Matt Xavier has been a friend of mine for many years now. A fellow music obsessive and trusted voice when it comes to all things ambient, techno, and beyond, we finally managed to meet in person while I lived in Los Angeles, and we stayed connected over music ever since. We’ve swapped stories about pressing vinyl and running labels, and he was the reason I first crossed paths with Joel Mull (Damm) at one of his gatherings held at a beautiful Topanga home. It was a serendipitous moment that still echoes today. A proponent for the deeper layers found in music, Matt has since become a practician, ambassador, and pioneer for psychedelic soundtracking. Along the way, he shared tracks from ASIP and other labels that were influencing and guiding his private sessions, shaping the grand masterpiece we present to you today. As his practice deepened, we exchanged many texts discussing his ambition to publish a book about his unique experience and include an accompanying mix on ASIP. Matt’s new book, ‘The Psychedelic DJ: A Practical Guide to Therapeutic Music Curation and Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy’, is a groundbreaking manual for anyone looking to bridge sound and healing. Whether you're a clinician, a DJ, or just someone who knows the power of a well-placed track, Matt’s work will likely reframe how you think about music’s role in inner journeys. His isolatedmix is a fully formed and accompanying ‘Protocol’, which is an example of one of his many guided sessions, referred to as “therapeutic DJing.” Psilocybin Therapy Protocol v1.22a, distills his craft and evolution in this practice for us all to dip into at a surface level, providing a peek into what are very personal worlds prepared for his clients. Alongside the mix, Matt joins us for a deep-dive interview, discussing his new book, his transition from rave culture to guided sessions, his real-time curatorial method and how music, when chosen with care, can become a tool for transformation. astrangelyisolatedplace · isolatedmix 132 - Matt Xavier: Psilocybin Therapy Protocol v1.22a Listen on Soundcloud, the ASIP Podcast or the 9128.live iOS and Android app. HQ Download (4gb) ~ Tracklist | Bandcamp Playlist to support the featured artists 1. Jon Hopkins – 1/1 Singing Bowl (Ascension)2. Marconi Union – Weightless Part 13. Neel, Voices From The Lake – Planatia4. Helios – Penumbra5. 36 & awakened souls – Take Me By The Hand (awakened souls - Acid Dream Version)6. poemme – awning ~ under the willow tree7. zakè (扎克) – 000607053 OTS3 [Solar]8. awakened souls & From Overseas – Migration9. awakened souls & From Overseas – Certainty Of Tides10. 36 & awakened souls – Passing Dreams11. Desert Dwellers – Lotus Garden Spaces12. Disneynature Soundscapes – Jellyfish Atmosphere (BATHROOM BREAK)13. Endless Melancholy – When I'm With You14. Archivist – Photosensitive15. Jens Buchert – Milano16. Endless Melancholy & Black Swan – Forever In A Moment17. Gelka – Ambient Impressions Vol 2 Mashup feat. FredAgain/NilsFrahm/Fejká18. Lav – Collaborative Survival19. Unknown – SMD_60_Bb_Oceanic_FX_Long_Surf EDITED20. Lisa Bella Donna – Crystal Mountains (Matt Xavier EDIT)21. Alucidnation – Skygazer22. Wagogo Treeboga – Dream on23. Poemme (Ed Harrison) – Out (Poemme remix)24. John Beltran – Lose You25. John Beltran – I Can Chase You Forever26. Bluetech – Resonating Heart27. Chicane – Early28. Synkro – Midnight Sun (Helios remix)29. Synkro – Movement30. Carbon Based Lifeforms – Clouds31. LF58 – Evocazione/Contatto/Risveglio32. Liquid Bloom & TRIBONE - Interbeing (Telepathy Remix)33. Federico Durand – El pequeño zorro colorado34. alucidnation – All at Sea35. Slow Meadow – Upstream Dream36. Endless Melancholy – Expand37. Orbital – Belfast (ANNA Ambient Remix)38. Slow Meadow – Fake Magic Is Real39. Helios – Halving The Compass (Rhian Sheehan Remix)40. Lusine Icl – Stones throw41. Slow Meadow – Pareidolia42. Jon Hopkins – Immunity ~ Interview with Matt Xavier, Integrated PsychedelicsAuthor of The Psychedelic DJ: A Practical Guide to Therapeutic Music Curation and Psilocybin-Assisted Therapy [Buy Paperback] [Buy hardcover] ASIP: You come from a place of passion, DJing, and running labels. What impacted or influenced