Eduardo Castillo: Impact through Artistry and the Organic Rise of Habitas
00:00
Joe Patitucci
This episode is brought to you by PlantWave. PlantWave turns a plant's biorhythms into music. You just attach two sensors to a plant's leaves. PlantWave connects wirelessly to a mobile device running the PlantWave app. And the app has instruments on it that are built for plants to play. Check it out at plantwave.com and share it with your friends.
Hey, friends, I'm out here in the jungle today. And this podcast was actually recorded about a year ago in a different jungle in Tulum. This was done with Eduardo Castillo. Eduardo is an artist. He's a musician. He's also a co founder of the global experience brand called Habitas. And so if you're wondering what a global experience brand, you know, some people might think of it as a chain of luxury hotels. But as you'll find out from this episode, it's a lot more than that.
00:56
Joe Patitucci
It really is an outgrowth of Eduardo's creative expression as a musician and as an artist. And he was able to build that, and now he's moving on and going even deeper into his music. So this podcast was recorded right before we did a performance in Habitas Tulum, which I will make available in the show notes. And even more cool is that I'm going to actually have the opportunity to perform with Eduardo again this coming spring at south by Southwest. Well, I guess just before spring, March 16 at south by Southwest, we're going to be performing in a huge church. It's like 450 people. Really excited for that. Also, I just want to say, Eduardo is one of the most important people I've come across in my life.
01:41
Joe Patitucci
One of the things that he did with Habitas was they did these clubhouses around the world, and they had one in Venice beach in California that I joined. And I can say about 60% to 80% of my closest friends, they're all from that crew that I met there, including my partner, who I live with now, and I'm traveling with here in Costa Rica. Yeah. So just such an amazing guy. I'm so blessed to know him. And I'm excited for you to get to experience what it's like when a human is just following his art and his mode of expression and what that can lead to. This is super inspiring how simply creating music events can lead to creating a whole global experience brand. So, without further ado, let's dive in with Eduardo Casillo on the nature of now podcast.
02:38
Joe Patitucci
Eduardo, thank you for joining today.
02:41
Eduardo Castillo
Good to be here, man. Yeah, man, actually, I'm happy you're here.
02:45
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, it's amazing to be here. Beautiful light with the copal and in the jungle. And it's amazing. So, for those in the audience who are new to your world, can you just give a quick intro of who you are and what you do?
03:01
Eduardo Castillo
Of course. Eduardo Castillo. I am a musician who accidentally now has hotels. That's really sort of how it sums up. My background is in music. I studied composition. Studied. It was a double major. I did a composition, vocal performance, philosophy and religion studies. And then I went to pursue my career and accidentally built a career also in hospitality, just to pay my way through. Mean, eventually, one thing led to another and the two worlds collided. Music and hospitality. And here we are in Tulum at one of the Habitas.
03:56
Joe Patitucci
Amazing.
03:56
Eduardo Castillo
I don't know if that was.
03:58
Joe Patitucci
That's great.
03:58
Eduardo Castillo
Okay, cool.
03:59
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, that's great. And talk a little bit about.
04:03
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah, happily. So Habitas came about through this hunger for me. I always wanted to create musical experiences. I felt that in the circles that I was involved, that lacked. Inspired by Peter Gabriel and his tours, inspired by these, really, there was so much attention to a storytelling other than just the music, but how do we take it to another level? And that always kind of stuck with me. And so I wanted to create beautiful experiences. And I started doing that in LA in a big way. Just started really kind of growing in that space of. Not in a big way in terms of massive festivals and numbers, but in a big way of quality versus quantity kind of thing. And it went very well.
04:56
Eduardo Castillo
And I met my dear brother and business partner, Kafir, who was also sort of on the same path of been. He had grown tired of coachella, and I had grown tired of Coachella and him and I had been going to burning man for many years without knowing each other, but been going in for many years. And we had this thing where we wanted to create this extremely beautiful experience. And we really, at the end of the day, wanted just to share how we wanted to live our lives and how these very peak moments of joy and bliss, how do we share this with the world? Moments that we had at Bernie man and moments. And also building a camp at Bernie man was really fulfilling and satisfying.
