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We are lucky little caterpillars to have found love in each other, but it hasn't always been the easiest road. I am blessed to have so many gorgeous interracial couples in my lyfe! Whether your love has been a struggle or breeze, this song is for you and all your swirly goodness. This video is our Mind Cocoon entry to this year's NPR Tiny Desk Contest. Wish our mixed up butts luck!

2016 tested our patience and tempted an escape from reality. Many times did we contemplate leaving it all behind, as if that would solve all our problems. We fluctuated between staying in Oakland and moving away. Who did we think we were, the Raiders? But as time went on, we realized there is no place like home. We covered 2 songs in this time, Rihanna's Desperado and Tracy Chapman's Give Me One Reason. Desperado was recorded in our living room in Alameda, CA when we thought we "gotta get up out of here...just want out of here yeah once I'm gone, ain’t no going back." Give Me One Reason was recorded on the back porch of an AirBnB in Portland, CA, a city we were contemplating moving to, as we pleaded to "give me one reason to stay here and I'll turn right back around." Luckily we stuck it out and Oakland gave many reasons to stay. And here we are. Hi 2017.

Waltz #2

In honor of the good one that couldn't be saved, Mind Cocoon covers Waltz #2 on the floor of our kitchen with a guitar and the shitty toy piano we rescued from the parking lot dumpster. RIP Elliott Smith--October 21.

Our portrayal of Daria and Jane is more accurate than you could know. Ryne and I have come a long way since we started making music together, but our introvert spirit is still going strong. Human and camera shy, we realized the best take is without fail the take when no one else is around and the camera is off, but our progress has been steady and rewarding. Performing for small groups and asking for help from our talented friends has really upped our usual DIY cave dwelling vibes. I work in a photo studio in San Francisco, so it was a no brainier to take advantage of our resources and add a little production value to this project. Huge thanks to our videographer Mark Fore for staying late in the studio the day after his birthday to film on my birthday! Aquarian power! Despite our low key nature, Ryne and I are avid costumers. We'll find any excuse to whip out our Ice King and Marceline gear--complete with a glittery red axe uke--or bust out our inner feminist warrior in male/female Mulan drag attire. Emulating some of our favorite comic heroes really helps us channel the confidence, spunk and magic these characters bring out in us when we take the stage. Daria and Jane were perhaps the most eerily similar to our actual selves, so it wasn't much of a stretch there. Please do not be alarmed by the subtleties of our outward enthusiasm. Simply being able to complete this video and enter it (on time) is such a little victory in itself, and to us those are the best kind. The Tiny Desk Contest really gives hope for bedroom rock and for that we thank you. Excuse me, you're standing on my neck.

"Heave", Mind Cocoon's entry for NPR's Tiny Desk Contest Since it was our shared teenage angst that essentially brought us together, we thought we'd pay hommage to our spirit animals--Daria & Jane--with some nihilistic 90's nostalgia. Excuse me, you're standing on my neck.

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAavTLyQQ8g)

Mind Cocoon's premier rap track entitled "Sapien" is inspired by the idea of the cross-pollination between art, music, and cultural identity, emphasizing the need to think in gradients rather than in black and white. The video is created entirely of Google material icons and visual inspiration from the Google brand, including past and present logos.

In support of Miley Cyrus' Happy Hippie Foundation, Mind Cocoon performs their own Backyard Session with a cover of Bikini Kill's Feels Blind. Happy Hippie Foundation is a non-profit organization that advocates for the at-risk homeless and LGBTQ youth. We believe GENDER IS OVER (if you want it)! The social constructs that attempt to liquify our souls to fit their molds... well, they make us feel blind. Blind to the reality that we are allowed to break out of that box outlined in chalk. But liberation is near, if we relinquish the fear. The fear to be our fully, completely, uninhibited selves. No mind to the media, the haters and most of all, our own self-doubt. Embrace your black sheep essence! Bask in the light of your own lunacy! And don't take shit from no one!!! Filmed by Michelle Wu in Oakland, CA

A LETTER TO HAPPY HIPPIE FOUNDATION:

In the many moments—and I mean many—spent defending to the death the greatness that is Miley Cyrus, there has been no greater testament to affirm her truly genuine, gentle and socially-conscious nature than that of this amazing organization. Happy Hippie Foundation profoundly resonates with my husband and I in it’s fight for social justice, which has always been at the forefront of the topics we address in our music. Our music project—Mind Cocoon—aims at promoting the mental metamorphosis from larval states of consciousness to butterfly enlightenment. Altering thinking from automatized to humanized, from subservient to subversive. We believe it all starts with consciousness. The ability to question the systems in place around you, whether you fall on this perceived “left" or “right" binary.

Cognitive dissonance is the real culprit, and less so the people who blindly subscribe to certain ideas because it’s easier to conform. Everyone has the potential to be allies, we truly believe this. From the churches flying rainbow flags, to the white politicians supporting Black Lives Matter, to the pairs of married men and women who identify with and advocate for LGBTQ rights, to the socio-economically privileged who use their voice to promote justice throughout our communities. We must break down the barriers that not only control us, but keep us from realizing the exponential potential of inclusivity. In this, we are asking if Happy Hippie will join us as an ally. We most certainly consider ourselves an ally of the cause and would like to share Mind Cocoon’s contribution to Happy Hippie’s Backyard Sessions with our cover of Bikini Kill’s Feels Blind.

