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Pat D’Amico (00:01.323)
Hello and welcome to another episode of Talking Teen Treatment. Talking Teen Treatment is a production of Muirwood Adolescent and Family Services. Muirwood is a residential teen mental health and substance use treatment program with locations in Northern, Central, and very soon in Southern California. I’m Pat Tomiko, the CMO at Muirwood, and I’m really excited to have as my guest today Jason Garriott of Music Neighbors. Jason.

developed a platform for Nashville-based music artists to discuss how they utilize music to self-heal. And it sounded intriguing enough to me that I decided to invite Jason on today to talk about what they’re doing. And hello, Jason, welcome.

Jason (00:47.714)
Hey, Pat, nice to meet you. Thanks for having me on today.

Pat D’Amico (00:50.411)
Oh, my pleasure entirely. This should be interesting. As a sometimes musician, I, you know, I find it, I always find that sort of thing interesting. So, you know, let’s start here. I know you have a story, but I just wanted to start by giving the folks who watch this a good understanding of what Music Neighbors is.

Jason (01:18.762)
Yeah, so Music Neighbors, we help support the local music communities of Nashville. Even though we’re known as Music City, independent artists really don’t get a lot of support. And we want to make sure that the artists feel valued, appreciated and seen. And we actually provide a lot of support and valuable resources for them through our core programming. Our main programs are Play it Forward sessions, which we provide free recording studio time for artists. So we actually pay

for this full day of recording, and we go in with our video crew, and we film the live sessions. So that way they have the content to help connect their music to more people. And there’s so many financial barriers that go involved into making a record because the cost of living in Nashville is increasing. And when you’re doing everything yourself financially, and you’re running a business, because essentially when you’re an artist, you’re running your own business, you just don’t get a lot of financial support. So we wanted to make sure that

we provide this program in order to give artists an opportunity to get into nicer studios so that way their quality of art can be adequately represented. And then we have another program called Songcraft Sessions where artists talk about the artistry behind the music. So what influences them as a songwriter, how they go about their music compositions, and just kind of like a behind the scenes story about them as an artist. But our third program is called Good Neighbors Listen.

And this is a platform that we provide artists where they talk about how they use music therapeutically to help themselves, heal themselves as individuals, as well as how they’re helping to better the community through their music.

Pat D’Amico (02:59.435)
So that part of the program is really what caught my attention. So when we spoke earlier in the week, you were telling me about your own mental health struggles and the trauma that you experienced as a kid.

which I think is, you know, would be relevant and interesting to the people that we serve. So just, you know, talk a little bit about that.

Jason (03:37.098)
Yeah, so I, you know, growing up in general can be really difficult for different people. And it’s especially true when you grew up in an abusive household. I lived with my father who is undiagnosed bipolar. He had major depression issues and anger issues. And, you know, he kind of took them out on us as the family. You know, mental abuse was probably one of the more prominent things, but he could be physically abusive sometimes as well.

Um, so, you know, it wasn’t always like a very happy environment growing up. Um, you know, I felt really isolated and alone growing up. And then when I was 12 years old, that’s when I got a phone call. It changed my life. And that’s when we found out that my father had passed away either from an accidental overdose or death by suicide. And at the time, uh, cause there wasn’t a note that was left or anything. So we didn’t have a way to like confirm it. That made it harder for me to process it because I wasn’t sure.

if it was an accident or if it was intentional, and not knowing for me made it worse. The last time that I saw my father alive too, I got into a yelling match with him because being 12, I was more aware of what was going on in the house, how he was talking down to my mother regularly, how he was getting into it with my brother regularly. And I just got to the point where I stopped, like I just wasn’t okay with the abuse I was witnessing.

you know, going over to my friend’s houses, their parents didn’t talk like that to each other. They didn’t talk to their kids like that. And growing up, I thought that was normal. And then I started to realize this was not normal. And I just got to the point where I decided to stand up for my mother. And I yelled at him for several minutes. And to my surprise, he didn’t yell back at me. He didn’t hit me or do anything like that. He just sat there and listened. And before he left that day,

He said that, like he was hysterically upset. He apologized and he got down on his knees and hugged me and he said, I am so sorry for being a terrible father. And even as a 12 year old, I could sense the desperation in his demeanor, the way he talked. And after I got the news a week later that he was dead, I instantly blamed myself. I just said, hey, I pushed him over the edge.

