Davin Youngs Wants to Immerse You in 'The Reset'

EDGE: How you would characterize the concepts of the "sound bath" and of sound healing?

Davin Youngs: There's something in yoga studios and meditation studios that's typically like an acoustic experience, where there will be some sort of playing of a gong or crystal singing bowls or tuning forks. That's maybe how people are most familiar with a sound bath.

What I do, and what I've sort of created, is something that takes that and elevates it. It's electro acoustic, so there are elements that are amplified, that are primarily relying upon my voice and singing and looping devices to create amplified sound that is interwoven with acoustic instruments. It's not meant capture your singular focus; it's meant to hold space for your mind to travel wherever it might.

EDGE: You are also a recording artist. How did that lead to your work in sound therapy?

Davin Youngs: Singing is at the heart of my talents and my passions, and it's what I've dedicated much of my life to. [With regard to the sound healing], there were two simultaneous events that happened in my life. One was an experience in a yoga class where, in shavasana, someone played a gong, and I thought I was leaving my body.

Simultaneously, I was becoming familiar with the work of Bobby McFerrin around what he refers to as circle singing, which is an improvisational community singing practice. There's usually a leader that stands in the middle of a circle and improvises parts that they give over to sections of the circle to repeat. It's like a drum circle for the voice. I think this achieves a very similar experience to what I felt with the gong. From there, I started to study and become trained in sound as a healing modality. I aspired to integrate that with the part of me that loves to perform.