05:41
Eduardo Castillo
So one day we said, why don't we build our own Bernie man camp, but not at Bernie man. We do it in a beautiful place and different place, and then we maybe take it around the world. And that sort of becameHabitas. And it kind of went viral after the first event because it was really special. Fast forward to having an event in Mexico that sells out very quickly. And then us realizing that maybe it's not just a week of an event, but maybe it's two weeks or maybe three weeks, maybe four weeks. Oh, maybe we need a reception, and maybe we need a restaurant. And, oh, we have a hotel. That was the beginning of Habitas. We built the hotel as if were building a camp.
06:31
Eduardo Castillo
I don't know if you can see much, but it's essentially a jungle that we very carefully place tents in. And we built a camp, which became the firstHabitas hotel. Nowadays we have eight operating all over the world, with obviously many more to come. But the ethos stays the same, the essence stays the same. And that ethos is respect for nature, a place for human connection, a place for empathy for nature, and to build these experiences that I had always been building before. But that is the dna of this hotel industry that all of a sudden we're in and we call our home. So the essence is really what makes it special. And the people.
07:26
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, definitely. The people feels the way that you attract the right people into a place is really beautiful.
07:35
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah. What we've learned is that as we're expanding, were worried about finding the right people. And what we've learned is that because we are moving with purpose, it's not just a business. There's a reason why we're doing what we're doing and how we're doing it. It's sort of attracting the law of attraction. It's attracting the people that want purpose. And so when we land in a certain country or a certain place, and if you look at a list of an employee list or, like a recruitment fair, and there's this hotel andHabitas that actually cares about human connection, actually cares about the planet, is building and putting their money where their mouth is, as opposed to the other one, which potentially could just be a paycheck very easily. People gravitate because I believe that humans do have innately this sense of good.
08:44
Eduardo Castillo
I want to believe that. And we're attracting beautiful people just simply because we care about what we do. And it trickles down, obviously. I mean, the founders, we care about the people, and there's a lot of love, and it's contagious. It's beautiful.
09:04
Joe Patitucci
Absolutely. I really feel that in all the interactions I have here and with you, of course. And with all the people that I've met through this network and the servers.
09:19
Eduardo Castillo
And the housekeepers, I mean, they're all incredible.
09:21
Joe Patitucci
They're just light beams. It really feels lovely. Yeah. That's amazing. And one thing I notice is it feels like it's a true expression of your life, of how you live your life, is this place. And I was wondering, how did you find this piece of land? Or how do you find these pieces of land? Because one thing I notice about you is that you have a really deep, intimate relationship with place. When you perform, you're always performing in a new. You're performing in these places, and the performance happens once, and it is a representation of a moment in time. And I feel like that's something that is core to what you do. And I'm curious, how do you find these places? Or how do these places find you or call you in?
10:22
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah, with hotels, they have found us again. People realizing and taking note to something that's special. And if you have a big piece of land and you're an entrepreneur and you want a business and you have a consciousness, you'll try to find something that resonates with you and that aligns with you. That's what happens mostly with our properties is property owners, landowners, or people that know of landowners tell us you have to meet this person. You have to. And sort of these kind of, again, the law of attraction and that alignment of why it is what we do and how we do it. And that's how we ended up in Tulum.
11:14
Eduardo Castillo
Somebody came to one of our events, and the owner came to, the landowner came to one our of events, and he said, you guys need to come see our land, because it would be a great place for an event. Because he had been associated. We weren't hotel people. He was like, I'd love for you guys to come and enjoy my land. And we did. And then when we said we might stay longer, he's like, never leave. Don't ever go. Yeah, that's on the hotel side, on the music side, I do seek out spaces. That's where I get a little bit more granular. Obviously, the feasibility of building hotel. There's a feasibility study of building hotel. For a concert, you can pretty much do a concert anywhere as long as there's a road to it.
12:08
Eduardo Castillo
And even so, you might even take a hike to one of my shows. No. So that's really kind of really looking into, if it's an urban setting, looking into a unique setting. It could be a church, it could be a subway station, it could be something really interesting if it's outdoors. Obviously, the more immersed in nature, the better. But I think. I think what's important there is that the space becomes a container for not just the music but also the message and. And the call to action. So when you're in nature and you're playing, hopefully beautiful music, there's an emotional connection that's very powerful. And when you're in that context and you look around and I'm able to tell the audience, take a look around and take this in right now while I'm playing this really lush, beautiful pad and chords.
13:13
Eduardo Castillo
And maybe there's a beautiful singer and somebody. It's so cinematic that it feels fake, but it's not like, pinch yourself, because we are actually living this moment, and this needs to be preserved. And then that emotional connection turns into a call to action right away. And this is how we do it. And I try to give that out in a silver platter. Like, you don't even have to think about it. Here is how you can make that happen. Just by arriving to a concert, you've made it happen because you've opened yourself and you're committed to purpose and intention.
13:53
Joe Patitucci
Sure. Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about the impact platform you guys have created through Habitas.
14:01
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah, we just launched something that's super exciting, which to me, I think is probably the most important thing that Habitas will ever do. And it's called Habitas rise. And Habitas rise, essentially, is this almost one for one kind of model that we've been seeing popping up forever? But every guest that checks into our hotel for every stay, we donate $10. Then we ask the guests to match it at the end of their stay. Once they're inspired by what we've done, the goal is that they're very inspired, and $10 is nothing. They'll say, here's 100 towards the cause. And then we align ourselves with incredible organizations here in Mexico. We work with underprivileged children, with coral reef restoration, with sustainable logging, and we work with water preservation for tulum and for bacalar, for where we are in Mexico.
15:01
Eduardo Castillo
And that's going to grow and grow because we're actually building a fund that directly is funneled to all these organizations. And with the concerts, it's amazing because the concerts, what we do with the concerts is we have a hotel. It could be sold out. We're not really interested in. We're not a concert space. We are a hotel. The heartbeat of the hotel is that concert space, but it's not the business. That's the impact component. Like real time. Sure. And so obviously, we have Habitas Rise, but with every concert, we don't sell tickets. Tickets are contributions. Those contributions every single person that comes to a concert makes a contribution, and that contribution goes directly to our causes. So it's like real time happening in the moment. That money goes immediately to these organizations, and there's a really beautiful sense of pride there.
16:01
Eduardo Castillo
When you have that conversation during a concert, I'll talk about this. And it's palpable how people suddenly are inspired by the fact that just by going to this concert to be entertained and be inspired, they're also giving back, and there's a sense of pride there that's really beautiful. And it's sort of this beautiful feedback loop of, let's do it again. Let's do it again. It's amazing.
16:29
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, absolutely. I can resonate with that, because when you invited me down here, we worked together three years ago or so, and it was just like, absolutely, yes. It's such a beautiful space, and it attracts just beautiful people, and it feels great. That's the first thing I said when I got here. Oh, this feels really nice. And then the candles and just feeling. Just seeing the space, the way it's taken care of. And I've even heard you talk about part of your shows. The ambiance, of course, is really important, but you even talked about, I want to have a say in how the candles are lit. Right. There's this deep intention through every aspect of the performances.
17:27
Joe Patitucci
And so that intention, for me, it feels like it creates the space, it creates the container for then this wildness or this freedom to kind of flow. And that resonates a lot with me as a musician who makes music with plants, because my whole thing is creating these containers for the plants to kind of just flow and have that expressed as something that's harmonious. And I see you doing that on so many different levels. And there's a resonance between not only you and everyone on the team here, where that's happening in a really beautiful way.
18:13
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah, I use the word contagious a lot because I also always say that if we take care of each other, we all thrive. That's just how it is. If we watch out for each other, if we're mindful of everyone else, then we thrive. Never is that more important than in that setting where the stage is set, the container is set, and then anything can happen. Right? And then you feed off the audience. The audience feeds off you. And that's why I set the stage in the center, so that we have sort of this cocoon, almost the womb of this experience, and it's impossible for it not to be contagious. You can see across the stage. Typically, you're at a concert and you're looking at a stage, and I'm sort of not interested in that anymore.
