Mental Health Awareness Month

Each year I try to identify some songs that highlight the struggles of artists with addiction and mental health. The following are some songs that tell these stories and a few details about the people behind them. I think there is untold benefit that these songs bring to the world as people facing challenges hear those expressed in art and can feel less alone and isolated. Misery loves company and I think music is an amazing platform for people who feel isolated and alone.

Unfortunately music and addiction often go hand in hand as a life of touring away from family and only being around transitory friends and enablers is often how success in the industry is met. I know that it can be easy to be cynical when someone who is rich and famous and has a “better” life than you self-sabotages with drugs, but if you consider walking in their shoes it is easier to picture yourself stumbling in the same ways. Even beyond the overdoses when you look at someone like Ozzy Osbourne who has robbed himself of his own mind by abusing drugs puttering around his mansion with his wretched wife and children it is pity and not envy you should feel. I often wonder if this is the real reason that many artists get much worse as they get older, is disappointment from higher expectations really the reason that most bands never have a good album after they turn 30? Or is fueling your first three albums with cocaine and booze robbing yourself from creativity in your later years? I’m not sure and I’m certainly no expert.

“Gonna hold my head up
Looking for the good times
Biding my time
Waiting for the glad times”

There are numerous songs about drug use and examples of artists I could pick for this section but I decided to pick one of the success stories. Paul Weller, former frontman of The Jam, recently opened up about the effect his ten years of sobriety have had on his life and his music. “Since I’ve been sober, which is 11 years this year, I get more from music. Not just my music, but all music. It means more to me, and it’s more direct to my heart and my soul. And certainly playing it. Playing sober is so different, because you become more conscious, you’re more in the moment. And that changes everything.” He added that I think if you can’t do it on your own, there’s no shame in that. I’ve only had a few times where I’ve come close to drinking again, because I was angry. And I called my mate, and he talked me through it, really.”

“Trying to fix my mind
Still trying to fix my mind
Trying to work it out”

The next artist that I would like to discuss is Damien Jurado, he may not be someone you are familiar with which is partially his own fault. After a successful sophomore album he followed it up with an album of “found sound” where he would collect cassete tapes and compile sounds from them into soundscapes rather compulsively. Not really the type of stuff that will climb the charts. That hasn’t stopped him from releasing some great music since and working as a pre-school teacher and raising a family. He opened up about his struggles with mental health “[The struggle for a positive place is] always there. I think it takes a lot of responsibility on my end to make sure that I’m maintaining myself and doing the right things for the most part. It takes work.” On people stigmatizing mental health and being dismissive toward it he didn’t mince words “Fuck them. People get sick. People get mentally fucked up sometimes. It’s no different.”

I don't need to know who I am yet
I don't need to have a solid plan yet
I don't need to be the same as everyone else
I just need to motherfuckin' love myself

Olivia O’Brien has dealt with depression from young age and it shows up in her music which she uses as therapy. ““I’ve had depression since I was literally eleven years old,” she says. “I don’t know why. I don’t know what I was possibly feeling at eleven years old” She faced bullying for her music when she was young “When I think about how I felt about myself in high school, I’m almost uncomfortable,” she explains. “My self-esteem was pretty much destroyed from all of that.” Much younger than the rest of the artist on this list she plays an important role for younger girls in high school now; “I want to be honest about everything I feel and to share it. I want to keep an open conversation about mental health and self-image and how I feel about love and relationships. There are definitely people that talk about those things for sure, but I think I do it in a way that is pretty ridiculously open.”

“Honey, I know that I don't have the body you want in a girlfriend
What I'm working with is less than ideal
But maybe, baby, it's not all about what you thought that you wanted
It's about the way I can make you feel”

Last but certainly not least is Ezra Furman, one of my all time favorite artists who I fell in love with from the very first song I heard and listened to every single other song they had made immediately after. Ezra has not exactly been subtle with her attitude toward gender with her album Transangelic Exodus having a theme of a surgical procedure that you could undergo to become and transition into being an angel. A masterful album based largely on Ezra’s personal struggles with her own gender identity. She recently decided to give an update of her journey “I wanted to share with everyone that I am a trans woman, and also that I am a mom and have been for a while now (like 2+ years)…. About being a trans woman: for my own reasons I have been hesitant to use these words, especially the ‘woman’ word. I have often described myself as non-binary, which maybe is still true (I’m just gonna sit with that question for the moment)… But I’ve come to terms with the fact that I am a woman, and yes for me it’s complex, but it’s complex to be any sort of woman. I am very proud to be a trans woman and to have come to know it and be able to say it. This has not been an easy journey.” I am so proud of Ezra and happy for her and her family. Obviously the reason I include this is because of all the bullying and issues that trans people face in our society today, and I’m glad they have someone as cool as Ezra to look up to.