Send a Message to Stuck on Sound

In this episode of Stuck on Sound, Joey Stuckey sits down with his dear friend Lachi, recording artist, music executive, Disability Culture champion, Recording Academy National Trustee, and author, for a conversation that is by turns hilarious, moving, and genuinely revelatory. Born legally blind, Lachi has spent her career using music, advocacy, and storytelling to bring Disability Culture into the mainstream, and this episode captures her doing all three at once.

Joey and Lachi open with an enthusiastic discussion of her book I Identify as Blind, published by Penguin Random House, which uses humor, candor, and celebrity interviews to celebrate and amplify disability identity and pride. The two compare notes on growing up blind in a world that rarely made space for them, navigating schools, social circles, and industries that were not designed with them in mind, and Lachi describes how it was only after finding success in the music business that she realized she could not be the only one, and that finding community was both urgent and transformative.

From there, Lachi tells the origin story of RAMPD (Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities), which grew out of a 2021 Recording Academy panel that went viral during COVID and sparked a flood of messages from music professionals who had been masking their disabilities for years. She explains how RAMPD now works with Netflix, Live Nation, the GRAMMYs, and others to build disability-inclusive programming across the industry, and how it has become a vital network for hundreds of creative professionals who previously had nowhere to turn.

The episode includes a powerful history lesson on the disability rights movement, as Lachi shares the story of Judy Heumann, Brad Lomax, and the 28-day sit-in that ultimately led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a story made possible in part by the Black Panthers, whose crucial contribution Lachi is committed to making sure is never forgotten. The conversation is a reminder that music and advocacy are not separate vocations but two expressions of the same impulse: to be fully heard.

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Shadow Sound Studio

With over 30 years of experience as a musician, recording engineer, and producer, and serving as the official music ambassador of Macon-Bibb, Georgia, Joey Stuckey can service all your professional audio needs.

To learn more about working with Shadow Sound Studio and Joey Stuckey, visit the website or email Joey directly.

Shadow Sound Studio Website
joey@joeystuckey.com

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Send a Message to Stuck on Sound

In Episode 10 of Stuck on Sound, Joey Stuckey sits down with music marketing strategist, author, educator, and Cyber PR founder Ariel Hyatt for a practical and deeply human conversation about what it really takes to build a lasting music career in the digital age.

Ariel traces her path from a childhood shaped by theater, art, dyslexia, and music to the early days of independent music marketing, where she cut her teeth in scrappy grassroots scenes before launching her own publicity company at age 23. That journey eventually became Cyber PR, where Ariel has spent decades helping artists make sense of a music business that never stops changing.

Joey and Ariel dig into some of the most urgent questions facing artists today: how to understand your artistic identity, how to find the right fans, why fake numbers and playlist-driven “buzz marketing” can leave artists with no real audience, and why 200 genuine fans can matter more than thousands of empty streams. Ariel makes the case for moving from shallow visibility to meaningful connection, what she calls shifting from buzz to bond.

The conversation also explores the overwhelming pace of modern content, the loss of music as a focused listening experience, the value of physical releases and fan experiences, and why artists need a plan, a team, and a clear sense of what they are actually building.

Later, Joey and Ariel discuss AI in the music space, where Ariel offers a balanced view: useful as a tool for marketing, organization, and efficiency, but dangerous when it floods platforms with more low-value content and makes it even harder for human artists to be heard.

The result is an essential episode for independent artists who want to stop chasing vanity metrics and start building a more intentional, sustainable, fan-centered career.

You can find more information about Ariel and her work at:

https://arielhyatt.com/

https://cyberprmusic.com/

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Stay Connected with Stuck on Sound host Joey Stuckey

Follow Stuck on Sound host Joey Stuckey to stay up on all things going on in the Stuckeyverse.

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• The Stuckeyverse Newsletter

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Shadow Sound Studio

With over 30 years of experience as a musician, recording engineer, and producer, and serving as the official music ambassador of Macon-Bibb, Georgia, Joey Stuckey can service all your professional audio needs.

To learn more about working with Shadow Sound Studio and Joey Stuckey, visit the website or email Joey directly.

Shadow Sound Studio Website
joey@joeystuckey.com

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Enjoyed this episode of Stuck on Sound? Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a rating or review, and share the episode with someone who loves music, recording, creativity, and the stories behind great sound.

Send a Message to Stuck on Sound

In Episode 9 of Stuck on Sound, Joey Stuckey sits down with educator, artist, writer, and longtime Berklee professor Ellen Francese for a deeply thoughtful conversation about creativity, self-worth, teaching, illness, community, and the human need to make art.

Ellen traces her creative roots to a childhood shaped by curiosity and artistic freedom, where there was no “right” or “wrong” way to explore visual art, dance, theater, writing, or music. That foundation leads into one of the episode’s central themes: the danger of perfectionism, and the tragedy of artists feeling they need permission to create.

Joey and Ellen also discuss what she has seen in students over more than two decades of teaching, including rising anxiety, fear of failure, dependence on laptops and AI, and the deeper fear underneath it all: not belonging. Ellen frames creativity not as a luxury, but as a source of agency, identity, and connection.

The conversation moves into powerful personal territory as Ellen reflects on living with serious illness, bodybuilding as an act of resistance, and eventually shifting from a “warrior” relationship with illness to one of companionship. Joey and Ellen also explore self-worth, difference, community, and why truly loving others requires moving beyond our own reflection.

Later, Ellen makes a passionate case for art as essential to human survival, drawing on historical examples of people creating under extreme oppression and deprivation. In a world increasingly shaped by AI, her message is clear: to surrender our creative capacity is to give up something central to being human.

The result is a profound, moving episode about courage, humility, curiosity, and the sustaining power of art.

⸻

Stay Connected with Stuck on Sound host Joey Stuckey

Follow Stuck on Sound host Joey Stuckey to stay up on all things going on in the Stuckeyverse.

• Website
• YouTube
• Instagram
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• The Stuckeyverse Newsletter

⸻

Shadow Sound Studio

With over 30 years of experience as a musician, recording engineer, and producer, and serving as the official music ambassador of Macon-Bibb, Georgia, Joey Stuckey can service all your professional audio needs.

To learn more about working with Shadow Sound Studio and Joey Stuckey, visit the website or email Joey directly.

Shadow Sound Studio Website
joey@joeystuckey.com

⸻

Subscribe, Rate, and Review

Enjoyed this episode of Stuck on Sound? Subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts, leave a rating or review, and share the episode with someone who loves music, recording, creativity, and the stories behind great sound.