19:10
Eduardo Castillo
For me, personally, for performance, there's a lot of artists that prefer that. But I don't just want to face, and I don't necessarily want to have this tunnel vision where I'm not seeing what's around me. One of the things that I'm always struck by is when I'm at a concert, whether that's beautiful and really inspiring, and we are looking at a stage a lot of times when it's a very emotional and powerful moment, I'd usually turn around and look at people and look at the audience. And what makes it more most emotional for me, almost to tears a lot of times, actually tears is how people are reacting and how people are touched. And you see people putting their hands to their face or their heart or just closing their eyes.
19:53
Eduardo Castillo
And that connection to them is more powerful to me than the actual artist that's on stage now that obviously it's because of that artist, but it's really how I'm affected by everyone else that really kind of is contagious. And so that's why the stage is in the middle, and that's why everyone's into a 360 degree setting. Because if the stage is in the center, I'm here, you're there. There's no way I'm not going to see what you're doing. And if you are moved and you are suddenly dancing or meditating or even laying down and looking at the stars, I'm going to wonder why you're doing that. And I'm going to figure it out right away because of the setting, and I'm going to want to go there as well.
20:37
Eduardo Castillo
So I've seen people totally possessed at these shows because they feel safe and because they feel that there's very powerful intention. And so I want to be part of it. It's incredible.
20:55
Joe Patitucci
Absolutely. I was actually just sharing some of the photos from our last concert together with Paola, your amazing production manager. And I was looking at them and just seeing all those reactions, just seeing people deep in meditation, seeing people just in ecstatic dance, like, all in the same concert and without any specific prompts. Like, now we're going to do this, right? It just happens and it's an emergence and it's generative and it's creative. Exactly.
21:30
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah. We're living creativity right in that moment where before the show there was calm and peace, then all of a sudden, there's, like 300 creative beings owning their creativity, sometimes without even realizing it.
21:51
Joe Patitucci
And it's all from that point of the consciousness from which you're creating or that everyone is creating and thing that. Is it true that. Did you study opera?
22:06
Eduardo Castillo
Is that. I did. Okay, cool. Yeah.
22:08
Joe Patitucci
All right. Yeah. So I was wondering, because whenever we're talking about how the run of show will go, you always have this really beautiful touch for spectacle, but not spectacle in a grand way, but spectacle in a very powerful way where it just feels super meaningful.
22:34
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah.
22:34
Joe Patitucci
And I'm wondering where that came from. Did that come from? I mean, obviously, you're a heart centered human, and I'm wondering, I don't know, did studying opera bring this out in you, or what was your childhood relationship with music and performance?
22:58
Eduardo Castillo
I think authenticity, I think, would be where you can have very little and have it feel spectacular. Sure. When it's radically honest and radically authentic. And I do love lighting and the power of fire and candles and all these things. Not in the way that is very spectacular, but not an extravaganza. It's subtle, and I love elegance as well, and I love subtlety and elegance. And when you combine, less is more kind of with authenticity, it has that spectacle power. But at the end of the day, the spectacle also comes from the creative influx of the audience. When all of a sudden, I can bring in a baseline and have the layers start to just kind of bubble and bubble, and the pot is steaming and steaming, and then it bursts, and everyone burst into excitement and a reaction to that. That's the spectacle.
24:23
Eduardo Castillo
And all I did was take it there with emotion, but it wasn't something that I hired a crew to build the stage. And it's really about go back to what we said before. It's about the people, and it's about how present people are. The more present they are, the more profound. That spectacle that we're kind of redefining the word. That word. No, but that's where it's more spectacular. And it's really in that exchange of energy with people. I think that's where the magic is.
25:04
Joe Patitucci
I love that.
25:04
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah.
25:05
Joe Patitucci
When I hear elegance with honesty, it, in a way, makes me think of things as simple as the copal smoke during a certain time of late in the day with a little bit of sunlight filtering through the leaves. Right? That is that moment, and that is everything that moment is. And honesty is really just being present with all that is happening in the moment.
25:43
Eduardo Castillo
And it's also nature. These things happen in nature, there's no better spectacle. I mean, the hero we're standing right now, if you just look around, the lighting is beautiful. Coming through the trees. There is nothing more incredible than this space.
