Today’s guest is Reno Mayor, Hillary Schieve.

Hillary Schieve is an American businesswoman and politician from Reno, Nevada. She has served as mayor of Reno since 2014 and as President of the United States Conference of Mayors since 2023, becoming the first independent politician to hold this position.

In 2017, Schieve was named by Politico as one of the 11 most interesting mayors in America, citing her work to revitalize the MidTown District of Reno and continued efforts to promote affordable housing, mental health services, and the fight against homelessness.

Mayor Schieve and I got into all sorts of topics including: how she got into politics, her passion for the arts, the housing crisis in Reno, the complexity of the homelessness issue, her passion for mental health and her personal relationship to it, the potential for novel approaches to mental health treatment including psychedelics, why she identifies as non-partisan, her work as President of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, our mutual admiration for Secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg, the upcoming presidential election, the Reno Heartbeat song and video project from 2020 and a few other topics. Regardless of your politics, I hope you get a sense of Mayor Schieve as a person through this conversation. She was certainly a joy to talk to.

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening!

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Nick Ward is a performance coach who has worked with athletes across a wide range of ages, talents, and needs—from amateur to professional and Olympic levels, and in various sports including soccer, cricket, rugby, golf, skiing, and plenty of others. Nick's purpose is to support the health and performance of people who engage in and push themselves in athletic endeavors.

He earned his bachelor's degree in sport science at the University of Northumbria and his Masters in Exercise Physiology and Functional Fitness at the University of Calgary, Canada.

After moving to South Lake Tahoe, CA in 2016, Nick served as the ALTIS Director for Performance at Barton where he also worked with the US Ski and Snowboard Teams. The program he helped build served over 400 locals, preparing them for mountain activities or returning them to the mountain post injury.

Nick also serves as the ALTIS Programs Director, where he coordinates the ALTIS Mentorship Program to develop coaches from all over the world. He also provides online and in-person coaching programs privately, for high-performing athletes both locally and internationally.

In this episode we talked about:

• How Nick got into coaching

• Athletes and people as complex systems

• Whether or not to incorporate weight training into programs for junior athletes

• Approaching coaching and sport through a creative and specialized lens

• Handling the foundational elements before the minutia

• Cultivating character, not just high performance

• Training World Cup skiers and Olympians Travis Ganong and Marie-Michelle Gagnon

• Injury risk mitigation

• Building community through training

• Distance and virtual coaching

• Nick’s inspirations

I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Nick over the past few years through hiring him as my conditioning coach for my recent experimental adult ski racing comeback. As you’ll see, Nick is a wealth of knowledge and wisdom and an excellent guy all around, and I hope you enjoy our conversation!

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening! facebook.com/erichenryandersen instagram.com/erichenryandersen

You can follow Nick on Instagram, @coach_nickward and find more resources on his website: coachnickward.com

Today’s guest is Matt Musty. Matt is a professional musician, songwriter, and producer, who currently plays drums in the Grammy Award-winning pop/rock band, Train. His passion for music began at an early age, growing up on a farm in rural New Hampshire, packed to the brim with instruments. In addition to Train, he’s worked with a long and impressive list of some of the biggest names in the music industry including Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton, Keith Urban, Grace Potter, Smash Mouth, and many others. In this episode, Matt and get into: The implications of AI on creative industries and the evolution of recording technology Train lead singer, Pat Monahan’s ability to adapt along with the music industry, and his voice being the “throughline” of Train’s catalog Developing musical maturity Landing the gig and touring with Grace Potter Co-writing with Pat and Jerry of Train and the utility of direct communication Working through the crap to get to the good stuff The technical side of delivering a world-class show Crossing your Ts and dotting your Is first, and then having a blast on stage Matt’s favorite songs and moments performing with Train including the timeless smash hit, “Drops of Jupiter” Fostering a sense of community through live performance Train’s upcoming European tour Our reflections of Matt recently producing my song, “Ocean of Oxytocin,” which will be out in the world later this fall by the way, and a few other fun topics! In addition to being an incredible drummer and producer, Matt’s also quite a fantastic guy, who I had the pleasure of meeting onboard Train’s music cruise, “Sail Across the Sun,” and getting to know even better through our recent collaborative work on my song, “Ocean of Oxytocin.” I really hope you guys enjoy this conversation as much as we both did! Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show wherever you listen to podcasts, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic. Thanks for listening! facebook.com/erichenryandersen instagram.com/erichenryandersen Mattmusty.com instagram.com/mattmusty twitter.com/mattmusty Sailacrossthesun.com Savemesanfrancisco.com Photo of Matt by Ben Zucker

The audio version of my 2020 blog post, "On Coming Out."

Blog post: https://erichenryandersen.com/blog/oncomingout

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com/mailinglist (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic.

