The noise of the week is behind us.
The feed is off.
The record is spinning.
It's time to stop interviewing and start listening.
Welcome to Sunday Brunch.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, you fearless foragers of fascinating facts.
Welcome to the eighth serving of Sunday Brunch.
And today is, you guessed it, Sunday.
It is the 1st of March and very much brunch time on the East Coast of the United States,
which can only mean one thing.
Your favorite music on the lightning-laced airwaves.
Now, settle in. This is not your regular podcast.
I don't have any questions prepared.
I don't have a sermon.
and I won't be asking our guest about demonetizing the military industrial complex.
There's just a table, some coffee and a record player.
The guest is the DJ here.
And because there is no corporate sponsor in the booth,
you are the ones keeping the coffee pot full.
This is a Valley for Valley production.
We don't run on ads.
We run on Vibe.
If you enjoy the selection today, you can throw some sats in the digital tip jar by boosting on fountain or zapping on Noster.
Here is the house rule.
When the needle drops, the sats follow.
90% of everything you stream during a song goes directly to the artist.
You are tipping the band.
And when the music fades and we're just chatting, you're buying a round for the guest and me.
And my guest today is a singer, songwriter and all-round creative.
Ivy Lumi is here and she's brought her own playlist with her.
We're going to spin some tracks.
We're going to talk about whatever topics bubble up in the silences between the music
and give everyone listening a chance to enter this decompression chamber after a long week.
So, shake off those Saturday night cobwebs.
Ivy, welcome to Sunday Brunch.
Thank you so much for having me, Ivy.
So Ivy, we met once, I believe, a couple of years back.
It was in Prague. It was Prague 2024 for the conference.
It was in the summer that year.
And I think, yeah, there were a couple of group events and we never really got a chance to chat.
And now here you are with a published Valley for Value album or upcoming album.
So what have you been up to since, I guess, Prague 2024?
Yes, yes.
Thank you so much for having me.
And I'm really looking forward to delve into some of these stories.
that have shaped the music and shaped my life in the past few years.
I started writing songs end of 2023.
So when you met me in Prague, I was already writing songs for about seven, eight months.
And after Prague, I actually wrote my last song that went into the Cure EP that we'll be tuning into a little bit.
And ever since that, I've been, because I was a new singer-songwriter, I have been doing this for the very first time.
It took me a year and a half to properly get these five initial songs produced with a friend.
And then 2025, in May, that was the first time that I started releasing music under the name of Ivy Loomy.
Love it. So a year and a half, your first time singer-songwriter.
Were you trained musically or is it something that you've self-taught in that period?
I would say yes or no. I grew up, I started playing a keyboard when I was like four or five years old because my cousin at the time, she was playing keyboard and then she was moving on to piano. So they have this extra keyboard that they can give away.
And then my parents was asking me like four years old, I think they were like, do you you have a you can now choose one hobby.
You can either pick up the keyboard from your cousin and then we'll send you to keyboard lessons or you can do join lessons.
You can pick and I picked music.
So from then I started doing keyboard lessons for like eight, nine years.
And then I started to play piano just by myself.
And over the decades, I have been a crappy instrument player.
Like I'm not any good.
I've listened.
I've studied for many, many years, but I can, I'm, I'm good with a few songs, but that's
it.
And for a long time, I thought to myself, oh, I really love music and I love to sing and
I do it as a hobby, but it's, it's, I probably don't have any, not, not that much music talent.
And my, my parents would agree with me and they would thought so too.
So they were a little bit iffy when I started telling them, oh, I'm writing songs, I'm producing
songs and I am becoming an artist. But yeah, it was yes and no until I stumbled upon songwriting
end of 2023. It was a special occasion. I was at Bigfoot Amsterdam and at this party,
there was someone was talking to me and then we had a conversation and he was like,
you should start writing things down. Forget about the format. The format will come to you.
But just start writing things down and perhaps your stories will help people.
So that's the starting point of me just starting to write again.
I used to write a lot as a teenager and then started to draw down thoughts.
And then around the same time, I saw an Instagram ad just randomly.
And it's a songwriting app.
and I was just downloading it to play around because I was curious.
But how the song app, like the songwriting app structured,
it was highly intuitive and it's for someone who actually knows music.
So you actually have to put things together.
But at the end, they actually give you a pretty good mix.
So I started writing songs on the phone
and then the demos become something else later on.
got it what is this app because you know there are like there's logic pro which is a very advanced
app for music there's you can also use something like a garage band if you're a mac user right but
you i mean typically well not typically but what a lot of people end up doing is they play their
instrument whatever it is they record that as a track they're called the other instruments and
then they can sort of mix the tracks in GarageBand or if they're advanced they can use Logic.
Is it a similar type of app that you came across?
No, no. It was a songwriting app for Logic. It's already getting into the production side
where you have to construct the tracks already. But the way I write songs is that I hear a melody,
I hear something in my brain and rather to create the sound is really more like a download and I have
to write it down before I forget it so I hear the melody and sometimes they they come line after line
and this this app is called demo I believe the time I had them it was a iOS only app they may
have Android version now too the essence of the app is that they gave you several compartments
You can build chord progression using chords, proper chords, and it's not sound based, it's chord based.
And then you have four instruments you can play with, keyboard, drums, bass, and guitar.
And you can choose the vibe of how that bar is produced.
And then you can write lyrics, you can change orders, and you can add a voice demo on top of it.
You can record your voice and then you can export a rough mix, which give you a rough demo of beginning to the end.
And you can produce to a certain degree with on the phone to convey the vibe, at least.
And then I started learning to properly produce like in one of the dolls you said, like the Logic Pro starting January last year, really.
And started to develop my own ideas a bit more with co-producers.
But the app itself is a really intuitive way of writing songs for those who hear melodies and not necessarily musically, instrumentally.
Got it.
That is interesting.
I mean, I've been around a few songwriters.
My brother, in fact, is a musician as well and a few others.
and typically their process is either to sit at the piano
and they're inspired by some kind of chord progression
and they start playing the chords.
Or it could be the guitar, right?
They start strumming the chords
and then the melody sort of forms on top of the chord progression.
But this sounds like a slightly different way of doing it.
So you pick up the app and you start,
as you get the inspiration for the melody,
you sing into the app.
