Dear Young Rocker: you can spend your whole life wondering, obsessing over the “what if’s” -- but no matter the circumstances, it’s still your life. In the Dear Young Rocker Season 4 finale, Nadia catches up to her 23 year old self and reflects on how it all happened -- her own weekday weekend. Nadia thinks back on what brought her back to Atlanta, what helped her start making music again, the importance of telling your own story… and what a weekday weekend really means. This season of Dear Youn...
Nov 30, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 12
Dear Young Rocker: the most challenging times can also be the most beautiful times. Someday you’ll look back and realize it all passed so quickly, just like youth. Nadia reflects on her time spent in New York City and how she ended up finding exactly what she needed - herself and music. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Nadia on Instagram and TikTok @NadiaMarieForever. You can also follow the show o...
Nov 23, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Dear Young Rocker: there will be things that you will spend the rest of your life trying to piece together and figure out. Certain things you just never get over. And you don’t have to! It’s ok... to not be ok. Nadia revisits the event that pushed her, once again, back into music, and how it became something she depended on. She reflects on where and how she formed her first real band after high school. This episode includes original recordings and music of Nadia from when she was 14-18 years ol...
Nov 16, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Dear Young Rocker: Make a note — keep a diary that you share with your friends, the ones you love and random people you meet. Nadia spends time looking back on the moments that shaped her most...Sometimes the things in life that feels like setbacks, lead to the most incredible moments of your life. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Nadia on Instagram and TikTok @NadiaMarieForever. You can also follo...
Nov 09, 2022•49 min•Season 4Ep. 9
Dear Young Rocker: It's okay to feel restless. You'll bounce around a lot and feel that no one knows you, except your new friends on the internet and the people who watch you sing — the ones you think you'll never meet IRL, and maybe will, decades later. In this episode, Nadia plays her first show, begins high school in a new town, dreams of living in the city — and gets an unexpected email that will change her life forever. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. ...
Nov 02, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 8
Dear Young Rocker: Sometimes, when you least expect it, you meet someone who changes everything, who shifts your life's path forever. Finding herself at her seventh school in eight years, Nadia enters eight grade to a surprise: Everyone thinks she's someone else. This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including references to suicide and sexual assault. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experi...
Oct 26, 2022•45 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Dear Young Rocker: No matter how many places you move to, your closest friends are always in the exact same place—right on your computer screen. In this episode, we flashback to LiveJournal and the dawn of the social-media age, as Nadia breaks a limb, receives her first guitar, and draws out the parallels between her 12-year-old internet awakening and her later experience of amnesia. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experi...
Oct 19, 2022•42 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Dear Young Rocker: The restlessness you feel in amnesia is similar to the restlessness you felt in youth—stuck, begging time to pass as quickly as possible. There will be moments that will feel new and fun, and other moments that will be painfully, catastrophically, slow. In this episode, Nadia moves between the worlds of her parents' families, and meets her musical heroes, only to prompt them to experience a mid-life crisis. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie....
Oct 12, 2022•45 min•Season 4Ep. 5
Dear Young Rocker: Is anyone ever really an adult? Nadia reflects on the sounds and feelings of childhood freedom. She brings us back to growing up on 90’s MTV, McDonalds happy meals and punk music while she pieces together how to regain her own independence. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Nadia on Instagram and TikTok @NadiaMarieForever. You can also follow the show on Instagram @DearYoungRocker...
Oct 05, 2022•43 min•Season 4Ep. 4
Dear Young Rocker: Starting over is not always what you think it will be. In this episode, Nadia uses music to help her keep track of what’s around her, recording music on her iPad to help exercise her recovering brain. She also reflects on the first times she started to become independent and how she came to be who she is. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Nadia on Instagram and TikTok @NadiaMarieF...
Sep 28, 2022•41 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Just days after a bike accident leaves her with a concussion, Nadia experiences memory loss as she attempts to play a solo gig with her beloved harp. She reflects on her live performances from her youth, and wrestles with the thing that truly haunts her: The biggest, gut-wrenching lie she ever told. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Nadia on Instagram and TikTok @NadiaMarieForever. You can also foll...
