Life, Music, and the Pursuit of Answers

Jon Prizant owns Skokie Printing in Skokie, suburban Chicago. He's 19 years old (as of this podcast) and is going to school for business and marketing. His clientele includes local libraries, schools, and businesses. Jon shares his views and experience, including some insights into his own generation's thoughts and feelings about the world and where it's going. This was recorded at Phil Circle Music on June 6th, 2019.

Have a look at the t-shirts Jon makes for Phil Circle and Guilt By Association Records.

Jon Prizant has a good sense of what he wants to be doing. For some it's not so easy.

Here's a video with Phil Circle sharing a life choice exercise, from the Hey Coach playlist of his YouTube page.

Are you enjoying Phil Circle's discussions? Check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

Phil Circle speaks with fellow Chicago songwriter, studio owner, session musician, and music coach, Lem Roby.

They discuss the complex question of "What is music?" and look into how curiosity and courage are keys to creativity. They also discuss country music, tribute bands, Elvis Impersonators. We learn of their longtime friendship and hear a few reflections on their experiences together.

Lem Roby fronts the band Jack Salamander, considered by many inside Chicago's music scene to be one of the city's best kept secrets. The son of an educator and a writer/editor for Encyclopedia Brittanica, Lem is not lacking in knowledge and shares it in a very accessible and laid back manner that most people close to him find refreshing.

This was recorded on the evening of May 20th, 2019 at Lem Roby's recording studio in a Chicago suburb, known by many as "The Possum House."

Phil Circle addresses songwriter's block in this video from the Hey Coach playlist of his YouTube page.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book (with a chapter on friends that includes Lem),

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats. 

Phil Circle reads and elaborates on an article he wrote called What's Your Story? and then reflects on his own on-going story and how he has found comfort in telling it.

This was recorded on April 22, 2019 at Phil Circle Music in Chicago.

Sometimes, people wonder what all Phil Circle's various interests have to do with music? He answers this question in the video What's All This Got To Do With Music? from the Hey Coach playlist on his YouTube page.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available on all platforms.

Phil Circle talks with Chris Bell, a former union pipe fitter, now owner of Flatts and Sharpe Music, Chicago proper's second biggest music lesson provider. Sitting in the lobby of her Rogers Park store, they reflect on Chicago's past and present, how it relates to other American cities, and the massive changes in the world today. Chris shares her experiences growing up in the neighborhood and reflects on what's changed and why. 

Also in this conversation they talk about the future of one of the world's greatest orchestras, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra. As of this podcast, the CSO musicians were on strike for a number of reasons. Chris Bell gives her balanced appraisal of the situation and talks about her efforts to support local musicians by presenting free shows at her music store. Weeks later, the CSO won the strike.

This show was recorded at Flatts and Sharpe Music in Rogers Park, Chicago, on April 18th, 2019.

Phil Circle taught at Chris Bell's store until opening his own lesson facility in the neighborhood, with her full blessings. Phil Circle Music opened its doors in December of 2018, and 2019 marked 25 years that Phil Circle has been a music coach. In 2019, Expertise.com awarded Phil Circle Music the Top Music Schools in Chicago award, listing him among the Top 12 of 574 music schools and private lesson facilities surveyed. Here's a video from the Hey Coach playlist on his YouTube page. Phil still refers business to Flatts and Sharpe Music, as his niche is primarily adult professional and semi-pro musicians. 

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available on all platforms.

Phil Circle puts together two or three student showcases every year to get his students up in a proper Chicago venue to perform. It was at the end of the March 31st, 2019 showcase, at Chicago's Uncommon Ground in Edgewater, that Phil gathered this show's participants on stage and asked them to speak up. Here's what each of them had to say about music and what it means to them. 

One of these students, Noah Charles, now resides on Phil Circle's label, Guilt By Association Records. 

Here's a video of Phil and Lem Roby (Episode 10) with Noah in Lem's recording studio, from the Hey Coach playlist of Phil's YouTube page.

