Before the songs. Before the guests. Before the conversations this room is going to hold — there's this.

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