The healing power of music

A sharing by Dex

When Ho Chi Minh City went under its second lockdown, I found a new appreciation for a previously favorite indie hit.

It was 2018 and it was hot. I landed in Tan Son Nhat airport, a sweaty 36°C sun and 0 friends. There I struggled to make connections and find meaning in the work I was doing, overtiming on editing commercials and having no vehicles to travel around the city. I was stuck.

In the midst of everything I stumbled upon Vietnamese indie music. Without the commercial pressure, these Viet indie artists explore youth identity, nostalgia and an escape from the capitalistic work-life cycle. These “hippie” songs broke out of the mold of a dated Vietnamese media landscape that embraced traditions and conformity. Among which I found “Rooftop 102”, a song that you can imagine looking at the sunset with your friends and pondering the meaning of it all, to be deeply cathartic.

Look at the lights
Disappearing behind the building
Look at the clouds
Flying to the old jungle.
The day went so quick
Was it even here?
I’m waiting for you
Come here, come home.

When Ho Chi Minh City went under its second lockdown, again I found the song to be deeply resonating but under a substantially different context. Again I sought the liberation from the 4 walls. Again I long for the fictional day where I get to lay under the blue blue sky with my future besties, pondering life’s deepest mysteries and looking at the dying sun.

With my second-hand iPhone and a bunch of timelapses I took during the pandemic, I decided to cover the song and dedicate it to my friends and family with hope that we will be going through this together safely and seeing each other again soon.