Phil's students are adult professionals in various fields, semi-professional and aspiring professional musicians, and/or working pros like himself.

The intro to this special short episode was recorded April 14th, 2019 from Phil's teaching studio in Rogers Park, Chicago.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

Phil Circle and Singer-songwriter-guitarist and videographer Ian Leith meet for lunch in Chicago's South Loop to discuss their experiences in Chicago music. Ian also talks about working in Los Angeles, moving to Chicago to work for The Jerry Springer Show, and what it was like playing music on the cruise lines.

Phil and Ian also spent time digging into the despair of wanting to quit what you love, and how to climb out by gaining a perspective.

Here's a video Ian produced about Phil, from the In The Loop playlist of Circle's YouTube page.

This was recorded at Flo and Santos on South Wabash Avenue in Chicago on March 26th, 2019.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

In this episode, Phil Circle looks back at an article he wrote for LinkedIn called What Am I Nostradamus? in which he made predictions for 2019.

Several of these predictions came to pass at various levels and some began to emerge in 2020. He reflects on this possibility in this episode.

Phil expands on these predictions, tying them into his overall theme of this podcast; Seeking positive answers to modern day problems with open dialogue. Questions about many of the mainstream issues happening in the world are posed and pondered.

In on of a series of videos discussing What I Live About Music, Phil Circle mentions how music is a world unifying device.

This is from the Hey Coach playlist on Circle's YouTube page.

This was recorded from Phil Circle Music on Friday, March 29th, 2019.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

Mary Reynard is a longtime actor and acting coach living in Los Angeles. Phil Circle and Mary met through the Chicago Actors Studio, where she was teaching for some time and whose founder is a student of Mary's late husband, the great Ted Liss. 

After Mary gives a little run down of her fascinating history surrounded by icons, she and Phil move into a discussion about music and acting, coaching in these professions, and ultimately how the techniques learned to master these performing arts can be beneficial to performing well in life as a human being.

This was recorded over dinner at Corky's Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California, after Mary spent the afternoon observing Phil's recording session for a new album with Ted Wulfers (Episode 3). This was recorded on March 6th, 2019.

The album Phil was recording released the following month. The song Mary was watching Phil and Ted work on was Lava.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

Ted Wulfers is a Los Angeles based singer-songwriter, multi instrumentalist, and more. Phil and Ted are longtime friends, going back to Ted's time in Chicago. At the time of this interview, they had just completed a new album by Phil Circle at Ted's Sherman Oaks studio. Although they had shared many stages and social activities, this was their first collaboration on an album. 

Not prone to profound discussions with each other in the past, in this podcast you are privy to the effect creative collaboration has on people. After five days of soulful creation, heartfelt performances, and conceptual production, it was only natural that music be discussed at its deepest level. Here are Phil and Ted at their most authentic.

This was recorded at 663 Sound and in Ted's van, in Sherman Oaks, California, on March 7th, 2019. Ted added the intro and segue way you'll hear.

The album that Phil and Ted produced was called Baritones 61.7 and ended up on several Best of 2019 lists.

In September of the same year, Phil Circle returned to Ted Wulfer's studio to produce the audiobook version of Phil's book (see below).

Here's a video of Phil and Ted upon the completion of the audiobook, found in the In The Loop playlist of Circle's YouTube page.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.

Phil Circle runs through a list of things that excite him about music. As a critically-acclaimed musician and author and award-winning music coach, he's able to share many insights about the process of creating and learning music, its benefits for education and health, and its attachment to history and culture.

Recorded on March 17th, 2019 in Chicago at Phil Circle Music.

Here's Phil in a video sharing one of the 25 things, from the Hey Coach playlist of his YouTube page.

If you're enjoying Phil Circle's discussions, check out his award-winning book,

The Outback Musician's Survival Guide: One Guy's Story of Surviving as an Independent Musician, available in all formats.