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 David DawsonThe long awaited second pop punk album from Machine Gun Kelly is finally here and after ‘Tickets to my Downfall’ it has a lot to live up to. I must admit in the build up to its release I’ve had some mixed feelings. I credited the first album for its raw honesty, emotional depth and the fact that it wasn’t entirely over produced but after watching MGK embark on a strange Hollywood relationship and hearing the release of ‘Emo Girl’, which with its overproduction and lack of direction makes it everything ‘Tickets to My Downfall’ isn’t, I had my doubts. My main hope is that MGK hasn’t listened too much to what people have been saying about him. The naivety of someone new to a genre is what endeared me to his first pop punk work, I just hope ‘Mainstream Sellout’ remains as honest and doesn’t have MGK living up to its name. The album comes off the line solidly and goes someway to address my preconceived concerns. ‘Born with Horns’ has a good pace to it and it was a pretty solid and catchy tune. I must admit that it wasn’t anything too memorable until about halfway through when it breaks down. Although I was a fan of the quick tempo vibe the slowed section really shows off MGK’s vocals more and brings in a depth to the lyrics which start talking about feeling numb and being torn between reality and fiction. It gave the song that bit extra that it needed and when the slow section does come to an end, signalled by a scream and crazy drum fill, it makes the quicker part of the song feel even more driven. ‘god save me’ follows suit by being another solid showing – a strong pop punk tune with a catchy hook. The already high set bar is then lifted higher by ‘maybe’ which features genre veterans Bring Me the Horizon. One of the things I like about MGK in pop punk is that his voice is instantly recognisable and does tend to sit deeper so I was curious to see how it would fit in alongside the likes of BMTH, however this didn’t disappoint. Both artists complimented each other throughout the whole song; when they sang together it sounded great and then when they each took their own parts, they were equally well suited to the track. I also loved how BMTH pushed MGK a little further than he’s possibly gone yet in this genre by adding a small glimpse of the classic heavier punk screaming style. I know it can be divisive as this style does have a marmite effect but I thought it was handled perfectly – coming in enough to really cement this as a proper punk tune but not so much as to make the song unlikeable for anyone who isn’t a huge fan of this feature. This tune also comes complete with one of the best guitar parts, flipping between catchy and melodic almost pizzicato style melodies and then heavier chords. I have to say that this song is one of my favourite pop punk era MGK offerings, it certainly sets the bar very high for this album early on. ‘drug dealer’ offered another big name feature, but this time from rapper Lil Wayne. This one really did have me curious as I wondered whether it would see a movement back towards a more hip hop feel, or whether it would see MGK push Lil Wayne towards singing. I actually like Lil Wayne as a singer and although we don’t hear it often his voice would be well suited to this genre. When the song does start it’s fairly obvious that we stick with the pop punk style and in terms of Lil Wayne I’d say we are somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t call it full on singing and I wouldn’t call it rapping either, I have to say I was a bit disappointed as I feel this collaboration could have been really interesting but Lil Wayne’s voice just doesn’t suit this song, maybe if they’d put him on something a bit slower it may have worked out more. This song as a whole doesn’t do it too much for me to be honest, it reminds me of MOD SUN’s ‘Pornstar’ in that it just feels like some trivial throwaway. The tune is ok and the lyrics say little else other than listing the names of drugs. I think it’s probably made worse by the fact I had such high hopes for the feature but I do have to chalk this one up as a bit of a disappointment. This is followed by an interlude which I didn’t really get, but I do like how cleverly at the end the man (which I think is Pete Davidson) says ‘I hope the next song is a banger, enjoy Machine Gun Kelly’s album,.. what are you going to call the album?’ – this is then followed straight on by the intro into the song ‘mainstream sellout’ which seemed like a nice touch. I really liked ‘mainstream sellout’, it’s short and packs a punch. It goes someway to addressing my concerns before the album in that MGK might have taken on too much of the criticism put on him after ‘Tickets to my Downfall’. The whole song is a huge screw you to all the haters in which he mimics them with lines such as ‘leave the scene you’re ruining it’ and ‘you sold out’. In fact the whole first verse is just MGK singing about how he made an album that everyone says they hate, calling him a poser. I think the position MGK is in is a tough one as I’ve always been a casual pop punk fan and I am a big fan of what he is doing, but I do understand why more die hard fans of the scene would feel a little defensive about some rapper guy coming in and thinking he can make that kind of music. I think at this point though the scene has to look inwards. The guy is making good pop punk music, he’s bringing fans to the scene and no one can say he’s not being genuine – so what is he going to have to do for these people to take his efforts seriously? This song actually made me sympathise with MGK a little, even though the whole premise is more along the lines of ignoring all they have to say it’s obvious that the criticism has reached him in some way for him to make a song about it, and then name the album after that song. ‘make up sex’ featuring blackbear followed and this song was pretty good. I thought the feature was a good fit and although it wasn’t exactly a deep song they don’t all have to be and it was nice to just have a good and catchy tune. ‘emo girl’ followed on and I have to be honest I’m not a huge fan. There’s nothing specifically that bad about it that I can put my finger on but for me it just misses the mark. It does maybe feel a little like he’s trying too hard -talking about emo girls and why he loves them; it almost feels like a plea to be accepted in the scene as he lists just about every single emo stereotype there is. It also feels like Willow isn’t the right fit for this song in particular. I can’t really describe it as it is a decent tune with a catchy hook but something about it just feels forced, it lacks that honesty that I liked so much about ‘Tickets to my Downfall’. However, ‘5150’ follows and gets us back on track. I think in terms of just the sound of it this song is one of my favourites from the whole album; with great drum fills, a catchy chorus and a great drive to it, it has the feeling of a really strong pop punk tune. It’s another one of those, like there were a couple of in ‘Tickets to my Downfall’, where it seems MGK has just mixed up all the ingredients for a great pop punk song and the results make for an awesome listen. ‘papercuts’ is another really strong showing and keeps us on form. I think vocally it’s one of the best performances on the album and I like how towards the end MGK throws a rap in, showing back to his roots and bringing his two genres together in a way he hasn’t before. Even one of the lyrics of his rap is ‘you say I switched genres, I took the limit and pushed it farther’, a cool line and a suggestion that he hasn’t turned his back on anyone but is just doing something new and different. I liked the sentiment, especially as he gets so much stick from fans in both scenes. ‘WW4’ follows straight on from ‘WWIII’ in ‘Tickets to My Downfall’. The song is cut from the same cloth, a short minute long free for all chaos – and once again, - it’s brilliant. It’s just so high energy and although it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense it really doesn’t need to. The only bit that does make some sense it MGK saying a huge F you to all the other artists that have criticised him. I love the vibe. ‘ay!’ allows for Lil Wayne’s chance to redeem himself. The song is a slower number and the drum beat suggests more of a hip hop feel so I’ve got high hopes that it will be more suited this time around. The song falls into the category a few on the last album did, that sort of Post Malone middle ground. I’d say this one leans a lot further towards hip hop than it does pop punk and as much as I enjoy the pop punk stuff it is nice to see him swaying back a little occasionally. I also think it’s another great middle finger to all the fans in both genres that have criticised him. I like that he is making the music that he wants and is refusing to be boxed off as being one thing or the other by people. In terms of the Lil Wayne feature it definitely worked better on this tune. His voice was heavily tuned and we lost some of his raspy quality through this but also that suits this style of music more. It wasn’t a ground breaking verse or anything but on this slower number I think it was more about matching the spirit of the song than trying to do anything too crazy or impressive. ‘die in california’ follows in a similar vein and leans more towards MGK’s hip hop roots. It’s another really good hip hop track and the verses from Gunna and Young Thug are great – it’s got a great vibe to it and although the lyrics make it more of a sad song to me it feels like a great chill out track. The backing and the tempo just make me want to sit outside on a sunny afternoon with my earphones in and listen on repeat. ‘twin flame’ closes the album out beautifully. A romantic ballad that captures a feeling of inadequacy, the lyrics about his partner being too good for him and that he is ‘too sad, lonely’ make the song really quite a sad one. I’m not sure if it relates to real life at all but it feels real. A brief interlude in the song featuring a call between MGK and Megan (again not sure if it is real or not) would at least suggest the song is about her. The song closes out, and closes the album out, with a dramatic build that seems like the perfect end. Even just listening out of my tinny phone speaker it sounds atmospheric and you can just envisage a packed out stadium in awe as the guitar and drums just grow and grow. This song is the perfect way to end and is one of MGK’s best ever. It's hard to conclude on this album, especially when comparing it to ‘Tickets to my Downfall’. I think the first thing to say is that I loved it. Apart from maybe one or two I liked all of the songs, and even those weren’t bad, just not quite as good. I think in terms of just the sounds of the projects I’d take this one over ‘Tickets to my Downfall’. The features were generally better and I think MGK has had more time to mature into this genre. I did love the way the last album sounded so that is high praise, I just feel like this one has more to offer in that sense. However, something about me can’t concede that this album overall is better. When I reviewed ‘Tickets to my Downfall’ I credited it on its depth, honesty, emotion and feel and I think this album lacked in some of those areas. Although I had a great time listening to it, it just wasn’t quite an experience like the last album was. It seems that the third album has the potential to hit the sweet spot, as a combination of the sound of ‘Mainstream Sellout’ and the feel of ‘Tickets to my Downfall’ would really make for one hell of an album. 
