Supernova Support

In season four’s eighth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Caroline Milby of Caroline in the Garden, the imaginative pop project of singer-songwriter/producer. She shares the joy of producing a song from its paired-down state to a full-blown piece of art, richly layered, nuanced, and masterfully expressed. The conversations traces her songwriting and musician...

In season four’s seventh episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Crystal McDougall-Purdy, an award-winning vocalist, instructor, program director of multiple choirs, and co-founder of the Norcal Vocal Arts Community. The conversation traces her path of discovering and developing her exceptional talent with excellent mentors and the cut-throat world of voice competi...

In season four, episode 6, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Grammy award winning singer-songwriter and voice actress, Grey DeLisle Griffin who’s performed over 1500 cartoon voices including Daphne from Scooby Doo. They discuss the challenges of parenthood and making time to perform, write, and nurture your songwriting craft whether through songwriting retreats, commi...

In season four’s fifth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown speak with Natalie Lucie, a quietly fierce, Britain-based songwriter and producer who champions women’s rightful role as creators and producers of their own music. She traces the arc of her call to songwriting including the harrowing experience of recording and producing a full album during Covid while laid out f...

In season four’s fourth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Chelsea Coleman, a courageous and vulnerable storyteller of a songwriter who fearlessly shines the light of her songs in dark places. The interview reveals her inspiring work with YG2D (Your’re Going to Die), an San Francisco-based nonprofit that brings opportunities for self-expression around grief to...

In season four’s third episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown interview Brittany Aquamarine, a Sonoma County-based singer-songwriter who combines pop and jazz influences in her deeply poetic “mystic soulfolk and ethereal grooves” on piano and guitar. She traces the long arc of music in her life starting on piano at five years old with a long hiatus until discovering songwri...

In season four’s second episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Jaimee Harris, the Texas-born, powerhouse troubadour rightfully forging herself into a shining star of the folk-country scene. Jaime shares her call into songwriting at a young age and how the miracle of sobriety found her at just the right time, making way for the emergence of her authentic writing vo...

In season four’s first episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown launch the season with the call to listen and respond to the challenge the “creative gauntlet” is throwing down in our individual lives. The two unpack their personal experiences doubling down on creativity’s dare by attending one of Mary Gauthier’s songwriting retreats and the Gateless Writing Academy and Teache...

Enjoy the video or the transcript below of a little chat that explores the “simple but not easy” answer. KAREN: Hi, I’m Karen Joy Brown. KATIE: And I’m Katie Phillips of Supernova Support, a program that supports songwriters in making their best songs. KAREN: That’s right, damn right. Damn straight. I wanted to have a little conversation with you to just get that beautiful bouncing-off of a commun...

In season three’s eighth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown talk with Briget Boyle, a sought-after vocal coach, creative director, and a pillar of the Bay Area’s world and indie music scene. The dynamic relationship between inner work and songwriting shines through as they follow her winding musical journey starting to write at 12 years old, to a surprising turn to perf...

In season three’s seventh episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown speak with Kim Ketner, Karen’s twin sister. Katie wrangles the two sisters to tease out the story of Kim’s solitary journey into singing and songwriting from obsessing over Chris Cornell’s voice over the car stereo to working at Guitar Showcase and playing in the Cactus Club’s house band. They highlight the mi...

In season three’s sixth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown connect with Cassidy Frost, self-declared writer of sad songs with sugary pop hooks who NPR’s Robin Hilton once called “gloriously gritty.” They share their strange and surprisingly early entry into the music industry and how their songwriting and relationship to music has evolved over time. Stay for the whole d...

In season three’s fifth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown reflect on critically acclaimed songwriter Todd Snider’s recent passing. The discussion highlights Snider’s undeniable songwriting craft and incorrigible scoundrel personality that endeared him and his music to so many adoring fans. They unpack his strong influence on Katie’s writing, and she plays a beloved cov...

In season three’s second episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown interview Little Door, a.k.a., Kate Ellen, a creative powerhouse with a vibrant, must-read, music-focused Substack. They delve into her obstacle-laden path towards singing, writing, and expressing her creativity and fortuitous involvement with Supernova Support’s vocal coaching, song salons– and shares the secr...

In season three’s second episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown interview Lena, a self-described nomad who’s come into her own as a singer-songwriter over the last five years. The three discuss her unmistakable and enchanting voice that took its time to find the courage to take the stage. Hint- karaoke had a role to play! Features her original song, Little Voice in relation...

In season three’s second episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown host their first guest, Lizzy Larson, who found the podcast and open mic through a work colleague. They discuss her history with creativity and songwriting and the thirty year hiatus related to addiction and recovery before returning to her gift through Supernova’s song salons and open mic. Features original so...

In season three’s first episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown unpack the idea of “spontaneous” creative growth. They review and celebrate the one year anniversary of launching their podcast and open mic for women and femmes, identifying how participation in a supportive community creates optimal conditions for artistic expansion, turning competition into companionship and...

What better time of year to explore the scary, dark corners of grief in our psyches than Halloween? Whether you’ve ever attempted to share any of your creative work, or never found the time, energy, or courage to do so, you’ve experienced loss. Our culture doesn’t know what to do about capital G grief around death, let alone the myriad losses we all encounter that don’t register on official charts...

In season two’s last episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown demonstrate the obvious connection between the “sixth stage” of grief and songwriting. Carefully separating the false platitude of attributing meaning to a horrible or tragic event, they support the perspective of discovering a new way of living with the loss and creating new purpose from the ashes. Features origin...

In season two’s seventh episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown discuss the complexities of the concept of acceptance. They highlight what acceptance is/is not, and explore living with the residual pain of loss while moving forward in an unfamiliar and new future. Features original songs, Oleander and I Know What Heaven Is in relation to the topic. Like this show? Please giv...

In season two’s sixth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown dive into the depression stage of grief and unreasonable societal expectations to snap back to normal. The discuss losses both experienced and perpetrated and how they weigh us down personally and as a collective when we don’t feel the feelings completely, and how songs aid in that process. Features original songs...

In season two’s fifth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown discuss bargaining as a stage of grief and the subtle ways we spin our energetic wheels in a vain attempt to alter the past. They highlight self-awareness and kindness as we understandably try to avoid the pain of the present by bargaining for a better past or future. Features original songs, Save the Day and End...

In season two’s fourth episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown discuss anger as a stage of grief. Leaning into and allowing the often rejected emotion as an important part of the grieving process is explored as a particular challenge for women in the patriarchy. The two demonstrate the usefulness of songs as a vehicle for healthy expression of rage and conduit for healing. F...

In season two’s third episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown discuss denial, the extended play version of shock. Tell-tale behavioral signs of denial are highlighted, and the two share how songwriting can help break the spell and move us forward without leaving the love for what and who we lost behind. Features original songs, De Rien and 321(Summer’s Gone, So Are You) in r...

In season two’s second episode, singer-songwriters Katie Phillips and Karen Joy Brown delve into the “shock” stage of grief, sharing personal stories of their fathers’ deaths, and the waves of numbness and overwhelm that continue to ebb and flow throughout the grieving process. They demonstrate how songs and songwriting create a safe space to hold our disorientation and disbelief. Features origina...