Aby Coulibaly & Monjola:

Aby: Music is everything to me. But mental health comes first. It has to. Because the music doesn’t follow if you’re not okay, if you’re not looking after yourself. Mental health is something that I can’t compromise on. I know a couple of people who are really talented musicians, but they struggle to release music because they’re in their own head a lot. They’d be worried that – if they released music, is it going to do well? They overthink it so much that they’d rather not release it. It’s obviously upsetting to see, because these people are so talented.

Monjola: I would say for your mental health especially, when you’re doing shows and you’re trying to get a lot done, the first thing to do is look after yourself, your diet, and so on. One thing that a lot of artists do during festival season is drink. They’d play a festival and then they’d have their drink. When I went on tour I felt like if I kept on drinking every single day, then I was drinking on the job. So, I feel like that might have had an effect on my mental health if I had been partaking in that. Because I wouldn’t be prioritising sleep. I wouldn’t be prioritising my well-being. I think having really good people around you helps as well. Having people you trust. Looking after your body, and eating, drinking enough water and all of that stuff is, to me, really important for good mental health.

Aby: In the music industry in general, there’s a lot of drugs and alcohol. I’m very new to this but I am already so aware of that. It’s not that you shouldn’t drink alcohol, but it’s more that looking after yourself is so important. If you’ve got a broken arm, everyone can see that, but if you’re not okay mentally, nobody can really see it. So, wshere mental health is concerned, it’s even more important for you to make sure you’re okay.

Read the full Hot Press Mental Health Special now in the current issue of Hot Press: