Venice West has been hosting Local’s Night for LA performers for some time. Last month, I watched Asa Anderson play a set to a packed house and I was blown away by his song “Help Me Breathe.” This song is an hypnotic meditation on returning to source, on surrendering.
The lyrical phrasing has a lived-in warmth and elegance with tactile details. What stood out most is the emotional through-line of breath as both literal and metaphorical anchor. I loved the vulnerability of the line “So lover please be like a tree and help me breathe.”
Stylistically the track made me feel as if I was snorkeling through a crystal clear ocean. Etherial and calming, its strength is its subtlety: the way desire is suggested rather than declared, the way growth is framed as something slow and organic, like roots finding their way through soil.
“Help me Breathe” becomes a refrain that doubles as a plea for calm, connection, and presence in a world that is constantly accelerating. In a musical landscape often obsessed with urgency and immediacy, “Help Me Breathe” dares to linger, and left a deep impression on me. This is a song that doesn’t just ask to be heard; it asks to be felt, one rhyme and inspiring respiration at a time.
Listen to “Help Me Breathe” and learn more about Asa Anderson.
