Etherealmusicebook by Adam King

The Story Behind the Music It’s funny looking back. Sometimes you see it coming, others times (most of the time) you don’t. It all started in 2013 when I began working on a program called Earthbound. Earthbound was meant to create a very unique experience like none other in our personal development space. With it, the sensation of birthing Source through the feeling of becoming human. Obviously, this wasn’t an easy task. I needed to develop something that was not only profound, but also universal. It needed to cater to everyone so they could experience and reflect based on their individual story. So, Earthbound began like most programs do, at the end. Emerge, the final module of Earthbound, was born. I then began to write the entire program backwards starting with that powerful musical experience. The progression worked its way back to zero, right where it started with the very first module Born From Stars. The modules came in two forms. A 20 minute atmospheric audio, and a full hour for deeper contemplation. But the unique thing about this progression going backwards, was that the music subsided as I continued. In other words, there’s virtually no music whatsoever during the first several audio modules. In fact, that music didn’t even begin until the last set.

This is what made Earthbound so powerful. Simply put, the progression led you from an experience of binaural, tonal, and atmospheric audios, to a place of absolute power that was driven by music. Moving forward. As much as I love the program of Earthbound, I felt that it needed something more once you’ve gone through the full experience. Imagine if you will, that you’ve just gone through an extremely powerful progression of birthing Source, awakening back into human form, and now you’re left back in your body with these profound sensations completely different from normal waking life. I mean, what could possibly come next? Of course, you’d ask me what I did. Simple, I did what everyone in my place would do. I began to interact with my Tessera Members in order to gain clarity. I asked them what they liked most about Earthbound and my work in general. The answers were almost instantaneous on top of similar. “Adam, the music takes us on such a powerful journey. We want more of it.” As much as the intellectual part of myself didn’t want to hear that, it was true. There’s something incredibly special about going through an auditory simulation with music that drives our emotions. First we listen to the tones, absorb their beauty, and then take ownership of the songs by fashioning images of a story within our heads. This is literally the progression of projecting our own identities upon things that move us emotionally. And this, is where Ethereal was born. It was born from the necessity to produce an Earthbound Part Two. An Earthbound that would bring us into a state of beauty for where we are at in this very moment. The now. However, there was still a one problem.

I felt that Earthbound, although basically nothing but an auditory experience (no guided voice, teachings, etc.) was complete. And, if you’ve ever gone through the Earthbound experience and felt what thousands of others have, you’ll know what I’m talking about. But that didn’t stop the ideas for Ethereal from flowing. During the time we (my project manager and myself) began to put something new together in which to compliment Earthbound, we were also experiencing a shift in the personal development space. The most important, and the one that I’m sure you can agree with, was a financial one. The second, was the fact that people were getting bored with the same (or similar) processes that seemed bland and outdated. In short, most people were getting tired of spending money (lots of money) on programs that seemed stale and overused. So, I was forced to the drawing board and reconsider the purpose of Ethereal. During this time, I also was doing some research with my Tessera Members about what was most important to them. (That never stopped) During this time, we began to develop two new programs that dealt with intense personal reflection, resourcefulness and the full rehabilitation of identity. (PURE and The M.E. Initiative.) However, I still needed to fulfill the need for more emotional auditory experiences. So, through the use of over three dozen surveys, chatroom gatherings and THOUSANDS of emails, I had a breakthrough. The breakthrough became something called 2 Minute Song Saturdays. Basically I created a new two minute song every week and posted it on my website. This way I could continue to develop my programs and still have time to produce the music everyone wanted. Furthermore, the 2 Minute Song Saturdays allowed me to hone my skills in the studio while creating something of importance between programs. Then, another idea hit me. I have a monthly membership community called Tessera Essential Gathering or TEG. I decided that for them, these two minute songs would not only be downloadable, but that I’d also give them the full versions of each one.

So, what turned out to be Earthbound 2, became 2 Minute Song Saturdays, and eventually full songs for my TEG members. It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t take long for me to realize what was taking place. All along, I was creating Ethereal. When this revelation occurred to me, I began to put some serious time into the studio. The weekly songs that were originally taking me one or two days to create, were now getting the attention of three to five days to master. Some, took even longer than that. Six months later, we have the completion of Ethereal. However, and even more powerful breakthrough didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t happen until the very end of the album with a song titled The Road Before You. After the first two months that I had been releasing the 2 Minute Songs, I decided it was time to share something a bit more with those visiting my Tessera site to listen to them. So, I released The Road Before You as a full version. In fact, I never even created a two minute version of this song. It was clear in my mind that Ethereal was getting closer to completion and I wanted so desperately to show everyone that there were FULL versions of these songs. Also, during the weeks of my 2 minute versions, the traffic to my website doubled. It was clear to me that my audience was telling the truth when they said they wanted more music. However, something else happened when I released this full version. My Soundcloud channel exploded. I remember reaching 50,000 listens when I began to post the songs. Then after only a couple of months, and the release of this very special full version, I noticed a massive spike in traffic. In fact, only after a few days or so after The Road Before You released, I hit 80,000 listens. What happened next floored me.