Sep 21, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 2
“I was born and born again at the age of 23.” In the Season 4 premiere of Dear Young Rocker, Atlanta’s Nadia Marie shares her life story and the disorientation one feels when starting completely over after a bicycle crash. Also: Reminiscing of youth in the early 2000's—the fan-crazed Conor Oberst era that led to a generation of over-articulate somber adolescents. This season of Dear Young Rocker is written and hosted by Nadia Marie. Want to share your own Young Rocker experience? Connect with Na...
Sep 14, 2022•35 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Dear Young Rockers: This season is going to be different. To introduce a new season-length story, DYR creator Chelsea Ursin interviews Atlanta-based musician and artist Nadia Marie, who will tell her own incredible coming-of-age story, in Season 4, debuting this week. Like Chelsea, Nadia began her musical career early and came of age in the early 2000s. In 2013, Nadia had her life severely interrupted, and inner world reset, when at 23 she was hit by a car while on her bike. As a result, she suf...
Sep 14, 2022•29 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Dear Young Rocker is a scripted non-fiction storytelling and audio memoir podcast featuring stories from women and trans musicians. In Season 4, launching September 14, 2022, series creator Chelsea Ursin hands the baton to Atlanta musician and photographer Nadia Marie, who will be telling her own story. Like Chelsea, Nadia started her creative life young and came of age in the early 200os. But Nadia had her life severely interrupted, and her inner life completely reset, when at 23 she was hit by...
Sep 07, 2022•4 min
Shannon Shaw of Shannon and the Clams didn't start playing bass and writing songs until she was 25. It's hard to believe listening to her songs today, but she was raised in a Jack Mormon household with limiting beliefs about what women and girls could and couldn't do that shaped her way of thinking early on. One night, feeling alone and desperate, a song came to her out of thin air. She picked up a bass, and her musical career started almost immediately after that. After her story, Shannon talks...
Jun 23, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 12
Claire Gohst releases her music under the name Paper Citizen. She grew up in a restrictive and abusive conservative Christian household in Singapore. When her parents discovered Claire had a girlfriend she was kicked out of her house. Listen to her incredible journey of musical discovery and growth. Please take a peek at her new EP Wandering Ghost which was inspired by her journey to America. For more of DYR check out dearyoungrocker.com. Follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram and go to doubleelvi...
Jun 16, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 11
While Anjimile Chithambo was growing up in Richardson Texas, he found himself drawn more and more to music. After trying different genres on for size, ska is what really stole his heart - along with a crush. At first at seemed like no one else around liked ska but fate intervened and Anjimile found out that the crush's brother was not only a fellow ska nerd but actually had his own ska band and an upcoming show. Anjimile knew that show would be important and started practicing skanking right awa...
Jun 09, 2021•38 min•Season 3Ep. 10
LG of the band Thelma and the Sleaze brings us all the way back to her early adolescence in Kankakee Illinois. Surviving a childhood marked by head lice, fights, all kinds of trouble making and being the stinky kid in school LG is pulled more and more toward her own desire to play rock music especially when she hears songs by female fronted bands like Belly and the Cranberries. She also knows right away that she doesn't want to play with any boys. A run-in with some missionaries grants her some ...
Jun 02, 2021•35 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Wendy Eisenberg went through a best friend transition in middle school that led to playing in their first band and some insight about what it means to be yourself. In this beautifully written story and letter to their younger self, Wendy talks about a fateful pool party and the importance of letting people see your many sides. Wendy releases music under their full name Wendy Eisenberg as well as with the band Editrix and various other collaborations. Two organizations Wendy has fundraised for an...
May 26, 2021•36 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Elise Okusami of the band Oceanator started playing guitar and listening to Green Day pretty young at nine years old, and her first band wasn't long after that. On this episode of DYR, she tells the story of attending an Against Me! show and finding the musical community that really inspired her to dream big about her own musical career. She gives some advice to her younger self about living as an anxious person. Elise recommends listeners check out two organizations: the Black Trans Travel Fund...
May 19, 2021•32 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Katie Lau takes the mic on this episode and tells her story of adolescent self-discovery as a kid that withdrew after some harsh bullying but came out of her shell when she fell in love with punk music. Katie's band is called Painted Zeros. In this episode she recommends the following organizations: Red Canary Song, AAPI Women Lead, and Stop AAPI Hate. And for more, check out dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram. For DYR merch and info on more great shows check out double...
