18th-24th May sees this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week, a time which allows people from all walks of life with mental health issues to have the opportunity to tell their story and for the world around them to listen and try to understand the complexity of the myriad of conditions which make day-to-day life so difficult for so many.
Quite Great has worked with many, many artists over the years with a range of mental health issues, from depression to anxiety to PTSD and PND, no two stories are the same and there is no magic cure. Musicians and artists find themselves under more scrutiny than many – what they look like; how they sound; what their opinions are – this can be challenging for anyone but for someone who may well be alone…possibly even on tour, thousands of miles from home, it can be life-changing and incredibly damaging to their health and well-being.
Mental Health Awareness Week gives artists the chance to explain what life is like for them year-round 
– UNDERSTANDING is what is needed – not throwaway comments like “cheer up” or “pull yourself together”. By listening, we can begin to learn and empathise with what life is like not just for one week of the year but as part of who they are for all their lives. With this year’s theme being ‘kindness’, we welcome the chance to not only discuss the stories and issues of so many talented, wonderful people whom were are proud to work with but to celebrate their achievements and to show that with kindness, empathy and tolerance, it is possible to be anything you want to be, not despite your condition but with it simply being a part of the fabric of life. Here are three acts whose commitment to telling their story has given hope and inspiration to people around the world.
ADAM LANCELEY
Adam Lanceley was only ten years old when a car accident left him seriously injured. Sustaining a severe brain injury, a crushed pelvis and shattered legs, doctors advised him he was unlikely to walk or talk again. Against all odds, Adam not only proved them wrong but has taken his remarkable recovery to the extreme, running marathons and carving out a career as a singer-songwriter. However, though he has largely recovered from his physical injuries, he continues to live each day with the spectre of serious mental health issues which have grown over the last seven years, with constant battles with depression, anxiety and PTSD, all of which combine to create a torturous existence, essentially trapped with himself. Incredibly, this Summer sees the release of Adam’s 100th recorded song as part of his new EP, Deliverance. Music has given Adam the peace and courage which allows him to face each day in the knowledge that there is always hope, however desperate the situation may feel.
See more about Adam’s Story here:
MILLIE MANDERS AND THE SHUTUP
Both Millie and bassist George suffer with anxiety, a condition which may seem an alien concept considering the rapturous reception to band get nationwide at their sell-out shows but then this is exactly the kind of paradoxical situations musicians often find themselves. Expected to entertain on demand however they feel internally can become not just mentally gruelling but physically, the band not just write songs with lyrics highlighting issues but offer their support to foundations and charities. Their forthcoming album, Telling Truth, Breaking Ties, features songs such as Silent Screams, which deals with the idea of feeling trapped and suicidal thoughts; Not Ok which deals with anxiety attacks at live shows and Here We Go Again which sees the inevitable acceptance of the black dog becoming almost a comforting constant. Millie and the band have created an exclusive line of merchandise, of which £5 of each sale goes to the mental health charity, Mind and Papyrus, a charity dedicated to the prevention of suicide in young people.
SINGING SOLDIERS
Mental health does not discriminate in terms of who it affects – young; old; rich; poor; successful; sporty, outside appearances do not tell you what is happening inside a person. Singing Soldiers are the perfect reflection of this. Happy go lucky guys Graham Trude and Chris Earl have enjoyed a lifetime of travel and experiences few can dream of as members of the Canadian Armed Forces, but the true impact has seen Graham being diagnosed with complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, something which united the pair in a common goal to use music as both a device for healing and to give hope to the countless thousands of forces and first responder heroes whose cries for help so often fall on deaf ears.
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