What I noticed was that most of the likes were from people who had never heard me before. (You can like a song if you have a Soundcloud account just like you would like a post or comment on facebook.) On top of that, and the part that really hit home, was the fact that many of the people liking my songs were much younger then myself and were also interested in an array of different kinds of music. Not just pretty stuff. I even noticed that The Road Before You found its way onto playlists that had techno, hard rock, and even rap songs. What? My mind has since been spinning in circles trying to understand how this song got so popular? Now, I know many of my members have shared it, but I never saw this coming. And trust me when I say this, I’m delighted. It truly warms my heart to see such a vast audience enjoy the music. To me, it’s their experiences that I want to know about. But regardless of that, I’m honored that my music is now a part of their lives. Here’s where things got even better and the final breakthrough occurred. As with many wonderful things, something happened towards the end of Ethereal that in turn, created the true story of its existence. But before I can tell you about this final revelation, I need to set the stage of how I began to create the actual music. As you already know, Ethereal was an idea to become Earthbound Two. This meant that the songs needed to be repetitious in nature. Not in a sense that they were difficult to listen to, but in a sense that they could be mediated, contemplated, or relaxed to as well. If you produce too much of a melody in a song, it can become complicated to listen to. If you produce too little, it can run the risk of becoming bland and un-emotional. What I had planned, was to create a melody for each song in order to produce the right amount of emotional balance. Then I would create an intro, a verse, and an ending while using enough repetition to make them unique while keeping their replay levels high.

Not only was this a good idea, but it worked in ways I had never imagined. As I began to write the songs, I would come up with the melody first, and then the songs seemed to just take over. I’m sure we’ve all heard the term “It basically wrote itself”. Well, nothing could be closer to the truth. But what came at the end, I never saw coming. Here’s the revelation that brought me to my knees. Ethereal is a compilation of ten songs. However, in all actuality, it was a lot more than that. You see, when I finally decided to make Ethereal an actual album, it became quite a bit of work. To be perfectly candid, it became a monumental undertaking as I was continuing my work on my two current programs Pure and The M.E. Initiative. Although the work required for Ethereal did not interfere with the development of these two programs, it still didn’t stop me from becoming blocked. In fact, I became so blocked that I ended up writing over 50 songs during the process of trying to complete the required ten. When I reached the second to last song, I was totally tapped out creatively. I even began to wonder if the project itself would ever get finished. And that, is when I decided to do exactly what I teach. I surrendered. I decided that the final song (all four versions) wasn’t good enough and I needed to take the night off and begin from scratch the next day. Three days and several attempts later, something amazing happened. I woke up early one morning, made myself a coffee, had breakfast, and then went into the studio. I sat in front of the keyboard, loaded up my recording program and just sat there. I remember telling myself that whatever came out of my hands next would be the one. No matter what.

And if this wasn’t enough pressure, this song, the final song of the album, would come directly after The Road Before You. So, it had to be good. As I sat there, I remember looking out my window and taking a deep breath. I then placed my hands on the keyboard, and played piano. What came next was a miracle. Eight notes later, chills ran up my spine and I began crying. When I was very young, I believed that when someone passed away, they would need support to get to Heaven. So, after the funeral I would play a song for them. During the playing of that song, I would watch the sunlight reach through the window from the door towards my right, and onto the piano. (See the “Adam Age Two” picture on the last page) The more emotionally I’d play, the more the sun would embrace my hands. The less emotionally I’d play, the more the clouds would cover the sun. If the sun stayed with me while I reached my emotional high for that particular song, it was like it was telling me that my work was complete and that person reached Heaven. I remember doing this exercise more and more as I got older. First grandparents, and then friends. I even think I threw a few pets in there as well. ;) Eventually it didn’t matter if someone passed, I would still look for the sunlight. And, it always came to greet me when I would play. This brings us back to Ethereal and that last song. It seems that as I played those first eight notes, my memory from the day I created that song reached out and embraced me. You see, the song that you now know as Ethereal, was the first song I had ever written. Whether it was written for a loved one who had passed, or simply because a little boy needed to express himself, all I remember is that when I played it, the sun would join me.

And now forty years later, it took a grown up child to bring out its true potential. Believe me when I say this. When the oboe, violin and orchestral instruments join in with the piano, I am whole. During the creation of this song, I joined not only with the sun that would lay its light upon my hands, but I also joined that little boy that started a dream that man would finish. This song is the purest embracing of my youth as I have finally become the person who could fulfill their own inner child’s dream. And now, with technology, experience, decades of practice and the love from my family and my Tessera Members, Ethereal not only became the final song of the album bearing its name, but it became the purpose behind the entire project. For the final song of this album was the first song I had ever written. Thank you. With deep gratitude, Adam To learn more about Adam’s programs, teachings and music, please visit: http://tesseramethod.com and signup for Adam’s newsletter.

Adam 1974 Age Two (Probably playing Ethereal)