we’re on our way
Maybe we’ll get there soon
Just know that one day
We’ll be coming home to you

I believe David Redd is right.

Maybe I’m on my way.

With this person.

Or in my life.

QUESTION 2

I’d like some guidance on how to feel about the time and resources put into Ask The Music and how to monetize the project so that it’s sustainable and profitable?

🔀✨

“Slowly Straight To You” by David Redd from Love Is Everything & It Will Not Save You

ANSWER?

David Redd in the Ask The Music episode.

Talks about new sonic explorations in his second album.

“Slowly Straight To You” is a perfect example of that.

There’s a beautiful technological quality to the instrumentation.

A bleepy glitchy yet evocatively resonant quality.

It feels along the bleeding edge of pop songwriting like James Blake, Jack Antoff, and yes, the aforementioned, Maggie Nelson.

There’s this dream I keep on having
Where I’m climbing up a staircase
In a real life reproduction
Of an old Nintendo game

In fact, the sonic exploration sounds a bit like Nintendo music.

What’s often called hyperpop now.

Kind of like the theme song of Ask The Music.

Which is by Cursewords.

A brilliant and overlooked hyperpop artist.

From his song “Velocity City”.

But back to David Redd.

I was taught I’d have to save you
From a high place in a castle
But it turns you’re no damsel
And already slipped your chains

Climbed your way down from the window
Because you thought I’d never get there
And they taught you just to wait there
So of course you ran away

I always had a dream of being a writer.

But a different kind from what I turned out to be.

It was to be what had already existed.

A comedy writer. Like SNL.

A music journalist. Like The Rolling Stone.

It felt like I was taught to just wait for it.

But it turns out you have to save yourself.

Slip the chains of the gatekeepers.

Otherwise, you might never get there.

Climb your way.

Run your own course.

By the time I arrive
I find an empty little chamber
I start feeling like a failure
Until your laughter in the garden wakes up

By the time I finally feel like a good writer.

My dad was already dead.

And I feel like a failure.

But his spirit wakes me up.

Synchronicities laugh around me.

Making the whole of existence a garden.

Just as I start calling out your name
I just can’t believe it’s really happening
My whole life has told me it’s too good to be true
So I keep waiting for another tragedy
Until I realized my tragedies
Only lead me slowly straight to you

I call Spirit, Dad, but also know it’s something much greater.

I can’t believe it’s happening.

The miracles are real.

My whole life has told me.

That this spiritual dimension is too good to be true.

Just a form of mania.

So I keep waiting for another tragedy.

For it to go away.

Like it did when I was 21.

But now it’s integrated at 35.

And remains so.

Both worlds at once.

I live in daily.

And I realize my tragedies.

My dad’s too.

Only led us ‘slowly straight to’ this work.

There’s sometimes I want to kiss you
Like we’re two kids on a swingset
Sharing headphones and a secret
As I dare to touch your hand

I keep meeting new people.

And old people.

Who see the things I see.

That were called crazy a generation ago.

Sharing headphones and a secret.

We dare to touch the phenomenon.

When the other kids get jealous
Tell you not to eat your lunch with him
Come and poke you on the shoulder
And kiss you on the lips again
But it’s nothing like all those other times
And it’s only cause we’re older
Having stripped away the layers
Of the way we used to be

Some people still get jealous.

Tell us this kind of thing isn’t real.

But we poke them and kiss em.

Us knowers.

It's not like the other times.

It’s grounded now.

Because we’re older.

Having stripped away the layers.

Of the traditional ways we used to be.

And I just can’t believe it’s really happening
My whole life has told me it’s too good to be true
So I keep waiting for another tragedy
Until I realize my tragedies
Have only lead me slowly straight to you

The phenomenon has stopped feeling like I can’t believe it’s happening.

It no longer feels too good to be true.

It’s just normal.

But now making a living out of it.

Feels like that.

Too good to be true.

But maybe it’s the same dynamic.

To overcome.

I keep waiting for another tragedy.

For this work.

But maybe my tragedies.

Like film and tv failure, that became graphic novel and parody haggadah success.

Will continue to lead me slowly straight to the right places.

