Soft Opening features intimate interviews with songwriters, poets, comedians, performers and visual artists who speak candidly about their personal experiences with creativity and resilience. Themes of recovery, grief, spirituality, wellness, sensuality, darkness, and the erotic unfold in each episode and safe space is created for artists to cultivate and showcase new work.
In this episode I sit in conversation with my dear friend, Paje Honor. Paje is a makeup artist, hair stylist, photographer, Human design and tarot consultant, and entrepreneur extraordinaire. Creativity just oozes out of her, and she is one of the most generous humans I’ve had the pleasure of knowing. We talk about single motherhood, using authenticity and creativity to pay the bills, giving back to community, and the empowering practice of claiming one’s unique beauty. Settle in and ge...
18 Nov 2025
A Myriad of Ways to be Human with moon
moon is a multi-disciplinary artist and creator living in the Niagara Region with roots in the Caribbean. In this episode, we dive into spirituality and the sacred as sources of healing and inspiration, the notion of divinity, the power words wield, good old magic, identity, binaries, and barriers. There’s so much synergy and enthusiasm in this conversation, I’m excited for you to hear how it all unfolds. Find moon's creations here: https://www.earthandmoon.net/ Season one of Soft Openi...
4 Nov 2025
Finding Voice, Speaking Truth with Maja Bannerman
In the following episode, I have the pleasure of a deep dive with Maja Bannerman, a published writer, poet, songwriter and performance artist who lives here in the Niagara Region. Maja shares her passion for stepping into the lives of characters she creates to raise awareness, explore and process emotion, advocate, and tell story. We also talk about ancestors, the healing beauty of gratitude and simplicity, and the random surprises and serendipity of the universe. You can find Maja's work her...
14 Oct 2025
Looking to Others As Teachers with Steve Goldberger
Steve Goldberger is a Genie award winning bandleader, producer, songwriter, and musician whose career has spanned over 50 years. In this episode, Steve shares his Musical origins within his Jewish Culture, learning by watching his legendary bass playing uncle. We also talk about his 2025 Autobiography In a Life, a wonderful collection of stories from the span of his musical career, full of personal photographs and rock and roll ephemera. There’s an album of original music with the...
3 Oct 2025
Heart to Heart with C.D. Onofrio
Carl David Onofrio, or C.D. as he is more commonly known, is a prolific Niagara Falls, Canada based poet, performer, and songwriter in his creative life and a spiritual care provider in his professional life. I’m a long-time admirer of both his written and musical work and was so excited to sit down with him. I’m equally excited to share the result with you. In this episode we talk about attention and intention, consumption and creation, flow experience as a tool for happiness, and C.D....
16 Sept 2025
Staying Here with Joe Lapinski
Joe Lapinski is a songwriter, producer, performer, and soundscape designer based in St. Catharine’s, Ontario. His fourth full length album ‘New Day’ was released earlier in 2025 and we sit down to talk about music and mental health. This open-hearted conversation covers finding deep, lasting love, building a family, and confronting trauma to show up better for yourself and the people you love the most. Joe is integral to the arts scene here in the Region, and it was a real joy getting to know...
2 Sept 2025
Embracing the Unexpected with Eve Atoms
Eve Atoms is a Niagara Region poet, songwriter, spoken word, and experiential artist. In this soul-connected conversation, we visit so many topics that resonate deeply; motherhood and the necessity of self-care, balancing a demanding career and creative life, spiritual agency, integrating Jedi wisdom, and the healing power of the forest. Eve asks tough questions about disability, spiritual and healing charlatans, and how to engage community in creativity and uses open-hearted curiosity to exp...
19 Aug 2025
The Leadership of Helping with Rick McLean
Rick McLean is singer/songwriter who lives in the Niagara Region of Ontario, Canada. He is Anishinaabe, Odawa Wolf Clan, with roots in Wikwemikong Manitoulin Island. Rick is also a professor of Indigenous Studies at Mohawk College, a traditional knowledge keeper, sweat lodge conductor and pipe carrier who graduated from Brock University. His facilitation and counselling work has been ongoing for 35 years and through McLean Consulting Group, Rick leads a team who bring diversity, equalit...
5 Aug 2025
The Language of Waiting with Courtney Tudman
Send us a text In this episode, I sit down with Niagara Falls poet Courtney Tudman, who I discovered amidst the pandemic and whose work I quickly came to love as a source of incredible grounding and hope. Courtney and I have the most beautiful conversation in what feel to me like a reflection of souls. We chat about big childhood emotions, finding our writerly voice at an early age, the poetry of single motherhood, healing ancestral wounds through writing, and how the pen gives us a direct li...
28 Jul 2025
Standing Up on Things and Singing with Katey Gatta
Send us a text Katey Gatta is a singer/songwriter born and raised in Welland, Ontario here in Canada. These days, she’s performing under the moniker Sleepy Jean, turning out tunes that are best described as spaghetti western infused Americana that reimagine the sounds of yesteryear in a blend all their own. In this conversation, Katey and I chat about growing up as the musical kid in a family of athletes, and the responsibility of addressing immigration and intergenerational traum...
8 Jul 2025
Humbled to the Ground with Aaron Berger
Aaron Berger shares his experiences as a singer/songwriter from Niagara Falls, discussing family, slowing down, and the dangers of overextending oneself in this interview.
24 Jun 2025
Flowing Precisely with The P.O.E
Spoken word artist James Owen Brown, also known as The P.O.E., discusses his passion for words, childhood experiences, and commitment to joy, in this interview with the hosts of Soft Opening.
4 Jun 2025
Learning Life Choreography with Laurel Minnes
Laurel Minnes, award-winning singer/songwriter, discusses honoring the creative muse and bravely voicing your truth in an interview with the host.
27 May 2025
Dealing With Social Isolation
The host explores the significant impact of social isolation and loneliness on mental health, particularly depression and anxiety, in the post-pandemic era.
20 May 2025
Finding Ways to Share Goodness with Brandon Agnew
Singer-songwriter Brandon Agnew discusses how a youthful experience with grief shaped his creative process and informs his musical collaborations in blues, folk, and Canadiana genres; this is an interview.
19 May 2025
Welcome to Soft Opening
Host Catherine (Cat) Skinner introduces Soft Opening, a podcast exploring the connections between art and healing, and vulnerability and creativity, recorded in Niagara Falls, Canada; this is not an interview.
Who has been a guest on Soft Opening
Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.
James Owen Brown
Laurel Minnes
Brandon Agnew
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Spotify
5.0 / 5
5 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 20 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
26
Social presence
0
YouTube
0
Engagement
32
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