26:00
Joe Patitucci
Totally.
26:02
Eduardo Castillo
And going back to that idea of spectacle, it's nature. Yeah.
26:11
Joe Patitucci
There's this word, do you know? Stochastic. Basically, it's kind of like that phenomenon of light filtering through the leaves and the trees. It's this kind of randomness that happens. People theorize that's when the Buddha reached enlightenment under the bodhi tree, that really what was happening, part of what was happening was that the kind of like that can get physics. Right? Yeah. Oh, there's always a materialist answer. It's the spiritual. Right, exactly. But, yeah.
26:48
Eduardo Castillo
That's like a ten hour conversation.
26:52
Joe Patitucci
To be continued on that one. Yeah. But, yeah. I just love the way that you create the spaces for those kinds of things to happen and people. And I can say that hobbitos has actually radically influenced my life or changed my life in a lot of ways by you guys opening up that space in Venice back in the day. Right. And you created a space for artists and people to connect. And most of my best friends in the world, actually, I met in that little house.
27:32
Eduardo Castillo
That's incredible.
27:33
Joe Patitucci
Yeah. And then same what you're doing here, bringing people in. Like, I'm meeting other musicians that are here. And then I found out we're both friends with Christopher Willetts, who is just like brother from another. So it's. Yeah, it's just really cool.
27:52
Eduardo Castillo
Awesome.
27:53
Joe Patitucci
Yeah. So I feel that impact not only on the environmental landscape, but also in terms of supporting artists and creatives.
28:04
Eduardo Castillo
That's incredible, man. It makes me very happy. What better way for us to evolve and progress than with like mindedness, than all kind of working towards the same goal? It's incredible. That's why I love PlantWave, and that's why it's just like anything that connects you to nature in that way where it isn't esoteric or isn't just a moment, it's just an exchange. It's so simple, special, beautiful.
28:38
Joe Patitucci
Well, I know we have a sound check to do soon, so I don't want to take up too much more time, even though we could talk forever. We'll do a part two at some.
28:49
Eduardo Castillo
Point at another property.
28:51
Joe Patitucci
Yeah. Tell me a little bit more about your experience. Because we worked together a few years ago and it was in a different format. Right. It was like with a whole band, but, yeah, just tell me a little bit about what you remember from that experience or what you remember having experienced plant music, PlantWave, in our previous iterations of it was awesome.
29:19
Eduardo Castillo
First, when I ran into you and you showed me the device, I think I immediately said, we got to do this into Zoom. I think literally within seconds. And the experience was amazing. I mean, the idea of generating musical atmospheres from devices connected to plants, collecting, it's incredible. I was so excited to make that happen, and that time was really nuts, I think we had eight musicians on stage. Dave Harrington was on stage with his distortions, and we had violin, we had singers, we had drummers. It was wild. Yet the devices and PlantWave were sort of like the foundation and kind of what held everything together, because also, that's how my music is. I work with a lot of drones, and I work with a lot of pads that start taking different shapes, but it's there.
30:33
Eduardo Castillo
And so having that be a life force on its own was really exciting for this show is even more exciting, because now that was sort of. I was kind of conducting an orchestra, a little orchestra this time, just you and I. And I really want to listen to the plants, and we have an opportunity to do that. I'm super excited about it.
30:59
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, I like that. It sounds like there's an opportunity for more vulnerability, too, with the audience in terms of just being open about what we're doing as we're performing and just kind of sharing in that moment.
31:14
Eduardo Castillo
Totally. I feel like tonight's going to be a bit of a hybrid of a talk and music and presentation and meditation. I'm excited to have it be much more about listening, really? Yeah, and. And then, like, you know, when you listen to it and you. It's almost. It's almost like all of a sudden, they come. They are alive. Obviously, trees are alive, but we all of a sudden go into the human realm. I'm performing with a living organism, but might that plant or that tree also utter some notes by singing or all of a sudden, there's, like, a personality there, and it's all being generated by the devices. It's awesome.
