Sometimes the song writes itself before you understand why.

In this episode, host CJ Monaghan sits down with Nashville soul-pop singer-songwriter Mason McClintock, alongside Kara Kemp and Lizzie Maranto from ECCHO Live an organization built to support the mental health of touring and live event professionals.

Mason performs two original songs live in the room: "Sometimes I Run" and "Hullabaloo." Then, together, the group takes the songs apart the meaning behind them, the moments that inspired them, and the emotional terrain they came from.

Mason opens up about growing up queer in a small town in southeast Georgia, discovering songwriting as a way to process feelings he couldn't safely say out loud, and how that early necessity became a lifelong creative practice. "Sometimes I Run" leads into a conversation about inherited pain, resentment, and the difference between understanding why someone hurt you and excusing it. "Hullabaloo" opens up a conversation about worthiness, falling in love, and the fear that comes with being truly seen by another person.

Kara brings her own perspective as a coach and longtime touring crew chief, reframing the idea of running from something, versus running toward something and the practice of choosing stillness in a culture that prizes constant motion. Lizzie brings clinical grounding throughout, including a conversation about distress tolerance, the physiological effects of naming an emotion, and why mutual vulnerability is the foundation of real connection.

This is a conversation about songwriting as survival, the armor we carry without noticing, and what it costs an artist and what it gives back to put the hardest parts of life into a three-and-a-half-minute song.

Recorded during Pride month, this episode closes with a moment of celebration: being proud of every part of who you are, including the parts you spent years trying to hide.

ABOUT THE SHOW Forward is a Nashville-based podcast at the intersection of music and mental health. Each episode, a singer-songwriter performs an original song live in the studio, then sits alongside a mental health clinician or advocate for a conversation about what the song reveals. A mental health professional is present for every recording. Forward is hosted by CJ Monaghan songwriter, music industry insider, and someone navigating his own mental health journey.

GUESTS THIS EPISODE Mason McClintock Singer-songwriter Instagram: @masonjmcclintock Kara Kemp General Manager, ECCHO Live Instagram: @karajkempcoach Lizzie Maranto Program Manager, ECCHO Live LinkedIn: @elizabethmaranto

New episodes monthly. Follow Forward on Instagram @forward.show

Host CJ Monaghan sits alone in the studio where Forward will be recorded and does what he's about to ask every guest to do: go first.

In this solo intro episode, CJ introduces himself not as a host, but as someone in the middle of their own mental health journey, including a diagnosis of Bipolar II that changed the way he understands himself, his behaviours, and why he spent the last year and a half building this show.

He talks about a writers round he attended in Nashville. A combat veteran on stage. Songs written out of PTSD, loss, and years of carrying things most people don't talk about in public. The moment after the performance where CJ walked up, shook his hand, and said the thing nobody else said. "I'm sorry about your friend." And what that one sentence did to a man who was braced for a compliment.

That moment is the seed of Forward.

CJ lays out what the show is, what it isn't, and why it exists. A singer-songwriter performs an original song live in the room. A mental health clinician or advocate sits with them. And then line by line they go through the lyrics. What were you actually saying? Where did it come from? What should someone do if they recognised their own life in it?

He's honest about the music industry's complicated relationship with artists' pain. About the difference between documenting something and processing it. About why a room that laughs is just as important as a room that listens.

He's clear about who this show is for: the person who uses music as emotional infrastructure. The songwriter who is confessional in their art and guarded in their life. Anyone who has ever heard a song and quietly wondered "are they okay"?

This is the conversation before the conversation. The forward, before the main work begins.

Welcome to Forward.

ABOUT THE SHOW Forward is a Nashville-based podcast at the intersection of music and mental health. Each episode, a singer-songwriter performs an original song live in the studio, then sits alongside a mental health clinician or advocate for a line-by-line conversation about what the song cost them to write. A mental health professional is present for every recording. Forward is hosted by CJ Monaghan, a songwriter, music industry insider, and someone navigating his own mental health journey.

New episodes monthly. Follow on Instagram @forward.show