Holly and I recorded a Christmas podcast about a month ago and we thought you'd all love it. Holly had just turned 21 so I wanted to do a recording project as a birthday present for her.

During this fun couple of hours Holly and I ripped through some Christmas / Holiday tunes, talked teaching music, talked music in general, and pretty much just had a great time.

We hope you enjoy this episode of the podcast as much as we enjoyed spending this time together making music.

PS: the picture that we use in this episode is the two of us playing at Variety Adventure Camp this past summer.

This, the first in a family series of podcast episodes, is a conversation I had recently with my lovely cousin Sarah Simon. Sarah is currently a PhD student in clinical psychology, lives in New York City, and is a member of the Darkwave Goth duo MIDNIGHTCHOIR.

I invited her to be my first guest in this series because I was curious as to how she used music to heal herself from a traumatic event when she was 18. We go into detail about the event and then end up having a wonderful conversation about ambient music, Bob Dylan, John Cage, The Disintegration Loops, and more.

We also reminisce about a younger version of myself who visited Sarah, her brother Nick, and their mom (my aunt) Barb in New York City in 2005, a VERY difficult year for me. I was there for Thanksgiving and brought a whole frozen turkey on a train from Chicago. The kids (at the time they were 10 and 8), Aunt Barb, and I saw Stranger Than Fiction (with Will Ferrell and Emma Thompson) when I was on that trip and it was exactly what I needed at the time.

I had a wild idea to invite many of my family members onto my podcast to discuss where our proclivity for music comes from. Particularly on the Heaney side there are a lot of now adults who have pursued creative work, as well as caring professions (psychology, social work, education, nursing, etc.), so I'm curious to gather stories of why so many of us have devoted our lives to these pursuits. Our grandma Heaney was a psychiatrist and would see patients in the old family home on Burt Street in Omaha, Nebraska, and Sarah and I get into discussing some of the legends to come out of that house and our grandmother's practice.

I hope you enjoy the conversation I have here with my cousin!

My guest on this episode of the show is my old friend Mike Nix. Mike is a 15+ year design veteran hailing from Denver, Colorado, and he is quite good at what he does. The two of us first got to know each other in New Orleans, Louisiana when we were both at Loyola University in the early aughts. Mike (I think) designed some flyers for bands I was in down there, and even around 2003 - 2005 he was very highly regarded for his talents and abilities, one of the go-to guys for young bands to go to for design work.

He's traditionally trained in design, he's an expert in UX/UI leveraging AI and code, and he's gained expertise as both a product development expert and people manager. Ultimately, though, he loves to design and build cool things.

Mike and I both evacuated from New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and headed to Chicago when the levee broke. He was a good friend to have in the windy city and we've stayed in contact over the years. He even helped me out massively by designing the cover art for my band Knifehand's first official album release. So, yeah ... great dude.

We talk especially about the future of the graphic design world with the incoming tsunami of AI disrupting the entire industry ... both of us care about the careers of young people and want to mentor as many young adults as possible as they start their careers in this unknown landscape.

We also, of course, discuss music, neurodivergence, mentorship, creativity, and Internet memes. It's a great conversation I had the privilege of having with my friend. I hope you enjoy and learn a thing or three.

Well, we certainly had a LOT of fun recording this episode in the studio. This time I welcomed a participant of mine in The Music Exploratorium program, AJ Haas, and his mom Angela. AJ is an incredible young man aged 12 who has perfect pitch, a very strong sense of rhythm (he could play drums on his first try), a wicked sense of humor, and diagnoses of ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder.

During the course of our at times musical conversation we discuss parenting, enforcing consequences, establishing boundaries and expectations for your child, different approaches to exploring / interacting with music, Mario Kart, Tae Kwon Do, and of course adolescence.

Angela is a wealth of information and let me know about a multitude of different resources that she has been able to access over the course of AJ's childhood. Parents will be able to get some concrete strategies to use with parenting their child, whether typical or atypical. She has a whole spreadsheet of resources that we will hopefully be able to share soon.

This episode was a blast, and I hope you all enjoy it.

On this episode of the show I welcome Rachel Ebeling, the co-founder and executive director of The Angel Band Project, whose mission is to provide trauma-informed music therapy and advocate for those impacted by sexual and intimate partner violence.

Rachel and I had a lovely, wide-ranging conversation during which we discussed the origins of her organization, stories of survival and healing, specific music therapy interventions, and the power of musical creation in community. We do dive into some heavy material, considering the communities we both serve, so listen with some discretion.

A lifelong lover of music, Rachel channels her passion into The Angel Band Project, where she spearheads daily operations and drives its growth as a powerful catalyst for healing and social change. As a compelling storyteller, she travels globally, sharing the project’s mission of providing hope and healing to survivors and expanding its impactful music therapy program. A sought-after keynote speaker at conferences of all sizes, Rachel’s dedication has been recognized with a Woman of Achievement award, celebrating her exceptional volunteer leadership.

This episode features an old friend, my mentor from senior year of college at Loyola University, New Orleans: Mr. John Snyder.

John Snyder is a Grammy Award-winning music producer with over 40 years of experience, known for his extensive work in jazz and blues. His production career began in 1977, and he has produced over 350 original recordings, with 34 receiving Grammy nominations and 5 winning Grammy Awards. His work spans a wide range of legendary artists and genres, showcasing his versatility and deep industry knowledge. We discuss his Grammy nominations and wins, which he relates "made him mad" ... music should not be produced in order to win awards, it's meant to be shared with those around you.

His dedication to education of young people really sets John apart ... from the first moment I met him in New Orleans he's been trying to help me out on my path, whether I've accepted his path or not has been up to me, but he's always offered as much assistance as he could. And he has done the same for countless other developing music professionals over the years. I am grateful for our long-term friendship and hope you enjoy this episode.

Hey hey everyone! Here is episode 29 of the show, and it features a great conversation between myself and a young lady who just started a school for folks with disabilities. In this conversation we dive into instructional techniques for working with different levels of needs, the history and practice of Applied Behavior Analysis, songwriting as therapy, and many more topics.

My guest is, like me, a former student at Loyola University New Orleans, which is how we got connected.

Marcellé is a singer-songwriter, educator, and advocate based in Las Vegas. She is the owner, founder, and instructor of Once Upon a Voice, an online music studio that offers trauma-informed, neurodiversity-affirming education for singers and songwriters. Her work honors music as a form of self-expression and communication, supporting students of all neurotypes and experiences—including those shaped by trauma or disability. As someone who is both autistic and ADHD, she understands the profound ways music can support emotional regulation, healing, and identity. Whether guiding young musicians or launching advocacy initiatives like Voicelore—a nonprofit being developed to support survivors of gender-based violence through music—Marcellé centers her teaching on nervous system care, trust-building, and transformation through song.

Hey hey podcast party people!! Here's my conversation with Shane Presley of The Rock Paper Podcast, a local St. Louis entertainment podcast that features hour-long interviews with artists, comedians, musicians, and other creative folks around the St. Louis region.

It was my first time meeting Shane, although we've been connected online for a bit. He's a great guy with a long history in the St. Louis music scene, from his beginnings in the blogosphere to bring on the forefront of this fun new media landscape of the podcasting world.

In our conversation we touch on the process he took getting his podcast started, my journeys in music, education and the importance of a good custodial staff, as well as where he believes the music scene is headed in the near future.

Please enjoy!