Joel Styzens Interview
This is the transcript to my 2025 interview with Joel Styzens. The link takes you to the video, podcast, and show notes with all the other links!
Joel Styzens:
Early on it was very, very scary. And so I kind of made a promise to myself in the beginning that I would find a way to make so much good happen despite or because of it in a way that I could never kind of look back and wish it never wouldn't have happened. Grateful for what I'm involved with for the music I'm writing and the people I'm collaborating with. And I wouldn't have met my partner, my wife, if it weren't for my ear problems, because I wouldn't have written the music my first album. I wouldn't have released the first album and she wouldn't have heard it overseas. Yeah, she randomly came up on a Pandora internet radio station some 12 years ago.
Leah Roseman:
Hi, you’re listening to Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman, which I hope inspires you through the personal stories of a fascinating diversity of musical guests. Joel Styzens is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose career as a drummer was transformed due to sudden hearing damage. He talked to me about dealing with the physical and psychological effets of hyper acusis and tinnitus, the beauty of hammered dulcimer, and you’ll hear clips from his first 2 albums Relax Your Ears and Resonance. He’s a music educator who loves to help students to make discoveries on their own and we spoke about Joel’s passion for all kinds of artistic expression, and his positive recent experience at the Ragdale Artist residency. Joel’s personal story is so inspiring, and his music is so beautiful; please check out his albums which are linked in the show notes for you. Like all my episodes, you can watch this on my YouTube channel or listen to the podcast on many podcast platforms, and I’ve also linked the transcript.It’s a joy to bring these inspiring episodes to you every week, and I do all the many jobs of research, production and publicity. Have a look at the show notes of this episode, where you’ll find all the links, including different ways to support this podcast!
Hey, Joel, thanks so much for joining me here today.
Joel Styzens:
You're welcome. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.
Leah Roseman:
I've really been enjoying listening to your two albums you have out so far, especially Resonance because of all the string playing, and I'm a violinist, so I really enjoy the quartet and the cello. Now you have such an interesting story, which we'll get into, but when I start to look at people coming on my podcast to think, okay, what are the things so multi-instrumentalist and composer and hearing preservation advocate is one of your important identities. Maybe it'd be good to get into that for people who don't know your background.
Joel Styzens:
So I think, well, it was January 26th, 2006, and yeah, I suddenly woke up with really severe tinnitus and hyperacusis, which is the constant ringing and extreme kind of sensitivity in my ears. Everything from my own voice to the kind of high frequency sound of the water and the sink faucet was bothering me. I soon realized even the birds chirping outside was irritating to my ears, and I was really trying not to have a panic attack. And so that what eventually kind of stopped me completely in my tracks as far as my career as a professional drummer and all my performing and teaching and recording, and I had to start some different therapies, audio, auditory, neurological therapies with the audiologist that I eventually sought out and kind of found my own sort of personal therapy just with grabbing an old dusty acoustic guitar. That one actually right there from the corner and picking it up and holding it against my body and feeling the vibrations, it became really therapeutic for me, and that's how I started writing the music, which would be eventually on my first album.
But yeah, previous to that, I got a degree in percussion and jazz performance and with focus on drum set, and that was kind of my whole life since I was maybe nine, around nine years old when I started. So everything was just drums, constantly playing six, seven nights a week. So it eventually took its toll. That combined with maybe about a dozen ear infections I had when I was a little kid was sort of a predisposition of sorts. So yeah, all kind of led up to this particular day that I mentioned and developing the issues.
Leah Roseman:
Did you have warning signs? The other form of tinnitus where it's sort of like a roaring or whooshing sound?