May 12, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 6
Lira Mondal of the band Sweeping Promises shares her story of growing up in Arkansas as a nerdy choir kid longing to fit into an alternative rock subculture that she isn't sure she's cool enough for. As an only child of a single Bangladeshi mom, she doesn't feel like she blends in with her mostly white peers. She finds confidence in her voice but dreams of playing guitar or bass in a band and getting to rock out to the kind of music she loves the most - especially her favorite band Interpol. Lir...
May 05, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Mia Berrin, frontwoman of Pom Pom Squad, tells the story of a difficult freshman year of high school in Florida. She endured racially-motivated bullying, exclusion and depression, but started to find her own path when she put on pair of Doc Martens and discovered the music of Riot Grrrl bands like Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Hole and Heavens to Betsy. Soon she started writing her own songs and going to shows and even met an important musical partner. Mia gives some advice to her younger self about ...
Apr 28, 2021•34 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Michelle Zauner joins Chelsea to read a selection from and discuss her new book Crying in H Mart (Knopf). Chelsea asks Michelle about her writing process, her teenage relationship with her mother who passed away when Michelle was 25, and her early musical influences (including Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs). Michelle also delivers a short Dear Young Rocker letter to her younger self about how not peaking in high school is a very good thing. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheart...
Apr 21, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 3
Amy Hoffman of the band Future Teens has a transformative high school summer at an academic camp in Missouri. When a teacher encourages the students to find their calling, Amy realizes their calling is playing emo rock just like their favorite bands - Taking Back Sunday, Say Anything and The Rocket Summer. Away from the pressures of family for the first time, Amy gets up the nerve to perform a song in front of the whole camp and starts to feel like their true self. Check out Future Teens and the...
Apr 14, 2021•34 min•Season 2Ep. 2
Chelsea tells us the origin story of Dear Young Rocker and makes the case for creating the work you want to, rather than waiting for someone else to hand you the keys to the life you dream of. This will be the last episode of DYR devoted to Chelsea's story. Season three will continue as a series of heartfelt personal letters written by musicians to their own young rocker selves about their own musical beginnings. For more, check out dearyoungrocker.com and follow @dearyoungrocker on instagram. F...
Apr 07, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 1
Dear Young Rocker Season 3 launches April 7th, 2021. Tune in for a music-themed audio memoir podcast where musicians tell the stories of their teenage struggles and triumphs and how they became the artists and people they are today. On each episode of Dear Young Rocker, host Chelsea Ursin introduces a rising musical guest star who reads a heartfelt story about their teenage life and a letter to their younger self full of the advice they wish someone could have given them back then. In seasons 1 ...
Mar 31, 2021•6 min
In the season two finale of Dear Young Rocker, Chelsea feels an intense desire to make noise and tell stories. For the first time she fronts her own band. By writing her own songs and stepping up to the microphone, she starts to feel that she’s living her purpose. The final piece of the puzzle is writing her memoir and discovering the power of talking to her younger self. For more: check out dearyoungrocker.com and @dearyoungrocker on Instagram. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.ih...
Nov 04, 2020•49 min•Season 1Ep. 12
This episode of Dear Young Rocker finds our heroine in Scandinavia for the summer to volunteer at another rock camp. Being so far from home is certainly different, but people are the same everywhere. Chelsea learns what it’s like to be really, really on her own for the first time. It’s both freeing and scary, and she learns that no matter where you go, you’re still you. For more: check out dearyoungrocker.com and @dearyoungrocker on instagram. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.ihea...
Oct 28, 2020•45 min•Season 2Ep. 11
The story of the young band at rock camp continues. Chelsea helps them finish their new song and get ready to perform. In the process she realizes she might actually be what’s blocking their progress. The concert goes well … mostly. An unexpected attendee punctures the safe bubble of rock camp and leaves Chelsea feeling like she’s taken a step backwards. To learn more about Girls Rock Camp visit: http://www.girlsrockcampfoundation.org/ . Also be sure to check out dearyoungrocker.com and @dearyou...
Oct 21, 2020•55 min•Season 2Ep. 10
