#ICYMI "Music Transforms" Chad Lawson on creativity, healing, and human connection

10 Sept 2025 · 2 min

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This content was created by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This content was uploaded by The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. This is a YouTube video titled '#ICYMI "Music Transforms" Chad Lawson on creativity, healing, and human connection' (uploaded September 10, 2025). The excerpt is a spoken-feature/interview segment in which composer/pianist Chad Lawson recounts a listener’s story about her dying father, explains how that prompted him to rewrite and record the album Where We Are in about two weeks as an invitation to heal, and mentions the song “Sanctuary.” The clip ends with a brief channel promo directing viewers to follow The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song.

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And she said, my dad is dying of stage 4 cancer and all I can do is listen to your music. And at that point right there, in my mind, I heard, people aren't ready to dream because they're still trying to heal. And that really resonated with me. And so I was just like, why am I like trying to create something that is, you know, about me? And so I went home and I only had like, I want to say like 2 weeks before the recording date, and I was like I need to start over and write like a whole new album. And so in 2 weeks I created Where We Are, and that really was like an invitation to heal and an invitation to like to find the idea of that— that young lady, she spawned everything in the sense of people are suffering, people are going through difficult times. And so I wanted to be like, you know, I want to create something that is like with them, like where they are. Like emotionally. And so, but instead of like being like where you are, I was like, you know, we're all in this together. And so it really turned into like a where we are thing. So I wanted to like sit and be with people, like with them in all of this. And so in particular, there's a song called Sanctuary on the album. And it's like, what is your personal sanctuary?
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