We as Mind Cocoon are passionate radicals looking for a creative outlet to express our black sheep spirit, our underdog soul, and our ugly duckling essence. We are musicians, readers, writers, poets, artists, graphic designers, photographers, videographers, philosophers, psychologists, twerkers, screamers, lovers and dreamers. If this is at all a resume that speaks to the Happy Hippie Foundation, we would love to get involved—or please check out our website at mindcocoon.tumblr.com and my portfolio at gabbydimaranan.wix.com/portfolio. Either way, we will continue to support and contribute to the #HappyHippie cause and spread peace & love abound!

Cheers! Gabby & Ryne

P.S. We got real wrecked with this cover: soundcloud.com/mindcocoon/wrecking-ball

E: [email protected] T: mindcocoon.tumblr.com Y: youtube.com/user/mindcocoonmusic I: instagram.com/mindcocoon S: soundcloud.com/mindcocoon B: mindcocoon.bandcamp.com

Mind Cocoon performing the song we wrote as our wedding vows, Deviant Dreams, on the day we said "I do, I do, I do-ooh!"

Poetic Echo

Poetry has always been a way for me to channel my introspections and anxieties into a cryptic cathartic cleanse, a means to streamline my mental rants into a string of rhythmic symbols, and a method to mold my madness into therapeutic self-reflection. Reflecting my subconscious onto my conscience, much like the way an ink blot probes the psyche. Naturally, this is the type of meaningful manifestations I look for in music. 

Rappers like Kendrick Lamar and Earl Sweatshirt are the modern-day poets that truly speak to me through their lyrics. These two lyrical geniuses in particular possess themes in their songs that echo that of poems I’ve written in the past. “Mind Cocoon” is based on the concept that our generation is currently going through what I like to call “second puberty” or “20-something syndrome,” in which we experience a metamorphosis from caterpillar to butterfly. In the midst of this transformation is basically quarter-life limbo, in other words the Mind Cocoon.

Kendrick Lamar’s new album To Pimp A Butterfly resonates with the Mind Cocoon philosophy quite nicely. Note the name of the album for starters. The closing track Mortal Man engages the symbol of the caterpillar and the butterfly in a social and political discussion (with Tupac, no less) about social class, racism, and the emergence of your own artistic soul. 

These sentiments of transformation were likewise on my Mind Cocoon the summer after Ryne and I graduated college, got engaged and realized we were in for life’s biggest transition thus far. This poem is a product of that realization.

You’re the caterpillar in the jar That looks up and sees no stars Only holes to remind you that air Won’t always be there And leaves only come once a week The leftovers set aside for the weak

We take turns scaling slick black walls No kisses or kind words for those who fall Just jabs and brawls And slow heavy crawls

We’re in it for a common goal Just a part waiting to be whole Trapped beneath clear cellophane Was the wait all in vain? We envisioned something much more crystalline A cocoon to release the inner mind

But at least we can thank God to be in the shade Within glass that’s neither convex nor concave Unable to burn our ambition with rays Of light too bright, even for summer days

For now, I’m alright Today, we’re okay All our friends are caterpillars But someday, it’ll no longer be that way

Earl Sweatshirt’s new album I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside: An Album by Earl Sweatshirt is about to drop and his single Grief has got those slow heavy crawl vibes my dark soul feed off of. Critics may be asking “why you so depressed and sad all the time?” but Earl just speaks the gloomy truth that most would rather keep veiled. He understands the value of deep thought, the expression of the psyche. On his proclaimed sap-track Chum, Earl gets personal and exposes his psyche—the ancient Greek word that represents the human mind and soul, but also translates to the word butterfly.

This play on words with psyche and butterfly visually manifested itself into the Mind Cocoon butterfly ink blot, connecting the psychology of the Rorschach blot—the Mind—and the symmetric symbolism of the butterfly—the Cocoon. Even further back, this concept emerged from a spoken word piece I wrote in college, Psyche Soars, which expresses the interwoven origins of the Greek Goddess Psyche and the Chinese Philosopher Chuang Tzu’s butterfly dream.

Psyche Psyche soars Psyche soars beyond the mountains and the clouds Emerging from a mind cocoon Her thoughts echo loud

Rorschach blots of speckled thoughts Neurons full of neurotic knots And synaptic light bulbs of a thousand watts

Her wings Span beyond temple to temple The human mind, her shrine Limitless, unbound, sublime Unconfined to a brain in a vat

Perched on the tip of inception Only moved by the winds of conscious conception So sure she was born in the eye of a storm A brainstorm at that, but is that a fact?

How conscious is she that she's conscious? Does she string her words like beads on twine Before they impulsively jump to her mouth from her mind? To dream you're a butterfly and awake a mere mortal

Which of the two is a clearer portal? A portal to reality To realize That real eyes May produce real truths But also real lies

If Chuang Tzu and Eros Could speak the universal language of dreams In this symposium, they might seem to agree With the Chinese philosopher earnestly pondering A man who only flutters in dreams And a butterfly that walks on two feet in a nocturnal fantasy

And Eros on the other hand With his Greek intellect Would see that a butterfly and Psyche seem to reflect As there lacks a distinction between awake and asleep When Psyche means butterfly in the tongue of the Greeks

To dream you're a butterfly and awake a mere mortal Which of the two is a clearer portal?

Sometimes the sight our retinas provide Is seen even crisper in the minds eye A fluttering film strip of a universe projected Not onto others But onto insides of eyelids

Merry Chrysalis by Mind Cocoon