Patrick O'Heffernan | Music Junkie Press

A conversation with Nurit Siegel Smith, new Executive Director of the Music Forward Foundation of the House of Blues

October 18, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Nurit Siegel Smith is the new Executive Director of the Music Forward Foundation of the House of Blues, which contributes over a million dollars year to music industry education. Smith assumes leadership as Music Forward embarks on its 25th year. She is stepping into some pretty big shoes — over the past quarter century, Music Forward – formerly known as the House of Blues Foundation — has impacted the lives of a million young people with hundreds of partners, thousands of mentors, tens of thousands of hours of volunteer time. She generously let us interrupt her very busy day to learn about her vision for the Foundation. Patrick. Congratulations. This has got to be the coolest job ever! Nurit. It is exciting. I am 6 months into it and I have been in awe of my staff here, the youth I have been in contact with, all the support around the country and the engagement with our partners. It is exciting. Patrick. Tell us your vision- what do [Read More]

Lisa Sniderman, AKA Aoede the Muse, talks about her memoirs.

October 16, 2018

(Los Angeles). One of the strongest women I know, and one who is renowned throughout the indie music community as “Aoede The Muse,” is Lisa Sniderman. She is an award-winning pop-folk singer, songwriter, artist, playwright, and author. Lisa has just released a memoir, A Light in the Darkness, about a decade of creating music, plays, and performances in face of a debilitating disease. She calls her illness the “Gift in the Curse”; the Curse is the disease the Gift is her ability to share connect with others and inspire those with life challenges. As long as I have known her she has been a source of joy, creativity, and strength, so I was very happy to get a few minutes with her this week. Patrick. Aoede, you write, you sing, you produce incredible musical stories and albums like What Are Dreams Made Of, you do voices, you have won tons of awards for your music and now you have released this book A Light in the Darkness. Why did you decide to write a [Read More]

A conversation with Dream Pop star Whitney Tai. By Patrick O’Heffernan

October 16, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Whitney Tai is a singer-songwriter who creates dream pop by walking on the razor edge of pop and indie, staying aloft with talent, honesty and integrity. She is otherworldly but also totally authentic – what you hear is what she is. Tai lost her mother to cancer when she was 10 years old, surfacing health issues including severe anxiety and depression. But her mother’s memory inspired her to channel her feelings into songs and poems and performances that helped lead her out of the darkness inside. Singles led to albums like her debut Metamorphosis, then the EP Forever, followed by a series of singles after an extended trip to Europe, ranging from the jazz flavored ‘Good At Being Bad’, the emotionally devastating ”How Was I Supposed To Know” plus breathtaking videos. I have been fortunate enough to see her live and caught up with her a day before her show at the Hudson Theater in Los Angles. Patrick. You have been performing pretty relentlessly – Hotel Café, Bar20 in [Read More]

Midnight by Joy Autumn. a lifetime of emotion compressed into six brilliant songs

October 12, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Los Angeles) Listening to Joy Autumn’s debut EP Midnight is a mystical, interior experience. She brings you into the sunrise of her emotional life, her early morning disappointments, her dashed dreams and her hopes. Autumn’s voice is vulnerable and steel-strong at the same time, with a curl that pierces you like a minor note. Her lyrics paint pointillist, tear-stained pictures — lights and shadows across her face. She opens Midnight with” Searching for You”, sung from the depths of the Hollywood tomb she spiraled into when, broke and eating canned food in a 400 square foot apartment, she sought sustenance in the predatory afterhours Hollywood party scene of drugs, alcohol, and sex. “ I was searching for myself in all the wrong places” she says, “going to parties until 4 in the morning to meet industry men who could help my career – and never did”. Running to put money in the meter with heels in the morning light/Those moments I wonder how I got to this place, she sings in [Read More]

Pain and Power. X.ARI releases Dis. Order EP at Hollywood’s Sayer’s Club.

July 27, 2018

By Patrick O’Heffernan and BINX (Hollywood) When we think of “healing music” what often comes to mind are the languorous strains of Steve Halpern or ragas for meditation. That music can be healing, but they are not the only kinds of music that can restore us; there is music that can also turn personal pain into power, the power to defeat your demons, to live life no matter what, to shed fear. This is what the electro pop singer X.ARI has been doing for most of her musical life, using music to turn pain into power. She showed us how she does that at Hollywood’s edgy Sayers Club in the release show for her breathtaking new EP, Dis-Order. X.ARI’s interior world has always been different, painful, sometimes close to suicidal. Music is her treatment, her unapologetic voice that rocks, croons and screams in catharsis. She is always on the edge in her performance, her costume, her songwriting. Her concerts are a kind of electric shock treatment cum psychotherapy done in public. They come leavened with [Read More]

Fuzzy Knight’s Blowin Smoke Rhythm & Blues band packs Harvelle’s with fun

June 26, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Santa Monica, CA) If you like blues, dancing, and having fun there is no better band for you than Fuzzy Knight’s Blowin’ Smoke Rhythm & Blues Band with the Smokettes, and there is no better place to see them than at Harvelle’s in Santa Monica where I saw him Saturday night. Knight grew up in St. Louis and witnessed almost all of the great R&B touring revues like Ray Charles, Ike Turner & the Kings of Rhythm, James Brown, Otis Redding, Wilson Pickett, and so many more. That experience taught him lessons in the blues and in pleasing crowds that he uses every minute he is on stage. He was on stage Saturday night at Harvelle’s Saturday night for a lot of minutes with his full band a four piece horn section plus the fabulous Smokettes (and they ae fabulous – any one of these ladies could have been the lead singer). Knight led the band from the back corner, in the groove with seasoned baselines and throaty vocals while drummer Carl [Read More]

Actor Rob Morrow and his RMB band rocks the Santa Monica Playhouse.

May 21, 2018

Patrick O’Heffernan (Santa Monica) The beloved actor Rob Morrow bought his funky country blues band RMB to the Santa Monica Playhouse’s community theater stage, playing for a small audience as part of the gig by the extraordinary, eclectic country-jazz-pop band We Are the West’s. This was WAW’s second concert at the historic Playhouse as part of the Playhouse Sessions, a concert production which raises funds for arts education & community outreach in LA. It was the first time I had seen RMB and Morrow and they were hot! RMB has been around for some time and played at local La clubs like The Mint, the Viper Room, Molly Malone’s and even at the Venice Beach Art Walk. Rob himself is a crackerjack guitar player, first class songwriter and a proficient singer. The band – Carlos Calvo on guitar and also co-writer and backing vocals, Sam Aliano on drums, Carlos Costa on bass, and Jason Libs on keys – is also crackerjack. They play like they have been doing all their lives with Morrow, [Read More]