Is that how it works?
Yeah, I'm just curious how this works.
Yeah, for sure. Love to share my creative process. Each of the songs come a little bit differently. Sometimes I do have the lyrics first and I love to write kind of lyrics that talk to each other. So they oftentimes have callbacks and have similar formats.
So sometimes the lyrics would come first and then I will just sit down with the lyrics and come up with some sort of melody and then really to find what chord is that.
Because I hear melody and I don't know the key.
I don't know the chords.
And it's really about me singing that note until I poke around in the app and find the chord.
So I've been writing songs kind of in a more intuitive way.
and so that's why for the longest time i wasn't sure if this is something sustainable because
this is just like you said that your way other people's way of writing songs starting with a
instrument starting with a chord that's the usual way of writing it and i wasn't sure if
i could do this way sustainably um but i guess um the more practice the better and then you
gain a guru of your own.
Yeah, that's great.
Look, I mean, it's a creative process, right?
There is no fixed way.
Inspiration can come from any place.
So that's great that there's an app
that's out there that helps people
who think differently, right?
About these things or inspired differently.
So you started this a year and a half ago.
what were you doing before that, Ivy?
And what exactly was the catalyst to say,
you know what, I'm going to...
Well, I don't know if you put your past career on pause or not,
but you're certainly focusing a lot on the music, right?
And typically that takes a kind of mental shift.
It needs some kind of trigger to say,
you know what, this is my focus now.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, there's a whole story how I ended up in music.
I came from the Bitcoin industry and I'm still very, very much involved in the Bitcoin industry.
And a lot of people know my other identity operating Bitcoin is BTCVIF.
I'm operating with both and I have a slightly different focus.
My work around Bitcoin.
So I entered Bitcoin, started working in Bitcoin early 2021.
And I believe it's important to share my story before Ivy Lumi so people understand why I'm here and what's next.
The conviction came naturally after I realized Bitcoin made freedom possible and is really a freedom tech.
As a freedom maximalist, it didn't take much time after to gain the conviction.
Once I delve into the human side of Bitcoin, I come from the marketing and PR background.
And a lot of my my job back then was pitching my clients on podcasts, on Bitcoin podcasts and on Bitcoin conferences.
And I quickly realized one thing is that everybody is talking about technology or finance and or economics.
And this is this is this makes sense, because even right now, the majority of cohort of Bitcoiners are still into finance or economics.
But I came to Bitcoin from a very different story I wasn a Bitcoiner when I got a Bitcoin job It was back in early 2021 where you still could do that back then I was very transparent that I don have any Bitcoin experience I don
really know what it is, but I was doing freelance online at the time, doing marketing and PR projects
and they really liked my track record. So I started working in Bitcoin. I started working
with a lot of Bitcoin maxis almost right away. And this learning curve was really steep. And for a
long time, I thought to myself, okay, I'm learning about this. I'm seeming to understand each day
a bit more what this does. But for a long time, I still didn't feel like our world could collide
outside of the professional landscape. And then I listened to a book club conversation.
It was Richard James, Gigi, Robert Breedlove. And there were a few of them trying to orange
Jordan Peterson on his own book club podcast. And then because of Jordan Peterson being who he is,
and they were trying to approach it from a philosophical angle. And this was the real
starting point of me realizing what Bitcoin was. And then I started to realize, oh, okay,
I'm not into numbers or money. And I'm lucky that I'm into Bitcoin now because of the job.
But I bet there's so many people just like me who are not yet into numbers, who don't
like thinking about money, and they need Bitcoin perhaps even more.
And I thought to myself, wow, it's really, how can we orange pill the next generation?
And it's about life.
Because I started to go to a Bitcoin conference and realized that Bitcoiners, when they come
together, we talk about everything else but Bitcoin.
We talk about life.
We talk about food.
We talk about what are we working on professionally or individually.
We talk about health, but not Bitcoin itself, because that's the common ground that we now
build on, we can connect with.
So that's the starting point of my podcast, Live with Bitcoin, that launched June 2023.
As part of my way of giving back to the community, because I was welcomed into the community
without much context.
And there was so much information that was already available to me back then.
So I wanted to host something to talk about Bitcoin without talking about Bitcoin.
The thesis is if we as a group of Bitcoiners show up collectively and say, this is what
it's like to live as a Bitcoiner.
And if people see this group of people called Bitcoiners who are more connected, freer, they're
healthier, they're more loved, then they are going to wonder themselves, how can I be that?
And if these people called Bitcoiners and whatever that means, if these people got there
through Bitcoin, I'm going to look into it. And it's not because I care about Bitcoin. It's because
I want to be that person. I want to be a better self. So I want to create content that introduced
Bitcoin subtly on those spectrums because the podcast is about personal story. So I kept all
of these going before a few years. And then the music project kind of was born in the middle of
that. I was traveling to Bitcoin conference and being the age that I am, I'm looking constantly
thinking about my future, wanting to build a future for myself, wanting to start a family.
And naturally I was looking for love and, um, and just like people go back and forth and in,
in relationships and in self exploration, I was really taking music as a way to help myself in
that process, heal myself from the heartbreaks that I encounter, um, over time. And then to,
to question and challenge myself to learn in love how the most in the most honest way that I can.
And music and the creative process has been a great way for me to reflect honestly without
judgment for myself too and for others. And I believe I'm not the only one who's going through
these questions. And I hope by asking these questions for someone who's listening,
it can hopefully heal them too in the future.
Yeah, for sure, Ivy. So let's talk about the Cure EP. And you have the playlist here for the live
audience, they can see it, I'm doing the screen share. But for the people listening to the podcast,
the first song that's listed here is called wow wow wow and that i'm guessing is from the ep correct
uh no let me share a little bit about um ivy loomy's collection so far so ivy loomy to date i
have released seven tracks um and then they come in different bracket um in may 2025 i released my
first EP and that's the EP is called The Cure and it was an EP has five original tracks produced
by the same producer Stefan City and we worked together for a year and a half together to create
this EP and then after that I started to release singles and Wow Wow Wow was this my latest single
that was released in December 2025. Got it so let's listen to it first Ivy and then we can
talk about what
went into making the song.
For sure.
This is Wow, Wow, Wow
by Ivy Lumi.