Joel Styzens:
I mean, I do recall having some different periods where the ringing would kind of be there would come and go. And along this whole period for years and years I was wearing earplugs a lot of the time. I even had custom molded earplugs from audiologists and everything before all this stuff started, but especially when I was younger, I wasn't wearing a lot of ear protection, but I was still aware in some manner. I mean, most of the time when I practiced when I was younger, I did have isolation headphones, but I think mostly kind of the live performing, I wasn't wearing earplugs because I just didn't give myself a chance to get used to them or wasn't familiar with the different options available as far as more musician earplugs with filters so you can retain the clarity of the sound, but still protect your ears. Things like that wasn't fully aware of when I was younger. And I think it just kind of took its toll a little by little. And of course, hearing loss is cumulative and you may not be aware that you're suffering inducing hearing loss or damage until it can turn into any number of difficult situations.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, I mean, I found your story very chilling, a professional musician and orchestras are very loud, so
We do wear, actually, I have to say I wear earplugs more often now for loud shows than I used to when I was younger. But just even going out when I was in my twenties loud bars and stuff, there was no understanding at that time of how damaging it could be. And certainly I've had periods of hyperacusis and I definitely have tinnitus that comes and goes, but more like a constant sort of, yeah, it's a different kind of sound, but I could definitely relate. And I was thinking, I mean, your livelihood, your identity, your friends must just, your whole world must have imploded.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, it kind of did. It's nice that I can sort of chuckle now, right? Yeah. It's been, what, 20 years almost. And yeah, I mean, it's still difficult on a daily basis, honestly, especially the hyperacusis, the sensitivity, the ringing at this point, I could just about care less about it. I've gotten used to it. It's kind of my own little meditation tone, but the sensitivity is still difficult, especially in Chicago and the noisy city in different areas when I travel. But anything you figure out how to adapt and adjust and hopefully just keep moving forward. And when the problem started, I luckily saw how far it could really take me down if I were to let it, and that almost scared me more than the problems.
For example, I have actually had to maybe two or three times, like suicide calls from people essentially who have developed the same kind of problems, and I'm not trained for that kind of work, but early on it was very, very scary. And so I kind of made a promise to myself in the beginning that I would find a way to make so much good happen despite or because of it in a way that I could never kind of look back and wish it never wouldn't have happened. And I am grateful for what I'm involved with for the music I'm writing and the people I'm collaborating with.
And I wouldn't have met my partner, my wife, if it weren't for my ear problems because I wouldn't have written the music my first album. I wouldn't have released the first album and she wouldn't have heard it overseas.
She randomly came up on a Pandora internet, a radio station some 12 years ago and caught her ear and she ended up finding my website and sending me a nice email, and we eventually ended up collaborating on an animation project. She was doing the animation, I was doing the sound design and music. And anyway, that's how I met my wife and so many different people I collaborate with. And really, I'll just mention maybe one more thing that after spending the majority of my career playing drums on other people's music now to get to create my own and share it and see that besides being therapeutic for myself, that putting it out there that it can be therapeutic for other people and people can really get something out of it, it's really makes it fully worth it.
Leah Roseman:
Well, that's a beautiful love story about Fernanda. I was going to ask you about her because I knew she was an artist, designer and architect, so I was interested in that, the discussions you might have, but maybe it would be good for people to know what was one of her favorite pieces off your first album. Relax Your Ears and we could have a clip of that for people to hear.
Joel Styzens:
Oh, nice. That would've be nice. I'm not sure if I can remember. I should just run in the other room and ask her Now you really got me thinking about it. I want to sort of give you the right answer.
Leah Roseman:
Go ask her. That's fine.
Joel Styzens:
Okay, I'll be right back. Viv.
Leah Roseman:
Okay.
Joel Styzens:
VIV. Which is interesting because that's one of those little tracks hidden inside the album that you kind have to discover. You have to sort of listen to the whole album to discover that song, I feel like, and it's very minimalist, but it has a really nice kind of uplifting, fun energy, like a lightness to it. There's a lot of other tracks on the album that have a little bit of this darkness and for obvious reasons where the music kind of came from, but that's one of the lighter ones that gives you a little break from all the other super heavy emotional tracks.
Leah Roseman:
Thanks for that. This is a clip from Viv, from Relax Your Ears.
So I am curious about discussions you might have with your partner about city design in terms of sound and acoustics and the human scale. Do you guys ever talk about that stuff?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, actually, yeah. I mean, being in Chicago and the more I travel around the world, the more I love traveling, but the more I'm thankful when I come back. It's such a balanced city as far as architecture and design, and you can wrap your head around it. Unlike New York, I cannot wrap my head around New York and you have the main city, kind of downtown center with the skyscrapers, and then you have all the close neighborhoods nearby, and there's a lot of green spaces everywhere, and it's just a very balanced city as far as, did you mention maybe an aspect of noise pollution is the kind of city soundscape?