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 Maxim MowerHi Brent! Great to talk to you today. You recently released your Gospel-Country project, ‘And Now, Let’s Turn to Page…’ I believe you were inspired to create it after a near-death-experience. How did that shift your perspective on life?
In July 2020, my one-year-old son and I were T-Boned at a four-way stop. I only broke my collar-bone, and my son was completely unscathed, thank goodness - we were really fortunate. But after that, you start piecing together how each moment that morning led to that specific moment of getting hit by a car that ran a stop sign. I’ve always had the desire to record a Southern Gospel album, because that’s the music I grew up with. But I didn’t know when that would happen. The wreck motivated me to finally make that album - because you never know when you’re going to go! One track that I find especially moving is ‘When It’s My Time’. Fear of death and fear of loved ones dying is something we all struggle with, but on this song you adopt the mindset of embracing death. What advice would you give to readers that might be struggling with this? Since I was a boy, I’ve been acutely aware of how fleeting each moment in life is. For some, that is terrifying. But for me, it’s both bitter and sweet. You have to appreciate the moment if you know that it won’t last forever. As human beings, we may be the only things in this world that think we have to try and control everything. But we can’t, and to me, it’s comforting to know that. It’s a miracle I have been able to experience this life at all, and I’m just grateful for the moment that I do have. When it’s time to go, I’ll be gone. It’s not up to me. That’s inspiring that you find that loss of control comforting, because a lot of people would find this to be the scariest thing! I think that’s what causes some anxiety issues and depression. In the back of people’s mind, they’re constantly thinking, “We’re all going to die some day”. It’ll make you go crazy, if you let it. Or, if you accept that truth, then it can make you calm. You’ve spoken about how your crash made you appreciate that ‘everything in life is intentional’. What do you mean by this? It’s all input-output. For example, I couldn’t get to sleep last night until 4:30am - sometimes when I can’t sleep, it’s because I’m worrying. But last night, it was just because I was feeling so grateful about my whole life. We were pretty poor growing up, but I came from a great family. I make a living making music, which is insane. I come from a very culturally diverse place in the American South. That makes me empathic to a lot of different ways of life. There’s no way that this is by coincidence. This album is of course going to be very inspirational for believers. But for readers who aren’t Christians, what would you like their main takeaway to be? I grew up singing these songs in the church, and they were just uplifting songs. When I sing them, it takes me back to the little old country church I grew up in, with the sun coming in, and then going to my grandmother’s house to have dinner with my family. The songs just have a light feeling. To me, it doesn’t matter if you believe in something or if you believe in nothing. But I like to think that we recorded these songs in a way that if you just believe in music, then you’ll be able to enjoy this album. In a previous interview, a Gospel artist mentioned that artists in the genre can sometimes focus too much on the message, and don’t devote enough time into the actual sonics. Was it easy for you to strike this balance? The main thing for Dave Cobb and I was to make sure that we made these songs sound like home. I you listen to an Otis Redding album, that is Gospel music, and it’s the same with Lynyrd Skynyrd - it all comes from Gospel. It turned into an album that sort of sounds like Jerry Lee Lewis and Otis Redding got together with Lynyrd Skynyrd and recorded an album in Muscle Shoals. This project was a family affair - you wrote ‘When It’s My Time’ with your wife, Layne Cobb; your parents and sister joined you in the studio; Dave Cobb, your cousin, produced the album; and your dad’s Gospel group features on one of the songs. How special was it to have your family so involved with this album? It was the way it was meant to be. Dave and I didn’t know each other growing up, and we met through his grandmother’s funeral. She would come to my church and she would perform ‘We Shall Rise’ a capella. Because I came from such a small country church, a lot of the congregation is my family, so it just felt natural to include them all on this project. You wrote a Children’s Book, which was inspired by your song, ‘Little Stuff’. What made you want you to bring the message of this song to another medium in this way? I have two kids, and the albums I’ve released since my first was born in 2014 have all been messages for them. The children’s book is no different - it’s about celebrating and appreciating the little things in life, that sometimes we don’t focus on. One of my heroes, Shel Silverstein, wrote ‘The Giving Tree’, and I found out later that he also wrote Johnny Cash’s hit, ‘A Boy Named Sue’. I just thought it was cool for someone who you wouldn’t expect to do that, it almost gives it a depth that it otherwise wouldn’t have had. I love the song you penned for Kenny Chesney, ‘Don’t It’. It’s a very philosophical and reflective track. What was the inspiration behind this? I wrote that with my buddy Chase McGill. We were on tour in the summer - he had that lick, and he would bait me with that late at night, at the end of shows, for like two years. And finally, I had to ask him, ‘What is that you keep playing? It’s so good!’ We just wrote ‘Don’t It’ about our lives. Again there’s no way of knowing where you’re going to be in life, but like it says in the song, ‘Life has it’s way of moving you on, don’t it?’ Simple as that. There’s a lot of introspection on this record, but there’s also a healthy dose of fun and rowdiness thrown in there - on ‘We Shall Rise’, for example. How important was it for you to put this levity on there as well as including the heavier tracks? It was important because that reflects life. Life is not always happy and it’s not always sad, just as it’s not always fun and it’s not always boring. It was important to have the project ebb and flow like that. Is this Gospel sound here to stay for future releases, or should fans see this album as a stand-alone project? I have no idea! A lot of my peers really like to grow their sound, they go completely in an opposite direction to where they started. My way of thinking has always been the reverse - I want to try and get to the root and core of what it is that I do and the feeling that I have. I don’t know what that means exactly, but that will be my pursuit forever. Finally, one question we ask all our interviewees is to name their favourite songs that have a theme of mental health and wellbeing. What would be yours? I’d Have to Be Crazy - Willie Nelson Freebird - Lynyrd Skynyrd Brent Cobb's new album, 'And Now, Let's Turn to Page...' is out on all platforms now!  Losing my dad in 2021 was and still is the hardest thing I have ever been through.