When I look at you
I say
Wow, wow, wow
You see the dawn
All years ago
Have I ever been
My tongue pretending
I didn't feel the same
I bet you have
To play the game
When I talk to you
I feel wow, wow, wow
Is it love?
Oh yes, it's a kind
Have I died a hundred times
On my way to find my first best friend?
I bet you can
Live through the flood
Oh why
Cause I'm one who takes the flood
Please say now I wonder how
for a while
Somehow the truth's allowed to break a heart to keep
You cast a spell, dreaming wild
Nothing to lose, nothing to tell
Have you ever rained a bell
Feeling strange and feeling lost
To pray for help
I don't know how to say my name now
I can't have night and day somehow
Faith allows you to have me patch up
Everything I've ever let go
If I'm a thing at all
For soul to soul
You gotta know that I'm in awe
Oh wow
For someone who twists the plot
Freestyle now I wonder how
Oh wow
Somehow the truth's allowed
To keep her heart to break her vow
That was Wow, Wow, Wow by Ivy Lumi.
Beautiful song, Ivy.
Thank you.
And I have to confess,
when I heard the first few notes of the bass line
at the very beginning,
bum bum bum bum i thought oh this is going to be like a porter's head song it evoked that vibe
but of course you took it in a very different direction a beautiful direction
but what how did you go about uh i guess what what was the thought process
behind the song what was the motivation yeah this one uh this one was really a fun one um it was
written around this time last year like february last year precisely and it was written at a moment
where i was trying to stop writing from fresh heartbreaks and started writing from presence
and previous to that i have spent years chasing intensity but this song come from came from
observation um observing love as it unfolds um there's this quiet shift between uh there's this
quite shift between the admiration into real intimacy um and it's a song about choosing openness
when there's when nothing is guaranteed and discovering that love lives the most fully in
the present moment and the in terms of creative process um the melody struck me when i was having
a conversation it was kind of hidden in the back now in the final track it was the
I was just hearing that melody nonstop in the conversation about someone.
And I write it down.
I was like, oh, there's something there because this is really catchy.
And then I just record.
And then I looped it.
And then on top of that, I started to write more.
The melody and then the words just kind of flew to me.
So I actually wrote this one pretty fast, pretty fast.
And the initial bass line, do you see what I'm saying about the Porter's Head type thing?
I'm talking about just like the first five or six seconds of the song.
because the song does take a different direction from that initial baseline
i guess the process was um i wrote the song and then i took my demo to the producer
and then we thought about okay how can we make the the intro more interesting and then we did
something and then this is the the final version we really reduced to the bow and then thought okay
So let's just I like how the hold this suspense and it's like you're quietly observing someone.
So there's a lot of visual when I when I see the intro.
And I guess I'm taking it from a more mystical sense that you're looking at someone and this quiet reminder in your head that, oh, like, I think something's there.
this suspense in the beginning.
That's great.
So Ivy, you've chosen to post all of your songs, right?
The five from the Cure EP and then the two singles
on the Valley for Valley sort of open music ecosystem.
What was the thinking there in going down that route
as opposed to, well, let me just stick with Apple Music or Spotify
or whatever other options.
I think DistroKid, right?
A lot of people go to DistroKid to get their music distributed.
I think there are two ways of thinking about it.
One way of thinking about it is that I'm a native Bitcoin artist.
I came from the Bitcoin industry.
I live and breathe Bitcoin culture and I work in this industry.
So there's a lot of context and there's a lot of artists that I've seen in the Bitcoin space that highly, highly inspired me and taught me a lot.
And I will be listening to a lot of their work too even in this episode There are two ways to think about it one way is that I a Bitcoin native artist so it natural to me to go through platforms like
value for value or do it more in more of a value for value open source way on top of what I'm doing
as an artist trying to get more reach and have more people hear about my music and the the
realization that everybody needs healing and everybody needs love come from bitcoin industry
so while i wish these songs my reflections can help everybody really um i would love to to get
those in front of Bitcoiners first, because I feel like this is my way of giving back to the
community to to the Bitcoin community and to have all of us start healing so we can do something
with our Bitcoins, with our lives. And then the other aspect is that although I'm a Bitcoin native
artist, I'm not I'm and I'm choosing to do the value for value and more open source way. I'm not
giving up on pushing it in other directions, in other platforms, because I do recognize
we want to help as many people as possible. And if we get on to their radius, if they don't have
any Bitcoin contacts, then that's perfectly fine. Because if any one of us, every one of us
can start heal ourselves, work on ourselves, do the shadow work to the point that we are honest
to ourselves, we want peace and we want happiness and freedom, then they will find Bitcoin themselves.
So I'm trying to act like this bridge between the Bitcoin community and everybody else,
the Fiat Society, so that we can all come together and get a reminder that love is the cure, which is
at the very core of my artistry practice and my work, it's the thesis of love is the cure.
Well, love is indeed the cure. If anyone hasn't figured that out yet,
it just means they haven't been cured yet. It means that they're in need of curing.
So, Ivy, how are you getting it up into the open music ecosystem?
Which app or client are you using?
Do you just directly publish your RSS feed or does someone else do that for you?
Right.
I have some support, but it's a very hands-on process.
Right now, there's a lot of open source effort happening on Noster.
And this is where I'm finding myself spend the most time.
And I'm slowly drifting away from X, from Twitter, and it's not updating too much anymore.
So I'm really leaning towards all of the decentralized platforms like Noster Fountain and the power of building on the Bitcoin network, Wave Lake and all these great platforms, decentralized platforms.
I'm also hosting a campaign on Gazer called Love is the Cure.
If you're interested, go check it out.
I have some merchandise.
I made some special pins and special CD that have all of my release songs.
And there's a great way to support with some music that you can huddle.
Okay, so I do want to talk about that because I have seen some posts about the Geyser campaign for your album.
But before we do that, let's listen to the next song that you have on your playlist.
It's called Side Quest.