There’s a way that I can feel
When I’ve been dealing with myself too long
It’s like I wish I could just stop existing
And I held you as you felt the same

How my dad died.

After dealing with himself for too long.

Him wishing he could just stop existing.

I don’t often.

But have felt it.

Yet we hold each other now.

If something like it arises.

Or something too happy.

It’s funny but it’s painful
Because with the way I berate myself
You wouldn’t guess I’d always end up
Right up where I had aimed
But every single little detail
Of our lives has led us right here

It’s painful but funny.

With the way I sometimes still berate myself too.

For my obsession with musical synchronicities.

That started after he passed.

But every single little detail.

I would never have guessed it’s got me too.

Right where I had aimed.

A new form of music culture.

Pioneering it :)

Where we’re staring down our deepest fears
All that panic and self-loathing
Only taught us how to row this boat ashore

Whatever fears I still have.

The recurrences of panic and self-loathing.

I know it’ll just continue to teach me.

How to row this project to its next shore…

OK.

Enjoy the rest of David Redd’s new album!

The transcript of his Ask The Music episode.

The first!

Is below…

Ask The Music Episode 1 Transcript

DAVE COWEN: My name is Dave. I'm here with David Redd. And this is a show called Ask the Music. It's a video series where musicians ask their own music questions.

You have a new song that just came out. You said that it's one of your best ones ever.

DAVID REDD: I think it's the best song I ever wrote.

DAVE COWEN: I think it is true. I want to play it for people. It's called, “What If This Is Good Enough?”

DAVID REDD: I had to encounter that question multiple times along the way of making this song. Maybe it already was good enough. That's kind of the point.

DAVE COWEN: And then it feels that way. Let's play it and enjoy it here.

What if this is good enough? What if you and I decided we don't need more than our love?

DAVE COWEN: I think this is the most settled and beautiful song I've heard of yours. I'm not gassing you up. Because I've heard a lot of your songs. But this is like a next level. Even though it's also just good enough.

DAVID REDD: Thanks, man. I was in actually a songwriter accountability group when I wrote this. So we had to send in a new song every week for 10 weeks. And I... hated it and struggled and every night like 30 minutes after the deadline would send in something I was like well it's garbage but f— it and just send it and I did that for a bunch of weeks and just got in the zone and then one morning I just woke up and the song was there.

DAVE COWEN: I mean it's phenomenal.

So for Ask The Music's sake. I gotta ask that question myself. Is this good enough? This show. I'm gonna ask that of my playlist. There's 122,000 songs. Is this show that Dave and I are sharing and you are sharing is this enough? Let's see what we get here.

DAVID REDD: Okay.

(Dave Cowen shuffles, he breathes a lot)

DAVE COWEN: We got a song called “Happiness.” NEEDTOBREATHE. “Happiness.”

DAVE COWEN: This singer, Bear Rinehart, he says:

“It's really about the sacrifice we have to make in order to change. Everyone who had to make major decisions in their lives knows that change is only worth it if you make the change for the right reasons. Happiness, after all, is clearly a fleeting thing. But purpose is what brings real joy. This band would be forced to make countless decisions about our schedules or plans that definitely was a sacrifice for our families, and that can be tough. I think this song in my life has shown me that the people who really do love you, want you to pursue your passions and the things that God wants you to do.”

DAVE COWEN: So for me. This whole project. Putting time and resources. I started to do things with my life that I want to be doing that don't make sense to my family, don't make sense to a lot of other people in my life why I'm doing it. But I know that it is my purpose, it brings me joy, it brings the world joy, it’s what God wants me to do.

That's what I'm thinking during that song is all that pressure that's on me and the craziness of putting all this money and time into this and not knowing what it's going to be.

DAVE COWEN: That feels so good, man.

DAVID REDD: Yeah, all right.

DAVE COWEN: I was so hard on myself. Kind of what you were saying, you just had to let yourself...be good enough when you made that song and you made something that was more than good enough, the paradox.