While writing about my emotions and grief doesn’t come easily, writing about music does. I never thought the two would be so closely linked until Mindful Melody gave me the opportunity to reflect on my grieving journey thus far. This reflection has shown me how pivotal music has been in both the initial stages of grief and now, almost a year later. I first encountered music in my grieving journey fairly soon after my dad passed away. Planning a funeral actually involves thinking about music a lot, to my surprise. Perhaps more so for us, as my dad was such a music lover. We started to think about which songs my dad would want played, which songs reminded us of my dad and which songs encapsulated his life. There was even the option to have a service entirely made up of music. However, at this point I couldn’t even comprehend listening to a song. It was strange to no longer find comfort in the music which had always been in the background of my daily life. Eventually, after much debate (and many tears), we settled on the songs we felt my dad would most like to hear, and ones that reminded us of his great music taste, his sense of humour and his life. The playlist was mainly composed of Elvis and Oasis - my dad’s two favourites. The choices showed me just how much music can define a life and how much music becomes linked to our memories. The songs were connected to my dad’s favourite football team, his hometown, his friends and his family, proving to me just how central music can be, and how songs can become the ‘soundtrack of a life’ (as cliche as that may sound). Still, despite the music being a key part of a ceremony which perfectly celebrated my dad’s life, it felt too soon for me to listen to music and not tear up. It made me wonder if I’d ever enjoy something which had been part of my everyday life since I was a teenager. About six months into my grief journey, my perspective on music and memory began to shift. Being in a family of music lovers meant that I could not avoid listening to music for very long. I saw my family energised by music, remembering my dad happily in his favourite songs and albums, reminiscing about long-gone family parties. I hadn’t thought of music like this before. I had seen these songs as a painful reminder of what was no longer, like salt in an open wound. Whereas the rest of my family saw this music as a chance to celebrate and connect with my dad and his memory. I hadn’t even considered that music could be a way to positively remember my dad and all our memories. It had only ever served to be an agonising reminder of time gone by… until now. A night with my family listening to all of my dad’s favourite songs was just what I needed to change my view on music and grief. For the first time, I remembered my dad and smiled rather than cried. The relief this brought after months of living in a music-less world was immediate and huge. Music became a tool for me to remember and to remember with a smile. Music began to help me cherish my memories with my dad and see them for the positivity and love they held, rather than the sadness they used to provoke. I started to compose a playlist of songs that reminded me of my dad and my family that helped me when I felt my lowest. This playlist is still my go-to, and some of these songs even feature on my daily drive to work. Before this night, I couldn’t possibly imagine listening to these songs at all, never mind hearing them daily! Now I couldn’t imagine my drives without them. Hearing my dad’s song on my drive to work uplifts me and has the power to get me through the toughest days. In a way, the music I used to dread hearing is now what I look forward to the most. Now, I’m not saying music cured my grief. It hasn’t. My grief is still raw and sore. But music has revealed some memories I thought I could never bear to relive. Memories I couldn’t fathom the thought of losing, but also couldn’t bring myself to remember. Music has helped me and many others to celebrate my dad’s life and all that he was, and still is. For that, I am very grateful.  David DawsonAmy Speace’s new album ‘Tucson’ is a documentation of the beginnings of the long road to recovery. Dealing with the trauma of being raped in college and then sadly losing her father, Amy checked herself into the ‘Cottonwood de Tucson’ facility for help. There she found a dusty, out of tune piano and so began this collection of raw, emotive and beautiful songs. Hi Amy! Thanks so much for talking to me today! Your new album ‘Tucson’ goes deeper than the majority of country music storytelling in that it walks us through your recovery from the trauma of being raped in college. It can often be a freeing experience to express our emotions into our art – did you find that documenting your recovery in this way actually also helped the process? Yeah, I mean I would say I didn’t necessarily at the time, I was just writing. I was writing myself through a lot of fear. I was feeling very out of place and I found this was the only thing that grounded me. When I found the piano I started playing then all of a sudden a song is coming then three songs are coming then five songs are coming! I kind of wrote myself through that period. I didn’t intend on the healing journey through music but I kind of did that to myself. You managed to get the album recorded in an impressive amount of time at just under a couple of days. I can imagine the recording experience for a project like this one was very emotional – how did you feel revisiting your own powerful words and performing them all in such a small timeframe? Well, I got back from the treatment centre I was at in September and I went into the studio the first week of October so I didn’t really have much time to process. I was still really fragile and I had sent the songs to a close friend who knew what I was going through and he was like ‘we should record these’. I didn’t think I would put this out as an album; it was more just sort of a document of the songs for me. I chose a bunch of musicians who I did the last record with who I feel comfortable with and could share with them the truth of what was going on so that they were very gentle with me. My voice was still pretty raw when I recorded that, in fact when I went back and listened I thought I was going to have to re-record all the vocals but it turns out they sounded fine for where I was. I think because it’s such a raw record I did not want to spend too much time on it, I just wanted to blow through it really quickly. My template was Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ and I think he recorded that in a day or something – so I was just like ‘let’s do it like ‘Nebraska’, I don’t want to think about it too much, let’s just sit down and put these songs down and see where they are’. So that was kind of the process. One of the most admirable things I find about your recovery is that you checked yourself into a treatment centre – ‘Cottonwood de Tucson’ – which inspired both the name of the album and of the song ‘Cottonwood’. It can often be challenging to admit to ourselves that we need help and takes further courage to act on that. What was it that ultimately helped you decide you needed to get treatment? My therapist! I had a really dark night, a really dark night. I have a son and if it weren’t for my son I think I might have totally checked out, the depression got really bad. I called my therapist at ten o’clock at night, thank God she called me back, and she just said ‘we need to get you someplace for this depression and trauma’. A few things had happened, first of all I had a baby which unleashed a lot of stuff, then I had postpartum depression which further unleashed it. On top of that my dad died, then right after my father died Covid happened. I just had sort of this … exponentially … situationally stuff that happened that made the trauma just churn. Then when it exploded; thank God I’ve got a great therapist who just said ‘we need to get you away’. Cottonwood de Tucson was this really well-known space that dealt with trauma, depression, anxiety and addiction issues. They had space open and they took my insurance – I think three days after that night I was on a plane. ‘If You Fall’ is an extremely powerful and emotive song and one of my favourites from the project. It can often be easy to lose faith or confidence in ourselves and this ballad proves to be an uplifting anthem of self-love. Your vocals to yourself are laced with positivity, assurance and empathy. How crucial do you think it is that when faced with adversity we are able to lift ourselves in this way? I wrote that for somebody else actually who was at treatment with me. He was having a really rough time and he was considering leaving and we were like ‘no, you can’t leave!’ So, I wrote it for him, his name is Michael, but then I realized it’s to myself. I think to say it would be critical for us to know how to lift ourselves up would be really beautiful but how many of us know that? People say ‘Oh just buck up, everything’s great!’ and you’re like ‘you don’t understand depression!’ It’s a fog, it's not like you can just take a nap and it goes away or take a pill and it’s cured. I think I’ve run across people in my life that when I got back thought ‘oh you’re better!’ – Well I don’t want to kill myself but I now know the work that’s laid out for me. We don’t choose the events in our life that lead up to trauma and then anxiety and depression and a breakdown, so it’s a lifetime of work, so with that song although I wrote it for Michael, now I see it’s for me and it was like the shadow side of me saying ‘I got you’. The language I like to use around it, and this is from traumatic work, is that it’s the little girl in me that’s terrified; it’s not adult Amy and so in a way it’s adult Amy singing to the terrified little girl saying ‘no matter what, I got you’. When things get tougher, as they do, we need reminding and so I have people in my life that say that to me. I’m lucky enough that I’m a songwriter, or any kind of writer, so that I can put that into words so that someone else can hear it and feel like they’re not alone. I think to say that we each individually need to learn that strength inside of ourselves – I can’t even imagine. You learn tools along the way that you can do that for yourself hopefully. I like how you haven’t overproduced this project – textures and accompaniment are kept minimalistic and not only does it let the lyrics and your voice shine through but it also adds to the whole atmospheric feel of the album. I’ve read that when writing your songs you were limited in that you only really had the use of an out of tune piano – was this style in the songs a result of this or was it something you decided on when pulling the project together? I think it’s both. The songs were written really intimately and the subject matter is intimate and confessional. To add too much on top of it would just feel overdone. That’s why I say Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ was really my template because there’s an intimacy and immediacy to that record that I wanted to capture, so that it feels like I’m whispering in the ear of the listener. Considering the emotions that went into this album and the inspiration behind it, were you nervous about releasing it? Yeah! I didn’t think I was going to and then when I was encouraged to put it out I realised that I wasn’t going to have to talk about it, but to contextualise the record it would be better if I was pretty open and honest. I had to walk through a lot of fear and a lot of shame and then I just thought that I’ve been on this planet long enough and I know that there’s enough other people who have suffered similar situations who have gotten through, or haven’t, and it would be helpful to just say ‘me too!’ There’s that old phrase; ‘you can’t judge someone’s insides from their outsides’ – it can all look really pretty on the outside and really underneath there's turmoil and mess and it’s nice to know when somebody else says ‘me too’. There was a lot of nervousness about the conversation that would be around this but I have enough support around me, business wise and friends, and my support network were like ‘you have to release this and we are right behind you!’ I’ve read that you’re involved in a Creative Writing Program and have had the chance to read a couple of your pieces. What inspired you to take this up, and how do you find the creative outlet to be affecting your mental health? I always had this urge to go back to school and when Covid happened and the world shut down I thought ‘I’ve got the time now’ and the only thing that I’d want to go back to study is creative writing. I’ve always written poetry, I’m considered a lyricist but I didn’t know if I was a poet or not. I thought I’d apply in contemporary non-fiction which is more like memoirs and essays because I do that a lot too, and I ended up getting accepted into both genres, so I thought ‘well I’m gonna try poetry!’ It’s been amazing, it’s a different art form than song writing and it stretches a whole different part of my brain, but I feel freer in the subject matter that I can write about in poetry. Just the idea of syntactically and structurally I’m much freer with it, it’s not like verse, chorus, verse, chorus. I think it’ll make me a better songwriter as well, and I think being a songwriter has made me a better poet so it kind of goes hand in hand. I’ve really been loving it although it’s kind of exhausting and a whole lot of reading! We’ve spent a lot of time talking about the past, so now onto the future! What are your plans in terms of performing and potentially new music? I’ve got shows here and there, it’s slow coming because of the pandemic. I’m playing in Mississippi then have a few things scattered over the Summer. We are looking to do a UK tour in the fall, or it might be January, they’re working on it right now. I have a ton of new songs I’m trying to figure out the direction I want to go – if I want to take a total left turn and do a pop record or do another quiet singer-songwriter record, so I’m just trying to gather those songs together. Finally, one thing we ask all of our interviewees is to name a top three songs that relate to mental health. What would be your top three? 1. Blue – Joni Mitchell 2. Shotgun Down the Avalanche – Shawn Colvin 3. Orange Sky – Alexi Murdoch  David Dawson Kanye West for as long as I remember has been a complex character. Over the past decade his various exploits have seen him dominate headlines and seen millions of us simultaneously rolling our eyes. With every venture is a question of his intentions and his recent very public (and very one sided it seems) feud with Pete Davidson is only further fuel to the ‘Kanye is crazy’ fire. However having recently enjoyed all three parts of Netflix’s new behind the scenes look on Kanye’s music career – filmed by long time friend Coodie, my perspectives on both Kanye, and music, have changed. Episode 1 Often we look at those in the limelight and deem that they have it so easy. It’s far too tempting to tarnish those at the top with the same brush – they got lucky, it’s been handed to them and so on. Maybe it’s a jealous thing, maybe it’s a coping thing or maybe it is just because sometimes that genuinely is the case. I wouldn’t really say I had any of these assumptions about Kanye, but it’s not like I didn’t have them either. Episode one of ‘Jeen-Yuhs’ was definitely a wake up call. Often we start our lives at the bottom of the pile, especially in careers, and generally you don’t consider the same about rappers but for Kanye it’s true. Leaving his beloved Chicago for New York, making beats for other famous artists to rap on and just barely getting by. It was enlightening to see Kanye just grinding it out. In a time when it’s so easy to label him as an out of touch celebrity watching him climbing his way up really was inspiring. Always in the back of his mind was his goal to rap even though people only saw him as a producer, and would constantly ask him for free beats knowing his touch was golden on their own tracks. Even after producing a good portion of one of Jay-Z’s most successful albums he still struggled to really establish himself. The most impressive thing was that even when it seemed like people were taking advantage of him, he had no doubts about himself. Not arrogant, but confident. He knew how good he was and he was going to do everything in his power to make it. The Kanye West in ‘Jeen-Yuhs’ part one is the perfect role model for anyone who wants to be successful – believe in yourself, work as hard as you can, have a goal in mind and never give up on your dream. Episode 2 This episode follows in a similar mould to the first. I actually felt sorry for Kanye because he wasn’t being taken seriously. After working tirelessly to get signed it seemed like his own label still really only respected him as a producer; and after a near fatal car collision decided to pull funding from his debut album ‘College Dropout’. I love this album so watching it come together was always going to be a treat for me, but watching Kanye pull together a project as successful and as brilliant as this in the fashion he did was inspiring. Calling in favours, writing and rapping from a hospital bed and borrowing studio time from other artists – Kanye had his mind set on this and he wasn’t going to give it up. One of the most enjoyable things to see was the surprise on the faces of other artists. Having no backing from his label and getting little respect as a rapper it seemed that the common preconception was that Kanye was just a producer indulging himself on some vanity side piece, but one by one he changed their minds. The best of these moments is when in the studio with Pharrell, Kanye proceeds to rap for him and show him some of the music he’s been working on and Pharrell is so dumbfounded he walks out of the room. It is incredible to see the exact moments that he gains the respect of these artists. In a time when it would have been so easy to call it quits on his project, become resentful at his lack of respect, or become tired of his lack of opportunities, Kanye worked and worked and worked – pouring his heart and soul into his dream, his goal and his album. And what an album it was. Episode 3 Episode 3 is an emotional rollercoaster, but it did change a lot of my preconceptions. The first is the infamous arrogance of West. Having watched the episodes prior where Kanye had to believe in himself when it felt like no one else did I almost enjoyed seeing him revel in his own success. Of course some of it is a little over the top, but one thing that stood out was a Q&A session he did with some children at a charity event. He essentially told them that whilst the media like to portray him as cocky or deluded he doesn’t see it that way; of course he thinks he is the best but he wouldn’t be where he was if he didn’t think so, and he tells the kids that they too should all believe that they themselves are the best. He also went on to laugh about how when people praise him or his music it’s like they want him to say ‘oh thanks, do you really think so?’ instead of agreeing with them, but of course he’s going to love his own music. That one thirty second clip really made me look at Kanye differently. If you don’t believe in yourself how do you expect others to believe in you? It’s Kanye’s self belief that saw him force his way to the top, so he’s completely right when he tells the kids that they need to think they’re the best. Forget all this modesty rubbish, if you want something you need to be confident and go after it! That’s where the second part comes in, and it really made me think. The polite way to accept a compliment these days is to deny it or downplay it, and the moment someone doesn’t they’re perceived as brash, arrogant or vain, but Kanye’s sentiment here rings so true. It’s his art that he’s worked tirelessly on, of course he is going to like it even if no one else does – so why should he have to pretend like he doesn’t! The episode really starts to get very emotional when Kanye loses his mother. Even from early clips in episode one it is clear that Donda was his guiding light and when he got to the top she went all the way with him – acting as his best friend, mentor and manager. Although his portrayed arrogance (although now I just see it as confidence) was already gaining attention it wasn’t until Donda’s death that Kanye really started becoming the headline grabber, for the wrong reasons, that we have become more familiar with. I won’t go into too much detail about all of the various episodes you see him go through because to get the full picture you really have to watch it, but without his mother, and later with his bipolar diagnosis it is fairly clear that Kanye is lost. We see him in the studio or at his house just start on various rants and tirades about the world and about life to a point where Coodie actually stops filming because he doesn’t think it’s right to in these low points. To be honest I’d assumed going into this that the documentary had been approved by West, or even put together by him, so I was pretty surprised that so much of his struggle was filmed and included. Amidst his short-lived presidential campaign and infamous abortion speech we see footage of Kanye watching it back in the car and suggesting that he sees the world differently. In fact it’s so nonsensical that it almost starts to make sense. It seems that Kanye in recent years is constantly going against the grain – in fact sometimes it has felt that he is just pushing boundaries for the sake of it. After watching episode one and two are we so surprised that the words of his critics fall on deaf ears when from a young age Kanye has been having to prove people wrong – fighting his own corner when no one backed him and doing it all on his own. It’s the fact that he has been so set in his ways, so focussed, so passionate and so devoted that he has had any of his success. So is it really a surprise to see some of his actions in recent years? Whilst it feels that Kanye is lost in himself he wears his heart in his sleeve and throws himself headfirst into everything he does – for better or worse. This documentary is one of the most honest and inspiring I have ever seen. I’ve always been a Kanye fan but my view on him has been tarnished by recent actions as I’m sure is the same for many others. However seeing how hard he had to work to get his chance, how hard he had to work to take it, and just how he was able to climb to the top in a world where so many people just wanted to take advantage of him is a testament to his pride, dedication and talent. I’ve even got a different perspective on his more recent years, feeling more sympathy for his condition and how it affects him now than before – and understanding further that while his drive and determination is still the same as it always was it feels like he’s just lacking the guidance he had while Donda was alive. It’s apparent from the show he never took the time to grieve her properly, and with his latest album being in dedication to her and with his bipolar struggles you do wonder whether these are key factors in why he is hurting so much. Partner that with a highly publicised marriage breakdown and you almost find yourself thinking that it’s no wonder that the man who was always criticized or disrespected is struggling. One thing is for sure – instead of rolling my eyes at Kanye West I am now full of admiration and sympathy for the man. I hope he finds himself again soon.   Hi Elliah! Thanks for taking the time to talk today. You were born into a family of political refugees from the Soviet Union, and you’ve spoken in the past about feeling ‘less than American’. Your new album is an examination of identity from the unique perspective of someone who’s both inside and outside the culture at the same time. How easy was it to capture this for the project?
