The Musical Medicine Cabinet: DJ Hesta Prynn on Healing Through Song on Music Saved Me

Music Saved Me Podcast - iHeartPodcasts

DJ Hesta Prynn shares her journey from childhood music memories to becoming a pioneer in using music as therapy. She discusses how songs shaped her identity and how music heals on a neurological level. Her work blends neuroscience, performance, and emotional connection to transform lives.

Key takeaways

• Music shapes identity from childhood.
• Neuroscience and music enhance emotional healing.
• Shared musical experiences build deep human connection.

Transcript preview

I'm Lynn Hoffman and welcome to the music save me podcast. I'm so excited to tell you that I also host another podcast called Comedy Save Me and if you'd like to check that out where wherever you get your podcasts and Buzz Night Media Productions is where I am birthed from and there's also a few other really cool podcasts from that called Taking a Walk and Taking a Walk Nashville and I'm not going to let the count out of the bag but there is a new podcast. in the birthing canal. Is that a little too descriptive? I'm sorry. Anyway, welcome to the Music Save Me podcast. I'm so excited about my guest today. She has built a career at the intersection of music, science, and human behavior. And today's guest has turned that into a mission to help people work better, feel better, connect more deeply with one another. Sounds like a good plan, doesn't it? DJ Hesta Prin is a musician, a speaker, a speaker, a keynote artist who brings neuroscience into the room in a way that's anything but a lecture. She's so amazing. Her sessions use music as a living laboratory. So genius. She shows teams and organizations how sound and rhythm and written words. Shared experiences can actually rewire the way that we think and relate to one another. She's helped companies unlock creativity, break through the walls that hold people back, and there's plenty of them, especially these days. And she's really built the kind of real human connect. She's really built the kind of human connection. that doesn't come from just a random team building exercise. And she's not just talking about it, she's podcasting about it too. Her podcast is called Music Is Therapy. See the connection here? And she goes real deep on the healing power of sound, one song and one story at a time. But before the keynotes and all the science and the podcast, there was a song, there was music that really meant something. Also, I believe she was starting. a budding career in the music industry and pretty much knows everybody which is is just an amazing thing I hope we get to get into that too her name is DJ Hesterprint and she is next right here on music save me don't move you're not gonna want to miss this she's really high energy and you're gonna feel so inspired by the end of this this is an iHeart podcast guaranteed human a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me How to Copy. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting and moving on-air chats. Open your free I-Heart Radio app search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kapi is presented by CBS. My first guest is Karen Toulton. Many surprises. Welcome to the Sweet Three-O-5 podcast where the group check comes to life. What about? You're the only person I know that loves a yellow starburst. It's a lemonade. This is Sweet Three-O-5. Here, over-sharing is encouraged. Listen to Sweet Three-O-5 with Lele Pons on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. June is Black Music Month and on the Drink Champs podcast, we're speaking with the hottest names in the culture, like Swaylyi. Do you realize how legendary you are? I appreciate that. I've seen it, but I'm like, man, I still got like so much more to do. Like Prince, he dropped like 30 albums. We dropped like five right now. That's the rate we got to be going. Yeah, that's a good attitude. No matter the era, Drink Champs brings you the biggest names and the most unfiltered conversations. Listen to Drink Champs from the Black Effect Network on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. as a monolith in mainstream media. Weedy and Hows is a podcast that's changing the narrative. I'm Theo Henderson and I created the show why I was unhouse on the streets of Los Angeles. We've grown into a two-time webby award-winning podcast, the only podcast that shares unhouse stories and news from the unhouse perspective. Listen to We-Zion House on the I-hard radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Can superstars. Can superstars even exist the way they used to 2016 was sort of that last era of monoculture where we still consumed things in community. Everybody wanted to be Bianca at that point. I don't think we'll ever see another beyond. What does it mean to be black and eat in America? You will never make me feel bad for being a black girl, for being a black American girl, ever. From music to food to the conversation shaping black culture right now, therapy for black girls is bringing it all to the mic. Listen to therapy for black girls on the mic. Listen to therapy for black girls on the podcast or wherever you get your podcast. I promise. Music saved me. Hesta! Welcome to Music Save Me. I'm so excited to be and I'm also I simultaneously on your show. Yes, welcome to Music is Therapy. We're so excited to have you here. I am so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be here. I really need to know in the beginning. First you got to take us back to that sort of first memory that you have of music. and meaning something to you like really not just performing it but but really feeling it can you share that a little bit with us a first memory of music meaning something to me yes the first memories I have of music are all in the backseat of my parents car I bet I'm not alone in that right no I've bet a lot of people feel that way but I don't know if it's meaning as much as it's feeling so much so I'd say almost all all of my memories of being young, I mean five years old young, are sitting