Meet Joan Braga or Pedal Playhouse

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joan Braga.

Hi Joan, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve been a creative person for as long as I can remember. Growing up, my dad used to draw comics for me, and that inspired me to start drawing myself. Music was also always a part of my life. I was a vocalist from an early age, although learning to play instruments came much later, and only after several failed attempts!

Eventually, that creativity led me to study graphic design and pick up video editing in college. I went on to become a professional graphic designer in corporate America. On paper, I had built a career doing something creative, but over time I realized that being a creative professional and feeling creatively fulfilled were two very different things. I was using my creativity for work, but I wasn’t necessarily creating things that felt like me.

A major turning point came in 2021 when I experienced a serious health crisis and nearly died. Living with a chronic illness that can still sideline me forced me to look differently at the things I kept telling myself I would do “someday.” Animation was one of those things. I had always wanted to learn it, but my college program didn’t offer it. I decided that if my time was going to be limited, I wanted to spend it learning something I had always dreamed of doing. Even if nothing came from it professionally, I knew I wouldn’t regret it. I would have created something that could make people laugh and allow them to see and remember me the way I wanted to be seen.

That decision eventually became Pedal Playhouse, my YouTube channel and a place where all the different parts of my creative life could finally exist together: drawing, animation, video, music, storytelling, character work, and my growing love of playing instruments and experimenting with effects pedals.

I chose the stage name Joan of Heart because it has two meanings for me. Like the historical Joan of Arc, I am intensely passionate about what I believe in and what I create. I also believe you can’t make art without heart. The word “art” is literally inside the word “heart,” which felt like the perfect representation of how I approach creativity.

When I started imagining Pedal Playhouse, I wanted to create something that inspired creativity and curiosity through a whimsical world where anything felt possible. I loved the spirit of shows like Pee-wee’s Playhouse, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, and Reading Rainbow. They encouraged you to explore, imagine, learn, and play without feeling judged. I wanted to capture some of that same spirit for adults and center it around music.

The Playhouse blends the real world with animation in a way that is a little reminiscent of Who Framed Roger Rabbit. One of the characters I created is Figaro, my talking animated tuxedo cat, who brings comic relief and personality to the channel and even appears alongside real people in interviews. Sometimes the artwork on an effects pedal itself comes to life. I create and perform a voice for the character, then run that voice through the actual pedal so it sounds as if the pedal is speaking to me. The character can explain what it does while suggesting creative ways someone might use the effect. It turns what could be a traditional gear demonstration into a conversation with a character.

That sense of experimentation carries into my music as well. My original music moves between rock, dream pop, ambient, alternative, and sometimes pop punk. When I make a song, I play all of the musicians in the “band.” I also love running my vocals through effects pedals, both in my own music and in demonstrations. Effects pedals are usually associated with instruments like guitar, so using them on a voice is another way I can encourage someone watching to think outside the box and ask, “What else could I do with this?”

A big part of Pedal Playhouse is making musical exploration feel accessible. You don’t have to be the best player in the room. You don’t have to know everything about gear or music theory. You can turn a knob, make a strange sound, follow your curiosity, and see where it takes you. There is no judgment in the Playhouse.

Behind all of that whimsy is an enormous amount of work. I am one person doing what would normally be the job of an entire creative department. I write, perform, record, animate, design, edit, create the music, develop the characters, and handle the many other pieces that go into producing the channel, all while continuing to do graphic design and video editing client work and managing a chronic illness.

Because of that, I made a conscious decision not to chase an algorithm by forcing myself to release a video every week. I care deeply about attention to detail, and I genuinely love the process of making these videos. I would rather take my time and make something I believe is worth making than hit an arbitrary number of posts. Maybe the channel would be larger if I chose quantity over quality, but being anything less wouldn’t be me. These days, I am done with being a smaller version of myself.

Interestingly, choosing creative freedom over the traditional corporate path has also created professional opportunities I couldn’t have predicted. Effects pedal and professional audio brands have discovered my motion graphics, editing, and creative work through the channel and hired me because of it. Getting to work within the music industry outside of Pedal Playhouse has been an incredibly rewarding experience because it combines my professional skills with an area I genuinely love.

There is something wonderfully full circle about that. Instead of relying on a résumé or a corporate sizzle reel to show people what I was capable of, I made the work I wanted to make. That work became my résumé. The creative freedom I once worried might not fit into the professional world became the very reason some clients wanted to work with me. I stopped waiting for someone else to give me the right opportunity and started creating it by following the beat of my own drum.

Looking back, I think that’s how I got to where I am today. I reconnected with the kind of creativity I had as a kid, the kind you pursue simply because something fascinates you, and decided it deserved a meaningful place in my adult life.

I usually end my videos by encouraging people to be the good they wish to see in the world and to be good to each other on their journeys. That’s really how I see Pedal Playhouse. It isn’t a collection of videos designed around clicks or gimmicks. I think of it as something intentionally created and curated, something worth leaving behind. If it makes someone laugh, encourages them to pick up an instrument at any point in their life, or gives them permission to create despite whatever they may be struggling with, then it has done what I hoped it would do.