It was easy once the joke had occurred to me that I could make a patriotic Country album, where if you’re not really paying attention to the lyrics, you could think it’s just another honky-tonk record. But if you listen to the lyrics, you think, ‘Wait, what is that guy saying?!’ The joke was to make something with all of Country music’s traditional bona fides, recorded in Nashville with eighteen players, referencing other Country traditions and songs - but to then have the lyrics be a subversion of that, it was like the dominos just fell. When I was starting out, it was about saying ‘I can be just as folksy as people from more stereotypically ‘Country’ parts of America, and that I have just as much of a right to make this kind of music as anyone else. But now, with this album, that approach felt very unsatisfying. So I just had to embrace the imposter syndrome and the fears I’d had about how this would be received. People will either think, ‘This is really stupid’ - or they’ll think, ‘This is really stupid - in a good way’! I think what I love most about the album is how uplifting it is. That’s no mean feat given the weight of the themes you tackle. Was this a conscious decision to make the album a generally joyful record? Definitely. First and foremost because I’m trying to make a record that could really change some people’s minds about this country and the American identity. So I think it would’ve been very bad for anyone to leave this record thinking that I don’t love this country - because I do. While fully recognising how much of a scam the American Dream is for so many people, I am living proof of it. And I really do believe that could only happen here, and criticising this country comes from a place of love. Secondly, some of my biggest heroes musically are John Prine, Willie Nelson, and Bob Dylan when he’s feeling a little more light-hearted - artists whose lyrics kill with humour, kindness and laughter. Artists whose lyrics will crack you up with one line and punch you in the gut with the next. As a listener and as a human, humour is my language and it’s how I wanted to communicate on this album. Some of the most heart-wrenching songs are Country songs. Paradoxically, there is still a reluctance in the genre to put a label on things such as ‘anxiety’ and ‘depression’. People will sing ‘I’m so lonesome I could cry’ to their heart’s content, but we don’t get much discussion about Hank Williams actually having depression. What inspired you to be so open about your struggles with anxiety on this album? It’s part of the Hank Williams and George Jones mythology that they were deeply sick men. In the beginning of Jones’ career there was almost a fetishisation of his depression and alcoholism. Especially because Hank had just died so young, people were like, ‘We have to see George Jones because he might suffer the same fate soon!’ - which is insane! Now you listen to those songs and you can literally hear the devastation in his voice, but that’s morbidly twisted into a sales tactic. You know, I wasn’t hesitant about this song. My journey with talking about anxiety more openly had a lot to do with simply understanding that I was suffering from it, instead of just thinking I had this crippling personality flaw that I couldn’t control. It felt like it was my fault, and that I just sucked for being that way. My anxiety was triggered by a traumatic event when I was nineteen, and for a long time after that I had no idea what was wrong. I look back now and I’m like, ‘Wow, it seems so obvious’. But at the time I’d just think, ‘Wow, what is wrong with me? I’m so hot and bothered today!’ I was resistant to medicine for a while, because I’d heard all these horror stories about how it can cloud your creativity. The song ‘Anxiety’ was written in the depths of the decision to go on medication. As anyone who’s had an anxiety attack can relate to, it wasn’t anything huge - I just moved apartments. I went from a big space to a very small space. That’s the thing about anxiety, it’s not necessarily about crazy, traumatic things causing it, it’s just that your brain is imbalanced. I didn’t like who I was, I felt detached from my relationship - it was a whole mess of things. My journey was about accepting that I had anxiety, and learning how to deal with it. When it came to writing Country music about this, I just felt like it completely made sense. What was harder was feeling comfortable addressing it and talking about it, and treating it like something that’s distant and not ‘me’ so that I could put it into a song. The verses in ‘Anxiety’ are musically sparse, and the more built-out hook then comes in waves, which captures the way that anxiety often presents itself in waves. Absolutely. It’s gradual, which represents how the clouds keep forming and you don’t really clock that the third anxiety attack was worse than the second, and so on. It gets to the point where you’re like, ‘How did the chorus get to be this much?’ How do you use music to help your mental health? Do you find it more therapeutic creating or listening to music? Most of my time with anxiety it’s definitely listening over creating. Until three or four years ago where I hit a really bad low and decided to seek help, I had this attitude of ‘This is not going to affect me, so I don’t need to write about it’. I had the mentality that I’d already won against my anxiety. I definitely listen to more music than is healthy - there was a time when Spotify would limit how many songs you could listen to, and I blew my maximum within two days! There are albums in my life that are like infinite banks for my emotions. Some albums, you listen to a lot and then you get to a point where you think, ‘Okay, that now reminds me too much of that time in my life’. But there are certain albums that are bottomless wells for me to pour my feelings into. The relatable nature of hearing what other artists are going through has been a huge coping mechanism for me - even though, like you said, nobody was naming it as ‘anxiety’ or ‘depression’. I love ‘Living proof’, particularly this lyric about your mother: “Her second tongue was English, but her first was kindness”. It’s such a powerful message about viewing someone in terms of who they are rather than extraneous things like the language they speak. Especially at the moment, the issue of xenophobia unfortunately seems to grow more pressing each year. Having said that, given the hostility that is often shown to migrants, to me this record doesn’t generally have a tone of anger - when it would perhaps be understandable if there was some. Is this a reflection of where you’re at, or would you say this is more about escapism? I would say that sonically, you’re 100% right that not any one song tips into a place that you think, ‘Oh yeah, this is the angry song.’ But lyrically, I feel like I can identify some lines where I’m like ‘Ow!’ There are so many outlets in my life where I have these conversations from a place of anger, and there are many outlets where I feel like I use anger effectively to do what I can to make a difference. But I am not angry when I make music. To make this album angry just felt dishonest to me. I’m upset, I’m depressed, I’m manic - I’m whatever you want to call me. But I’m not ever really angry. When I am, I feel like my music suffers. That’s a huge statement of privilege, because I think there are many people who don’t experience a similar privilege to not be angry when they make music. But that’s just my personal process. It’s the opposite for many artists that talk about how they can’t make music unless they’re going through heartache. For me, I need to be pretty stable to write music. William Wordsworth - and please excuse me for being pretentious, but I did English at University! - he has an essay where he says that poetry is ‘the superfluous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquillity’. I always loved that because it’s not just recollected as in remembered, it’s re-collected. So it’s not emotion as it overflows, but it’s the process of re-collecting it once you’ve processed it. I love ‘Keep the Grass in the Ground’, and the light-hearted metaphor of this. What’s the meaning behind that phrase for you? On the surface, it’s just this picture of a bored kid needing entertainment, and they will just yank grass out of the ground because it feels satisfying. Why not? But just because something is beautiful and there, it does not mean that it’s yours. You know? There are so many ways to get so much out of life without it being at the expense of something else or someone else. That’s the underlying message of this song. It’s like a momentary thing for you because you’re lost or bored or whatever, but it has a long-term negative effect, so why would you do that? Folk and Country music have a strong tradition of storytelling, which is one of the things that draws me to it. As well as on your new album, you’ve brought your storytelling talents to the stage by writing a number of musicals. How do you find this complements your career as a solo artist? In college I was in a band in which I co-wrote the songs, but I hadn’t ever written a song by myself. My friend then asked me if I wanted to write a musical with her and I said, ‘Yes - as long as it could be about Folk music!’ The following summer I was at The New York Musical Theatre Festival, and that built into a few musical theatre jobs. But the whole time I wasn’t listening to musical theatre that much - I was listening to Country and Folk. I was making music inspired by the music I was listening to, but I wasn’t actually making the kind of music I was listening to.I decided to then pursue the singer-songwriter route. Now that I get to do both musical theatre and singer-songwriting, the symbiosis is so obvious to me. I know that songs from a musical are too specific to a particular musical to be truly released on their own, but I know they’re going to be that much more memorable if they could be released as their own thing. On the flip side, writing songs that tell stories in theatre has made me a much more confident storyteller through my songwriting. We ask all our interviewees to name their favourite three songs that have a theme of mental wellbeing. What would be your choices? 