Mental Health
Here’s How Games Are Changing the Future of Healthcare
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MusiCares Launches Free Virtual Event Series for Mental Health Awareness Month
Mental health has never been more important in the music industry. After suffering blow after blow over the past two years due to the pandemic, music professionals around the globe were stripped of their income streams—and livelihoods. But as the music industry trends up, MusiCares wants the mental health of its professionals to grow in lockstep. The RIAA’s MusiCares program provides creatives around the globe with mental health awareness resources. In support of Mental Health Awareness Month, they’ve launched a free series of events that are open to all. You can check out the programming, courtesy of a press release MusiCares shared with EDM.com, below. Click the hyperlinks to register. Scroll to Continue Recommended Articles In addition to MusiCares̵...
Bloom Vol 15: What Has Been Lost
For Mother’s Day in 2017, I prepared a song called “Spirit” for my mother. She had been battling breast cancer along with other health complications, and her morale was declining. The fight was one of many years, multiple cancer outbreaks and several events weighed upon her consciousness. “Spirit” possessed the sound of the animal kingdom, with soaring resounding synths that crooned upward with poise. Elephants were her favorite animal, and I made sure they trumpeted with pride. My good friend Sabre laid down vocals exuding grace. I designed a piece that embodied who she was as a human being and what she meant to me. It was the first song I had ever recorded explicitly for her. She was the most radiant being I had ever met in my life, a soul that desired nothing more than to see others shi...
Bloom Vol 14: Pain & Rumination
A wilted petal does not define a flower. Its beauty remains intact. Recently I had a most curious experience. I was sitting there, listening to a friend of mine play music at my house, when suddenly I was overcome with a creeping headache. I shifted all of my attention to this pain – unfurling like a scroll a list of questions. I began to obsess. Was this headache a mark of poor health? What if I am not treating myself right, will others notice? There was no good to come of this tangent of thought, but there I was, paralyzed by the electricity of my unfounded skepticism. Yet I stayed with the pain, and I began to ask a question of my intention – has this overtaken me? Does it have complete agency over my entire body and my mind? I replied with an internalized “no.” The agreement between th...
Bloom Vol 13: Choosing Joy
Happiness has been, at times, like the green light in The Great Gatsby – an illustrious prize off in the distance that I could never quite reach. That is until I became far more observant about what influences my state of being, pulling apart variables and finding the factors that affect my happiness the most. For over seven years, Hugo Huijer, founder of Tracking Happiness, has tracked his sentiment levels every day. Through this meticulous study of his own emotions, he discovered ten core factors to his happiness. They are: Love Exercising Relaxing Career Friends Family Sleep Hobbies Traveling Health “Feeling happy leads to good life outcomes.” (Happiness Lab) Each individual may have a different top 10 factors of happiness, but I found these to be good points of discussion to briefly wa...
The Kids Cudi Saved
From the Renaissance Era to our Digital Age, music has remained the method that expresses the language that we cannot. And contrary to what one might think, research has shown music can help heal the heart. Its sounds release dopamine and endorphins that “can induce happy moods and relieve pain” — specifically for the mind. And contemporarily, one could argue that rapper Kid Cudi has become an ambassador for mental health awareness. The 38-year-old employed his lyrics and iconic hums to destigmatize being not okay is okay. But what if I were to say music has always carried this tune and has always been a vessel to discuss personal pains? Before we dive into the 21st century, we need to revisit the Romantic and Classical periods with another musical icon, Ludwig van Beethoven. The German cl...
Bloom Vol 12: Plans
“I made it here,” I wrote to a mentor of mine while the sound of xylophones quietly trickled in the background. Direction has been an ever-evolving map for me. Instances where the paper folds over have placed creases in what I had assumed was my intended road. Hot take, but I must say the notion of Calvin’s perceived pre-destination certainly doesn’t consider the natural flow and state of things. I watched an interview with Zane Lowe and Ed Sheeran the other night about Ed Sheeran “returning to music” after an 18-month hiatus. He took the break after concluding years of touring for his records, the size of which exploded beyond anything he had perceived. It came from one idea – do a massive stadium tour and ensure that as many people hear and experience his music and story. But that was th...