Jason (06:05.15)
of him getting to the point where he would put himself in a situation where it would be accidental overdose or death by suicide. I thought that I cut him too deep that day. So as a 12 year old, like, it’s hard enough to be a teenager. You have so many changes going on in your lives. And I know that’s even more true today, you know, but I didn’t know how to talk about it. I didn’t know how

Jason (06:34.626)
uh, mental health was very stigmatized. People didn’t seek help as often. They weren’t encouraged to seek help because this happened back in the early 2000s. And, um, I, we didn’t go see a therapist afterwards. And even if it be like for me, like, I didn’t know how to talk about it anyway. So I, you know, I wish I would have like, if things would have changed, going to get talk therapy sooner from a professional, I think really would have helped me to be honest. But since I didn’t have anything at the time, I found music. Um,

My mom, like I started to like see like guitars, like I’m really interested in this, this is really cool. Like maybe this is a way for me to meet people or just do something cool, you know? Cause I’ve always been kind of a, like a guy that believes in Bigfoot and aliens, you know? So it’s like, you know, that’s me. So like, I thought this could be a cool way to meet people. But my mom for Christmas that year, she was really adamant about.

trying to make it as good of a memory as possible. And I was treading Christmas because I knew that it was gonna be very awkward and sad that my father wasn’t there. You know, like we didn’t always have the best relationship. Like I still missed him, you know? And that Christmas, my mom, she got a guitar for me. She got me my first guitar. And when she was walking down the hall, like, it’s hard to explain, but like later in life, you kind of catch yourself like.

experiencing that present moment, you’re like, I’m going to remember this forever. And that was definitely one of those moments. And as soon as like I had the guitar in my hands, I felt like I had a life preserver. I had a way to get through this. I had something to hold on to. Because for me, like not being able to talk about it, like especially since I blame myself for my father’s passing, it became a form of talk therapy.

I was able to get out all of these negative emotions I have of abandonment, anger, frustration, sadness, feeling guilty that I was the cause of his death and not feeling like I didn’t have a lot of value for myself either because if I was that good of a person, why wouldn’t my dad leave the way he did? I didn’t know at the time how to express all those things. Even saying them now, the words don’t capture the emotion.

Jason (08:59.038)
For me, at least, it doesn’t. And so being able to play guitar and channel all this negative energy, putting it into something constructive and positive was so absolutely therapeutic for me. I was able to work out my problems. I could go into a meditative state essentially and just have a stream of consciousness from just whatever I was feeling and it would just channel through my guitar. So if I was angry, my guitar would be more intense. If I was sad, my guitar would be more bluesy.

if I was in a better mood, it’d be more fun. And one thing that really helped me too, beyond having a way to channel all of these negative emotions, the therapeutic powers of music, it gave me goals. The first time I heard Voodoo Child from Jimi Hendrix, the guitar was so chaotic, wild and intense and so intriguing, which is how I felt. I felt messy on the inside.

But somehow I still felt optimistic, like my life would be better, but I didn’t know how. And when I heard that song, I was like, that’s my ticket. This person has clearly been through a lot in life and they have mastered this guitar. And like, you know, there’s this outlet for me. And when I heard that song, I’m like, I’m gonna learn how to play that riff at some point in my life. Like even if it takes 10 years, which, you know, it took several years. But having…

the goals, something positive to look forward to, something to build, something to give my life purpose. That was something that was very profound for me. Because at the time I didn’t have anything to look forward to. So like when I finally got that, that was great. And then eventually as I was playing guitar, I started to like my senior high school, I started to finally feel.

confident enough to play around other people. Because since it was so private for me, I didn’t feel comfortable sharing it with other people because that can be kind of scary. Like when you first start to play music with people, not everyone has that, but I’m kind of a reserved person that I would retreat in my shell. So I didn’t want to share that until I got confident in my guitar playing like, okay, I think I can jam with people. And when I started to do that though, I regretted not doing it sooner because everyone’s kind of on the same page.

Jason (11:20.658)
you know, as you’re a teenager, you’re all kind of picking up different stuff. So some advice I would say is don’t hold yourself back. Like try to connect with people as soon as you can. Because as soon as I started to do that, I finally got to a place where I felt comfortable telling people about what I went through and getting their perspectives. Because up until that point, I felt so alone. Like…

I know you can’t see it right now, but I’m a six foot five, 230 pound person. I am very hard to miss in the hallways at school, but I felt very much not seen. And as ridiculous as it sounds, my spirit animal is big foot for that reason, because a nine foot creature can hide right in front of you in the woods and you would never see it. So I’d rather you believe it’s a real creature or mythological. For me, that’s my spirit animal because I would be walking down the hallways at school and I had to walk out of.

away of people because they just didn’t see me. You know, I just… Yeah, or so I thought, you know. And but when I found my community, it allowed me to like instantly have this connection with people. That’s one thing about music. Like if you’re at a show and you’re going to see a band, everyone that’s there likes that music. Like you instantly have something in common with somebody. And that was really powerful for me too, is finding a community.