Yeah, my partner actually is working on a project right now kind of related to that I, and sort of viding the public to kind of audibly hone in more on the sounds of the river and the lake through the development of some kind of sound sculptures. I won't go into too much detail here, but yeah, we talk about all that stuff all the time and have done some different collaborations together related to some of that stuff. And I definitely have a much bigger, deeper appreciation for design and architecture now and and my partner also designed the artwork for the album
Leah Roseman:
For the new album.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, the newest, yep. Yeah. Yeah, we were talking about Relax Your Ears, my first album. So for the newer one Resonance. So that's also super special because she heard the music from my first album when she was living overseas in London and discovered my music from that and then ended up designing the artwork for the next main album. So it's kind of crazy. We still sometimes sort of pinch ourselves about how that all happened and went down, and we just celebrated our 10 year anniversary last October and stuff, so it's kind of cool. Yeah,
Leah Roseman:
That's nice to hear. I was talking to somebody yesterday about how these long distance relationships over the internet are more and more common, but can be super difficult to navigate. You've never met the person, and that must've been some process.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, I mean, it just started as a purely creative project and collaboration for an entire year back and forth. At the time, I think I was using Skype, is that what it was called? Now everybody talks about Zoom and all the time, but yeah, I think Skype and I'd only used Skype sort of talking with her, so that just seemed like that was my little avenue to communicate with her in this project. And then by the end of the project, after about a year's time or so, we both happened to become single, just independently, randomly, so we just naturally started talking more and more.
Leah Roseman:
Okay, nice.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Now we were talking about cities in Chicago, and I know on Resonance there's a series of pieces inspired by the botanical gardens, which is a place you like to go.
Joel Styzens:
So yeah, speaking of sort of cacophony, the noise of the city, it's really important for me and I think should be for everyone really, whether they know it or not, I think everybody needs a break from sort of backdrop of constant noise. But yeah, I really like to sort of immerse myself in nature and get a nice break from the sounds of the city and Chicago Botanic Gardens. I go up there a lot, and it just kind of started inspiring some music, so I just started writing, and before I knew it, I had five, six or so pieces for the different gardens. I mean, there's a piece inspired by the Waterfall garden, which is for hammered dulcimer.
Leah Roseman:
I love it.
Joel Styzens:
Thanks. And I just chose to just solo hammered dulcimer and trying to just replicate the flowing sparkling cascades on the dulcimer with some different kind of falling lines and also trying to capture the idea of, in some respects, we think of water as this kind of very simple, pure thing, but obviously it's immensely complex and is basically the life force of everything in some respects. And so it has this amazing power as well. And yeah, it is kind of bizarre because you think about you take the hydrogen oxygen elements and you try to separate them, it can explode. There's all these extreme contrast and dynamics with it, but I kept it more minimalist.
Leah Roseman:
This is a clip from Waterfall Garden. This video is from a live performance. This composition is on the album Resonance,
Joel Styzens:
And then there's two pieces for the Japanese gardens, a piece called Burijji, which is bridge in Japanese, which is kind of an introduction with piano and kind of leads you into the first garden, the first island past the wooden bridge. And then the theme at the end of Burijji is kind of a darker theme that represents, there's a zigzag bridge that connects the two islands. And as far as I recall, traditionally it's kind of thought that evil spirits can't cross a zigzag bridge. I remember reading that somewhere. And so the idea kind of seeped in, and so I developed this kind little darker interesting theme. So the strings kind of come in with that at the end of that piece. And then that leads into the next piece, niwa, which is Garden and Japanese.
Leah Roseman:
This clip is from the end of Burijji, from the album Resonance
Joel Styzens:
For the next Island, and you'll hear that theme in the middle of that one again, but on guitar and cello. And so yeah, there's different kind of motifs and things that were inspired directly from not only just the feeling I get when I'm there in the particular gardens, but actual architecture even and design and different things in the gardens and sort of different folklore elements, and it's all fused into the writing. And yeah, I think that piece, for example, just I was just flooded with all this when I got home and sat down with the guitar and wrote the entire piece and maybe 10 minutes or something, which is amazing. Sometimes I'll write a piece and work on a piece for years. Sometimes it'll all come out in 10 minutes. And there's some other ones on there, of course, for the English walled garden, which is quite a sonic adventure, quite a journey on that one.
