Speaking at the 2023 Global Wellness Summit, producer Timbaland shared his plans to venture into wellness music. In a discussion with Myndstream, a music and wellness company that creates music aimed at promoting relaxation, meditation, and sleep, he talked about the personal journey that has inspired him. The 51-year-old producer, who has undergone a significant transformation in recent years, including a 130-pound weight loss, stated that his synesthesia, a condition enabling him to see colors when he hears music, aids him in crafting the right tones that interact with the human body.
“Wellness music has always been around. When I visit spas, I listen to the music they’re playing, and I wonder, ‘Why don’t they play my music?,” he told the crowd. “I always say that frequency can change one’s mood. For example, if you play a harp, it can create a calmer ambiance. It’s all about the frequency of a tone.”
To learn more about his wellness routine and lifestyle changes, we sat down with the hip-hop legend to discover how he intends to remix the music we relax to.
What does the ‘wellness music’ genre mean to you?
“Wellness music is a frequency that the body needs. It touches our serotonin levels. Certain sounds can soothe our nerves. When you’re stressed or in an argument, specific sounds or tones can reduce those stress levels. I began to realize that the music in spas helped me relax. If you were to walk into a spa, and it was completely silent, would you stay for long? You need to know what triggers dopamine release in someone. I pay attention to the tones of certain sounds and even see them with colors. Every sound has a color. I believe the color yellow has the most influential sound, drawing people toward calmness.”
What practice do you engage in that might surprise people?
“Stretching. I do a lot of stretching every week. I have an instructor who comes to my house, and she stretches me every Friday. It’s just a part of clearing up the membranes of my cells and loosening up, helping to release stress. She always asks about the color of the music I’m playing, and I feel like it’s a warm orange, like a setting sun. When she shows me the song’s cover, she can’t believe how I knew it.”
How do you unwind and relax?
“Solitude and being lost in my thoughts help me relax. I’m a pisces and we love being by ourselves and creatively think about strategies and next move the next play and stuff like that.”
Do you have a skin-care routine that you follow?
“I don’t really have a skin-care routine. I just used great lotion and always wash my face with certain things, but I don’t really have a skin-care routine. I just eat clean; that’s mostly my skin care, because you can put chemicals on your face but if you’re not putting the right chemicals in your body the chemicals on your face isn’t going to mean anything. It’s going to defeat the purpose. I think it starts within versus without.”
Your top three desert island products?
“A candle because I feel like the scent and fire sets a certain tone. Then I would take a nice massage kind of foam pad. You have to be very relaxed so you can figure out your next steps if you’re by yourself on this desert island. And you’re going to need something that’s going to be a tent.”
You underwent a major physical transformation, what is the best tip you can share?
“The biggest tip is that you have the power to say, ‘I want to go do it,’ and once you make up your mind, there’s really nothing to do but to do it. I think we try to look for easier scenarios, but to get us to start, I’m just telling people, ‘Go start now.’ If you need me to hold your hand to go start, I can do that because I’m already in the mix, so it keeps me accountable.”
What is one early 2000s trend that you never want to see again?
“I think all trends are great because they keep everything evolving. I like it when they take the same trend that was maybe shown this way in 1990 and now shown in 2026 like this.”