1. Blue Umbrella - John Prine 2. So Much To Do - Willie Nelson 3.’Til I Gain Control Again - Rodney Crowell  Often, the best therapy is getting lost in the carefully constructed world of a film or TV series. Here are a selection of songs that remind us of some of our favourite on-screen moments! David & Maxim 10. I'll Be There For You - The Rembrandts (Friends) It's easy to imagine that when they were producing the pilot of their newest sitcom they just plucked the nearest upbeat pop song off of the shelf. With 'I'll Be There For You' they made the perfect choice, whether intentional or not. The song perfectly encapsulates what the show is all about, when things aren't going your way or when times are tough - I'll be there for you. This was mirrored throughout the whole ten seasons of the show as through a range of ups and downs the group supported each other and stuck together. Not only does the song perfectly tie in with the show, it's also really catchy! From the opening guitar riff to the hand clapping the song hooks you in, which alone makes it one of the best theme songs of any show! Nearly 30 years on and all the nostalgia the song, and show, carries has just further cemented it as a timeless classic. 9. I Cross My Heart - George Strait (Pure Country) This is the curveball of my selection, because the film isn’t too well-known, and although a big hit in the States, ‘I Cross My Heart’ didn’t make quite as big a splash across the pond. But as far as soundtracks go, George Strait’s ‘Pure Country’ is stellar from start to finish, and has become one of his best-selling albums of all time. ‘I Cross My Heart’ sounds exactly how the film feels - it’s cheesy, it’s gooey, it’s corny, but it’s also irresistibly charming. The title character, played by Strait, spots his love in the crowd and sings the song in its entirety as if she’s the only person in the arena. Strait himself confessed that they tried to pack as many songs into the film as possible, to minimise the amount of acting he’d have to do! Well I’m just glad this one made the cut. 8. You've Got a Friend in Me - Randy Newman (Toy Story) Toy Story will always be one of the classics from arguably one of the greatest eras of Pixar animations. The imagination behind the film is astounding, and the story of camaraderie and purpose is heartwarming all the way through. The song appears over a montage of Andy playing with his favourite toy Woody, but the song gives it a deeper meaning. Woody may only be a toy (as far as Andy is concerned at least) but he is so much more than that for Andy, and Woody's eagerness to keep Andy happy throughout the film only cements the bond that they share. The song is a simplistic yet beautiful number about the importance of friendship, trust and commitment in a film with a similar message. 7. Club Can't Handle Me - Flo Rida ft. David Guetta (Step Up 3D) I imagine you had one of two possible reactions to this choice - either you’ve never heard of it, or you had a mental ‘Oh yeah!’ moment as you remember this awesome throwback. I forget just how many chart-topping smashes Flo Rida accrued throughout his career, and for me ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’ is one of the best. Do you remember that brief period of time where dance-battle films with awesome soundtracks were a big thing? Well Step Up 3D arrived at the heart of that phase, and while the film perhaps wasn’t too memorable, don’t let that detract from the music. ‘Club Can’t Handle Me’ is a Pop-EDM anthem helmed by legendary DJ David Guetta and purpose-built for the club. But whether you’re out on the town or dancing in your living room, queue up this song and it’ll give you an audio energy boost. 6. Everybody Needs Somebody to Love - The Blues Brothers Now an inclusion from my favourite film of all time. This wacky masterpiece is a lesson in how to mix over the top action and hilarious characters with great music. Containing genuine heavyweights from jazz, funk and soul the cast is one of the most talented of all time, although not always at acting it would seem! The story is that of two unlikely heroes on their 'Mission from God' to save the orphanage they were raised at by putting the old band back together for one big show. Unfortunately what starts as a red light pull over spirals its way to a multi car (and one RV) police chase as the film continues. This song is the first performed by the Blues Brothers themselves at their one time event and shows even the fiercest of cops enjoying the entertainment. It's probably not my favourite song from the film but it comes at such an iconic point in the film that I had to put it in! 5. Stayin' Alive - BeeGees (Saturday Night Fever)  From the moment that funky baseline starts, there’s no turning back - you’ll be hooked on this iconic track. Continuing that unmistakable falsetto throughout the song is such a daring move, but one that has ensured this song will be etched into pop’s history books. Like a couple of omissions from our Top 10, such as Whitney’s ‘I Will Always Love You’ and Eminem’s ‘Lose Yourself’, ‘Stayin’ Alive’ is a classic example of the song transcending the film. I’m not entirely sure the lyrics make sense (does anyone really know what “The New York Times’ effect on man” is?) but it doesn’t matter - it still has me singing along every time. ‘How Deep Is Your Love’ is another one of my favourites from an unforgettable soundtrack. 4. Unshaken - D'Angelo (Red Dead Redemption 2)  OK so I'm going to cheat a little and throw this in the mix despite it being from a video game. The way I'll get away with it is that it comes from a cinematic moment. RDR2 was a visual masterpiece with a story full of sharp twists and turns. I don't remember a time I've been so engaged in the characters, the whole thing played out like an Oscar worthy Western. There is one particular moment in the story where Arthur returns to America having had to complete some missions on an island overseas. Having been through a more than fair share of adversity already at this point in the story the game drops you back on land with your horse and sets your destination point a fair ride away. Shortly into the journey you are encouraged to enter cinematic mode. Upon doing so a montage ensues of Arthur riding through the stunning landscapes on the map backed with this beautiful song. The song's main line 'May I Stand Unshaken?' Is a testament to the resiliency of the character. The beauty of the story, this song and the scene it comes in means I just had to include it. 3. How Far I'll Go - Auli'i Cravalho (Moana) Anyone that knows me knows that this is probably my favourite film of all time. Yes, I’m aware it’s a Pixar film that’s aimed at children - but hey, maybe that just says something about my mental age…Aside from the magical storytelling and inspiring character arcs (just let me gush, okay), the songs are perfectly selected and accentuate all of the key emotional moments. Although ‘You’re Welcome’ gets all the attention, ’How Far I’ll Go’ is definitely my favourite. The way it begins in such a vulnerable and tender way, and then just builds to reach this emphatic, anthemic crescendo in the chorus. It’s a celebration of following your heart and venturing into the unknown, rather than taking the safe option and falling in with the crowd. It’s an inspirational lesson that can be applied to all situations in life - you do you, no matter what other people say. No wonder this film always makes me cry. 2. Take Me Home, Country Roads - Dwight & Andy (The Office US) The American version of The Office is my all time favourite TV show and this scene is one of the best moments. In an attempt to woo new receptionist Erin, Andy on his banjo and Dwight on his guitar both perform snippets of this classic song. In an attempt to come out on top both are overly critical of each other and try using banjo solos and German singing to come out on top. In a classic enemies become friends TV moment Andy and Dwight begin performing simultaneously, and ultimately find brotherhood in the music. It's such a great moment that demonstrates the pure joy music can bring to even the two fiercest of rivals. It is also a great listen and you find yourself really enjoying this musical interlude, that is until stupid Toby ruins the whole thing by telling them to stop. Jerk. 1. A Million Dreams - Ziv Zaifman, Hugh Jackman & Michelle Williams (The Greatest Showman) If Moana takes my top movie spot, then The Greatest Showman is probably my second favourite film of all time. This completely shifted the goalposts for musical-films, incorporating more traditional elements while also making it feel unquestionably contemporary. The soundtrack represents this perfectly - you get the classic ballads (‘This is Me’, ‘Never Enough’) alongside the uptempo dance-pop of ‘Rewrite the Stars’ and ‘The Greatest Show’). But for me, the jewel in the crown is ‘A Million Dreams’, which finds a young PT Barnum singing about all of his fantastical hopes and aspirations. The special moment comes when the song transitions into a grown-up PT Barnum - he sings the same lyrics and it still carries that same sense of childhood wonder and innocence. I think that’s why I love the film so much - it’s essentially a tribute to the importance of always holding onto that sense of childhood wonder, no matter now many trials and tribulations life throws your way.
 Maxim MowerHi Ernest! Thank you for taking the time to chat today! Country music has a great track record for producing some of the most emotionally vulnerable songs, and you new single epitomises this. I believe you drew inspiration for ‘Flower Shops’ from one of the greats, George Jones - how did the idea for the song come about?