Leah Roseman:
So your dulcimer, you're the first hammered, well, maybe you're not the first hammered dulcimer player I've had on the podcast, but the first time we've talked about it, so I looked up David's Dulcimers are built in Oklahoma, there's this company. So did you go down there and choose an instrument? How did that work?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, yeah, I had been looking for a lot of hammer dulcimers that are smaller, and a lot of people use the little wooden hammers and get this really kind of thin, almost harpsichord kind of sound. I mean, that's nice. But I guess coming from the world of percussion with marimbas, the size of rooms and drum set and piano and just kind of bigger, bombastic, warmer instruments and sounds, yeah, I just kind of naturally wanted something like bigger sound and more of a range of color. So yeah, I find out about David's Dulcimers through a friend, Max ZT actually of a House of Waters, really great kind of world fusion group, and he's hammered Dulcimer master, one of the best around, he's kind of based out of New York now. So I found out about the instrument through him and I believe another friend here in town. But yeah, eventually I ended up taking a road trip down, getting in contact with him and got to see the whole workshop and how he builds, and he ended up making a custom instrument for me. And yeah, it was amazing to see and just be a part of that. It was really special to have that opportunity. But yeah, he makes amazing instruments.
But as far as the hammered dulcimer, interestingly enough, I grew up hearing the instrument as a child all the time because my mom and stepdad were kind of folk musicians and among many other things writers. And my stepdad was the editor for the Illinois Times newspaper for a long time, but we would always go to all these different folk festivals. So I remember seeing and hearing it, and then when I moved up to Chicago after college, I started hearing it in the room next door to where I was teaching, and it just so happens I was put next to the main dulcimer teacher at the school, which I was questioning because we had these drum room with drum kits then next to the hammered dulcimer. I felt bad for her. Luckily the soundproofing was decent. But anyway, it caught my ear and I was like, oh, wow, I remember that instrument. At that time, I had 12 plus years of studying drums and percussion and all these different instruments, and so I was like, oh, I'm going to already have all the facility and technique and coordination. It's all there already. So I ended up getting one and just kind of translated everything else I had been doing onto it and just kind of do my own thing on it.
Leah Roseman:
So that was back before you had your hearing problems, you were already playing dulcimer?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah. Yeah, that was like 2000, 2000 4, 5, 6 around there. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. So when I was researching you, Joel, I came across Mack Hagood who's done all this research on tinnitus, and I was interested to learn about objective versus subjective tinnitus that for most people, it's in their brain is creating the sound. Is that the case for you, or can an audiologist perceive it?
Joel Styzens:
Oh, yeah. I mean, most cases that I'm familiar with, it becomes a neurological situation where you have damage in the inner ear, essentially those microscopic hairs in the CO or just not working a hundred percent correctly, and then the brain ends up misinterpreting the nerve activity from those and kind of creates a feedback loop. Not too different from a mic and a speaker or something.
If you really think about it, a lot of the design of speakers and microphones and things is based off of the human ear, so it sort of makes sense. That also reminds me when my ear problems first started, I was even hearing crackling in my ear, like distortion, which is very bizarre, but that is essentially the sound of the microscopic hairs kind of fizzling out that are damaged. So yeah, it's definitely more neurological and in my experience, and that's why it's so complex as far as coming up with a cure, something to really help on some meaningful level. It can be difficult to get there because of the complexities, obviously with the brain and the inner workings of that.
Leah Roseman:
So I understand you used this monic sound therapy for a while.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, I did it for maybe three years. Yeah, I did some different white noise therapy as well, and yeah, I was just trying anything and everything that made sense. I tried to vet things. There's a lot of snake oil as you might say out there, but through the guidance of some different audiologists, I tried those. I changed my diet and exercise routine a lot and all kinds of things in a few years. And collectively, it all definitely helped. It's hard to point to one individual thing and know what
Leah Roseman:
You said early on that the pitch you perceive is your personal meditation note, but did you say that ironically, or is it a little bit of that as well in terms of mindfulness?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, that conveys the work I've done to change the way I emotionally respond and think of it, because in the beginning, it was this intruder and this invader, but I had to do a lot of work to change my emotional response to it. And I have done quite a bit of meditation, and it's always there, so I choose to work with it instead of against it. So yeah, it's kind of what I was conveying with that.
Leah Roseman:
You had mentioned that a lot of people in distress have reached out to you for advice. What is the best advice you usually give them?