Yes, let's go.
okay well why don't you tell us a little bit about the song ivy yeah for sure um the side
quest i wrote side quest right after in right after big win amsterdam 2024 and this is um a
reflection of the story happened in amsterdam in my two-week trip there um and there's every time
i write a song there's a few elements that goes into the song um there's and if it's a song about
traveling or is it something that I wrote after I traveled to somewhere there's always this vibe of
this space this place so that I'm hoping to get across to to bring a time capsule for people who
have been there so that it reminds them the vibe of that space and then there's also the another
element in my songs is the element of the the puzzles that I was struggling at the time were
my observations. So all of these sounds are highly personal with a twist that I'm trying to
ask these questions to myself and to my listeners. And this sound is very much about embracing the
nature of side quests. Sometimes you think you're going on main quests and you're getting distracted
by whatever, but it's a song about leaning into those side quests and finding meanings and finding
beauties of these side quests until maybe someday you realize you went on a side quest of love but
realize that love is the main quest all right well this is side quest by ivy loomy
Shall we live our life as if it's probably deterministic?
The pain is a drug
I'm yet to break free from another addiction
If I'm destined to be the path you didn't take
Aren't we both do?
I'm a rebellious child going on the sidequires
I shouldn't have the best moments remain
And all you can do
Am I just one of them worthy one among them
And now you love me
But my heart's the way
Does fear ever end?
I'm yet to figure out another situation
Shall we endlessly walk this ghostly town
Till we're too tired to exist?
The peace is a drug you're yet to microdose a mild addiction
If you're destined to crave for the path you didn't take
Are we all doomed?
I'm a confused child
Loving for the side quest
I should've had the worst moments
Your name undocumented
When you are among them
But you belong to no one
Now I love you
Yeah, I break your heart too
To apologize to her
What to accept the love that you don't feel deserved
Are we best friends forever?
We're going down in front of the river
Burn out the cost of the room
Like a beautiful thing
We love you, so you could love you too
You are my side quest
Love is my side quest
Love is the side quest
Love is the quest
That was SideQuest by Ivy Lume
Ivy, what was one side quest, the most notable side quest for you in recent years that you realized was a main quest?
Love. Love is the ultimate main quest.
I'm always, I've always been, okay, so there's three things that really identify me as a person
and explain a lot of my choices in life and my directions.
First one is Freedom Maximalist,
which contribute to me becoming a Bitcoiner and working in the space.
And the second one is I'm very spontaneous
and that contributes to having different projects
and wanting to work on different initiatives.
And then the third one is I'm a hopeless romantic.
I've always been a hopeless romantic.
I'm not I have no shame about it.
I'm very I'm embracing this side of me a lot, being an emotional person, being want being an expressive person, wanting to approach the world through the lens of love.
And obviously that approach has given me a lot of suffering and heartbreaks in the past because I've learned that not everybody approach world and live this way and not everybody prioritize love.
But I've always been someone who does that.
And this is writing songs is a little bit like my way of coping, coping the discrepancy between me and the world of me being love centric and the rest of the world, perhaps not.
And this is my creative practice.
And the songs are basically also my manifesto saying that I'm not going to change being a hopeless romantic.
And that through this journey that I've realized love is not a side quest.
It's really the main quest.
And then once we go on this quest, we're on our way to find the cure, which is love.
You know, when people refer to themselves as hopeless romantics, I've only heard them do it ironically.
But it sounds like you're being unironic as you say that.
Why do you say that, Ivy?
What is the hopelessness?
The hopelessness is the prioritized love, I guess, in that aspect.
Because we are in a world where a lot of the things have become very calculative and transactional.
And sadly, even love can seem a bit transactional nowadays, especially in our fiat society and the way human beings function these days.
And all of us are traumatized and all of us are hurt.
And it's more difficult to love in that sense.
So a lot of people become more reserved and avoidant.
I think being hopeless romantic in that sense is still choosing to love, choosing to embrace it, knowing that you may get hurt.
But understand that it's OK because it's OK to be hurt in love.
and is more important to love anyways.
Sounds hopeful to me, Ivy.
I don't hear the hopelessness there.
The hopeless aspect is that you do get
a lot of heartbreaks in that process,
but I'm actually becoming a more hopeful romantic for sure.
Now, you talked about fiat traumas.
Do you believe that majority of the Bitcoiners
have transcended or cured themselves of those fiat traumas?
Absolutely not.
Thank God you said that.
It's quite the opposite.
And this is where I feel for a lot of Bitcoiners I feel like the real challenge for Bitcoiners will happen once Bitcoin moon Why Because from the history in time we never had this opportunity to operate with a sound
money that we can actually build upon to be the best version of ourselves.
And now with Bitcoin, we finally have the opportunity to build upon sound money.
but a lot of bitcoiners get it wrong in the sense that they there's a lot of frustration there's a
lot of anger from where they came from and this is how they found bitcoin but at the same time
like the fiat trauma you were talking about but at the same time they were they thought they found
the answer because bitcoin fixes this and this what is this is is to be determined i guess to be
to be defined and sometimes bitcoiners overestimate how much bitcoin actually fix
um so when bitcoin booms for the for there's a lot of bitcoiners are going to become financially
free but and then what once you're financially free like what what happens now have you worked
on yourself what is your relationship with your food with your sleep um what is your relationship
with your parents? Have you healed your own trauma growing up as a kid? Because at this point,
everybody in the society, Bitcoin or not, we are very traumatized from historical reason,
society reasons, from generational trauma trickled down through our immediate families,
which everybody has more or less. And these are the real work to work on, like the shadow work
for ourselves because life with or without bitcoin is real and it's difficult and now
we're in the position to really do something with bitcoin with our lives and i i hate to see when
bitcoiners just stop there at stacking set yeah i think i think you nailed it there ivy uh a lot
of Bitcoiners have taken a very important first step, which is unshackling their minds from fiat
thinking. But I mean, let's not kid ourselves. It is only a first step. And if all they're thinking
is, well, let Bitcoin moon and then my life is fixed, then I'm afraid they're going to be in for
a rude awakening when Bitcoin does moon because they'll find themselves equally unhappy at some
world. And I mean, I think the sooner Bitcoiners realize that inner work is the real proof of work
and start working on themselves, I think it's just going to be an easier landing
from them when the world inevitably and eventually moves onto a Bitcoin standard.