in the back of the car and I remember where I was listening to Myno Ritchie dancing on the ceiling in the back of the car. I remember Let's Hear It For The Boy, which was my very first favorite song. Wait, can we just stop right there? I performed Let's Hear It For The Boys in junior high school on stage, first time I ever did anything on stage like that. That was my song. And everything I learned was from the back of my parents' car and the albums in the house. Yeah, the albums in the house. Yeah. For me, there wasn't a lot of music in the house. You know, it's so interesting. My parents were not, I mean, I'm such a music head. And my parents were not huge music people. I mean, my dad loved Motown. My dad had this like tape called Music for a Hot Body, like an 80s tape, tape. And it's funny, like, a gay party songs from South Beach. But like, but like, I didn't, I didn't know that. Like, I didn't know that. Like, I didn't know that. Like, I didn't. Like, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, and so many men so little time you know my dad is this like very you know conservative kind of buttoned up dude so that was that was funny but I remember just really the radio really raised me as it did for so many of us I've interviewed John Oates for for my show in another life and I was talking to him we're having this deep conversation and I'm just like John you must know that my very first memory is sitting in the back of the car hearing out of touch and I know who he wrote about because I read the book I read the book the book and all I read the book and all we become so connected our lives become so connected to these soundtracks yeah for those of us who love music that the song can bring you right back there I mean I said the words out of touch and I hear the chorus in my head when I say it and I am that five year old sitting in the back of the car thinking all the same questions you know just like that without you taking me without you setting the stage the song brings me right back there I assume you're the same way Oh yeah. Private Eyes. They're watching you. I can even see when you said that I can see where I was when I first heard it and I was in the back of my parents car and I was like driving by the McDonald's. I can't remember the name of the street in Newton, Massachusetts. And I just remember hearing that song the first time and seeing the road as we were driving by I just see that. It's yes. It's like imprinted in my head. Totally. I remember listening to. on me and it's I'm a ha ha take on me I love that you know I'm a I'm a D. You know I'm a D. You know I'm a D. A. R. A. A. H. A. H. I. You know I'm a D. You're intro is amazing but first and foremost I'm a DJ you know I've been a final DJ tour with the roots for two years that's what I do. That's what I do that's. I'm car and hearing the song on the radio and it opened up even these sort of darker questions like existential questions as a as a four-year-old or a five-year-old the song helped me ask questions that like my parents would never talk to me about things like that do you know what I mean like it opened up parts of my consciousness that made me who I am today I feel that way I think so many people do. Oh my God yes absolutely I mean in New York minute. but you know it's deep and it's like ahead of you. It's ahead of you. Yeah, that's right. It's wild. The other sort of earliest musical memories which aren't really earliest chronologically but maybe the most important sort of next memory is I grew up in New York I grew up right outside of New York City. We had a radio station of course called Hot 97. Oh I know that's good thing. So right and so back in the 90s which was kind of like that's that hey day of you know We had these incredible deges and people like you who talked to us through the airwaves and you know like Funk Flex and you know it's like the sounds DJ Mr. See all these guys that I really worshipped and some of them now I'm like I get to know or I can go see them DJ I'm gonna go see large professor DJ tonight but these guys would come on radio and they would play records and they would talk you through the records that they mute the record and be like who's coming at club China tonight 8 o'clock say you're on my list and in turn the song back up being like, you know, 13, 14 years old. And I get chills talking about this now and just wanting to be in that world, that there was this world in New York City where these records were living and these people were playing them and something was happening. And I could hear it. I could hear it, like with my ears. And I wanted to be there so bad. And I think that the experiences of being raised by that radio station at that time are in large part what made me chase as an artist. Yeah well the Beastie Boys played a big role in your coming up I mean didn't they sort of really give you a put us on yeah. Yeah. Can you just tell that story real quick? Yes yes so I so I my very first thing I ever did okay I always wanted to just sit and talk about music that's the truth that's all I ever wanted to do I didn't know that was a job so where I grew up that wasn't a job. It wasn't accessible to me, but I really so I moved to New York City I really wanted to be an artist and I went to acting school because that's like I thought I'll be an actress because that's what makes sense that I could see that I couldn't see myself being a hip-hop DJ on vinyl because I didn't look like those guys and the person who I started I started this band with my girlfriends called Northern State we signed a big major label record deal on Colombia and it was a girl Beastie Boys and we started it we started it because we were downloading it we were downloading songs we were downloading songs on Napster. living right by the world trade center right before 9-11. Wow. Right outside my window and they these my two friends said to me one was my babysitter from growing up and her best friend and me and they said we're gonna start a girl beastie boys and we want you to be in it and I said this is