32:07
Joe Patitucci
You're inspiring me to give the plant more control over things. Tonight, I'm actually going to offload some of my workflow to the plants. I was just going to have them playing all the notes, and I would switch instruments and things, and arpeggiation might give them a couple more knobs so I could just hang out. That's awesome.
32:28
Eduardo Castillo
So we can just hang out.
32:29
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, exactly.
32:30
Eduardo Castillo
We're just, like, sit there in awe of everything. I'm excited.
32:36
Joe Patitucci
Yeah. Okay. That's what's up. Well, thanks so much for being on nature of now.
32:42
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah, man.
32:43
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, man. And is there anything else you'd like to share with the audience.
32:49
Eduardo Castillo
Just to. The more I stay true to my purpose and pursuing that happiness that it brings, the more things start to unravel in front of me that are only there to validate that's what you should be doing. It's beautiful. If I could share any wisdom, that would be. The main piece of wisdom is to stay true to that path for the good of all. Really?
33:32
Joe Patitucci
Yeah. The synchronicities will emerge.
33:34
Eduardo Castillo
It's incredible.
33:35
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, it is absolutely incredible. And you've created many a vortex on earth for those to hop on.
33:45
Eduardo Castillo
Thank you, man. Thank you. Thank you for that and for the acknowledgment. And thank you for having me. And I'm super happy that you're here with us.
33:51
Joe Patitucci
Yeah, thanks so much, brother.
33:53
Eduardo Castillo
Yeah.
33:54
Joe Patitucci
All right, let's play.
33:55
Eduardo Castillo
Let's do it.
33:58
Joe Patitucci
Thanks for joining us on the Nature of Now podcast. Now, the performance we did after this interview is also available on the PlantWave, YouTube, and you can check that out, the links in the show notes. And there'll be much more of this kind of stuff because Eduardo and I are going to be collaborating at south by Southwest this year, March 16, 2024. So really looking forward to doing that. I also really encourage you to check out Eduardo Castillo. He's also going to be in the show notes there. Eduardocosillo.com. He is just working on such amazing musical projects and just has this really amazing global presence. He's doing this project called the overview Effect, which is based on that phenomenon. What happens when astronauts first view Earth from space and they realize that we're all in this together, we're all one.
34:55
Joe Patitucci
There's nothing really to fight over here. It's really about working together. And once we start to see the world like that, it really changes the way we can collaborate and work with other people. So, really happy to know Eduardo, and he's just such an amazing artist and such a warm presence. So really encourage you to check out his stuff. And if you like conversations like this, I really encourage you to subscribe to the nature of now podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this, that really helps me out, and it helps just keep this going and helps us keep getting guests and having cool conversations. So, yeah, just hit me up there. And if you have any guest ideas or any suggestions for the podcast, just feel free to reach out@natureofnow.com. And until next time, we'll catch you all soon. Lots of love.
35:55
Joe Patitucci
This episode is brought to you by PlantWave. PlantWave turns a plant's biorhythms into music. Just attach two sensors to a plant's leaves, and PlantWave connects wirelessly to a mobile device running our app. The app has instruments in it that are built for plants to play. So right now you're hearing a flamingo Lily playing this soundset, this collection of instruments that I call event horizon. So it kind of has like a really nice glacial feel to it. I like it for winding down or actually just being in nature, out in a forest with huge trees, just helps to kind of amplify a sense of wonder for me. And a lot of people ask me, why don't you have more albums out?
36:45
Joe Patitucci
I've recorded a couple albums, but for the most part, the reason I don't record that many plant music albums is because for me, it's really about listening in the moment with a plant. And so I designed PlantWave and the plantwave app to, in a way, be my albums. You have endless instruments, I guess, from me that I've designed. And then you have musicians in your home, these little green friends called plants that can select every single note that you'll hear, and it will be a non repeating symphony into eternity. So, yeah, doing an album just feels less interesting to me than giving everyone the opportunity to have a deep experience of plant music at home. So that's why I created PlantWave.
37:52
Joe Patitucci
And if that's something you're interested incorporating to your life and experiencing and sharing with your friends, go check out PlantWave.com and get one for yourself. Have a great day.