Tales, Tunes, & Treatments
The amazing thing about being creative is that there is always something new you want to explore. The problem with being creative is there is always something new you want to explore. Fellow creative Rushay Amarath and I have shared this bicameral philosophy since the day we met. Two medical students, balancing lives of medicine and art, decided to share our stories and those like us with the greater medical community. Through, Tales, Tunes, & Treatments, we hope to highlight medical artists and encourage others to never stop pursuing artistic passions.
Our First Jam Session
Serenading the School
First, a little backstory. I met Rushay right at the start of medical school, and mere moments after meeting, we found ourselves living together and making music. Our friendship has always been easy in that regard, and I have to believe a large part of that success is due to our need to create. In fact, since starting medical school, I have been exploring my music and writing more than I ever did before, and I know Rushay is the reason. We consistently push each other creatively to be better and hold each other accountable to never stop pursuing our ambitions.
The Casio Bros Live at “MCG’s Got Talent”
“Like Me” - our first original song as a duo
We began like most garage artists did, except without the garage. When we finished our studies for the day, we’d get together and start jamming until a groove was born. Soon, we found ourselves humming and singing through the halls of our school, and before we knew it, we were performing live for all of the town to see. These were the days of The Casio Bros which I will always cherish.
Our next venture began with the COVID-19 Pandemic in our collaboration with ND MD Productions. To honor frontline workers, we wrote and produced a song of gratitude, “Stay Inside | A Toast to the Frontline” based on Kanye’s Runaway. With the help of ND MD, together we were able to visualize the song and real-life workers’ stories. You can find the full story of this project here. Working with these two gents to make this dream a reality will forever be my favorite memory of medical school.
Freeze Frame, coming Sept. 27th!
After the music video wrapped, Rushay and I searched for our next project. Rushay began to work on several incredible songs, each one better than the last (be ready for him to sprinkle releases over the next few months!). I began to work on a long-held dream of mine, becoming an author. So, after the music video died down, I began the first chapter of Freeze Frame (Coming Sept. 27th!). But while the songs and book were being written, we felt pulled toward one more project: Tales, Tunes, & Treatments.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: you don’t need to choose. Doctors must be human, and art keeps us grounded in humanity. If you’re worried about pursuing medicine or pursuing art, don’t worry. Do both. There is a way, believe me. In fact, watering both sides of your brain helps one side feed the other. If we ignored our artistic pursuits, we’d be shells of the people we ought to be, and it would be a disservice to our future patients. If we cut out medicine altogether, we would lose what makes creativity special in the first place: improving the lives of those around us. Rushay and I have often found ourselves having these sorts of discussions, and one day it hit us that there ought to be others in medicine who felt the same. We decided to build a platform to share our artistic pursuits within medicine, how we balance the two, and most importantly share stories of other medical artists trying to do the same. Thus, Tales, Tunes, & Treatments was born!
T, T, & T’s format begins each episode where I as the Tales and Rushay as the Tunes recommend a tale and a tune that’s been running around our minds in our “Song and Story Spotlights.” We briefly break down these spotlights from a writer’s and producer’s perspective, then we delve into our main story. So far, we’ve covered topics such as how to balance art and medicine, what is the role of an artist in the hospital, how to find and maintain love in medicine, and more.
Now, we want to hear from you! The support this blog has received has been absolutely incredible, and I cannot thank you all enough for following along and sharing your words of kindness. It means the world to me. So please, let us say thank you now by allowing us to share your stories.
We want to hear all you have to say: your stories, your passions, how you balance art and medicine, and how both spill into each other. No matter how new or experienced you are in your craft, I know you have a story worth telling. Let’s build an artistic medical community together that supports and lifts up one another in all that we do. I hope reading this and learning a bit more about Rushay and I has helped show it’s possible to mesh creativity and medicine. We couldn’t do one without the other, and I know there are more out there that feel the same. Reach out at ndmdproductionsblog@gmail.com with your story and art to be featured on Tales, Tunes, & Treatments! Tune into T, T, & T every other Wednesday, and until next time, stay healthy, and happy reading!
