Meet Amanda Watts (they/them) | Neuroscience Researcher / Musician / Producer / Songwriter / Artist / Audio Engineer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amanda Watts (they/them) and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amanda, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I am pursuing a creative career to merge my passions for neuroscience, music, and health to facilitate healing. For a great deal of my life, I considered my passions for music and medicine to be separate, even though I always profoundly felt and appreciated the ways in which listening to and playing music saved my life multiple times and promoted healing in myself and others. My Divine and earthly communities planted seeds that encouraged me to press towards the mark of my higher calling of integrating my scientific and creative experiences and interests to study and implement the healing properties of music through neuroscientific, spiritual, and trauma-informed lenses and modalities.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I produce music mainly through sampling to make sonic collages from aspects of my musical foundation and inspirations including gospel, hip hop, r&b, soul, rock, and classical. I write poetry and songs that summarize my past and current life struggles and convey major themes and lessons that I am learning along the way. Lyrics and music I produce under my artist moniker “Gourmet Dash” are a reflection of me and are heavily steeped in my spirituality, Hoodoo, and gratitude for the Divine’s blessings. I receive a perfect and sweet love from God and my Ancestors and spirits, and my evolving relationship with the Divine is a centerpiece in much of my work. In November 2021, I released my first instrumental project entitled “33 EP”, which is a collection of songs that introduce me to the world as Gourmet Dash and is heavily influenced by gospel and soul. The title “33” is inspired by my Life Path number of 3. In numerology, the Life Path describes general patterns in one’s life and fate, and the number 3 as one’s Life Path is associated with a child-like playfulness and creativity. I am most excited about my ability to transform existing music, sounds, words, and scriptures into something new. In this way, I use these objects to transmute energy carried by situations I encounter into energy serving the purpose of facilitating catharsis, healing, and joy.

I am currently fueling the pursuit of integrating my passions in service of my community by working in the lab of AZA Allsop, MD, PhD at Yale University using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS; a type of non-invasive neuroimaging) and other techniques to study the healing properties of music, meditation, and other tools, their underlying neural mechanisms, and approaches to targeting these pathways to promote healing, especially in people of African descent. I also continue to hone my musical skills and produce, write, and release music with the aim of sharing the gift of continual Spirit-led healing that my creative process yields. I also aim to encourage others to heal through creativity and vulnerability and evoke visceral feelings in my listeners as music does for me. In the future, I will continue to express myself creatively through Gourmet Dash and become a physician-scientist in order to innovate and implement multimodal therapy grounded in music, pharmacology, meditation, faith, and astrology.

My passion for music was sparked when my grandmother (Lord, bless her soul) began to teach me piano when I was 4 years old. I started off playing classical, popular songs from the 19th and 20th centuries, and hymns. I shifted my piano focus to jazz and symphonic in middle and high school and began studying percussion by participating in jazz, symphonic, marching, and orchestral ensembles under great teachers and mentors who continued to nourish this passion and helped shape my musicianship. During and following my undergraduate studies at Duke University, I studied Hip Hop History and Production from legendary Hip Hop producer, 9th Wonder, and interned at his studio, Jamla Records. From him and other members (namely Khrysis) of his production group, the Soul Council, I acquired a wealth of knowledge about the art of sampling and the technical and business sides of music.

My interest in medicine and neuroscience stemmed from a deep curiosity about how the human body and brain operate. In grade school, I began to experience the impact that mood and personality disorders had on my community and me and recognized the brain to be a key player in modulating susceptibility and severity of these conditions. I earned my bachelor of arts in neuroscience at Duke and began interacting with clinical populations through volunteer, shadowing, and research experiences in undergrad and beyond. While working as a clinical researcher in the lab of Rajendra Morey, MD, MS using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and other clinical and neuropsychological tools, I studied posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury in U.S. Veterans and former athletes.

My path has been a winding one and arduous at times, but it has continuously been blessed. I’ve faced many failures and challenges such as (1) being academically dismissed for two semesters from my undergraduate schooling, (2) losing my grandmother suddenly when I was in 7th grade, and (3) dealing with depression and anxiety that would leave me petrified, make me feel fearful to authentically take up space, and prompt me to give up on myself and my creative pursuits. Even amongst the pain and turmoil, I’ve come to understand that I do not meet challenges without reason and strive to elucidate what I am being called to learn and how I am to be transformed by my circumstances. I understand that most of the challenges I encounter also serve to prepare me to help others through similar situations. I am blessed to be a servant leader in that respect.