For sure. And Bitcoin really, Bitcoiners are already doing that. Like we're taking care of
our house we're having these like healthy debates um to to see which one is best we're thinking about
health we're thinking about being low time preference it's just the emotional side of it
um intimidating as it is i feel like we should be tuning into that side a bit more because because
i get why that's scary but through that there's this whole new world of emotional abundantness
through Bitcoin, through healed trauma, through love
that I'm looking forward to witness myself
along with more Bitcoiners.
Indeed.
So, Avia, I know I said I wanted to talk about the geyser,
but let's listen to one more song of yours.
Yes.
And it is the self-named, or it's the name of the EP.
It's a song that's also the name of the EP, right?
the cure why don't you talk a little bit about this yeah for sure um this sound is actually was
actually the first song that i wrote so this song was part of the my first ep and it was the very
first song that i wrote um that captures captures the essence of the ep um i was asking a lot of
questions in love i was asking a lot of questions about myself and trying to understand who i was
and who I want to be in that process in relation to others in the world.
And there's a lot of reflections and you will be able to see that in my songs.
I ask a lot of questions.
There's a lot of question marks for me and my listeners.
And this later on contributes to my thesis as an artist being love is the cure.
So really looking forward to dive into this one.
This is The Cure by Ivy Lume.
I've come to realize
What do I have to lose
My heart and my truth
No one deserves to be heartbroken
For nothing
It wasn't you that hurt me
It was love
Walk with my eyes closed
Run like a fireball
Am I being honest?
Or manipulative?
No one says you're special
Bears me I'm special
Getting wrecked completely
Entirely and sweetly
Maybe we're meant to be heartbroken
For something
It wasn't you that cursed me
It was love
Maybe we're meant to be heartbroken for something
It wasn't you that could mean
It was love
It was like
May without your feet heartbroken
That was The Cure by Ivy Lume.
So Ivy, you said this was your first song, the first song you wrote.
So that takes us back almost two years at this point, right?
Maybe more.
Yeah.
How do you feel your songwriting has evolved in the two years since you wrote The Cure?
I would say it's still evolving.
but there's a lot more there's a lot more going on these days with the new songs and definitely
the the songwriting style has more matured and you can tell in this one there's a lot more repetition
um and the the production was a lot um less complicated was more straight to the point
um yeah and and there's a lot of um nuances that have changed production quality have changed
because i really i recorded the ep in my own living room with a mic that wasn't really suitable
but i really found out about it uh recently that was a powerful i recorded the ep on a powerful
stage mic instead of a dynamic um studio mic so there's a lot of the the um essence were lost but
it gives us this rusty 80s vibe but which i also like so um it's gonna be vintage compared to a lot
of the new stuff i come up with well let's chalk that down to a beautiful oops moment because you
never know right you go yeah you're right you're looking for that clean voice isolation uh but and
but instead you get a little bit of of uh of warmth and scuff from that you you would get in
a stage mic and suddenly that converts it into an 80s style production beautiful loops thank you
thank you but yeah it's a song about um it's a sound about the awareness of the intention in love
because um like gamers the lyrics goes gamers finds gamer dreamers finds streamer are you being
honest or manipulative. After all these years, I've come to realize what do I have to lose my
heart and my truth. So it's questioning about like intention in love. Are you being transactional?
Are you being manipulative? And then in the second half of the song, I was asking myself
in the same question because it goes both ways, right? So there's a lot of reflection in love.
And it also talks about the awareness of the separation between the difference between
you love love and you love this particular person.
Like oftentimes when people suffer in love or they go through a terrible heartbreak or
breakup and they think, oh, it's that person I love and I can't live without that person.
But it's not about that.
It's more about how we as humans, we love love and we need love.
We thrive on love. And when we say that we love someone is not really about us loving that
particular person is love us loving love. And the person is the projection of our ideation of love
on a flesh of on a particular soul. So I was making that awareness of separating the tool
and saying that it's not you that hurt me.
So I don't have to be mad at you.
And it was love.
And I need to hold on to the longing of love
so that I can be cured in the end
because it's not you that cured me.
It was love.
And it was not you that cursed me.
It was love.
So it's always been love.
And so that if you go through a hard breakup,
don't worry.
It's not that you will never find love anymore
because you lost that person, you will.
You just need to keep loving love and believe in that.
You know, it is, when I hear you say that, Ivy,
and I can see that happening in the case of romantic relationships,
where it really was, in some sense, a conditional form of love
because you were in love with being in love
as opposed to that individual, that person unconditionally.
But if you think about, and I don't know if you've experienced this, but for those of us who have a parent's love for a child, this being who's just come into this planet.
Oh, yeah.
I can sense that.
I think it's a little different because that is truly unconditional.
That is not you being in love with the idea of being in love with a child.
that is you truly unconditionally loving this this beautiful being that you've created
yes and i can i can also see when parents don't do that enough because in that process of of
kind of experiencing love and looking for love i was really going down the rabbit hole of love
like of all kind and i trickled down to this one question that i always ask myself when i'm lost
in love and feeling iffy about the whole thing is that do you love me for me or do you love me for you?
Because that's the...
unconditional aspect you were talking about. Do you, do you love me for me or do you love me for
you? And what is the difference is, is the, is the transactional aspect you were talking about
too, is when, when I'm, if I'm loving you for myself, then there's this expectation going on.
There's some judgment going on. There's this, I want you, I love you because I need you,
but it's not unconditional and when we love someone for them is whatever's best for them
and sometimes that means letting them go but you know it's good for them but you go there anyway
but if you're loving them for yourself then you may not be able to let them go because you may
lose them and in the case of parents if they they they love you and then they gave you advice in the
sense of there's a secret agenda behind, because sometimes I can identify that in my own conversation
with my parents or other people's conversation with their parents. And sometimes there's a secret
agenda, uh, hitting behind that. And you can tell if they're making a suggestion based on
who they know about you, um, for you, or, or if a decision is convenient for, for them. And sometimes
we need to separate the roles, right? Like, do you love me because I'm your daughter?