the shift into the psychedelic space with music? Matt: I’ve been passionate about pairing music with life since I was very young, but I especially remember the very first time I ever stepped onto a dancefloor in 1993 at NASA, the legendary rave club in downtown New York City. From that point on, I knew I just had to be involved. I started throwing raves, and eventually became a psychedelic DJ during what I still believe was the most influential time in dance music history. The 90s were a hedonistic blast, especially our groundbreaking psychedelic trance events at the Shelter, but such debauchery also came with some downsides. I ended up burning out at the turn of the millennium and went sober from 2000 to 2003. That time helped me fall back in love with myself, but I also fell out of love with New York. I moved to LA to be near my friends in Moontribe, who I’d gotten close with in the late 90s. That chapter in LA led to years of nightclub events, DJ sets, and running our techno label, Railyard Recordings. They were wildly fun times, but honestly, LA’s backstage rat race wore me out. Financially, it didn’t really hold up either, so I knew I had to make a change and find something that could carry me, and possibly a family, into the next chapters of my life. In 2009, I decided to go back to school to become a counselor. I’d had a ton of personal experience with therapy by then, mostly from working through childhood trauma and recreational or problematic drug use during my teenage years. I worked full time as an addiction counselor during the oxycontin and heroin epidemic of the 2010s, and by 2015 the burnout was getting hard to manage. That’s when I decided to revisit psychedelics but this time intentionally, and with a more therapeutic approach. A few years later, the burnout finally caught up with me. I reached out to a friend who was a therapist working on the MDMA studies at a local university, and they pointed me toward the growing psychedelic integration community. The first time I walked into that space, it felt like home. Not just because it reminded me of my work as a group therapist, but also because of my deep history with psychedelics from the 90s rave and psy-trance scenes. It was a perfect match. I immediately started seeking training and built out a private practice focused on integration work. That quickly evolved into guiding with psychedelics and music. And at some point, my wife pointed out that I hadn’t actually quit DJing like I thought I had back in 2017. I was just doing it differently. I wasn’t playing to or seeking crowds anymore. I was DJing for one person at a time, what I’ve always called an “audience of one.” And the sets I’ve played in that context have, in many ways, offered more meaning and healing than anything I ever experienced on a dancefloor. Caught catching up in the garden with Matt’s new book ASIP: I’m aware this type of practice can come across as very “hippy-dippy shit”, but you approach it through a serious music background. Can you explain, for anyone new to this how your approach differs from the stereotypical approach? Matt: Oh wow, I totally get that. It’s understandable. Psychedelics still get looked at through the lens of “hippy-dippy shit,” especially because of everything that happened in the 60s and 70s, and how effectively the government programmed society to see psychedelics as ridiculous or unserious. And to be fair, some of that reputation was well earned, and that goes for the ridiculous fashion and antics of ecstasy-rolling ravers of the 90s too. The way psychedelics were presented during both counterculture movements didn’t exactly help make them look medicinal or appealing to the average person. Hopefully the intentional, therapeutic, research-based approaches being taken these days are starting to change that narrative across the board. As for the stereotypical approach... I’m honestly not even sure what that means anymore, because my colleagues and I all work in such different ways, sometimes radically different. But if we’re talking about my approach, and what I lay out in the book, I’d say it’s more intentional, more clinical, and more therapeutic, with aspects of spirituality mixed in. It
