So...I started a podcast (but not that kind of podcast)

But now felt like the right time — and it’s for you who has been here all along.

Author

Brian Zhang
April 29, 2025

In partnership with

So… I started a podcast.

It was bound to happen, right?
Everyone has one these days — even Conan O’Brien.

Now I’ve got two things in common with the late-night legend:
We both have Irish names, and our own podcasts.

Mine’s called The Mental Musician — and it’s been years in the making.

Introducing The Mental Musician Podcast - What this community is all about | The Mental Musician

Get more from The Mental Musician on Patreon

www.patreon.com/posts/introducing-what-127706508?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I remember back in 2012, when I uploaded my first YouTube video, podcasting was barely a thing. If you said the word “podcast” out loud, people assumed you were talking about a hostel for broken college kids or some grainy 240p livestream from space.

Fast forward to 2025 — and now it’s basically free-to-air TV for Gen Z.

Thanks Oprah!

So why did it take me so long to get a podcast out?

The simple answer is: I kept going back and forth as to how I wanted to present this podcast:

  • Do I want to give general mental health advice based on my experiences?

  • Do I want to provide insights into the world of mental health in a weekly news style?

  • Do I want to interview fellow musicians I know who have experienced mental illness?

Last week I mentioned that I started a patreon page to build on what this newsletter is all about. And then I toiled about how I wanted to give you a podcast that would help you in your own journeys, without just regurgitating what I write in this newsletter.

I realised that, the one thing I can offer is honesty and vulnerability.

So with the podcast, I can be more raw, more unhinged, by sharing more personal stories, both painful ones and happy ones.

This means you’ll be hearing more about the times I had gigs that made me question my very existence let alone my career as a musician.

You’ll hear about the times I was reduced to a sobbing mess because I was told I was never going to amount to anything, let alone a musician by friends and family.

I’ll open up more about my battles with depression, and how I am working hard to rediscover my love for music and playing the guitar.

With this podcast, it’ll be available to all free members on my patreon. Those on patreon will receive the podcast early and ad free.

I can’t tell you if I’ll ever release it out as a completely public podcast. But for now, doing it this way will give me the chance to ease my way into things.

It’ll also allow you to connect with me in ways this newsletter doesn’t allow you to.

I want to open up the chat feed on patreon with our community, start a monthly catch-up as well and help you find friends in the music world who know what you’re going through.

Look, I get that this could all sound like another ruse from another creator trying to lure you into some “exclusive club.”

(Spoiler alert: I’m actually plotting a hostile takeover of Fender, Gibson, Sony, and probably Mars.)

But that’s why I don’t write like a marketer who’s one sentence away from triggering a Google fart powerful enough to set off a mushroom cloud.

We are all Chandler at heart

I just hope my words mean something.
That they make you feel a little more seen.

And now, with the podcast, you’ll be able to put a voice to the anxious weirdo behind these newsletters.

I guess that makes me the honest musician, ay?
(Which, by the way, is also one of the Patreon tiers. Sorry. Had to.)

Speaking of, let me know what you think of these designs!

Anyway — I’d love to see you over there.

I hope this can be the start of something special.
All I want is to give you a space where you don’t feel alone.

Because we’re musicians.
And we’ve got to look out for one another.

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