THE HEALING POWER OF MUSIC a living playlist inspired by our live events
LIVE AT BACKYARD PARTY
Illustration by Annie McCall
Backyard Party is an extraordinary youth music community that grew out of the devastation of the 2025 Eaton Fire, when countless young musicians lost the garages, backyards and gathering places where they practiced, performed and built friendships through music. Co-founders Matt Chait and Sandra Denver created Backyard Party to give them new communal places to play, watch, hang out, learn, and tell their stories together.
The minute Medicinal Media heard about Backyard Party, we called to see how we could join forces. Two weeks later, we were drenched in sweat, grinning for hours and covering our first four astonishing BYP-affiliated bands.
Skidwizard and many other young bands at Backyard Party are choosing to confront our history head-on, turning an old ska-punk song into something immediate, loud, and alive. That’s part of what makes live music matter. Songs get handed from one generation to the next, and sometimes the next generation has plenty of reasons to sing them again. Live performance at Backyard Party • from our new collaborative series, following Natalia Inez and preceding Loach and Squatchy!
LIVE AT UNLIKELY COLLABORATORS
Featuring legendary tabla player, composer, and mentor Salar Nader, renowned vocalist and composer Aditya Prakash. pioneering USC neuroscientist Dr. Assal Habibi, and 10-year-old writer and guitarist Julian with some new originals. Coming soon: music supervisor Jocelyn Brown and more.
Illustration by Aaron Sacco
What can a 10-year-old teach us about perception? At The Healing Power of Music, a live event hosted by our friends at Unlikely Collaborators this summer, Julian shared an original song that began with a creative roadblock: “I don’t know how to write this song.” He turned that uncertainty into something joyful and unexpectedly insightful. His lyrics are a simple, memorable illustration of the Perception Box. We can experience the same world and interpret it very differently. The opportunity is to become curious about those differences rather than judging them. That curiosity can create connection, and help us expand our Perception Box.
What happens inside a child’s brain when they learn music? In this presentation, Dr. Assal Habibi, Director of the Center for Music, Brain and Society at USC, explores the powerful relationship between music training and the developing brain.
Dr. Habibi shares findings from a longitudinal study that followed children participating in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Youth Orchestra Los Angeles (YOLA) program over six years. Her team’s research examined how sustained music training relates to changes in brain structure and connectivity, as well as cognition, decision-making, language, and social-emotional development. The study offers a fascinating window into neuroplasticity, and into the ways that learning music may influence development far beyond musical ability.
What can music teach us about healing? Tabla virtuoso Salar Nader shares lessons from legendary guru Ustad Zakir Hussain, the power of mentorship, and music’s role in mental health, emotional resilience, and well-being. Salar began studying with Ustad Zakir Hussain at age seven and became his formal disciple at twelve. This lifelong mentorship has shaped his musical foundation, discipline, and artistic path. Through the Salar Nader Tabla Foundation, he continues this lineage by supporting emerging musicians with scholarships, mentorship, and educational opportunities, helping pass forward the same guidance that shaped his own journey.
Featuring renowned vocalist and composer Aditya Prakash. Along with poignant storytelling about his own family journey and how he uses music as a mental wellness tool, Prakash masterfully incorporates the historic thumri "Babul Mora Naihar Chhooto Hi Jaaye" into his contemporary, genre-bending music. The Song's Roots: "Babul Mora" (Oh, father, my home is slipping away) is a traditional Hindustani thumri in Raga Bhairavi. It was originally composed by the last Nawab of Awad, Wajid Ali Shah, to express his profound sorrow upon being exiled from his beloved city of Lucknow.
