When singer-songwriter Amelia Curran was growing up in the 1990s, to be a good musician was to be raw, to be struggling and to live tragically.
“You were either Kurt Cobain or a sell-out,” she said of Cobain, the lead singer of the grunge band Nirvana, who died by suicide in 1994.
“I feel really bad about (thinking that) now,” Curran said in an interview with the Guardian. The St. John’s-based musician has since shifted her understanding of personal worth as an artist after finding her voice as a mental health advocate. Now, her own industry is coming around, too.
The East Coast Music Association (ECMA) is giving mental health top billing at this week’s festival in Charlottetown after having heard from its members how significant the issue was to them. Results of a recently released ECMA survey suggest that rates of anxiety, depression and even suicidal thinking were much higher among the Atlantic music community than among Canadians at large.
Errin Williams, a mental health clinician who helped develop the survey, said she was surprised by the numbers. Of the 50 respondents, one in five reported having suicidal thoughts within the last month.
As a response, the ECMA will offer free consultations for members with Williams this week in Charlottetown, where clients can discover and discuss the supports they can reach out to when they’re touring on the road. Yoga and meditation spaces will also be available for attendees looking for a break from the noise of life in the music business.
Being a touring musician feeds a cycle of financial and mental challenges, said Curran.
“You can’t stop moving (because) if you’re not moving, you’re not earning.”
Extensive touring also means that artists are away from structures of support like therapists and friends.
Curran and Williams agreed that the financial strain of gear, travel and make-or-break gigs only aggravate the potential for loneliness and mental health issues. Considering more than half of all respondents to the ECMA’s survey indicated that they live below the poverty line (and half of those said they make under $10,000 per year), simple things like adequate housing, healthy eating and trips to the dentist may be out of reach to many in the music business.
At future ECMA festivals, Williams said, the artists’ association may offer dental clinics to go along with the week of concerts. She said that, based on the feedback from the survey, it may be easier to change the “very practical, hands-on things” rather than artists’ compensation for live shows.
For Curran, though, the biggest support she’s found as an artist has been time with fellow musicians —on the occasion that she ever finds herself in the same town as her touring friends.
“People need to feel rooted in something,” she said.
“It’s important to keep that in mind when we’ve got stars in our eyes about touring Germany. You still have to make sure that your foundation is there.”
How to get help
- If you or someone you know needs immediate mental health help, go to the nearest hospital, call 911 or call the province’s crisis line at 1-800-218-2885
- For additional provincial resources, visit princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/health-pei/mental-health-services
- In Canada, contact Kids Help Phone (1-800-668-6868 or kidshelpphone.ca), Crisis Services Canada (1-833-456-4566, text: 45645, chat: crisisservicescanada.ca), Canadian Mental Health Association websites (cmha.ca, cmha.ca/about-cmha/media, pei.cmha.ca
