Follow the Butterfly | Alex Rembold on Quitting the Job, Starting the Jam, and Finding Joy in the Weird

Mischief and Mastery

What if the most meaningful thing you ever made wasn’t your biggest show—but the space you created for someone else to play? In this episode, Alex Rembold talks about leaving a soul-crushing job to start Catjam, the community-driven open mic series he founded to give others permission to show up, sound weird, and feel welcome. We talk about shifting from competitive to collaborative mindsets, the invisible power of musical vulnerability, and what it means to build something out of kindness rather than branding.

Alex is a songwriter, music director, and producer who works with The Second City, iO, and The Annoyance. He’s the founder of Catjam Chicago, a nonprofit that creates inclusive, improvisational music spaces—currently hosting weekly jams at Insect Asylum and (soon) the floating Wild Mile garden on the Chicago River. He also fronts the band Funky Fünke, produces the cozy and chaotic improv show The Cozy Sweater, and still finds time to write introspective bangers about connection, grief, and joy.

We talk about:
→ Leaving the practical job (and the existential crisis that followed)
→ The real risk: not taking one
→ Music as empathy in motion
→ Changing the room by being the room
→ Following the butterfly, even if it leads to a weird warehouse on a Tuesday night

Catch Catjam every Tuesday from 7–10pm at the Insect Asylum (and starting June, at the Wild Mile). Follow Alex on IG at @remby_on_the_bone or check out his work at alexremboldmusic.weebly.com.

You can follow us on Instagram and TikTok @mischiefpod. Produced by @ohhmaybemedia.