Pat D’Amico (12:21.107)
Or so you thought.

Pat D’Amico (12:43.938)
How did your brother fare? Is he your only sibling? How did his experience after your dad’s passing, what was his experience like? Or was it like yours or did he react in a very different way?

Jason (12:48.182)
Yeah, he’s my only superman.

Jason (13:02.918)
So that was something else too, like back then, like because mental health was stigmatized, as a family we didn’t talk about it. And honestly, we didn’t really start talking about it until 2020 when everybody started to kind of really come full circle. Like, I mean, we talked about it like a little bit, but not in depth, like how our experiences were. For him, he didn’t really have the creative outlet that I did with music.

So he would hang out with friends and he’d party harder than I did. Like when he was like in his early twenties and stuff. And yeah, he never really had like substance abuse issues or anything, but he had a lot of anger. He had a lot of repressed anger because my dad’s relationship with him was a lot worse than mine. Like I did have some good memories with my father, which like later on in life, like I

came to realize that my dad was more than his mental health issues, which was a huge breakthrough for me. Because I was able to forgive him for how he left. I wanted to forgive myself that it wasn’t my fault. But coming full circle with he was more than his mental health issues was huge. And my brother finally got to that place too. But he didn’t have good memories with my father like I did. Not nearly as many anyway. So he…

kept it all bottled up inside for a while. And he was a really angry person for a long time, up until the last three years or so, when we’ve all kind of finally processed it fully. So I wish we would have all have gotten to talk therapy sooner. I think it would have been really helpful for my brother and myself and my mother too, to just all sit down in a room and seek help because there’s…

have the right therapist that can really help rationalize your feelings in a way that makes you feel that you’re human. Like it’s okay to have those feelings and like, you know, here’s a way, here’s some tools to help you manage those feelings, you know, whether that’s medicine or whether it’s talking about it or whether that’s, um, whatever issues you’re going for. Um, but some sense of these issues, luckily that was something that our family didn’t really weigh too heavily on.

Jason (15:20.878)
But for me, I think honestly that playing music kept me from seeking that escape. Because I was able to escape healthily through playing music. I didn’t need to use substances to do that. And I have a lot of musician friends who used to have substance abuse issues who have come clean, you know, and they’ve got themselves straight and music’s a huge, huge part of their getting over their addiction issues.

Pat D’Amico (15:47.315)
You mentioned community, having a community. So what ended up being your community and how did you come to find it, find your place in it?

Jason (16:01.598)
Yeah, so when I started playing guitar with my friends in senior high school, when I started going to concerts, it’s realized when there’s this whole community out here of people for me to meet. So for me, my community are people that really love and appreciate music. Like go to shows, they don’t play any music. And to me, that’s also magical too, because for them, you know, they’re not thinking about, oh, they’re playing in this scale or this format, you know, it’s just, they’re able to absorb it. But when you take the next step of playing music.

that connection that you have with people super strong. Like when you sit down with people, you’re opening yourself up emotionally so much with that person that’s sitting across from you. And for me, that’s kind of my community are musicians because we’re able to connect like through the art form and appreciation of the music and they’re like-minded people, you know, that they’re, I think the thing that I like about the music community most is they’re so open to everything. You know, they’re

champions for talking about mental health issues. I mean, how many heartbreak songs have we heard or how many love songs have we heard? You know, they’re not afraid to share the privacy of their life through their music and that makes us feel not alone. And that is something that I respect so deeply with musicians that get on stage and talk about how they use music therapeutically. Our one of the artists we work with, she was a sexual abuse survivor and she actually

advocates for that on stage. She tells people what her songs are about and she’s had so many people come up to her who have never told anybody that they had those experiences because they, I’m not alone. Like I, I can’t, like I don’t know who that song is about. That song is me, you know. So that’s one thing I like about musicians is they really put themselves out there and they are who they are and there’s no judgment for that either.

And I like that kind of acceptiveness in a community that you can be yourself and not be judged for it. You’re actually embraced to be your unique self.

Pat D’Amico (18:01.304)
So, so many of the kids, teenagers who come through Muirwood, you know, are.