And I am, this is my role. And if I'm not myself, I'm another person. And they're your daughter,
you will love them the same. Or you love me because I'm me, regardless of if I'm your daughter
or not as a person. I think there's a difference there. And the line is subtle. But do you love me
for me do you love me for you question i guess probably applies to many more cases than romantic
or parental yeah for sure so let's bring this back to more mundane real world things
ivy and let's talk about the geyser campaign what was the idea behind that um
and how is that going for sure um right now i have the gazer campaign going on called love is
the cure and it's uh it's a support slash um kind of uh awareness campaign where i'm sharing this
very concept of love is the cure and sharing the concept of music you can huddle um i want to create
this world where where um there's we i want to create this world where we believe in magic we
believe in the love uh the the magic and love um all of the initiatives that reminds us love is the
cure and i want to create these little pieces that we can we can huddle we can physical
both artifacts that we can cherish dear to our hearts.
So because I'm doing Ivy Lumi from a more open source community based approach, I want
to, Gazer is really the perfect platform for sharing the news, sharing the journey.
And I want everybody to partake, participate as a journey while I mature as an artist and
produce more songs in love and we can all participate in the quest that love is the
cure and have it heal us in that process so there's a few products on gazer you can
purchase as a support for me there's the late the the early supporter nostor badge that you can
you can purchase on gazer to support me and there's also the pink collectibles there's a
six pin collections and we also have the signed cd going on as well as the whole package this is a
great way if you wanted to support an independent artist and want to have some physical things to
hold on and play with and an intimate way to get close to ivy lumi story and music then that's a
great place to be. Love it. So I will include the link to that in the show notes for folks listening
who are curious to check it out. I'll include your NPUB linked as well, Ivy, so that, you know,
people have all the information they need. Thank you so much. Let's move, continue through your
playlist. And I think we've done with your songs, Ivy, you've very generously given some of the
space to two other artists of course the next one i see on on the list is it's the only way through
and it's by uh zaza wow wow which sounds yes a little a little too close to the first song we
played wow wow i'm sure no relation but uh talk a little bit i'm unfamiliar with this artist and
the song um so tell me why you chose this and a little a little bit about this yeah for sure there's
Actually, there's actually connections between Zaza Wawa and Wawa Wawa.
So Zaza Wawa, he's one of the creative producers of my single Wawa Wawa.
And Zaza is a visualist.
Well, Zaza does everything.
And some of the key aspect, what he does is he's a really, really amazing visualist
Using different AI tools combined with his own imagination and knowledge and context, he creates these really, really impressive visuals that take us to a dream world and cypherpunk world.
On top of that, Zaza is also a really talented artist.
We'll be listening to this song very soon.
It's called It's the Only Way Through.
Zaza is a Bitcoin native artist.
So all of his songs directly speak to Bitcoin, speak to us Bitcoiners, speak to the Fiat Society.
There's, unlike me being hopeless, romantic and soft about a lot of the issues, Zaza is very vocal and very brave in terms of going to address these issues head on.
And we need both. We need Ivy Lumi being the nurturing energy to help people, to heal people, and then to kind of hold their hands to more light and more hope.
And then we also need artists like Zaza who talk directly to these issues and basically talk some common sense back in our minds.
So let's dive in.
Indeed, this is the yin and the yang
The divine masculine and the divine feminine
Whatever it is, right?
The rebellious union of opposites
Absolutely
This is It's the Only Way Through by Zaza Wawa
Bitcoin, my friend
It's the only way through
Bitcoin, my friend
It's the only way for you
Addresses accumulate, air sets, audition, applause
Anonymous transfers, toss shadows over totals
Accounts pile acres, his ambition
Architects ascent, avenues open, avalanches of appetite, not accident
Blocks boast bravado on Bitcoin's boulevard
Bro, grammars brag while bears brood in backyard bars
Beneath the banners, blockchain's backbone hums
Buyers bite and burst, bullish runs outpace the drums
Chains chatter, consensus clicks like clockwork
Cryptocordia's craft code while markets lurk
Coins circulate, fuel and festival-like flows
Careful coders patch corners where chaos grows
Decentralized dreams, spar with developer doctrine
Daring teams debate design while users head for the dock
Data disperse as decisions fall into the crowd
Diplomacy holds the seams when protocol gets loud
Bitcoin, my friend, it's the only way through
Bitcoin, my friend, it's the only way for you
Encryption locks entries, ledgers keep their truth
Exchanges evolve, posturers regulate a sleuth
Ecosystems swell, explorers map new scopes
Engineers tweak the rails to match collective hopes
Forks cleave futures, choices chart fresh courses
Feast flex with demand as mempools run their forces
Freedom's pursued, though friction frames the fight
Forums flare with theory while builders chase the right
Gold measures growth as transactions hustle through
Governance grinds slowly elected and ad hoc too
Guru's guide with charts, grassroots graph the gears
Growth takes grit, sober eyes adjust for year
Block stacks, sparks fly, ledger lights to night
Nodes hum, hearts thump, decentralized, heartbeat tight
Trust in math, liberty stitched into every block
And pour, razor blocks, take a claim
Bitcoin polls roars more Hash rate hum steady Machines stake their claim Hobbyists and farms keep verifying the game Height feeds the cycle honest work secures the chain Helving deadlines temper dreams with measured strain
Immutable rules anchor trust in shared code
Innovators iterate, investors test the road
Ideas scaling the products, markets wait a claim
Index funds watch quietly as startups stake their name
Jargon fills chat rooms, developers swap shorthand
Journalists chase stories trying to understand
Joyful spikes in liquidity, answer the call
Judicious checks keep frenzies from swallowing ore
Bitcoin, my friend, it's the only way through
Bitcoin, my friend, it ain't gonna wait for you
Block stacks, sparks climb, watch the mempool light
Nodes sing, minus swing, keep the ledger tight
Map verifies, permissionless freedom at the core
Mind the truth, guard the chain, we build it more
Nodes propagate blocks, relays forge the mesh
New ideas seed features, norms evolve afresh
Network health depends on participation
Why? Nurture the nodes and resilience will abide
OP return stores, bits, inscriptions, proofs, small notes
Operators weigh usefulness against blocks, pays votes, options expand
Utility art or clever tools, open debate decides what strengthens versus fools
Passages accumulate, small units power exchange
Security models evolve to close every gap and range
Spam filters, trim waste, sound design keeps fees fair
Skeptics question, scare while builders reply
Plot stack, sparks scatter, every node's in sight
Nodes pulse, wallets strum, keep the future bright
Trust by code, freedom through rules we can explore
Lock your keys, mine the fees, the network asks for more
Bitcoin, it's the only way through
It's the only way for you
Yo, yo, yo, don't miss this train too
Yo, yo, yo, yo, don't miss this train too
Yo, yo, yo
Don't miss this train too
Bitcoin my friend
It's the only way through
That was
It's the only way through
by Zaza Wawa
A great song
Wow
Indeed
If I may say so myself
No, I love the energy there
I especially appreciated Ivy
The cascading alliterations
from A almost through Z.