I was on a sad song kick - well, I still am, and I might always be! It is the DNA of Country music. I went to the George Jones Essentials Playlist on Apple Music, and I picked Ben Burgess up at his house, we headed out to Mark Holman’s and we were listening to that playlist - just catching a vibe for the ride. ‘A Good Year for the Roses’ came on, and we were like, ‘Wow!’ We’d heard it before, but it just hit different that day. So Ben was like, ‘What if we write a title like, ‘It’s a good day for flower shops’? And I was like, ‘Hell yes!’ We started developing the main character, and by the time we got to Mark Holman’s the melodies were already pouring out. We had the song written in 45 minutes. It felt very honest for both of us, we’d both been in that guy’s shoes, and I think the sonics of it are really refreshing. It’s not like it’s never been done before, but it’s been a while since we’ve had some steel guitar in Country and I just think it’s a nice tip of the hat to our forefathers. I think it might be time to have something other than just party feel-good songs, because, let’s be honest, it’s been a sucky couple of years! The list of hit songs you've written spans across genres, having penned tracks for the likes of Diplo, ZAYN and Florida Georgia Line. You originally leant more towards rap than Country. Equally, your recent releases in particular are testaments to all that’s great about Country music. Where do you stand in terms of the genre-fluidity versus the Country traditionalists debate? I think modern generations grow up on multiple genres. You can stubbornly not listen to other genres, but if you’re born in 1990 or later, then you’re going to have grown up with a lot of different music. Now, with streaming platforms, you put on a playlist and you’re going to have Morgan Wallen, DaBaby, Drake, George Strait - it’s all coming at you in one go. For me, I stand where I’ve always stood. I know that I can be my most honest self with my version of Country music, which leans more towards the traditional. I’m not breaking down walls with my music. It’s more a case of ‘I’m comfortable here and I want to make stuff I want to listen to'. I love the Locals Only project that you put out in 2019. The tropical Country atmosphere that you bring to that is so relaxing. What drew you to this sound in particular, and what's your favourite song off that record? Well, that sound was another thing that happened organically. [My wife] Delaney’s dad has a house in St. Thomas and that’s where a lot of her art is inspired from too. The Virgin Islands are like a home away from home. I cut my teeth doing bar gigs in St. Thomas for years - Friday-Saturday shows for a meal and a couple hundred bucks. So that album was primarily written during the island phase, and it’s all about young love and me and Delaney’s journey, the bubblegum side of it. ‘Locals Only' is probably my favourite song on the album. If I had to pick a second, I’d say ‘Brain On Love’. What would you say is the main way in which Flower Shops: The Album differs from Locals Only? I think it’s more of a mature sound. The story on the new album is the guy from Locals Only writing a series of love songs, and then being an idiot and almost losing it. It’s still a love story, only the character has grown up and been through a lot more. You feature on fellow Country singer HARDY's HIXTAPE Vol. 2, and a lot of people consider your track ‘Red Dirt Clouds’ to be one of the best on the project - it’s an anthem for small town living. What’s your favourite thing about ‘the Country’, and what’s your least favourite? My favourite thing about the countryside is definitely the driving atmosphere. The cliche is so real - a two-lane road on a brisk Autumn day with the windows down, that’s what Country roads are made for. Then you’ve got bonfires at night, another cliche in a Country song, but when you’re at a bonfire nobody’s like ‘Oh, this is so cliche!’ - you’re having the best time ever! All of the cliches we write about in Country songs are literally the greatest things about ‘the Country’. How many different ways can we say, ‘This rocks!’ My least favourite would be how far away it is from anything else - which is also the great thing about it at the same time. On your podcast, you sometimes talk about ‘redneck culture’, and I think there’s sometimes the stereotype of Country guys being macho and tough. Have you ever feared that being emotional and vulnerable through your songwriting might make people think you’re not ‘Country’ enough? That’s a good question. The answer would probably be ‘no’. However, some things are more marketable than others. Nobody’s ever told me not to go anywhere as far as writing, but there are just some things that the public are going to consume more readily than others. That has shaped me as I’ve grown and experimented with a lot of different sounds, I think I’ve consciously started to stay in a more marketable lane. But I still crank rap instrumentals on my way to the studio and freestyle for fun, I’ve got to do that, no matter what! But if I’m going to sit down and spend six hours away from my family writing, I’m going to make it count. Earlier this year, you made your Grand Ole Opry debut. What was that experience like? It was just surreal. The last time I was backstage in that building, I was probably ten years old. I was with one of the basketball players that my dad coached, because the player’s dad was a steel guitar player in the Opry band. He knew that I had just gotten a banjo and was super into it. He took me backstage and in-between set changes I got to stand in the circle, and I was like, ‘Man, I want to do that when I grow up!’ Fast forward and I’m backstage getting ready to perform. It was probably twenty years later, so it was incredible. To got to play 'Flower Shops' and have my whole family there, and it was beautiful. It was a dream-come-true night for me. How has becoming a father influenced your approach to songwriting - and to life? In every way, he’s been the coolest thing. Obviously, having a baby is hard, and words can’t describe that. But he’s just a ball of joy. I love him and he’s made me grow up twenty years in about six weeks. All the maturing I hadn’t done yet, I had to do. He’s crawling now and he’s waving - it’s all happening so fast. It’s incredible. He doesn’t have a song yet, but lifestyle-wise, I’m not drinking anymore - and I thought nothing would get me to stop drinking! I’m in my podcast room right now, and my bottle of Jack hasn’t been touched since the last set - it’s just a prop now! We previously featured Delaney, your wife, who’s a brilliant artist. One of the questions I asked her was that, given the fact that Delaney’s married to a Country artist and she works with other Country singers too, to what extent does she find that being surrounded by this musical energy has an influence on her artistic process? So I’d like to switch that around and ask you, to what extent do you find that being surround by Delaney’s artistic energy has an influence on your music? She’s definitely my muse - not just musically, but visually too. Today, we were literally making a vision-board, cutting out all of the aesthetics we’re aiming for from old magazines. We always dream up the way everything looks every time the visual starts coming together for my albums. She’s a huge influence - it wouldn’t look like it matches the sound unless Delaney’s touch was on it. And the flamingo motif - that’s so her! It was her before it was me, and she’s like, ‘You stole my thing!’ And I’m like, ‘No, you influenced my thing, it different - it’s our thing now…!’ Her fingerprints are all over Flower Shops. Finally, we ask all our interviews to name their favourite three songs that have a theme of mental health and wellbeing. What would be your choices? 1. Just Don’t Give a F*** - Eminem 2. Who Says I Can’t Get Stoned - John Mayer 3. Miss Otis Regrets (She’s Unable to Lunch Today) - Ella Fitzgerald Bonus. Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain - Willie Nelson Flower Shops: The Album is out now!  David DawsonSpring has sprung and in the typical generosity of UK weather we have already been treated to countless days of sunshine (by countless I mean too depressed to count because there's been like four realistically). In Issue 10 our top ten songs was for songs containing nature and one of my inclusions was Bob Marley and the Wailers' 'Sun is Shining' - an ode to how sweet life feels when the sun is out.
I have to say at around this time every year I always get caught off guard by this. I actually do love winter but when March hits, the daffodils come out and the sun is shining I just feel happier for some reason. I just seem to have a smile on my face and everything seems to be better with the world, but why is that? Well an obvious and more boring answer would be vitamin D, it's literally like happy juice that comes from the sun. Every spring we leave our houses as sad creatures and photosynthesise literal happiness from the sun. It's a strange concept really but the boost and balance that can be given to us with a little kick of vitamin D really is a phenomenon. OK, so I'm not silly enough to actually think that the moment we step out into the sun we are surged with vitamin D and that melts all of our problems away. The other more simplistic reason is that it just puts a better view on everything. When I think back to sunny days I think of walks outside and packed beer gardens. When I look back on good memories, even just as simple as playing football with some mates, they all seem to take me back to a sunny day. I also think especially in spring a big part of it is just our natural grass is greener complex. In the heights of summer I often find myself dreaming of dark winter nights curled up in front of an open fire, or seasonal cheer and snow, and don't get me wrong these moments can be just as beautiful as a day in the summer heat, but when spring arrives, having spent the last four months in the cold dreaming of the sun, shorts, holidays and just heat in general it always comes as the most welcome of surprises when we start to experiences our first glimpses of warmth. Quite frankly by September I'm usually a little fed up of sweating, overheating and mowing the lawn once a week but after months of separation I really do realise what a good thing I had when it was gone. In fact in early March I was actually excited to dust off the mower and get back to cutting the grass. Our most loyal of readers may remember I often see it as a form of home therapy, putting my music on and admiring a fresh and neat lawn when I'm finished. Of course give it until June when the grass grows so quickly that I can't keep up with it and I'll once again be cursing it, but for now it's a joyous treat of a job on a hot day after months without it. I really do think that the simple and natural wonder of sunshine is some of the best therapy you can get. Just the thought of it brings a smile to my face and there's not much better than just going out and spending some time in the heat, whether just walking the dog or sloshing back cold beers outside the pub (I said that to sound cool I don't even do it that often). There's just something about spring's ability to cheer us up and bring us together. This magical period of summer anticipation and relief at seeing the back end of winter really is beautiful. In fact the best way to sum it up is Bob Marley and the Wailers 'Sun is Shining', so make sure to give it a listen!  David DawsonAndy Franks knows the industry inside out having worked as a sound engineer, monitor engineer, stage manager, production manager, tour manager and tour director. His life in the fast lane working with the likes of Depeche Mode, Coldplay, Robbie Williams and The Rolling Stones (to name a few) has seen him at the pinnacle of the industry. After developing an addiction to alcohol that ultimately saw him getting fired from a tour Andy decided in 2016 to set up charity ‘Music Support’ to help others within the music industry who struggle with mental health or addiction.  Hi Andy! Thanks so much for talking to me today! You founded the brilliant charity ‘Music Support’ back in 2016 – What was it that inspired you to take action in this way?