Being kicked out of school really drove home the point for me that I can’t and am not meant to travel this journey of success alone. At this point in my path, I got my first big lesson in the quintessential nature of asking for help when I need and want it. From situations in which I allowed fear and perfectionism to get the best of me, I appreciated the importance of centering my mind, body, and spirit so that I can hear clearly from myself and the spirits that guide me and move accordingly. I also sought out help in the form of therapy and pharmacological treatments and surrendered to a Spirit-led healing journey that opened my eyes to the impacts of wounds I sustained and gingerly guided me back home to myself. Overall, I was called to really understand and walk in the fact that when God and the Divine are with me, no one can be against me. My progress has definitely been an ebb and flow, but I find comfort in the uplifting and corrective messages I constantly receive from my Ancestors and spirits letting me know that I am exactly where I am meant to be.

Even now, as I settle into my truest essence by doing things like shifting my pronouns from she/her to they/them to honor my gender nonconformity, I am faced with both disrespect and resistance as well as love and acceptance. To overcome the former, I strive to speak up for myself and focus on the genuine love that surrounds me.

Through sharing my story, I want the world to experience me and my creative and scientific work as a vessel through which God’s love, light, and creativity shines unhinderedly. I’m learning to mindfully hold both joy and the impacts of tribulations and walk the unique path upon which I am called to be an example of what doing the often heavy work of healing, unlearning unuseful behaviors, and coming home to oneself can yield. We are meant to achieve these feats not in isolation, but in community. Getting free, living authentically, and being who the Divine has created us to be is well worth it, I promise.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If my friend was visiting me in Atlanta for a week, this would be the itinerary.

Sunday -Sunrise yoga / meditation @ Piedmont Park
-Breakfast @ Highland Bakery
-Roller skating / bike riding on the Beltline
-Lunch / shopping @ Ponce City Market
-(If it’s the 4th Sunday of the month) poetry open mic / dinner / drinks @ Apache XLR

Monday
-Tour of the SWATS: Visiting my grade schools of Trinity AME Church Pre-K, West Manor Elementary, J.C. Young Middle, and B.E. Mays High (the Hill is real!)
-Getting wings @ the world famous Atlanta’s Best Wings (at corner of B.E. Mays Dr. and Fairburn Rd.) aka Marathon!
-Tour of Tyler Perry Studios
-Lunch / Dinner @ Chik-fil-a’s Dwarf House

Tuesday
-Hiking @ Cascade Nature Preserves
-Breakfast @ Thumbs Up Diner in East Point
-Parlaying / lunch @ Greenbriar Mall
-Shopping / exploring / catch a movie @ Atlantic Station
-Dinner / drinks @ Ra Sushi Bar

Wednesday
-Publix Subs and chicken for Lunch
-Shop / parlay / get tattoos @ Little 5 Points
-Dinner @ Camelli’s Pizza
-ATL United soccer game @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
-Drinks @ the U Bar

Thursday
-Play basketball / hang out @ Melvin Park
-Lunch @ Brake Pad
-Parlay / ride ferris wheel @ Centennial Park
-Catch a show @ Tabernacle
-Dinner / drinks @ Chairs bar

Friday
-Morning yoga / soccer in my backyard
-Making music in my home studio
-Securing libations from Camp Creek World of Beverages
-Inviting friends and family over to enjoy my Dad’s weekly fish fry

Saturday
-Brunch @ Flying Biscuit
-Late lunch @ Cafe Buffalo Wings in Hightower Station
-Dinner @ Oz Pizza in East Point
-Bar hopping on Edgewood

Sunday
-Falcons football game @ Mercedes-Benz Stadium
-Lunch @ The Beautiful Restaurant on Cascade
-Grown Folks night @ Cascade Skating Rink

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I dedicate my shoutout to my Divine and earthly communities, namely, the Most High, Black Jesus, my Ancestors and guardian, guidance, and protection spirits, Martha Louise Walker Howard (my beloved grandmother), Audrey Amanda Howard Watts (my mother), and a host of loving and supportive blood and chosen family.

Instagram: instagram.com/gourmet_dash

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/amanda-watts

Twitter: https://twitter.com/gourmet_dash

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amanda.d.watts.3

Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCr9nS8t8aJBw9CdanvCg8Cw

Other: Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/hK4XTrECNDEbGFkt9 Bandcamp: https://gourmetdash.bandcamp.com/ Email: gourmetdash33@gmail.com Linktree: https://linktr.ee/gourmetdash

Image Credits
Jhah Jhah