I think he stopped at S.
It's interesting because
for those who pay close attention
to this episode,
there is very much
the cascading alliteration
happening somewhere
over multiple episodes.
So no, great song.
Great pitch.
And you can tell that
I probably wouldn't be able
to write something like this
for a very long time.
No, it's great raw energy.
um adrenaline rush kind of song for sure for sure yeah zaza um is one of the creative
director for wow wow wow and helped me with the uh my first music video ever shot in hong kong
and the other creative director behind this is f-zero so both of them work together to create
this world and because they are coming they have a more analytical mind and have a lot more
knowledge and context in Bitcoin and in art. So they gave me a lot of new perspectives and
the clash of energy in eventually have something new being born in that process.
How big is your collaboration circle? So you mentioned Zaza, you mentioned F0. I think you
mentioned another name i was just slipping my mind oh that was stefan city uh that was the
producer who helped me produce my ep so i started um i started the songwriting process and for a
while i kept it to myself um and after a couple months i started writing songs i share i first
shared it with stefan uh back then and he's a dear friend of mine who's a guitar teacher
and bass teacher and drum teacher so musician like professional musician and have gone through kind of
10-15 years of touring um when he was younger in europe and i showed him the demo and he was like
wow this is i love this and and do you want to do something with this maybe we can work on this
together so that they they're finished products and because he came from an industrial uh band
type of environment so we got together and produced the five songs and then after that i started
wanting to put more effort into music.
So I was looking into ways to produce professionally,
not in my living room.
And then I started working with local producers,
local mixing engineers, mastering engineers,
and learning to produce myself in that process.
And in Bitcoin, I would say F-Zero and Zazawawa
are two artists that I collaborate the most
on creative directions and visual
because these two have really endless ideas
and they can put together unbelievable visuals.
Great. Sounds like a great partnership.
Ivy, so let's move on to the last song on your list.
This one is called Greatness and it's by an artist called Helene.
Talk a little bit about this.
Yeah, so Helene is a music project I discovered on Noster, actually.
I have not met them. I have not worked with them.
But it's something I discovered on Noster that I really love.
Halene is, if I'm not mistaken, is a music project funded by a husband and the wife.
So it's a duo by a couple.
And then they write songs and produce them together.
And they also recorded some of the live sessions at home and is available on Noster.
they're also trying to do it in the value for value way and had their is having their own
gazer campaign going on so i highly recommend you check out their story which is really really
beautiful and they have a huge archive of music that they've created in the past years the both
of them and you will be able to see the energy from this song we're about to play but it's gonna
to be almost the opposite of Zazawawa again, to have some peace, have some love and heal
in a different direction.
You've got to love this, Ivy, that you discovered we're at the point in Nostra where, you know,
it can feel at times, especially now there's so much AI slop because people are deploying
their agents and it's mostly agents talking to agents but every now and then you hear the story
uh stories like this which is you found a brand new artist that you loved because of Noster how
cool is that absolutely yeah so this is greatness by Helene
Looking back how blinded
And the seed we were
Just in time we saw the fall
Coming back on earth
How to heal
How to be real
Hum gi sha
Show me your greatness
Your greatness
Calling back the spirits
The wizards
The healers
Ancient wisdom
Coming back on earth
How to heal How to be healed How to believe How to believe
Don't be shy
Show me
Your greatness
Thank you.
That was Greatness by Helene.
And really, Ivy, that was one of those quiet meditation,
sort of spiritual, devotional type songs.
And that is becoming a genre, isn't it?
That sort of meditative kind of music.
I mean, I'm sure it's been a genre for a while now,
but I'm seeing more and more of it come up.
Yeah, for sure.
And I like to consider, I like to think about this playlist like this.
If you think about the society we're in, the fiatness of it and the chaoticness of it,
and there's a lot of anger and trauma, and Bitcoin is the only way through in a sense.
We need to kind of come through a lot of our anger and trauma and this understanding of
what's actually going on to realize that Bitcoin is the only way through.
And as you go down the rabbit hole of Bitcoin, you realize, oh, I need to heal myself to really live a great life for myself.
And then you stumble onto Ivy Loomy, which I talk a lot about duality.
Like, are you this or are you this? Are you that?
And there's a lot of duality going on.
And in that duality, if we then come through the duality, we reach oneness.
And I believe the music of Helene is the type of music we will listen to on the hyper-Bitcoinization standard because we will be living in abundance.
And there's in the hyper, like best scenario, right?
Everybody is a Bitcoiner and we embody these Bitcoin ethos.
And then we really live in love and light.
I believe if that's the society we we land ourselves upon there's no no there's not going
to be music of Ivy Lumi or it's going to be drastically different because now it's not going
to be about learn from suffering learn from heartbreaks because we can learn from abundance
you can have both you can have wisdom and love you can have both of them and you don't have to
necessarily give up one to gain another and that level of abundance that level of peace and hope
um and basically just like the song was saying like how to be real show me your greatness don't
be shy like it's very straightforward and kind and love based so i think really looking forward
to having more of this music this really goes to show that um human beings bitcoiners and our our
community have been leveling up in consciousness
indeed have you been in contact at all with uh with this band uh yes yes um interestingly i found
them because the uh the the project was um uh at first interacting with my music so i think in
In essence, they discovered me first and then started to have interactions here and there on Noster.
We comment on each other's post and then we purchase the digital download of what they're doing.
And then there's a little bit of conversation going on.
But here is really for a shout out for great artists that I discovered on Noster.
I'm a fan.
