Voices For Mental Health: Ash Jones from Strange New Places on punk music's connection to mental health

I read Lyra McKee's article about the 'Suicide of the Ceasefire Babies' before she died, and it related very heavily to my experience as a young person in Northern Ireland. I didn't come out until I was 18. Long before that, I really identified with punk's themes of alienation from mainstream society. Mental health issues are better represented in 21st century punk and pop punk than probably any other genre. For a lot of us in the band, that's what drew us to that sound growing up.

Recently, the five of us were sitting around a table, and we were asked if we had personal experience of suicide while growing up. One by one, we all said yes. It's not unusual for any of us to be approached with suicidal feelings - either from ourselves or the people that are around us. Living in relatively hopeless-looking times exacerbates that.

We all have a couple of outlets in the band, aside from music. Rain and Caleb are artists, Rory's a poet and I write fiction. But these kinds of feelings are also what songwriting is for. Anxiety and depression often give you a veil between yourself and the people you're interacting with. You can feel like there's some kind of glass wall between you and everyone else. Music that tries to represent that space was something that I really appreciated growing up. If we can help provide that feeling in our music, so that other people can relate, that would be excellent.

Now We're Talking 2019
A partnership between Lyons Tea, Pieta House & Hot Press.
Let’s break the stigma and take the dialogue about mental health issues onto a new level
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