Joel Styzens:
It varies probably quite a bit depending on the individual and the circumstances. But in general, I mean, I try to just convey as difficult as it can be to try to take this as the opportunity to make all other aspects of your life and your health that much better and healthier, and bring as much good and positive change as you can across all aspects of your life, and just really try to focus on that because the stress makes it worse. And yeah, I mean, it's maybe the overarching thing that I try to convey and just let them know that I'm here for them as much as I can be. And also different members of the Chicago Tinnitus support group that I founded a long time ago. We tried to create a community, people to support each other, but also convey the realness of it. There's no surefire cure and it's going to be different for every individual.
At least for me, I had to focus on, okay, well, at least this particular situation is not like a terminal life-threatening thing, and so I'm going to have to figure out how to adjust and adapt and keep moving forward because you only have one other option other than that. And that's not a wise one, but it's complex, and I don't pretend like I am all knowing and all knowledgeable and certainly not trained in any form or fashion as a therapist or counselor or anything, but I try to just share from my own experience anything that might be helpful.
Leah Roseman:
This is a clip from Lifeline, from Relax Your Ears.
Well, if we could go back to your albums, like Relax Your Ears. I understand Lifeline was dedicated to your mother, who was really supportive.
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, I've always been the closest with my mom, and she's definitely always been there for me. And of course she needs to have her own song on my album, but with composing and stuff, it just always naturally happens. I let everything just come to me. Very rarely do I sit down and think, oh, I'm going to write a song for this or for this person, or just, it's a natural process. But yeah, lifeline is a sort of dedication to my mom. The last piece on the album, Memento Mori, which is essentially kind of conveying what I was just talking about in a sense, which is try to live each day to the fullest and figure out how to adjust and adapt and keep moving forward. Because yeah, we are mortal beings and you never quite know when it's going to be your time and time is precious. But that piece is kind of in the style of finger style of my stepfather, my stepdad, and so in a way that's kind of a dedication to him, and just different people along the way who have helped me and inspire me, they find their way into my music just naturally.
Leah Roseman:
This is an excerpt from Memento Mori from Relax Your Ears.
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Now, the wonderful cellist Sophie Webber is featured on both of these albums.
Joel Styzens:
Well, actually, she's not on the first album. Katinka Kleijn is on the first album, and she's from the Chicago Symphony. And then, yeah, Sophie is on the newer residence. Yeah, she's from Oxford, England, and I met her here in Chicago. We became friends and started collaborating, and she's based in San Diego now. But yeah, she's a wonderful friend and great cellist.
Leah Roseman:
Yeah, I was curious about the, because the ATLYS string quartet there, in terms of putting together the album, were things done remotely or was everyone in one place?
Joel Styzens:
Everyone was in one place, yeah. I mean, they do a great job with remote work for me and my music. It's pretty important for everybody to be, I feel, in the same room. I mean, in general, my music is pretty acoustic and intimate and kind of bare and open. I really think space is important, and sometimes sort of what I choose to not play and the space I keep is even more important than what I do, play the notes themselves. And so to really be in the same room and kind of feel each other's presence and energy is really important for the proper kind of feeling and motion to come through, I feel.
Leah Roseman:
And the jazz pianist, Rob Clearfield, he's an old friend of yours who plays on this as well.
Joel Styzens:
And yeah, for a lot of my drumming career, we got to play together in different jazz groups and yeah, yeah, he's incredible. And yeah, he's been definitely a big inspiration. And in fact, my next album that I'm working on now is going to be all my piano and string compositions, so I'm performing more as a pianist now, and I'm really excited about that.
Leah Roseman:
And when are you going to be releasing that?
Joel Styzens:
I hope at the end of the year, if all goes well, we'll see.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Now, I wanted to talk to you about teaching because you had to, for people watching the video, they'll see you have an electronic drum kit in the background, and I believe you still teach drums, but in a different way, right?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, the electronic drums really help me to continue to teach the, without it being affected. Yeah, I can have control over the volume, can control the volume coming out of a speaker or a student can have headphones on. I mean, the electronic drums are never going to be what an acoustic drum kit is as far as the nuance and texture and the range of colors and things. But for the main coordination and technique work, they work pretty decent. I teach drums and guitar and piano and hammer dulcimer.