DAVID REDD: Yeah. I think every time I play the song, there's a moment towards the end, right before I say the final phrase, what if this is good enough, I say it one more time. And I try to take that moment every single time, no matter whether I'm playing it at the troubadour or in my bedroom or at like an empty room and a stage, always try to make sure to sit there and go, (he breathes) what if this is good enough and make sure that I remember that it is. And I think this song definitely gave you a similar feeling.

DAVE COWEN: Yeah, then the band name is literally called NEEDTOBREATHE. And then we both, I was kind of breathing a lot as we were shuffling and you were breathing when you said that last line.

DAVID REDD: Yeah, just get connected to it. Tap into the source a little bit. Get out of your head.

DAVE COWEN: I love that. My gosh.

Alright, so let's turn it over to you.

Do you have a question that's been on your mind that you want to ask your own music?

I mean, you have a huge great catalog here. We got David Redd every song. Anything on your mind?

DAVID REDD: What's something that I'm not consciously thinking of that I need to remember?

DAVE COWEN: Oh, interesting.

Okay, so let's hold that.

Actually, you should do the shuffle. It's your power.

DAVID REDD: I find that music often tells me a thing I've been forgetting about the puzzle piece that hasn't quite slotted in yet in my conscious understanding of it, even though it's probably there underneath. The music then is like, here's the message.

DAVE COWEN: Yeah, it'll release the unconscious.

DAVID REDD: Yeah. Tell me music.

DAVE COWEN: Ask the music. It may answer.

(David Redd Shuffles)

DAVE COWEN: “Do I Seem Okay?”

Live in studio.

Wow!

DAVID REDD: It's fairly on the nose.

DAVE COWEN: I like that. When did you write this?

DAVID REDD: 2018, probably.

DAVE COWEN: What was going on in your life then? Like, how's it compared to what's going on now?

DAVID REDD: So this was the first single I put out, what felt like my adult life as a musician. It was not too long after moving to Los Angeles. I'd been doing music in New York for a while and I just felt like I needed a change. When I got here, I realized that I had been sort of underwriting how much of a life step I had been taking by moving away from where I was from and doubling down on my artistry. The song is called, “Do I Seem Okay?” I was definitely very concerned with, do people think I'm falling off the deep end?

DAVE COWEN: You ask the question like, What am I maybe missing?

DAVID REDD: No, I was definitely very lonely when I wrote this. I was definitely lonely. It's interesting. I was living in the same place that I still live now.

DAVE COWEN: Oh, wow.

DAVID REDD: But I was living with a roommate. It's the same table. It's the same couch. It's the same foundational pieces. It's the same room.

I think also hearing that performance, listening to myself, I hear someone that's already pretty darn good, but has some work to do.

And what I'm thinking about is I've done the work. Things have evolved. And now I live there with my wife.

And also, it's pretty good now, and it was pretty good back then, too.

Do I seem okay?

DAVID REDD: I'm now in the process of releasing a new record and new songs. I've spent a lot of time working on both myself as a performer, but also on my life. Has changed.

DAVE COWEN: And you're very okay.

DAVID REDD: Yeah, yeah, totally. And I was okay back then too, I think is the other thing.

DAVE COWEN: When you ask the question of what am I missing, maybe you're not missing anything, is what you're saying. Like you were okay then and okay now.

DAVID REDD: Maybe this is good enough.

DAVE COWEN: Yeah, it's kind of the same song as before.

DAVID REDD: Yeah.

DAVE COWEN: Yeah.

DAVE COWEN: You also have an awesome playlist called Inspo Inspo.

DAVID REDD: That was an inspiration playlist of all the songs I was listening to a lot when I was making this album that I'm releasing right now.

DAVE COWEN: When does it come out?

DAVID REDD: The album comes out June 26th.

DAVE COWEN: What’s it sound like?

DAVID REDD: I have no idea what it sounds like.

(Laugh)

DAVID REDD: It was very much an album of experimentation and like figuring out how to fit a bunch of different sounds and ideas. My first album is very much like indie rock and it feels based on a lot of the classic rock and roll and singer songwriter rock and roll that I grew up on. Just trying to like put that in a modern context. But for the second album I really wanted to expand and there's so much other music that I love that had never really been a part of my own artistry. I still come from that same place and be true to who I am, a musician that came up as like a dude with a guitar, but see in what directions I can expand that and push against that. So like there's a ton of Stevie Wonder on here and Nina Simone, there's hip hop on here. My wife is from France, so there's some house music on there, along with the singer songwriter, just how to figure out how to fit all these pieces together. And that's sort of what this album was for me, is taking a lot of different parts of myself and seeing how they collage on top of each other.

