At this year’s Great Escape conference in Brighton, one of the most intriguing - and certainly most important - sessions on our agenda was a discussion on the power of music to positively affect those suffering with mental health issues. It also spotlighted the horrendously disproportionate rates of suicide among musicians.
The talk addressed the topic of suicide head-on (which will be referenced throughout this feature) making for quite an emotive hour.
Presented by the festival’s charity partner CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien was a key part of the panel, which also consisted of musician and songwriter Nadine Shah, Senior Lecturer in Cultural Sociology and Creative Industries at Goldsmiths, University of London Dr George Musgrave, Chris Price, the Head of Music on BBC Radio 1 & 1Xtra and moderator Harpz Kaur, a broadcaster and DJ.
Although the discussion opened with an underlining of music’s scientifically-proven power to positively affect mood, some industry-specific stats framed the conversation in a bleaker context.
Dr George Musgrave explained how his own research had exposed the music industry's dispiriting suicide crisis; “I just published a study last year that showed that musicians have the fourth highest occupational suicide rate in England”, said Musgrave. “The rate of suicide in that occupational group is 20% higher among men than the general population - and among women, 69% higher. So, when we have a discussion around music being a mechanism of suicide prevention - which is a fantastic one to be having - it's also really important to not forget the people at the heart of this story who produce the music that help people so much, because when you look at sort of statistics among that group, it’s really awful.”
Nadine Shah - herself a suicide survivor - shared that she had found the experience of talking to fans who had used her songs to help them deal with their own emotional turmoil, to be extremely overwhelming. It also wasn't something that the industry offered any help with; “Not every musician is trained in how to [deal with that]" Shah said.
“What is the proper procedure to take? There would be some very, very sad messages [largely on social media], and in the infancy of my career, I'd be reading the messages - because how kind that somebody is reaching out. But quite often there were quite harrowing messages [from people who] would open up and tell me their struggles, as if I was a friend or as if there was nobody else they could speak to.
"It [got] to a point where it wasn’t safe for me," Nadine said. "I'm not trained, I haven't got the capacity to help these people in those situations. Organisations like CALM and the Samaritans are where I’d direct people now.”
O’Brien recalled having similarly emotionally-intense interactions with fans, and has learned to spot the difference between two distinct categories; “What I've experienced is they sort of fall into two camps. You can have somebody who comes up to you after they've been through a harrowing time, you can see that they're on the healing journey. They just say, ‘Thank you for your music, you’ve helped me in my darkest moment’", O'Brien said.
Ed continued, “Then you have people who you can see are right in the middle of a shitstorm - a horrendous moment, and you're worried, because usually it might be after a show, and you're full of the joys of the show, but you can see it in somebody's eyes. It’s very, very scary, because you know that they're in a really dark place. [In] those moments, it's really difficult to know how to react, because my natural instinct is that I want to look after that person. I want to ask ‘Are you alright?’ When you can see them disappearing, you could tell they're very lost - they're very alone."
Ed revealed that dealing with these kinds of conversations were particularly difficult to navigate during the first flush of Radiohead’s success, following the release of breakthrough single Creep in 1993.
“It’s especially difficult when you're young. I mean, with Radiohead, our first big song was Creep - it's a huge outsider song. So, I remember when we were touring that in America in 1993 and I'm 25 years old. We're kids, and these people are coming up, these kids that are our age or younger, coming up, looking at me and they're like, 'Your music speaks to me.’ But we're not qualified [to help]. We're sorting our own shit out.”
Later in the conversation, Nadine Shah explained that in her view a fundamental problem that also plagues both artists and those working within the industry is the prevalence of addiction and addiction-facilitating behaviour. This blasé attitude towards heavy drinking and casual drug use is still omnipresent in the music world, Nadine stressed.
“If you’re going to talk about mental health, we should be talking about addiction," Shah said. "Unfortunately it’s rife. What other job are people encouraged to be inebriated at? I was always amazed by it at a very young age. I first started playing at 17, and people would say ‘Have some of this for Dutch courage’… how normalised it was.”
Shah went on to say that she felt it was important to safeguard artists, tour managers and road crew from the debilitating effects of addiction. “So many of our greatest artists we’ve lost to addiction, I would have loved to hear what Amy Winehouse was going to make at 70. We need to keep our artists alive, and everyone else in the industry too.”
O’Brien pondered that perhaps the reason that musicians in particular are so fundamentally at risk from mental health crises is that they are all sensitive people.
“What's obvious is that there’s one thing all musicians share, and some people will hide it, but we're all incredibly sensitive. That's the fundamental thing you need to be a musician, because you need to feel. For me, music is about transcendent moments, that's what we're seeking. The more I do this, I realise that I'm a conduit - it's a spiritual thing. It's a power. So we're sensitive, we have to be, yet we're in this industry that also requires you to be fucking tough at times. For younger artists, the kickback they get on social media [can be] very, very brutal."
“I would say to younger artists, there are going to be times when you really hit the bottom - and that's okay,” continued Ed. “That's okay, and like, you’re not a freak, that's normal. So [speak] to organisations like CALM, and Samaritans and also these kinds of conversations are [important]. I think what I've realised is that in order to survive, in order to carry on, you have to develop, if you like, a toolbox. I reckon by the time you're 40, you've got to have worked out what works for you, [and] what doesn't work for you. In your 20s and your 30s you're in the sandpit - you're playing with a bit of this, a bit of that, but by the time you're 40, you have to work this stuff out. It's a journey, a process, and it requires discipline at times.”
For O’Brien, who has struggled with depression through his career, the very term ‘mental health’ is something of a misnomer for the experience. “[The term] mental health I always think is the most inadequate term to describe a crisis. It's like a bureaucratic term. It's a crisis of the soul."
Shah shared that she has her own personal playlist called ‘How to get me to Sesame Street’, packed with feel-good, upbeat songs which she uses to raise herself out of depressive states. “Growing up I would listen to Joni Mitchell, Tori Amos… Radiohead. I remember, when going through grief that actually disco music [helped more]. I’m forcing myself out of it. I think there’s a tendency sometimes to wallow.”
Shah explained that music for ‘getting out’ of a low headspace is just as important as that which sits in those darker emotional places.
In response to Nadine’s view that sometimes the best musical response to negative emotions is to immerse oneself in happier, upbeat music, O’Brien considered why Radiohead, in his words, preferred to dive deep within turbulent emotional states when songwriting.
“I’m a bit of a wallower, I’m a kid of the ‘80s, so The Smiths were right there for me. That might explain the Radiohead phenomenon - if we’re going to exorcise this darkness we’re going to go really dark,” Ed chuckled.
“Music was a refuge. I had divorced parents, and music became my refuge, my sanctuary. I feel so blessed to be a musician now. I think [that's] why Radiohead sound a certain way, because what we're actually doing is - and this is this is the amazing thing about what musicians and artists can do - taking these dark moments, and spinning them into something beautiful. It’s like alchemy. The medium we’re working with is magic.”
O’Brien then tried to unpack just how music works on both a scientific and emotional level. “Music is mathematics - it's mathematical intervals and patterns. I love it more now than ever. I'm more kind of in awe of being able to do this. For me I have so much gratitude.”
In conclusion to this fascinating and quite moving discussion, O’Brien neatly summed up the power and effect that music has had and continues to have on his mental well-being; "Music was my therapy as a kid, but it's still my therapy in a way. Getting into a room with a guitar just makes me feel better.”
If you’re struggling with your mental health or have been dealing with thoughts of suicide, or if you someone you love is, then reach out to CALM or the Samaritans
