On this episode of Mind Massage, Mabel takes us on a sound journey using some of her favorite items such as Palo Santo, Vitamins, Seaweed and more!
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00:00Hi, I'm Mabel. Welcome to my mind massage. I'm going to take you on a sound journey using
00:13some of my favourite things. This is my journal. It's one of my favourite things. I write down
00:36all my deepest, darkest secrets in here, but also it's where I get all my song inspiration.
00:43These are my favourite pens. They have this nice thin end. I am born in Spain, raised
01:00in between London and Stockholm, Sweden. My mum is West African and Swedish and my dad
01:06is British. My parents are both musicians, so I started making music at a super early
01:11age. It was always around me. At five, I learned how to play the piano. That's kind of when
01:17I started writing songs by myself. When I write music, I like to be in a dark, quiet
01:26room. I always bring my journal and I use the experiences that I've been through recently
01:35and I turn them into songs. I write a lot of music with my big brother, which is really
01:42special and we usually start with chords. So I'll play piano with these nails, which
01:52isn't the most convenient. Three words to describe my music. Chaotic, but it's like
02:01organised chaos. Empowering and fun as well. I think it's fun. I love ice. I'm going to
02:17have my favourite drink, a Tamarind Guarito. This drink always reminds me of LA. I always
02:36get it when I'm here. We don't have this flavour in London. I'm going to take some of my supplements.
02:51I have some vitamin C. I have a song called Vitamins, Vitamins. I always get confused
02:58about how to say it, but I'm big on my vitamins. And my Echinacea. I'm going to have two. Fantastic.
03:28Growing up, I was always inspired by powerful women. I think I would look a lot to the 90s,
03:4790s Destiny's Child writings on the wall is one of my favourite albums. Obsessed. Miseducation
03:54of Lauryn Hill, Aaliyah, Missy Elliott. And they all inspired me to do what I do. A song
04:03that I wish I had written is Arse Like That by Victoria Monáe. I think it's literally
04:10one of the most perfect songs ever. For my new song, Female Intuition, production wise
04:15and musically, I wanted to really shout out that era of R&B when I think it was really
04:22like pop music. And then the meaning behind the song is very, very much about trusting
04:28yourself as a woman and believing in who you are and knowing that you have the answers
04:36if you just trust your intuition and don't ignore red flags. This is one of my essentials.
04:46Sage and Palo Santo. I cleanse most spaces that I go into for my peace of mind. I just
04:57love the way that it smells. Makes me instantly feel safe. If I could work with any artist,
05:09I would probably want to work with Doja Cat. Doja is just like the best thing to happen
05:15in a long time. I'm obsessed with that. If I could only listen to one album for the rest
05:20of my life, it would probably be Writings on the Wall, Destiny's Child. It's like an
05:25album that everyone in my family loves and that it kind of taught me to sing, to harmonise.
05:31Me and my sister would sing to Writings on the Wall together.
05:36I take regular social media breaks because that messes with my mind. I also ride horses
05:50in my spare time. My Palo Santo, my crystals, long paths. I think I'm really good at self-care.
05:58I definitely put myself first. An essential snack for me, seaweed.
06:18I like to take two at a time and fold them.
06:29I eat quite healthy, I think, in general. I love rice cakes, hummus. When my mum comes
06:51with me on tour, she's always cooking on the tour bus, so she brings a little hot plate
06:56that makes like brown rice. I eat lots of vegetables. I love a crudité. Anything but
07:02celery, though. I hate celery. If I wasn't a singer, I would have either have done something
07:08with horses. I find them so therapeutic. Or I would have been a yoga teacher. I was actually
07:16doing a yoga teacher training when I signed my record deal. If I had a superpower, I would
07:24like to read people's minds. I'm a people watcher, so I feel like that would just take
07:29it to the next level. I read a lot. It helps me relax, but also I find it's great for writing
07:40songs, for lyrics, for learning more about the world. I've always been a bookworm. I'm
07:48currently reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation. I started reading it the day before yesterday,
07:56and it's very good. It's quite sad, but I like books that you could cry to.
08:05My mum gave me this little Frida Kahlo postcard to use as a bookmark.
08:19If I could live in any fictional world right now, it would be Dune, because the fashion,
08:28Dune fashion is a slay. It's very like my mood at the moment, the earthy tones.
08:35Two books for the rest of my life. One would be the Autobiography of Malcolm X.
08:41That's one of my favourite books. And then maybe Americana by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
08:49I love that book so much. Instantly learn a new talent or skill.
08:57I would want to be able to speak every language. That would be so cool, just to be like,
09:03understand what everyone's saying and everywhere I travel, to be able to speak their language.
09:07I would love that. Favourite vacation. I went to Thailand with my whole family when I was like
09:16maybe three or four. I have three siblings, but we also went with all my cousins. It was like
09:22extremely chaotic, but so fun. I would love to do like a big family holiday like that again.
09:29Best self-love advice would probably be
09:36tuning out the noise, like in whatever way you do that. I use reading, I use horses, but I think
09:44trying to stop focusing less on other people's highlights and what's going on in their lives,
09:50I think that is my purest form of self-love. It's like being present and focusing on the
09:56positives and what I'm doing right now. I'm Mabel. Thank you so much for coming to my mind massage.