For me, laughter, music, and a little childlike wonder aren’t things we have to grow out of. Sometimes they’re exactly how we survive, and how we find fulfillment.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely has not been a smooth road. There have been several times when I’ve considered giving up. Maintaining consistency and positivity can be difficult when you don’t always have a lot of support, especially when you are doing the work of an entire creative team by yourself.

Living with a chronic illness adds another layer to that. My energy levels can be unpredictable, and sometimes that simply stops progress. I’ve found that working on Pedal Playhouse can actually be more difficult than doing creative work for clients because I am the face of the concept. When it’s your own work and your own face on the screen, it can be very easy to become your harshest critic.

Perfectionism is probably one of my biggest traps. With every video, I want to make something better than the one before it. I am constantly learning new things, whether it is animation, editing, music, motion graphics, recording, or some new technique I’ve become curious about. I’m a sponge when it comes to learning, which is one of the things I love about creating Pedal Playhouse, but learning takes time. Sometimes the same curiosity that fuels the project also makes it take longer to finish.

There is also the financial reality of creating something like this independently. As I’ve tried to improve the production quality over time, upgrading equipment, software, music gear, and other tools has largely come out of my own pocket. With the cost of seemingly everything going up, there are definitely moments when you question how sustainable that is. I often joke that I need a Renaissance-era patron of the arts to fund my increasingly expansive creative vision. Applications are currently being accepted!

I do have a few Patreon supporters who I truly appreciate. I give them early access and behind-the-scenes looks at what I’m working on because their support genuinely means something to me. I’ve also been fortunate to have other YouTube creators, both big and small, encourage me along the way. One of the unexpected gifts of doing this has been watching people whose work I admired become friends. That kind of community has helped during the moments when creating everything alone starts to feel isolating or overwhelming.

Of course, it’s hard not to occasionally look at other channels that are growing faster or posting much more frequently and wonder what I could be doing differently. But at the same time, I don’t really feel like Pedal Playhouse is like other channels, and I’ve realized that I’m okay with that.

Would I love for the channel to be bigger? Absolutely. But I don’t want it badly enough to compromise what makes it mine. I don’t want to simplify the idea, rush the work, or change my creative vision just to satisfy an algorithm. If growth requires me to stop making the thing I wanted to make in the first place, then I’m not sure I would consider that success.

The people who connect with these strange, whimsical little videos are my audience. I believe your people eventually find you. If you build it, they will come.

I hope.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
What I’m most proud of is where saying yes to my own creativity has taken me.

When I started Pedal Playhouse, I had no idea that something I was creating largely by myself would eventually give me opportunities to travel, collaborate with people I admire, work within the music industry, and have experiences I probably never would have had otherwise.

I’ve attended the NAMM Show five times as media, getting to run around the show floor covering all the new and interesting gear. I always describe it as being a sports anchor on the ground, except instead of reporting from the sidelines, I’m surrounded by guitars, pedals, synthesizers, and wonderfully nerdy music technology. I’ve also had the opportunity to collaborate with Sweetwater.com while covering the show, which has been an incredible experience.

Pedal Playhouse has even taken me internationally. I was invited to 42 Gear Street in Germany, created by Henning Pauly, where I’ve participated both as an on-camera personality and behind the scenes as part of the live camera switching team. I love that I’ve been able to contribute on both sides of the camera because that represents who I am. I enjoy performing and being a personality, but I am equally at home behind the scenes making things work.

One of the moments I am proudest of happened during my most recent 42 Gear Street experience. I created a video called Pedal Quest, where I collaborated with two other YouTube channels to build a pedalboard while turning the entire adventure into a Dungeons & Dragons-inspired quest, complete with intermittent animation.

At some point I had to appreciate the absurdity of what was happening. I was in another country pulling off this crazy creative vision that combined music gear, collaboration, storytelling, comedy, live action, and animation. None of that would have happened if I hadn’t created Pedal Playhouse and continued working on it.

That means more to me than numbers ever could.

I fall off the horse. Sometimes my health knocks me off. Sometimes exhaustion, perfectionism, finances, or life knocks me off. There are projects that take me much longer than I wish they did. But somehow, I keep getting back on.

I have an unwavering determination to finish what I start, even if my timeline looks different from someone else’s.

I think that is ultimately what I am most proud of. Pedal Playhouse has become proof to myself that following your curiosity can actually take you somewhere. The skills I decided to teach myself, the strange ideas I refused to talk myself out of, and the work I kept making even when very few people were watching eventually opened doors I couldn’t have planned for.

There is something incredibly fulfilling about being able to look around every once in a while and think, “My work brought me here.”

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something that might surprise people is that before effects pedals and animation took over my life, I was really into cars and the car modification scene when I was younger.

I actually completed a Skip Barber racing course and got to drive a race car on the legendary Laguna Seca race track in California. It was an incredible experience and probably not something people would expect from the person behind the whimsical world of Pedal Playhouse.

It also means I take go-karting much more seriously than any reasonable adult probably should.

If we go go-karting together, just know that our friendship will temporarily be suspended once the helmets go on. I have driven Laguna Seca. I have a reputation to uphold.

I will stay undefeated.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pedalplayhouse/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@PedalPlayhouse