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Kostia Efimov is an award-winning pianist, composer and recording artist from St. Petersburg, Russia. He began playing the piano at the age of four and studied the instrument relentlessly throughout his youth, teens and early twenties. Kostia’s formal musical education culminated with advanced graduate degrees in piano performance and teaching from the prestigious Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory. In 1989 he embarked on a journey to the United States as part of an artist exchange program between the cities of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and St. Petersburg. During his first week in Milwaukee, Kostia was offered a recording contract with Narada Records, under which he released two solo albums: “Suite St. Petersburg” in 94’, and “Ten Pebbles” in 97’. Kostia has lent his talents as an orchestrator, producer, co-writer and instrumentalist to a variety of other artists’ projects over years including David Arkenstone, David Lanz, Michael Gettel, Daryl Stuermer, Willy Porter, Carmen Nickerson, yours truly, and many others. He’s also been the keyboardist and duo parter of long-time Genesis and Phil Collins guitarist, Daryl Stuermer since 1990. In this episode Kostia and I discuss:

• His early years playing his beloved Wolkenhauer piano
• Johan Sebastian Bach and Kostia’s other music influences
• Political ideology and dehumanization
• Kostia’s unexpected and life-altering artist exchange program and journey to the United States in 1989
• Signing with Narada Records during his first week in America
• Meeting Daryl Stuermer at Peter Buffet’s house and being asked to join his band
• The difference between impressing and moving an audience
• Finding one’s voice as an artist
• The current state of the music industry
• The deleterious impact of curated social media feeds
• Community and love as the antidote to societal tension and many others topics

http://www.kostiamusic.com/

My Mother's Love (Kostia Efimov/Eric Henry Andersen Collaboration): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5_zUbohRBo

Kostia on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6wVdPlEvh9mSllFjsRE7yV

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com/mailinglist (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic.

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Travis Ganong is an American World Cup and Olympic alpine downhill ski racer, specializing in the speed events of downhill and super-G. He was born and raised in Truckee, CA and was a member of the Squaw Valley Ski Team, now Palisades Tahoe. Travis earned a silver medal in the downhill at the 2015 World Championships in Beaver Creek, Colorado. He’s competed in two Olympic Games, first in Sochi in 2014 and last year in Beijing. Ganong also has two world cup downhill wins to his name and is regarded as one of the top U.S. downhillers of the last decade. In the episode Travis and I discuss:

• Early season training in Chile
• Travis’s life-long love for skiing, regardless of the weather conditions
• How sports science has changed and allowed athletes to extend their careers much later into life than in previous generations
• The interplay between the technical, tactical, physical and mental aspects of ski racing
• How training on Dog Leg at Squaw Valley prepared him for World Cup racing
• The world cup coming to Palisades Tahoe this February and Palisades ongoing olympic bid
• Learning to view ski racing as a professional pursuit, especially with regards to physical conditioning
• The Bizarre Beijing Olympics and scheming to escape to a nearby hot springs while there
• Travis’s ski racing inspirations, Daron Rahlves and Marco Sullivan
• The elusive Kitzbuhel podium
• Travis’s company (Pacific Crest Coffee) and what life might look after ski racing and various other topics

Travis can be found on social media @travisganong

https://www.pacificcrestcoffee.com/

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com/mailinglist (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic.

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Matt Wallace is an American record producer who has worked with a plethora of artists during his four-decade career including Maroon 5, Faith No More, Train, The Replacements, Sheryl Crow, O.A.R., Andy Grammar, and John Hiatt, just to name a few. Wallace has produced most of Faith No More's most iconic recordings, including We Care a Lot, their debut album on Mordam Records. Wallace also produced and mixed Songs About Jane, the debut album for Maroon 5, including the Top 40 hit singles "Harder To Breathe," "This Love," "Sunday Morning," and "She Will Be Loved." The album has sold over 10 million copies worldwide, and won a Grammy Award for "Best New Artist" in 2005. In this episode Matt and I discuss: The early days of recording Faith No More in Matt’s parents garage How the music industry has changed over the years and become much more isolated and less collaborative The reduction of “shared experience” in music and culture today How “Maroon 5” and “Songs About Jane” fell into Matt’s lap and the chance he took on the band The massive world-wide breakout success of “Songs About Jane” Producing “Shattered” and co-writing with “O.A.R” Matt’s goal as a producer of pulling the best out of each artist Recording with “Train,” the hardest working band he’s ever seen The propaganda machine on the extreme ends of the political spectrum Adventures in immersive audio by Apple and remixing stereo tracks for Dolby Atmos The primacy of a great song over audio fidelity and many other topics Aside from being a talented and accomplished record producer, Matt just happens to be all-around awesome guy, who I’ve had the pleasure of working with in my former band, The Novelists. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Matt Wallace as much as I did.

To inquire about working with Matt Wallace, please contact his manager, Frank McDonough, at frank@mcdman.com

http://mcdman.com/wallace

Thanks for listening to this episode of “Conversations for Convergence.” If you'd like to support the show or any of my musical endeavors, the best way is by joining my Patreon, at patreon.com/erichenryandersen. Of course, sharing the episodes with friends and family and rating and reviewing the show, helps immensely. For all other things Eric Henry Andersen, be sure to sign up for my mailing list at erichenryandersen.com/mailinglist (that's Andersen ending in SEN). You can also follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, @erichenryandersen, and on X, @EHAndersenmusic.

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Greetings everyone! This is Eric Henry Andersen and I’m really excited to finally be launching “Conversions for Convergence”—a curious podcast, where I’ll be exploring myriad topics with a wide range of guests including music and the arts, health and wellness, culture, science, high performance, and surely many others. My first episode with acclaimed record producer Matt Wallace, who’s worked with Maroon 5, Train, Sheryl Crow, Faith No More, O.A.R., and many other artists will be available everywhere on Wednesday, February 1st. Also, stay tuned for the next two episodes, already recorded and slated for release shortly thereafter with two-time Olympic alpine ski racer and world cup gold medalist, Travis Ganong, and Narada recording artist and virtuoso pianist, Kostia Efimov. I hope the podcast will provide an environment where guests and listeners alike will be inspired to join me in striving for deeper understanding of varied subjects and perspectives. Thanks for your support and I hope you’ll check out my brand new podcast, “Conversations for Convergence!”

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