Music that tastes good

👋🏻, I’m Jake!

For everyone out there who doesn’t know me, I’m a brand designer at a small studio. I’ve been a part of this talented team since 2022. Typically I wouldn’t consider myself an avid writer, but this week I’m hijacking our Ding! newsletter! I’ve got a burning question on my mind for our audience…

When I listen to music, I can taste it. Literally.

My question for you all: Am I alone in this?

Song: Clara La San - Let You Go (Jude Bradshaw Trance Edit)

Tastes Like: Soda or Sprite, like the electronic kind from McDonalds

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At a small studio, music holds a powerful position amidst our workflow. Every meeting we have starts with a tune. Every weekly vibe check, we dedicate one song to set the energy of our collective. Honestly, part of the reason I was DYING to work at a small studio during my hiring process was because I knew the team listened to Kruanghbin. Music holds an extremely important place in my life, and it’s crazy how well that extends to my workspace.

So, back to this tasting thing.

Ever since I was a kid, I could feel the music. “E.T.” by Katy Perry. “Meet Me Halfway” by The Black Eyed Peas. “Love You Like A Love Song” by Selena Gomez? All bangers. I had these blasting on my DSi held directly up to my ear any moment of free time I had. Music was like an obsession for me. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started understanding WHY my obsession was so palpable. My taste buds were clearly tingling; I’d start to salivate. The songs I didn’t particularly like even made me nauseous. I could TASTE my music. Some of it was like candy, some of it was like fruit, some of it was, unfortunately, like oatmeal. The irony of it was, I wasn’t much of an eater.

Song: B2 Space Meow Doll - San San (Davis Galvin Baby Tears remix)

Tastes like: Cherry candy, like Twizzlers or a Gusher

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Turns out, this is actually a thing. According to the American Psychological Association, Synesthesia is a condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway. It is estimated to affect 4% of the population, with some types being more common than others. It’s a neurological mis-interpretation. Mine happens to be Auditory-Gustitory Synesthesia, which is a Hearing-to-Taste mix-up. According to Scientific American, there are actually over 60 reported types of synesthesia. The most common types being grapheme-color synesthesia (where letters and numbers are perceived as inherently colored) and chromesthesia (where sounds involuntarily evoke an experience of color).

These moments of synesthetic flavor were massively inspiring to me as a creative, too. Some of my wildest illustrative ideas came to me as I’d have a particularly delicious track on repeat for hours on end. I attribute this intense desire to create as my direct pathway into the design world. It followed me to college, where I got much more experimental with the genres of music that would make my taste buds light up. I was typically hogging the aux in studio classes.

Song: Super Monkey Ball Soundtrack - Master

Tastes Like: Snow, or crushed ice

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To this day, I blast music while I work and it nourishes me. I read that a lot of people who experience synesthesia enter the arts for very similar reasons. The New York Times has reported that many famous creatives, such as Vladimir Nabokov, Wassily Kandinsky, and Pharrell Williams, have reported experiencing synesthesia. That’s why I always wonder how many other people are out there who have experiences like me. If synesthesia is something you experience, I would LOVE to hear your story. Shoot me an email at jake@asmallstudio.com!

While I’m here, I wanted to share a couple tracks with all of the readers who might be interested in some of my current favorite tasting tracks! Every song I listen to has it’s own taste, but these ones are particularly palpable for me. I’ve been compiling them for a future blog project, but I think now is a great time to deploy a handful of about 10 or so to help showcase what really gets me lit up these days! Sprinkled in this article are a couple of legendary tastes for me, as well.

Thank you all so much for reading! Cheers!

Jake