Today we’d like to introduce you to Shane Aspegren.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
The whole story is quite long and winding, but I’ll do my best.
I grew up in a small town in Nebraska, and then became part of the vibrant Lincoln/Omaha music scene in my late teens and early twenties. I studied film and photography at UNL but my priority during that time was making records and touring in various bands. Quite a few people in that scene started to have a bit more success around the time that I moved to France in the autumn of 2000. I remained in contact with that scene of musicians and continued to tour and record with old friends (for example, the band Bright Eyes) throughout the years.
In Paris — in addition to having two amazing kids — I was continuing to develop my own music (the strangely named electronic duo, The Berg Sans Nipple) as well as play in other people’s music projects. I was also deepening my interest in other art, mostly working in photography and video. That duo lasted from around 2001 to 2012, and we released three albums (plus a handful of EPs) and toured all over the world throughout those years. We were both multi-instrumentalists, but my primary role was playing drums, electronics, synths, and singing. I also played in a lot of other projects during that time, mainly as a drummer.
My family and I took some brief detours in Italy and back in the U.S. before moving to Hong Kong in 2012, where we lived for the next decade. I made a conscious shift back into multidisciplinary art-making during that time, while also continuing to work in music. By that point, the music work was diversifying into scoring and creations for film and live performance, but I was also more focused on projects in the contemporary art space. I was mainly working in Asia through that period but always tried to keep some projects happening in Europe.
Around 2017–2018, I hit a pretty dark period of depression and fairly severe anxiety — both with which I had struggled throughout most of my life. However we could label this period of my life, it turned out to be a pretty major shifting point. I had been working with holistic practices (yoga, meditation, etc.) for many years by then — mostly as a way to manage my symptoms — but felt a real need to make a real shift in my nervous system, which caused me to reengage with many of these practices in a newly deepened way.
I had been interested in sound as a healing modality for many years at this point, and had done a lot of projects creating artworks and sound installations based on those interests and research. But around 2018—19, I really began to engage in this work at a different level, and deepened my research and training. This was, at first, a way to deepen my own healing process, but that quickly shifted into a realization that my role in the world was shifting into something different as well.
I formally started ONDO as an entity in early 2020 in Hong Kong, as a way to offer sound as a healing modality, in service to others. Since then, through my move to Los Angeles, my goals in this work have also shifted over that time. I’ve now expanded my work into trauma-informed Somatic and Integration Coaching.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Well, I briefly mentioned my struggle with depression and anxiety, and it’s been pretty challenging at different points throughout my life. It has led me to the holistic and coaching work I’m doing through ONDO though. I don’t see struggle as being inherently negative or “bad.” I see it as simply part of life, and for me has led to personal breakthroughs, creativity, resilience, and many other beautiful things.
As a young adult, I was aware that there was not a lot of financial stability in being a musician or an artist of any type, but I didn’t care. That struggle certainly became more challenging with age, but it has also made life interesting. I think that a lot of creativity can come out of struggle, even if that sounds cliché.
The fact that I moved around the world several times with my family was also a challenge, as much as it was equally thrilling and slightly scary. Each time was a chance to reinvent myself, which allowed me to expand my professional and personal lives. But it also meant having to start over again each time, which was definitely not easy.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
ONDO regularly collaborates with wellness spaces, therapists, and studios around LA, as well as monthly sound baths at places like Soho House in West Hollywood and DTLA. ONDO also participates frequently in large scale events (for example, Take Action LA and the Emerging Themes conference at UCLA.) A primary focus is now the somatic sound plus coaching packages that ONDO is offering. There is also a collaboration with Pala Medicine in Pasadena, where we offer personalized 1:1 vibrational, somatic sound in addition to therapeutic ketamine as synergistic modalities for healing. This is in the context of a fully legal, medical model, though our collaborative approach doesn’t feel clinical.
I’m also still keeping on with all of my other creative projects, music and otherwise, though it’s taken on a different pace. I’m currently finishing scoring a short film (the third of three this year) for my friend and former collaborator Adrian Wong, which will be part of the upcoming Singapore Biennial.
I’ll be making a record with an old collaborator in early 2026, though keeping it under wraps for now. There is an album of music from my improvised quartet with Nicolas Laureau (Sitar), Jerome Lorichon (modular synth & electronics), and Quentin Rollet (sax & electronics) coming out in December of this year. I also have a new solo album of experimental ambient music in the works, as well as a new long-form EP coming out in March 2026.
So, before we go, how can our readers or others connect or collaborate with you? How can they support you?
I facilitate 1:1 somatic sound sessions and a lot of private groups, so please get in touch at ondoholistic.com/contact for more info!
ONDO is always looking to collaborate with new spaces and people who may be of a complimentary POV, so therapists or studios looking to add or refer sound or somatic modalities to your clients, please reach out.
I’m just back from New York where I was facilitating sound at a private retreat and I’m definitely looking for more of these kinds of collaborations as well.
Please check out both websites for more information on my work through ONDO, as well as my artist site.
ondoholistic.com // @ondoholistic
shaneaspegren.com // @shaneaspegren
Contact Info:
- Website: ondoholistic.com // shaneaspegren.com
- Instagram: @ondoholistic // @shaneaspegren