Pat D’Amico (18:13.127)
have experienced trauma of some sort, whether it be physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, grief and loss, whether it be a parent or a friend. And a lot of these kids were running circles where they’re losing friends to fentanyl therapists that.

I just recently spoke with on the podcast was telling me, you know, that a lot of the kids are, you know, losing friends to Fentanyl at an alarming rate. But there is, you know, there’s so much trauma that they bring to the table and our clinicians view them and…

focus their treatment or see their treatment through, you know, a trauma, they call it trauma informed, a trauma informed kind of lens. So and we do have a music therapy, a music component to what we do. But you know, but for the kids who

will leave treatment, maybe watching, or mom may be watching, when kids do leave our umbrella and go back to their lives, what advice, what can they do to use me, even if they’re not an accomplished musician, or if they’re just budding or curious about it, what can they do to…

you know, use music to kind of help heal themselves. What advice would you give?

Jason (20:04.47)
Um, you know, if, if they have, uh, if you have an inclination to, like, if there’s an instrument that really intrigues you, try it out, go to a music store, see how you feel about it, you know, or if you don’t want to pick up like a guitar and learn how to play it, you know, you can do songwriting. Yeah. Um, Bethany who, who’s the sexual abuse survivor that I was talking about. Um, she.

used songwriting as her first form of therapy. That was the first time that she talked about those issues because unfortunately it was from a family member and that made it more complicated and especially with how her parents were intertwined in the community through their church too. So it was something that was very much not talked about in the family. So you could use writing like songwriting as a form of therapy.

if you’re intrigued to play music, I will say this, I have very large hands. I had to pull my fingers apart to make a G chord. But when you have the trauma and this negative energy, negative energy is very powerful. It can consume your life. And, you know, it consumed my father’s life and he made a huge mistake that he couldn’t take back. That if you can turn that

into something useful, whether it is through music therapy or visual art, find a creative outlet to channel that negative energy through and you will feel a lot better. And also be patient with yourself. When you see guitar players, you think like Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page or whoever your favorite musician is, they took years to get there.

Yeah, it took a lot of dedication and practice to get there. And to me, that was the fun part of the journey was like, even though I had to pull my fingers apart to make a G chord or a C chord, it gave me something to do to take my mind off the trauma. Um, I needed to give my brain a break from going in circles with the issues that were going through my head. Um, the spiraling that can go, it’s obvious for me, the spiraling that was going inside my head was just.

Jason (22:24.23)
so chaotic, but just consumed me all day long. So to be able to turn that off through music was so fundamental for me. Yeah, I would say just do it, try it, try to.

Pat D’Amico (22:36.447)
Yeah, and the music is, you know, sitting, you know, as someone who plays as well, um, you know, sitting with a guitar. And by the way, you don’t have to play, you don’t have to play well. You know, you can make three, you know, three chords and a, what do they say? Three chords and a, um, it’s lost on me now, but, um, but you know, if you can make two or three chords, very, very simple, two, three finger chords, you can sit and you can play and

it’s very meditative in that it fills your head. You can’t really have, you know, you can’t really have two things at once. It really, you know, lets you focus on what you’re doing in the moment and then kind of handle that to try to, you know, get some of that out or just, you know, just listen to yourself play. And you kids might be watching.

You can buy a guitar for 25, 30, $40 on Facebook Marketplace, like all day long. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. And even a ukulele, it’s just so, so easy to learn to play and you can become actually, it’s like the pickleball is to tennis, ukulele is to guitar. It’s like really, really simple. And you can, you know, and it provides that, you know, that.

channel to get some of those feelings, you know, out rather than keeping

Jason (24:08.054)
Yeah. And if you’re a really private person, a good place to start could be a keyboard because you can plug in headphones and the only person that’s going to hear it is yourself. So, you know, it kind of depends on how you are too. Like, luckily, my mom was like, totally fine with me blaring my electric guitar as I was learning. She’s, she’s an angel. But, you know, I just find something that feels right to you.

and be patient with it and look forward to learning that song that you really want to learn. Like, and it’s okay if it takes months or a year or two years or three years. Like for me, if you’re a child was several years to be able to get to that point. I mean, that it’s a complicated song, but start with something simple that you really enjoy and learn how to play that. And, um, yeah, there’s plenty of guitar lessons that you can take online for free too, like through YouTube. So like.

to your iPad, you don’t have to have a lot of money to learn how to play the instrument anymore.

Pat D’Amico (25:09.579)
No, no, you there’s nothing that you can’t learn that When it comes to YouTube it’s just it’s right there So well, this is well, you know first and foremost, you know, I’m terribly sorry for you know what you went through but I’m also You know, it’s a nice feeling to see you have come out on the other side of it now you’re helping other people

Jason (25:18.007)
Yeah.

