“Breathing Like A Baby” is a slick dose of spiritual respite from Heist or Hit signee Brad Stank

Following the release of his last single, sultry slow-jam “Kinky Visitation”, Bradley Mullins (aka Brad Stank) has returned with an effortlessly glistening track that is the perfect respite for us all right now.

Mullins’ brooding vocals croon over hypnotic guitar and drums, leaving you to a state of mindful calm. Ryshon Jones’ languid rapping is the ideal inclusion, elevating the track through his self-reflexive lyrics.

“I acquired the insight of Ryshon Jones, a rapper from Philadelphia, whose voice seemed to fit perfectly with the track sonically. We emailed back and forth about the meaning of the song, and he sent me his raps, and the rest is history.

“His first line is 'The centre is the place', which hit the nail on the head of what I was trying to say. Finding balance and perspective in a world that can feel extreme in many ways.”

A meditation on meditation, Mullins was inspired to write “Breathing Like a Baby” after reading Jack Kerouac’s Wake Up: A Life of the Buddha. The influential travel writer’s retelling of the story of Buddha had an enormous impact, not least Kerouac’s description of a young Siddhartha’s meditation as “breathing like a baby.” The track acts as an exercise in meditation and self-acceptance – a theme that extends all the way through to the production of the track.

The track's themes of meditation and self-acceptance extend all the way through to the production of the track. “Over the past six months I have also been getting into this guy, Jiddu Krishnamurti, who is sampled at the end of the track. His main message is to disregard religions or institutions that try to tell you how to think, and simply sit and mediate, and observe your own thoughts. He’s talking about how humans have created God, and how we worship 'that which thought created.'”

“'The better part of you IS God,' he says, which has been my stance on spirituality for a while, hence why I decided to use the quote in the song. This way of thinking seems to be a great leveller of all the world religions, as to me, this is what they’re all essentially saying. If we created God in our minds, surely that idea of God is within every single one of us, and all religions do is paint the picture of that essential idea in different forms. Krishnamurti’s had a big influence on my state of mind during the writing and recording of the album, so I wanted to pay tribute to him by sampling one of my favourite quotes in the song.”