Jessica Risker is an experimental singer-songwriter and a licensed clinical counselor. After the COVID-19 pandemic sent Chicago into lockdown in March 2020, Risker merged those pursuits for a podcast called Music Therapy, where she speaks to artists, industry professionals, and fellow therapists about their work, creativity, and mental health. She initially imagined the podcast as […]
Tag: Music Therapy
Posted inMusic
Mia Joy dives diary-deep on her debut album, Spirit Tamer
Update: This concert has been postponed to a yet-to-be-determined date. If ever an artist were predestined to create deep-seated dream-folk songs, it might be Mia Rocha, who performs as Mia Joy. Her parents, a poet and a musician, encouraged her to use music as a channel of expression and self-discovery, and each of her songs […]
Posted inMusic
Jessica Risker’s in-person version of Music Therapy welcomes Izzy True
Folk-pop artist and licensed therapist Jessica Risker launched the long-form interview podcast Music Therapy in spring 2020, and Gossip Wolf has been an avid follower since day one. Earlier this summer, Risker and former Hideout talent buyer Sullivan Davis began producing an in-person version at Cafe Mustache called Music Therapy: Group Session, which augments the […]
Posted inMusic
Chicago songwriter Emily Jane Powers supercharges Isometry with wild guitar work
When local folk-pop artist Jessica Risker interviewed Chicago singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Emily Jane Powers on her Music Therapy podcast in April 2020, Powers was halfway through recording an album. “I wanted to make a guitar-forward record,” Powers told Risker. “I wanted to let the guitar speak for me.” On the album in question, Isometry (which […]
Posted inMusic
Jessica Risker combines her two loves with the podcast Music Therapy
Jessica Risker combines her two loves with the podcast Music Therapy, footwork crew the Era drop a dreamy rap single, and more.