“For anyone struggling with their mental health during this quarantine: you are not alone.
When I started writing The Darkness, it was about me. When I finished, the song also interwove stories and experiences of many family members and friends.
Struggling with mental health and finding meaningful support is a rats nest of mixed messages, ill-equipped and untrained medical professionals, and a public health system that doesn’t fully understand what or how and perhaps most importantly why.
I’m glad that our society talks about mental illness more than we ever have previously, but there’s still so far to go. Depression, bi-polar, anxiety … whatever shape it takes, it messes you up and it impacts your relationships and clouds your judgement. It’s real and it’s alive in me, and in so many people I love. My wife said to me the other day, “It’s like you have two modes: depressed or working on a project.”
I want to thank Ali and Tyler for so deeply embracing the video part of this project. They’ve met the emotional core of the music with generous hearts, thoughtfulness and respect and one can’t ask for much more from collaborators.
I also want to thank Kelly Beaton. She wrote the lovely ascending-thirds piano part that I tucked into these other piano chords I’d been rolling around with for a couple years, and she has given her blessing for this adaptation of her idea. Go check out her band @GlassReel.
Drums on this track were recorded by Ivan Burke. I think Curtis Nowosad played the first version which Ivan then updated after Curtis left for New York, but it’s been a long time.”
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