"I grew up in France, inside a cult that my mother joined in her early 20s, not long after I was born. It was a torturous environment with dogma and indoctrination. You got beaten up to "take the evil" out of you. There were times when I was forced to sit in a chair and not move a muscle for an entire day. Our heads were shaved. The cult was led by a guru who literally had a throne."
"I wasn't allowed to watch TV, read, or listen to music. The one thing I turned to for escapism was a piano. I taught myself to play from an early age. I played the piano for a living after college I remember the vibration. I always say it was like a drop of water splashing everywhere, filling my heart with love. I'd play one note and discover a whole melody."
"I had a dental appointment on my 18th birthday in 2001, and the dentist said my body showed signs of extreme stress. It was frightening. So much so that I decided to leave that very day. I moved to Los Angeles right after graduating from high school, where I cleaned toilets in exchange for a bed in a shared hostel. I was homeless. It was an aimless existence."
Jean-Philippe Rio-Py grew up inside a violent French cult where physical abuse, indoctrination, and isolation were routine. Denied media and music, he taught himself piano as an emotional escape and later played professionally. At 18, a dentist's diagnosis of extreme stress prompted him to leave immediately; he moved to Los Angeles, lived in hostels, and cleaned toilets while homeless. Hardship continued through his 20s and early 30s, but persistent devotion to composition led to success composing for meditation apps and high-profile film trailers like The Danish Girl and The Shape of Water, and receiving a gift piano from Chris Martin.
Read at Business Insider
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