Bloom Vol 11: The Sun and the Ocean
The sun brings life to our planet. Photosynthesis. Plants, algae, and some bacteria take in oxygen and carbon dioxide from the soil and the air. They capture energy from the sunlight to make oxygen and chemical energy stored in glucose. The carbon dioxide is offset as chemical energy. It’s fascinating how the sun can spur this cycle; how a ray of light can give the gift of renewed existence day after day. With our continued observation of humans like flowers within a garden, it’s scientifically undeniable how good sunlight is for us. Sunlight is most known for helping us produce Vitamin D. More and more research shows that Vitamin D plays an essential role in regulating mood and reducing the risk of depression. Now, I was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. The Pacific Northwest is notori...
Justin Bieber Offering $3 Million in Free Therapy to Fans and Crew
Justin Bieber is likely raking in millions on his 98-date “Justice World Tour,” but he’s sharing the wealth by financing therapy for his fans and crew. The pop star has teamed up with affordable therapy service BetterHelp to offer mental health assistance of up to $3,000,000 in value. “The one thing I’ve learned over the years is that we all go through our ups and downs, and we all need help sometimes,” Bieber said in a statement. “Being able to offer access to free therapy to my fans and tour family is a real blessing, and I’m humbled to be able to do it.” Perhaps aware of the toll that working away from home for months on end — and in a pandemic, no less — can have on touring musicians, Bieber’s deal prioritizes his crew, offering his 250+ person team free access to 18 months of therapy....
Really Good Rejects Looks at the Musical Healing of One Powerful Luthier
When director Alice Gu set out to make a film about beloved L.A.-based luthier Reuben Cox, she envisioned creating a 12-minute mini-documentary. That plan quickly changed as Cox’s famous clientele (Jackson Browne, Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, Phoebe Bridgers, The National’s Aaron Dessner and My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, among others) also agreed to appear in the film. The resulting full-length documentary, Really Good Rejects, is a deeply absorbing and moving look at Cox and how his instruments have inspired these artists. Through candid artist interviews and intimate performances, the film takes an in-depth look at the ways in which music fosters positive mental health, self-actualization and addiction recovery SPIN spoke with the film’s director about everything that went into making one of th...
Bloom Vol 10: Imagination and a Broken Home
Time passed so seamlessly when I was young. I had a wild fascination with trains. You’d walk into my room and see a Thomas the Tank Engine bedsheet set, train toys scattered about the floor. I would bring their world to life every day, hours passing by faster than the whirling train cars around my room. I can remember my joy; nothing else seemed to matter. One of the most powerful things I’ve ever possessed is the power of imagination. I knew how to love myself through projections that helped define a more loving reality to reside in. I had a sea of possibilities swimming within my head that I could dive into at any second. My dreams became bolder and more encapsulating, compensating for the instability around me. Toy train cars were not the only thing colliding at the time. I was the prod...
Mothica is Rewriting the Rules for Trauma-Fueled Music
When McKenzie Ellis moved to Los Angeles from Oklahoma City two years ago, it wasn’t at all what she’d expected. Not only was the world in the midst of what seemed like an apocalypse-themed episode of Punk’d (things were that absurd), she’d realized the weather wasn’t quite her cup of tea either. Though a selling-point for some people, the sunshine just didn’t do for Ellis what dreary skies and soaking-wet sidewalks could. Since high school (and probably long before that), she had acquired an affinity – or, perhaps, a proclivity – for darker milieus. This wasn’t a phase or an image enhancer (and it still isn’t) but rather a response to the trauma and chaotic life experiences she had long endured. At age 15, Ellis attempted suicide. Later, she’d become a survivor of domestic abuse and assau...
