“Devil Said” was written and recorded by Brian Jost (Forcing Smiles) likely towards the end of 2004 (no later than December 2004) while Brian was living in a cabin in Barnum, MN, when he was working in Duluth, between living in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

Brian plans on re-recording “Devil Said”  for his 2nd album “Letting Barnum Be,” before releasing album #3, “The Other Side.”

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit:

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

Conversation between Brian, Jimmy, Bob, and Carl recorded:  01/06/2025

All music, lyrics, and recordings by Forcing Smiles / Brian Jost.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

This song, “I Guess I Will,” was written and recorded in the later part of 2004 while living in a cabin rental in Barnum, MN, when I was working in Duluth, between living in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington.

I plan on re-recording “I Guess I Will”  for my 2nd album “Letting Barnum Be,” Before moving on to album #3, “The Other Side.”

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit:

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

Conversation recorded:  01/05/2025

All music, lyrics, and recordings by Forcing Smiles / Brian Jost.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

I found a bunch of music I wrote and recorded in 2004 while living in a cabin rental in Barnum, MN, when I was working in Duluth, between living in Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, Washington. This music is from a very difficult and important time of my life. I feel decided that I will re-record much of this 20+ year old music as album 2, titled “Letting Barnum Be.” We’ll see if I follow through with that idea.

Song idea title: “Lazy Show” (written 9/10/2024) by Forcing Smiles (Brian Jost), copyright 2024. Song recorded 9/10/2024 on Zoom H2n.

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

Conversation recorded:  01/05/2025

All music, lyrics, and recordings by Forcing Smiles / Brian Jost.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Don’t waste your time listening to this.

Song title: “Jingle Jangle” or maybe “Jingle Jangle Smack” (written Sept. 2024) by Forcing Smiles (Brian Jost), copyright 2024.

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

Conversation recorded:  01/03/2025

Final play of song (last few minutes of episode) recorded 9/24/2024.

All music, lyrics, and recordings by Forcing Smiles / Brian Jost.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Song title: “Like a River” (written Oct. 20245) by Forcing Smiles (Brian Jost), copyright 2024.

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Conversation recorded:  01/02/2025

Here’s a feel-good song for the New Year by Forcing Smiles! Something much more positive compared to what I’ve shared in the past.

Title:  BLEEDING OUT

 “I can feel it on the inside. Someone pounding on my shell. Yelling at me to get out now. Telling me to leave my hell…”

All music and lyrics by Brian Jost, aka. Forcing Smiles, copyrighted.

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Conversation recorded:  01/01/2025

Recorded December 2024.

For more music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Here is the demo album (recorded December 2023) which I have started to re-record in March 2024. Most of these were written in January 2019. A few are much newer. Tracks 1-12 were recorded on 12/15/2023 at home. Track 13 was recorded on 12/18/2023 at Cloverleaf Audio-Visual, a recording studio in St. Paul, MN, where some of the later re-recording has taken place. All recording, engineering, mixing, (and not really mastered at all), by Brian Jost.

Here are the song titles and approximate start times within this episode:

For more (bad) music, blog posts, and other info, please visit

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Brian considers stopping the podcast production, and shares a newer song titled “Buy Me a Ticket” which he will be performing at an open mic.

For more music (SoundCloud), blog posts, and other info, please visit https://EurekaPointLighthouse.com/

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Music Production, Podcast Intro Jingle Services, Podcast production and Audio Engineering services provided by Brian Jost:  https://www.inthemic.com/

The band has not done a good job of staying motivated to produce this podcast in an organized manner. Brian practices a new chord progression and melody change for “Skeletons.” Everyone is getting tired of that song.

For more music (SoundCloud), blog posts, and other info, please visit https://EurekaPointLighthouse.com/

Read or listen to Brian Jost’s memoir: “Grounded by Bipolar Disorder; One Pilot’s Landing” (available in print, e-book/kindle, and audiobook). Click HERE to find the book on Amazon and Audible.

SUICIDE AND CRISIS HOTLINE (phone) – Dial 988.  More info:  https://988lifeline.org/

Mental health resource (education, support, advocacy, public awareness):  NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness:  https://nami.org/

Music Production, Podcast Intro Jingle Services, Podcast production and Audio Engineering services provided by Brian Jost:  https://www.inthemic.com/