Leah Roseman:
And is songwriting or encouraging improv part of your teaching with your students?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah. And also kind of multi instrumental work. Yeah, I really, that's one of the things I enjoy the most is working with a student on piano, guitar, drums, two of the three, or even all three sometimes. And really connecting the foundations of those instruments together and using one instrument to support the other in different ways. If a piano or guitar student is struggling with rhythm, then I'm going to work with them on some drumming, some kind of body clapping and counting and drumming, and really going to the root of the issue and kind of working it out that way. And then when I bring them back to the guitar or the piano, then all of a sudden they're playing it perfectly in rhythm. So I've been teaching for so long that I sort of know how to efficiently work out all those things with students and kind of the best way to go about it. And yeah, I enjoy that a lot. I enjoy working with students with songwriting, composing music production, because I also do a lot of film and commercial composing work, and that's important to me and gives me a chance with the students to get them using all the instruments and layering them and kind of allows them for a deeper understanding and perspective on their sense of time and feel and how things line up and lock together and work together. It's a little more of a magnifying glass into their own work.
Leah Roseman:
Are the ways that you approach teaching that are different than the way you were taught?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, I think it's a mix. I mean, for example, when I started drum lessons around age nine, 10 or so, I still use a lot of the main books and resources foundational things that my teachers started me on because they're really, really good resources. I think I do incorporate another element maybe, that some of my teachers incorporated, which is instead of presenting a beat or a pattern or exercise, kind of presenting the student with every written out variation and version of it where you're just holding their hand through the entire thing, I like to introduce some main concepts with how to work with it or expand on the exercise or the pattern, and then let the student really have more kind of creative time on their own to discover. I think that's important. So not always walking them through everything and letting them have this sense of discovering through themselves what they can do with something. And I think that's important. And I do remember my teachers teaching that way, and I think that's one of the things, it's a little different too.
It's a little bit of a side note, I guess, but now with YouTube and all these different apps, and you can find anything instantly and see exactly how the person's doing it, it's a lot more just copying verbatim and not having to think through as creatively or eliminating the process of discovery just right there all the time and exactly how it is or whatever, where when I was younger, nine times out of 10, there wasn't a video of something. You had to really listen and pick out different things and go to the library and find the CD or cassette or find the record hoping they have it. And that process kind of made it more meaningful in different ways and maybe led you to discover something else. It was kind of some more open, creative process that I think used different parts of the brain and help you maybe discover more creatively like your own voice versus just a lot of sort of copying. So I dunno, maybe that's just me being old.
Leah Roseman:
No, I mean, this topic and related things come up pretty often with my guests, and I think anyone, even people in younger people still maybe didn't grow up with the internet the way it is now that I talked to, but most of us are older and didn't grow up with it at all. So yeah, people grew up with a limited record collection with the radio, maybe going to a few concerts, and then because your world is smaller, you could go deeper. Sometimes it wasn't so scattered, you could be more focused.
Joel Styzens:
And it really, I feel like gave me more time to discover what was inside of me and who I was. And that ended up being incredibly important because when I was a kid, I was always picking up different instruments and experimenting, just messing around and just taking time to discover things. And then in high school, for sure, I was recording on a four track cassette recorder and layering different guitar parts and drum parts and piano parts and different things, and learning about songwriting and composing and just creating. And little did I know that all that work, along with all my multi instrument kind of studies and focus and rhythm, that I would be drawing upon all of that suddenly with composing myself as a focus because of my ear problems. But I was all kind of unknowingly setting myself up for that kind of perfectly with everything that I was doing.
And the nice thing too, about studying drums and percussion is you kind of expected to be well versed in all styles of music. As a professional drummer, sometimes with guitar in my, oh, yeah, that person's kind of a rock guitarist or that's a jazz guitarist, but typically with a professional drummer, you kind of expected to be able to play all styles of music. So I had the opportunity to study all that. So I kind of bring everything together in my own concoction. Sometimes I say, yeah, my music is kind of like the lush strings and textures of classical music with the kind of excitement of jazz improv with world music rhythms and complexities, all kind of smashed together, and a kind of more popular song form, like three, four minute song form
That's just a reflection of everything that I grew up doing. I listened to a lot of rock music when I was younger, played a lot of rock music. So that three four minute song form is there and ingrained in me, verse chorus, verse chorus, bridge chorus or whatever. And then grew up playing orchestras and jazz big bands and rock groups and world percussion groups. So yeah, it's fun to just take all my favorite things and make my own thing with it, and that's kind of what I do in a nutshell, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Opening. Yeah, I think that's how I think a lot when I write, my next album has a similar bookend thing, and sometimes I write the first and the last piece of the album first, just again, sort of naturally, it's not something I set out to do, and then I end up sort of filling it in. I don't know what that says about me, but I feel like having that starting and ending point just makes sense to me. And then I sort of discover, okay, well what's in between there? What's the journey from the start to the end? Yeah, that's just what makes the most sense to me.
