During his short career, Lil Peep quickly became the voice of Gen Z. After pioneering the grunge-laden emo-rap genre that blew up on Soundcloud in the mid 2010s, he was selling out venues from the US to Russia – all without ever having released any music. He wore his emotions not just on his sleeve but on his face, and his powerful lyrics told the story of a young man struggling with mental health issues and substance addiction which took his life in 2017.
In our final episode of the first season of Empathy for the Devil, Matt Thomas returns to tell us the story of a musician working in a different time to our other episodes, but whose story still resonates profoundly with the themes we’ve been discussing. From childhood trauma to anxiety and addiction, to the identity issues of a character who just wanted to be ‘Everybody’s Everything’, Lil Peep’s story rounds off our season in a tragic tale of an artist whose unique style was lost too soon.
Journey with us as we explore Whitney Houston's story through a compassionate, modern mental health lens. From global superstar to struggling icon, we uncover the human behind 'The Voice'. In this exploration of the effects of the music industry on an artist's mental health, we will discuss Whitney's early life & career, her childhood influences and family background, and the monumental rise to fame as 'The Voice', selling 220 million records & appearing in blockbuster films. We will sensitively explore themes such as her identity issues and sexuality, her troubled relationships and the weight of fame and fortune.
We will also address mental health & addiction in an empathetic way, with the aim of understanding Whitney's battles, without judgment. This will include the impact of her childhood experiences and pressure in the music industry. We will reinforce Whitney's amazing legacy, her lasting impact on pop music, and look at lessons learned for today's music industry. Fostering empathy for celebrities facing mental health challenges, this video podcast offers a fresh perspective on Whitney Houston's life, examining her triumphs and struggles with compassion and understanding.
Karen Carpenter’s sound was decade-defining – the sound of the 70’s. The vibe she created as drummer and lead singer of The Carpenters takes us back to that era in every track.
With a voice that Burt Bacharach described as "clean, clear, like a flag flying over the song," Karen was a female icon in a male-dominated music world and quickly soared to the dizzying heights of fame, literally at the top of the world.
But the pressures of her success and the complicated family dynamics in her band took their toll, exacerbating the anorexia which would eventually take her life at just 32.
This week, Samantha Parker takes the lead again to tell Karen’s story, looking beyond the smiling photos and honey infused sounds, to explore an inner life dominated by a desperately misunderstood illness. We’ll discover how Karen found her voice, hear about The Carpenters’ meteoric rise to fame, but also explore the incredible toll that such a rise can have on young musicians, and women in particular.
Kurt Cobain was one of the most powerful and influential musicians, songwriters and performers of his generation, who’s lasting legacy still permeates the sounds and attitudes of artists from all genres today. As the lead singer of Nirvana, he fronted their own brand of groundbreaking emotion-laden, guitar-heavy music into the mainstream, defining a new genre with a scream of such naked vulnerability and authenticity that it tore through the listener, perhaps reflecting the trapped feelings of a generation. The scream of a butterfly.
But this came at a cost. As well as sharing his pain through music, Kurt Cobain lived it. Was this simply a life of magazine cover, paint by numbers, rock’n roll excess? Or the tragic story of someone with an enormous talent for expressing their pain, desperately trying to paint it in any way he could?
This week, Chula takes the lead for the first time to talk about one of his favourite ever musicians – from a band who inspired him to become a drummer in the 1990s. But far from discussing the same tired, cliched ‘tortured artist’ myths that now surround Cobain after his death in 1994, Chula helps us to examine his story through a modern and empathetic mental health lens. This is a moving discussion that looks at Cobain’s life and in doing so identifies some truly universal themes.
From the Wham Rap to Careless Whisper, Club Tropicana and Faith… Wham! and George Michael’s discographies represent some of the best pop music to come out of the 1980s, the 1990’s and beyond. George’s iconic look and sound influenced the world and won him fans in their millions. But behind the stylish, cool exterior was a man battling with inner struggles. The social constructs of the time, the death of a partner and parent, the difficulty in separating George Michael the artist from Georgios ‘Yog’ Panayiotou the man – all contributed to George’s often troubled state of mind. These factors would haunt him throughout his life, exacerbating his substance use and perhaps bringing an end to his precious life too soon.
Samantha Parker tells us his story from the joint space of a George Michael superfan and mental health practitioner. From discovering him in her teens to mourning his death in adulthood, she discusses how despite winning so many devoted fans around the world, early life events and relationships combined with fame and media scrutiny to create an inner fragility that few people saw. As George himself said “sometimes the clothes do not make the man.”
Brian Jones was a founding member of The Rolling Stones. Not only that, he originally brought the band together and was instrumental in forging their unique sound. But these days, he is probably remembered more for his erratic behaviour, drug use, and death than for his vision and talent. In our first episode, Matt Thomas takes the lead to tell us Brian’s story with the sensitivity of a modern mental wellbeing perspective. From his difficult childhood to friction with bandmates and management, troubled relationships, issues with fame and identity, to his escalating substance use and out of control behaviour, his story is retold not as a rock’n roll casualty, but as someone who was in desperate need of help that simply wasn’t available. This first episode opens up a Pandora's box of themes which we’ll discuss again and again across the series.
If you have been affected by the issues discussed in this podcast and are looking for support, you may find some onf the following resources helpful. If you are experiencing a crisis don't hesitate to call the emergency services or visit your local A&E.