Pat D’Amico (25:36.007)
And do you cross paths with kids who’ve been through a lot? Or is your community mostly adults?

Jason (25:46.934)
Our community is mostly adults, just because people that are really trying to start their music careers, they need a lot of help. Those are the people that are 18 years old or in their early 20s or they might have been doing it for years and they’re in their 30s or 40s. We typically don’t, but whenever I get a chance to obviously, her niece, she’s six, and I had my first jam with her when she was maybe a year old.

And Rakesh, his presentation at psych congress was really eye-opening because he was like, our first language really is music. That’s the first thing that we really learn language-wise, is music. And it’s something that is, yeah, and it’s so universal. Even if you don’t speak the same language as someone, you can like the same song. It’s a powerful thing. But yeah, just be patient. And if you really want to learn, I highly encourage that.

Pat D’Amico (26:30.867)
So, do you want to know the truth?

Pat D’Amico (26:40.444)
Yeah.

Jason (26:46.51)
It’s so fundamentally beneficial to, I think, everybody that you could have a form to get those negative thoughts out, that you have a way of talk therapy with yourself if you don’t know how to put it in the words and to give yourself goals, something to look forward to. Because I can tell you that, you know, as no matter what you’re going through, it’s worth pushing forward. It’s worth…

trying to find a silver lining in whatever experience or hardship you’re going through, because there’s always something you can take away from it positively. And if, and once you’re able to get out on the other side, one thing I learned recently, people that have come out the other side and they’ve come full circle in their healing journeys, they become wounded healers. And at least for me, that’s something that I’m very grateful that we have a nonprofit and a platform that we can use.

for music therapy, because obviously it’s helped me out a lot. And I hope that it helps you out a lot too. It gives you purpose and connection to yourself, but also to others, because we all can use some help, right? I lost a father figure a couple years ago. He was really important to me. And the song, Lean on Me, by Bill Weathers. That’s, if you don’t know that song, like, look it up.

I, it’s a song that I’ve heard for years. And when I lost my uncle and I heard a, an artist that we actually helped, um, through a studio session, her name’s B. Taylor and she played it with her band. And it just hit me. I’m like, I get what this song means now. Like, cause I usually try to be the one that’s strong for people. When I lost my uncle, uh, his name’s Uncle Bruce, when I lost him, I told my brother, he’s like,

I can’t be strong this time. Like, I just can’t. And that song for me, like, everyone needs someone to lean on every once in a while. And when you’re able to return the favor, it feels just as good, you know, like to be embraced or to embrace somebody. So whatever you’re going through, I can tell you that I never, like, if I was myself as a 12-year-old, if you told me I’d be running a nonprofit, living in Nashville, married to my best friend.

Jason (29:09.514)
I would have told you who you’re even looking at. You know, your life will bring you some really good experiences. So just try to really find the lessons in your hardships because when the good times come, those hardships and experiences you have will really make you appreciate the good things that happen in your life. And I’m so glad that I didn’t give up because, you know, I went through suicide.

myself with my father, I still had suicidal thoughts when I got into college. And I knew that it was wrong. Like, I shouldn’t be thinking that way. And I went and got help through a counselor in college. And that really helped me. So you know, don’t be so hard on yourself. I know that it’s easy to do that to yourself. It’s cliche as it sounds. We can be our own worst enemies. And just know that you’re not alone. That there’s a lot of people that are.

No one knows exactly how an individual person is feeling because that is their own world, but we can relate to other people. And I just want you to know that you will come out of it, you know, as long as you really keep looking for it and try to find lessons in those hardships and talk with people and seek help when you need it, because that’s something that could really truly benefit you. And I just know that you will have good things that happen in your life, so.

It can be hard to see that when you’re in the moment, but yeah.

Pat D’Amico (30:39.196)
Yep.

Jasopn Garriott of Music Neighbors, musicneighbors.com. Go check out the platform that Jason and his wife have created, it’s very interesting, it could be very, very helpful. I appreciate you taking the time to talk to us, especially on music and music therapy, and maybe bump into you at the Bluebird next time we’re in Nashville.

Jason (31:08.138)
Yeah, that would be awesome to meet up with you next time you’re in Nashville.

Pat D’Amico (31:11.763)
Well, good to see you and hope to talk to you soon.

Jason (31:15.434)
Yeah, thanks again, Jason. I appreciate the opportunity.