Anberlin Drawing

Before I move on to another famous synesthete, I decided to post another drawing. This one is of what is probably my favorite song in the world. 'Paperthin Hymn' by Anberlin.

This song means so much to me lyric wise and the colors I see when I listen to it. I love the combination of the purple, blues and black and the design they make.

The heavy guitars make the solid lines and hard edges. Surprisingly there isn't any red in this song since that's usually what I see when I hear guitars. My theory is that I also hear colors based on the key the song is in and sometimes it overpowers the colors of the instruments. This would be why the guitars have more blue in them than red.

There are softer parts of the song, which is why there are some curves in the design.

The lead vocalist, Stephen Christian, has an amazing and rich purple voice. I could not do the color justice no matter how hard I tried. This guy's voice is one of my favorites to listen/see.

The black can be attributed to the percussion, most basic drums are black to me. They are are sometimes overpowered by the rest of the song, but that is not the case here.

Overall, I love this drawing and the song it comes from.

Sensory Overload

As much as I love having sound-color synesthesia I have found some negative aspects to it. The main problem I have a lot of the time is having to deal with sensory overload. Because I perceive sound with two different senses, it can be pretty easy for me to get overwhelmed in very loud situations. For me, when I experience sensory overload, I feel like my vision and hearing are basically useless leaving me very confused and disoriented. My solution? Curling up while covering my ears and keeping my eyes shut as tight as I can.

This is the reason I normally don't go to concerts because pretty much every concert I've gone to has ended with extreme sensory overload. Some of the factors the contribute to this not-so-lovely experience...

• The Loud Music
• The louder that music gets, the brighter the colors get.
• The Crowds
• Crowds unnerve me in any situation. There are too many voices and all of the get mixed together and turn into black and I can't pull out a single voice.  
• If people try to talk to me, I usually can't understand them unless they're screaming in my ear or I'm looking directly at them. 
• The Lights, Smoke and other special effects performers feel they have to use. 
• I'm already seeing bright, loud bursts of color and many times the stage lights are different colors than what I'm hearing and pointing at the audience. 

Now combine all of these together and I just can't take it. The last concert I went to was about about a year ago and part way through a couple of people I was there with had to half carry me out of the arena. 

Of course this doesn't happen to this extent that often. Many times I just get confused and have trouble processing information but I can still function. This is not that uncommon for other synesthetes as well, especially with people who have crossed hearing, vision, taste and touch. Since people with synesthesia are interpreting the same stimuli twice that brain has to work a little bit harder to keep up. Researchers have done test such as MRIs and PET scans on synesthetes and the results have shown that both areas of the brain activate when they are exposed to whatever perception induces their synesthesia. 

Overall, it's not all fun and games but I still love it.