a direct quote I said don't name it something over the top feminist like hesta prin and they were like that's your MC name And that was it. And we did that. We got together and we wrote our rhymes. You know, we all had like liberal arts degrees. I was in acting school and we were very serious, overachieving, you know, girls of the 90s who loved Kathleen Hanna and you know, writing in our journals and drawing things. And we wrote our rhymes and we came together and we shared our rhymes with each other. And we booked a show and we played and the project really blew up and we made a demo and it got four stars and we and Questlove from the Roots who taught me how to DJ. Questlove read it. Just that a side note right there. He just read it. He read the review. The way that we got the review, I don't want to talk too much about myself because we're like doing a back and forth, but let me want me to get this out? That's okay. No, you're, I love it. I'm dying to hear about this. So my band made a demo. working at a magazine as a fact checker. And I asked the music editor, I said, hey, can I open up your mail? Because I wanted to see the demos and the press kits and stuff. And he said, yes, he said, throw away all the paper and just keep the CD. So we were making our demo. I said, let's print our bio on the CD because they throw away all the paper. And I put all the demos in the mailman in Manila envelopes and I had them sent to all the press, because we were trying to get press so that we could book so that we could book a show so that we could book a show. We had a show. so we could book a show. So I'm on my way out the door and I get a phone call and it's all my CDs were hand delivered. I get a phone call and it's Robert Crisco, legendary most important music journalist, arguably the most important music journalist ever. And he says, hey, this is Robert Crisco, I want to talk to Julie. That's my real name because I was the manager. Because on the CD it, it said I was the manager. And I was the manager. And I was the manager. And he said, I didn't know what I was like, I was like, I was like, I was like, I was a and put it on my top list and it's going to go in Rolling Stone. I was like, I guess so, I guess so, but we really just want to get a gig. And I hung up the phone and didn't even tell anybody. Oh my God. And the next thing you know, this huge article came out about us and it, and everyone was calling us and you know, it blew up and Questlove because he's a real music head, used to read Robert Chris Goughs, he must have had some kind of a newsletter, but when he had a newsletter, he made Oh my God. We went to London. Sorry, I'm like flabbergasted. That's like that doesn't happen. It was insane. And we went to London and we met the roots and went on this tour and we got boot off the stage every night. And that was exciting because the Beastie Boys got boot off the stage every night. So how did you keep going back on the stage when you get boot off? I mean what makes you continue to do that? I think we were so we were such like we imagined ourselves as such a political band. we were like of course we'll be boot off the stage because that's giving us sort of like a street cred and then quest love came out the second night of the tour in Manchester he came out in front of us before we came on stage and he said and everyone clapped he said I want you to do me a personal favor I want you to be open and like receptive to this act so we didn't get like wildly booed we just got like subtly booed that night but all of the even though we got so much hate from the world which we did we did we did and it was career all of my heroes, Adam Horvitz from Beastie Boys, changed my life. Chuck D. Still a friend and supporter. Pete Rock, legendary hip-hop producer, mugs from Cypress Hill, these guys all reached out to us. They were curious about what we were doing. They thought it was interesting or a Reverend and we got to make records with these people and you know, I met the Beastie Boys and had some time with Adam Yauk and the end of the story is. Adam Yauk, who is MCA and the Beastie Boys very spiritual, Buddhist, I ever saw that was a real celebrity to me, not like a celebrity, you know, on stage that was on the pedestal, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a real person I respected immensely and knew as a real person, sorta. And he said like publicly with his actions that money and fame is not the thing. That's how I got into this whole music and therapy and wellness and neuroscience game because I love playing records and I love turning people on and I love turning people on and I have all these ideas of why it works, but because chasing like the money and the success of being an abandonment, being a DJ and all of this made me unhappiness every minute. And I always would think about Yauk who got there. Like I might never get there. I didn't even was like, well I ever get there. If I get there, I'll be happy, I've got to get there. I've got to get that money. I got it. And I would always think of him, I got it. I would always get there, I got that money. I got that money, I got that money, I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that money. I got that. I got that. I got that money. I got that. I is there a there there? Yeah. I couldn't do anything. Didn't do it for Yauk. So that they really inspire me musically politically you know all the things of my most important band. It's interesting that you that you were able to glean that off of all that because so many people who attempt to go in that direction. I don't even know if it's just music or in general in life you know you want to climb that ladder if you have that. You said it's sort of like you were overachievers. And there's something about that, I guess, like attracts like. So I knew instantly when I started hearing you talk on your podcast. I'm like, oh my God, we're like sisters from another mother. Yeah. It's just, you want to achieve and then you get to the level where you think you're supposed to be and you're