Dr. Don didn’t got down to write a track about psychological well being challenges. He was simply following the identical inventive rhythm that had outlined a lot of his latest work, the alternating quick and gradual, quick and lengthy, letting his piano information the melody earlier than layering in bass and an artificial violin referred to as La Pesque. Escape Actuality was meant to be a quiet counterbalance to the upbeat, radio-ready Dominated by Time, his quickest track thus far.
The title got here to him after dozens of failed concepts. It felt proper. Easy, grounded, a bit of evasive. He began recording on June 21. The lyrics got here on June 30.
“I believed this was turning out fairly darkish,” Dr. Don shared in an e mail.
A Bridge Towards One thing Higher
The track doesn’t flinch from disappointment. It opens with traces about life and ache, about how straightforward it’s to fake to be okay whereas quietly unraveling. However then one thing shifts. Within the bridge, the narrator regains management. The lyrics don’t preach or pander. They merely level to a special ending.
“As we speak, luck gonna change,” he sings. “Now not my means or the freeway.”
It’s a flip, written into the chords as if Dr. Don is aware of somebody wants to listen to it.
His drummer, Matt, introduced his personal grief to the monitor. After shedding an in depth pal, Matt recorded the percussion with that reminiscence in thoughts. There may be ache within the rhythm should you pay attention for it.
And there’s hope, too.
Lovely Vibes Was the Reply He Wanted Subsequent
Nonetheless, Dr. Don couldn’t go away his listeners, not to mention himself, in that emotional fog. So, he pivoted. Lovely Vibes is the form of track that wraps itself round you want daylight. Upbeat, melodic, and deeply human, it opens with a easy concept: kindness is free, and it issues greater than most issues.
“Price nothing to do / Assume lovely vibes / Proper over to you / I ship lovely vibes,” he sings within the refrain.
The place Escape Actuality lingers within the ache of uncertainty, Lovely Vibes provides readability: group issues, friendship heals, music lifts.
The 2 songs had been recorded simply days aside in July 2025 and launched collectively as a form of emotional diptych. One monitor for the sleepless nights. One for the mornings that also really feel attainable.
A Musician Who Writes the Means He Lives
There’s a rawness to Dr. Don’s work that makes it onerous to look away. He doesn’t write to impress. He writes to know. His lyrics land someplace between journal entries and late-night confessions. The impact is intimate, like receiving a voice word from somebody who really means it after they ask how you might be doing.
He has mentioned that he cried for the primary time whereas writing down the lyrics to the track. And but he nonetheless completed it. Nonetheless handed it over to Matt. Nonetheless launched it to the world.
Dr. Don has no want for manufactured drama. His actual life is greater than sufficient. What he provides as an alternative is presence. With over 115,000 subscribers on YouTube and a rising catalog of genre-crossing songs, he’s quietly constructing one thing uncommon: music that resonates as a result of it’s unguarded.
From Studio to Soul Work
Behind each piano riff and baritone hook is somebody making an attempt to make sense of life, the one means he is aware of how. Some days it feels like Feeling Lazy or I’ll Hear. These days, it feels like Escape Actuality and Lovely Vibes—two songs that would not be extra completely different; launched collectively as a result of that’s how feelings really work.
One minute, you might be scuffling with psychological well being challenges. The following, you might be smiling at a stranger. Life isn’t only one factor.
Dr. Don is aware of this. He doesn’t simply write about it. He lives it.
