After graduating from American College in Spring 2021, Delilah Harvey felt the urge to embark on a cross-country highway journey.
She phoned her mother, Jeannine Harvey, and proposed the thought of becoming a member of her as a commencement current, for a two-and-a-half-week journey from Washington D.C. to Los Angeles. With out hesitation, Jeannine agreed.
When early summer time arrived, the mother-daughter duo set off on their journey, beginning with a route south to Georgia.
On the primary day of their journey, they sat collectively within the automobile, immersed in music—a convention deeply ingrained in Delilah’s household. Her dad and mom, avid music fanatics, and her dad, a professor of audio expertise at AU, had instilled this love inside her.
As songs performed by the audio system, an concept sparked between them: to curate a playlist that includes artists from every state they traversed. Nonetheless, Delilah quickly had a greater thought.
“I used to be like, ‘Mother, I really feel like individuals have been so disconnected due to COVID-19, probably not participating with each other,’ ” Delilah recounts in an unique interview with PEOPLE, recalling their dialog.
“How about we create a playlist the place each individual we encounter throughout our journey—gasoline attendants, waiters, waitresses, of us at grocery shops, individuals at eating places—shares a music that holds which means for them?” she provides.
“When Delilah first introduced up the thought of this journey, I felt a rush of pleasure and a powerful ‘YES! Let’s do that,'” Jeannine provides. “The thought of hitting the open highway, with all its potential for brand spanking new adventures and discoveries, felt like a breath of recent air.”
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Delilah Harvey and her mother on roadtrip.
Delilah Harvey
The primary individual the household encountered on their cross-country highway journey was an attendant at a gasoline station. Delilah recollects how after posing the query, she seen the employee’s complete demeanor change.
“He appeared up, we made eye contact, and he smiled, saying, ‘I’ve the right music,'” she shares. “He proceeded to inform me concerning the music and its backstory. Then, he performed it over the gasoline station’s audio system, and we stood there jamming.”
“After that, it was sport over,” she provides. “We knew that we simply needed to see the mission out. So we requested each single individual we encountered on that first journey the identical query: ‘What’s a music that is significant to you?'”
Delilah Harvey asks stranger to share their most significant music.
Delilah Harvey
By the tip of the journey, Delilah and her mother curated a playlist of over 70 songs, spanning 4 and a half hours.
She posted a video concerning the expertise on TikTok, sharing behind-the-scenes clips of a number of the conversations she had with strangers. To her shock, the video went viral with virtually 5 million views and led her Spotify playlist to surpass 50,000 downloads.
“It was simply probably the most magical expertise,” Delilah says. “The tales we heard actually spoke to the cliché, ‘Do not choose a ebook by its cowl.'”
“There have been instances when, for no matter cause, I might make unconscious assumptions upon seeing somebody,” she provides. “However then, by music, you may join with somebody who won’t appear pleasant at first look.”
Jeannine, who’s in her late 50s, calls crossing the nation along with her firstborn and enterprise this mission the “greatest expertise ever.”
“This journey strengthened what I already knew about Delilah—that she is an explorer at coronary heart,” Jeannine says. “Her adventurous spirit shone brightly as she eagerly embraced each new expertise and sought out alternatives to study and develop.”
She provides, “Delilah has a profound love for group and an insatiable curiosity concerning the lives and tales of others. She would not simply observe; she engages with a real curiosity in understanding what connects us as people.”
“It has been a extremely stunning factor as I’ve gotten older and entered this cool new early mid-adult relationship with my mother,” Delilah provides. “In doing this, touring along with her, and asking these questions, I’ve realized there’s all the time extra to study even concerning the individuals you assume you realize greatest.”
Since that journey, Delilah has curated eight playlists, three of which she collaborated on along with her mother. She says she’s stored in contact with individuals she’s met alongside the best way, lots of which can encounter her video on TikTok.
“An artist who was talked about on our Cross Nation playlist, Gina Chavez, commented on a later playlist video of ours that the success of the playlist elevated her listenership by hundreds!” Delilah provides.
“Then a couple of years later, my Dad – who’s the director of the audio expertise division at a college – invited Gina to carry out on the college, so it was such an superior full circle second of connection,” she continues.
Jeannine Harvey whereas on roadtrip along with her daughter Delilah.
Delilah Harvey
Most lately, the mother-daughter duo collaborated on a playlist throughout their two-hour drive to New Cuyama from Los Angeles. The theme of this playlist was, “What’s a music that reminds you of your mother?”
Delilah shared how they encountered one man who shared how a Nora Jones music reminded him of his mother as a result of she would make blueberry pancakes whereas listening to it.
Now, when she hears that music, she thinks about him and his story.
“I affiliate a whole lot of songs with these individuals and what they’ve instructed me,” she says. “So it is cool that I virtually really feel as if they’re borrowed recollections. Regardless that I did not expertise no matter story was behind the music that they gave me, I take into consideration them.”
“We’ve these little capsules that anybody can hear, however by way of the recollections, solely we are able to totally entry collectively, and that can all the time really feel so particular, such a present to me,” she continues.