Leah Roseman:
This clip is from the Reprise of the Opening to Resonance.
So as we record this, pretty recently, you had an opportunity to do the Ragdale Residency.
Joel Styzens:
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Leah Roseman:
So I know that there's different disciplines of artists there. What kind of people did you meet? What were they?
Joel Styzens:
Yeah, actually right here on that shelf is a Ragtail coffee cup. It's a new addition to the shelf. Yeah, it was really amazing. It was actually an unexpected opportunity. I had not even heard of it, and so it didn't even apply. But I guess every term they pick one composer musician, one dancer, one visual artist, I believe. So it's mostly writers and poets, and I guess the composer musician had to drop out the last minute, and they ended up reaching out to some different organizations, and through the pipeline, I ended up getting recommended and picked. So yeah, I just tried to make the most of it. Luckily it was close enough to Chicago. I could kind of go back and forth a little bit. But yeah, it was really interesting having the opportunity to be around a bunch of writers and poets. That's not the normal scene that I'm around. And it was a good reminder and just how inspiring and invigorating it can be to be around different groups of creative people outside of your own little creative world.
And it really gave me time to focus on some things I've been wanting to focus on. I kind of took it as a little sign from the universe that it's okay to slow down your teaching a little bit and focus on your own stuff a little more for a while. Yeah, I wrote four new pieces while I was there and about maybe 10, 12 other kind of musical ideas that I might develop. I wrote and finished two massive grants and submitted those. I got to spend some time in the prairie and woodland areas and take some nice photos and kind of be in the quiet and connect with some nature, and did a little collaboration with the movement artists there and some of the writers, and it was a really, really much needed experience and really grateful for it. Yeah, I just finished six days ago. It was the last day.
Leah Roseman:
Okay. Yeah. I was going to ask you about your photography. I've enjoyed many of your beautiful photos on social media. Was that something you did before? I have this feeling like you've changed a lot over the course of your adulthood because of going through this crisis.
Joel Styzens:
As far as photography, I don't know. I've always enjoyed, well, interestingly enough, I mean, now that I'm thinking about it, in high school, I took a photography class and even had the chance to develop in the dark room with all the chemicals and all of that. But when I was younger, there just wasn't, we didn't have the handy digital cameras or the phones with good cameras. But I think I've always just been excited about being creative in every capacity, whether it's with food or whether it's with the photography or sculpture or painting, or at one point in high school, I even designed some clothing.
I just always most naturally expressed myself or, you know what I think it is. I mean, think that's how I think through things, think through life, figure out solutions to problems, how I get any negative thoughts or negative energy out of me, how I keep myself sort of lighter and just mentally and emotionally. Well, it is. I have to constantly be doing something like that, something creative, because that doing that is a rejuvenation in a way of thinking and learning about the world around me and myself and others. So I think I've actually always been like that. I just, depending on what is available to me, I'll use it. And that's actually something I've come to terms with recently too, is that it doesn't matter that I'm not a classically trained concert pianist who's been studying since the age of three. I studied some piano when I was in high school and college, but that never was a main focus.
But I've been studying music and rhythm my entire life, and that's the core of everything. So I've come to terms with, I can express myself on any instrument that I choose, and it's going to be my voice and my thing and creating another opportunity to share. And yeah, I feel good about that, and I'm excited about just continuing the journey. And yeah, I like to just try to inspire my students and other people to just not close themselves off or shut themselves off from just different creative opportunities around them and kind of exploring different lineages of things or whatever. Yeah, it's always been important to me.
Leah Roseman:
Well, Joel, it was so great to meet you today, and thanks so much for joining me here.
I hope you enjoyed this episode. Please share this with your friends and check out episodes you may have missed at LeahRoseman.com. If you could buy me a coffee to support this series, that would be wonderful. I'm an independent podcaster, and I really do need the help of my listeners. All the links are in the show notes. The podcast theme music was written by Nick Kold. Have a wonderful week.