Well I had been working in the music business for 40 years and was a tour manager for about 30 of them. I finally got fired for my alcoholism and I really struggled to try and find a way to get help. I didn’t know who to turn to and kind of felt that it was my own problem and when I got sacked they said you need to sort yourself out, and I thought ‘well how do I do that?’ When I got sober I thought that I needed to try and help other people who were in a similar position and as luck would have it I bumped into Matt Thomas. We were just chatting about what we were up to and I told him I was thinking about setting up a charity and he said he was thinking of doing the same! We joined forces with a couple of other people and very quickly realised we wanted to get something up and running so we launched and away we went! I’ve read that in the early days of the charity you were manning the helplines yourselves – were you shocked at the type, and quantity, of calls that you were receiving? Yeah, I think when we first started, as with all these things, we were making it up very much as we went along so we didn’t know how many calls we were going to get. I’m not trained in any way but at that time it’s what we had to do! We found out very quickly that just having somebody on the end of the phone that understood the pressures and the problems that people have to go through cut through so much. It took away all of that disbelief and scepticism and trying to convince people; in the music industry you’re touring around the world with multinational acts and staying in five star hotels and flying on private jets, people think ‘what’s not to love about that?’ Of course, it’s absolutely true, what’s not to like? It’s great when it’s great but when it’s not it’s not. Being able to speak to people was a great thing, and luckily we also had access to therapists and people that we knew that understood about the music business so it was kind of a snowball effect really; we could put people in touch and then we got more people that wanted to help. I started going to festivals in the first year of ‘Music Support’ and people were so desperate for something like this; you could see that there was a momentum and a need for it, so from that point of view it was a no brainer. The actual running of it and how we were going to finance it and deal with phone calls in the middle of the night was another thing. Now we are six years down the line, who would’ve thought! Not only does the charity run helplines, you also provide Mental Health First Aid Training and Addiction and Recovery workshops. How crucial do you think it is that people are able to educate themselves so that they are able to offer more support to those around them, and themselves? I think it’s really important. We’ve got Norman Beecher and Hannah Brinley who do all of our mental health first aid training and are absolutely amazing. If anybody is thinking about going on the course it’s four sessions over a couple of days or weeks and they’re both such brilliant practitioners that make you feel welcome and understood. When you think of first aid you see St Johns Ambulance people at gigs, you see medical people with a red cross at every concert now. When I first started there weren’t things like that. Our stuff is very much for the people working there and touring, not that I’m sure there aren’t people in the audience with mental health problems and addiction, but we want to be more specific and help people in our industry to get to a point where most tours will have mental health first aid training. Within the next few years it will probably become the norm in any big organisation in the same way that you have to have medical first aiders, for the mind as well as the body because it’s just as important. So much productivity is lost because of people having mental health or addiction issues. It's accepted that people think ‘they’ll just get over it’ or not wanting to deal with it. In our industry it’s difficult to be off sick but if you work at a record company or a management company and don’t want to come into work because you’ve got issues at home, if you had someone you could talk to in the office 1 on 1 it would help, so I think it will become more of the norm. When we started it was a very different thing but now with the mental health first aid training there’s an awareness and people want to get involved. Younger people coming in kind of expect to have those things and people looking out for them. The music industry seems to have a reputation for mental health struggles that surpasses any other. From your experience within the industry, and now with the charity, what do you think it is about this particular industry that sees so many struggle? I think the pressure that you are under to produce. There’s so much riding on it. When you go to a gig to watch a band you want it to be their best show they’ve ever done but for people working if you’ve had a horrendous day or you’ve got marital problems you have to try and forget all of that and put a brave face on. All the technicians backstage have to create this unbelievable spectacle and it has to happen on time. You’re dealing with all the latest technology and all this new equipment and you don’t know if it will work and there’s all these kinds of things that could potentially go wrong and if it does go wrong you’ve got to fix it so the audience doesn’t know. You go through this entire thing and then go somewhere else and do it again – what idiot would do that! You know, you’re constantly under pressure and at some point if you’ve got an issue or can’t deal with it you’ll end up thinking about how you can relax; you get on the bus or go to the hotel and have a few drinks or do some drugs trying to get through it. How can you work out that kind of stuff when your brain is fried? If there’s a problem with a light you may go and try and fix it and if you can’t you’d get someone else to have a look but when there’s something going on in your head what do you do? You get drunk or off your face, then you sober up and wake up the next day with a hangover and feel awful and still have to do your job, and lo and behold the problem hasn’t gone away. You need to have support out there that can help and that you feel confident that you can speak to someone and they have your back. You’re moving around the world in this little travelling group of people that hasn’t got a base – like going away with the circus. It’s like a psychosis; you have to be out on the road then when you come back you don’t know how to deal with your normal life. The pandemic has been extremely tough on people’s mental health. Have you seen an impact on the amount of people seeking your support? Initially the call rate went down a little bit because people were at home and they didn’t really have the opportunity to make calls because their family were around or they weren’t sure how to deal with it. If you’ve got mental health problems and you’re at home all the time you’re under the spotlight and it’s hard to hide so that became a pressure. Then people started to worry about money and the business and whether it would ever come back. A lot of people left the business. The music industry is a fantastic thing of putting on these spectacles and shows but no one looks after the people working on them. People who work for companies were being furloughed but in the music industry there wasn’t any guarantee of furlough, you had to apply for it and some people would get it and others didn’t. It was a very difficult thing and people decided to leave the industry, earn less money but be home in the evenings. Now the pandemic is getting less suddenly there’s a dilemma as to whether to go back and go through all of that again or just to stay away from it, and some people are going back and then aren’t sure if they can handle it, wondering if they would be able to do it. With the loss of touring for a while there’s also so many going on this year and next year, people may have two of their clients out touring at the same time and they feel ‘I have to look after both of them otherwise they may not want me’. There’s pressure left right and centre and it never goes away. When you struggle to think clearly you can’t deal with that pressure. When you set up the charity in 2016 did you imagine that six years later it would be where it is now, and what would you expect, and hope to see another six years into the future? If we’d have known how difficult it was to set the whole thing up I’m not sure we would have! It was three or four years of really hard work! People maybe think ‘you’re in the charity because you’re getting some money’ or that it’s some great side gig or something! I mean I got paid back for some printing I did in the first two or three months and that’s the only money I’ve ever received from this charity after six years! It’s a difficult thing to get going and a complicated thing because when you start dealing with people’s mental health there are so many hoops to jump through, and quite rightly! You’re taking care of people so you need to make sure you have all the safeguards in place and again we had no idea of all that stuff. Now we have three full time members of staff and loads of helpers. We’ve got fantastic support and we’ve got people who donate money. In 6 or 7 years time I’d like to have proper funding! For any of our readers who want to help out ‘Music Support’ – what is the best way for them to do it? People can get involved with volunteering to help out at our “festival Safe hubs” backstage places for Band, crew or whoever works at the festival, to have a safe space. People can also help us to fundraise, donate to us or by attending, and/or spreading the word about our Mental Health First Aid and Addiction Awareness Courses Finally, one thing we ask all of our interviewees is to name a top three songs that relate to mental health. What would be your top three? You’re Not Alone – Cathal Smyth Between Dark and Dawn – Nick Lowe Almost Blue – Chet Baker |