DAVE COWEN: Do you think you have a question along those lines that you want to ask this inspo playlist for this album?

DAVID REDD: Yeah, let's see. I didn't think of one in advance, so…How does it all, I guess like, what piece is at the heart? It feels like a collage and a lot of different things kind of like stuck together. What's the heart of it?

DAVE COWEN: All right. What's at the heart of it all, this album?

DAVID REDD: Let's see. Tell me, music.

(David Redd Shuffles)

DAVE COWEN: Maggie Rogers, The Knife.

DAVID REDD: Yeah, that's a good answer.

I love this album so much.

DAVE COWEN: Tell me, what’s your thinking when you hear that?

DAVID REDD: She does that so well, combining a whole bunch of different influences and things and having them coalesce into something that feels really unified. She's clearly somebody that comes from a singer-songwriter place. I actually know her. She's a folk singer-songwriter. You can hear all these other influences that have come in, and it doesn't feel like they're pastiche. They're all unified together in a very unique and cohesive sound.

DAVE COWEN: And modern, like I'm looking at your playlist, out of all the songs it could have been, like we have Nina Simone, Stevie Wonder, there's a lot of older songs, and Maggie Rogers, literally a contemporary of yours, doing what you're doing with your next album.

DAVID REDD: It's definitely like somebody I've always held as like a guiding North Star for what music should sound like in my lane. It's clearly rooted in something, that I grew up on as well, but is like pushing a lot of boundaries and bringing a lot of things together in the sonic space, while holding firm to like, songwriter land as the core.

DAVE COWEN: Dude that couldn't be yeah i'm looking at like D'Angelo like these are great musicians but like what you're trying to do it's not the synchronicity right here.

DAVE COWEN: See, people always tell me that they think I'm on LSD when I talk about synchronicities and music. They're always like, you're seeing things that are just not in what's happening around you. You're just too much. But I think when you're on LSD, I imagine that that song feels like the perfect song for you in that moment. Would you say that is kind of what—

DAVID REDD: That has happened to me before, yes.

DAVE COWEN: But does it happen to you in regular life too?

DAVID REDD: Yes.

DAVE COWEN: Yes, of course.

DAVID REDD: Weed helps with that too, though.

Laugh.

DAVID REDD: But no, and like, I mean, it just happened a second ago. Look, there's definitely something to the fact that we can read in anything into anything. I find that I tend to get the message that I'm not maybe conscious of. My brain needs to maybe take out of the subconscious and put in that like front part of your brain. Believe in the synchronicity or not, like it's helping me find what I feel is buried. And it happens to me all the time.

DAVE COWEN: This album, what's it called? What's the title?

DAVID REDD: It's a long title. It's called Love is Everything & It Will Not Save You.

DAVE COWEN: Wow. Oh my gosh. How'd you come up with that? I love that.

DAVID REDD: I fell in love during the pandemic and had kind of a crazy adventure with a lot of really beautiful things that happened and a lot of terrible things happening at the same time. And it was an important reminder for me that we spend a lot of our, especially younger years, yearning and pining and waiting and thinking that as soon as we meet our person, everything's just going to be rosy and better. And that's not not true, but it doesn't change everything else about the rest of your life. It just makes you more equipped to go on doing what you're supposed to be doing. And that's always going to have challenges. So I think for me to remember, love is everything, but it's not going to save you, not all by itself. You still got to go out and live the rest of your life.

DAVE COWEN: Wow. I can't wait to hear this album. So when does it come out?

DAVID REDD: June 26th.

DAVE COWEN: Where can we follow you?

DAVID REDD: Follow me on Instagram or TikTok, @thedavidredd, or on Spotify is probably the best place.

Thanks to David Redd! (who also has a Substack)

Thank You All For Reading!!

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