For sure.
so thank you Halin
if you are listening to this episode
so Ivy
we talked about
or I talked about the rebellious union of opposites
and one of the things
I typically do on this show is
I try not to listen to the whole playlist
because I want to listen to it the first time
but I get a sense of it
I end up listening for a few seconds of it
because I need to download the songs
and load them up into the media board
and it's a good experience for me
especially if it's a song I haven't heard
to listen fresh on the podcast
but like I said
I do get a sense
of what the playlist is like
and then I pick one song
that's how the show goes
five songs by the guest
and one by me
and I pick one that is
very different from the ones
that the guest picks
now typically I've gone down
sort of dissonant progressive rock, symphonic metal, that kind of thing.
So I don't want to keep overdoing that.
So what I'm going to play today is I'm going to welcome back a familiar character
to the Sunday brunch table, and that is Garage T.
Rushington III, and I'm not just bringing this person, this band back,
because I think it's the most brilliant name in the open music ecosystem.
But Garage T. Rushington III is returning with a new track called
Break, Slam, Reverse.
And sometimes you're moving entirely too fast through the week
and you suddenly realize you're heading down the wrong road.
And that's exactly when you need to hit the brakes and change your momentum.
So this song, I think, captures that specific feeling with the signature swagger and storytelling that we expect from the Honorable Mr. Rashington.
So folks, pour yourself another cup of coffee and let the rhythm take you over.
This is Break Slam Reverse.
guitar solo
In disguise
Came for comfort
Got weird instead
Like my own room
Without a bed
Home has been remodeled
To the point of no return
Despite the look on my face
No one else appears concerned
Where to go from here
Which way to go
Which way to steer
Where do I go
Break, slam, reverse
I wanted the rhythm
Of the band
I could control
With my hands
Ain't timpos there
But way too fast
Guess my kind of beat
Ain't meant to last
Break, slam, reverse
Break slam reverse Break slam reverse Home has been remodeled to the point of no return
Despite the look on my face, no one else appears concerned
Where to go from here, which way to go, which way to steer, where do I go?
Break, slam, reverse
Break, slam
Home has been remodeled to the point of no return
Despite the look on my face
No one else appears concerned
Where to go from here
Which way to go
Which way to steer
Where do I go
Break, slam, reverse
That was
break slam reverse by garage t russianton the third i really enjoyed the this unique energy
this brand this band brings to the music there's that hypnotic arpeggio during the main verse that
sits on the edge of dissonance without fully tipping over and then there's the groove of the
chorus and that vocal delivery they all come together perfectly to move the narrative forward
and honestly making a hard pivot takes a lot of effort
and this song provides a great soundtrack
for that moment of realization and reversal
the 90% splits are active for this chapter
and indeed all other song chapters in this episode
so do send a boost over to GTR the third
and Ivy and Helene and Zaza Wawa,
all the artists featured in this episode,
if you enjoyed the sonic landscapes that they all weaved.
So Ivy, we covered a lot of ground today.
We talked about how you got into music,
what you were doing before then,
in some sense, the two parallel lives that you're leading
and how they're intertwined so nicely.
anything else that you feel we didn't discuss that you'd like to talk about
no i think we covered everything and i really love your choice of music by the way and i love the
how how there's this an instant live going on in this song and you can combine with the topic of
the song you can really sense the conviction that goes into the the track and how there's really no
return right awesome well ivy i appreciate you taking the time uh and entertaining us
and educating us with uh your wonderful music and and being generous enough to add two new artists
to the mix that was that was really nice uh so i've i found some new artists today and i hope
the audience feels the same way. Definitely, definitely. And I'm sure they're both great
guests to have on Sunday brunch because they both have amazing archive going on. But yeah,
I'm really lucky to have stumbled on Bitcoin and Noster over the past five years. And it has
completely changed my life. And I'm sure a lot of Bitcoiners would agree to that. And I guess how
I'm doing it a little bit differently or try to push myself is I've always tried to find
what else I can do in Bitcoin and try to do it in a creative way. Because over the past years,
what I've realized is that everybody, there's too much going on. And sometimes it can be very
overwhelming if we try to process everything by ourselves through our rational mind. And a way to
for me to deal with that is to write it down and channel that into a creative act.
Um, it started as something that I do did for myself for documentation and for clarity.
Um, but over time, I believe if we all do the same thing, write things down, organize
our thoughts, do the shadow work in a creative way, then I believe we will all realize sooner
rather than later.
There's something in there, um, that's moving, um, in nature because it's true.
And I like to think that everybody is like a gemstone and the traumas, the failures or the upsetness or the suffering that we went through are create cuts, creates different surfaces on the raw stone.
And sometimes it creates crystallization.
And through this crystallization of pain, trauma, reflection, heartbreaks, anger,
if we calm them through in the right way, just like cutting a stone many, many times,
but nowhere to cut, then we're going to get something very, very shiny and very unique and rare in the end.
So if you want to take away of something from this episode, I would say I would like to inspire you to start your creative act.
And it doesn't have to be overwhelming.
It doesn't have to be investing thousands of dollars to gear up yourself.
But it's about write a line down.
What are you grateful for today?
What are you sad about today?
and draw on these raw energies from our daily life
to crystallize them into something beautiful.
Sage advice, Ivy, a real gem, I dare say.
Thank you very much.
And thank you, Ivy.
And thank you to our live stream audience for listening and for the zaps.
If you are listening to the recorded episode
and this session added a little flavor to your day,
If it helped you reset, relax, or discover a new favorite track, please consider returning the value.
Check your podcast app right now.
If you're streaming sats, you just helped an independent musician get paid.
If you want to keep this table open for next week, hit that boost button or subscribe on Fountain.
You are the producers of this vibe.
and speaking of producers
the final word goes to the executive producer
of this episode
that is the top booster from last week
if you want to claim the spot next Sunday
and have your message read over the air
you know what to do
check that leaderboard
this week the EP chair belongs to Sylvie
coming in with a very thoughtful quadruple 7
for the episode with Aaron of Essex and Longhi.
She says,
I remember hearing the underclass on Booster Graham Ball a few years back
and thinking to myself, who is this Longhi chap?
Current day and beyond, more will come to know and appreciate Longhi
and the music he creates and shares with us in the Valleyverse and beyond.
Great conversation. Well done.
thank you and god bless
two raised hands emoji
well said sylvie and thank you for your support
and your generosity
longi songs are certainly something to cherish
in our open music world
and until next sunday folks
it's happy monday through saturday
farewell
Thank you.