In the depths of depression

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This article was published 29/01/2020 (2397 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Many studies have been done in recent years that point to musicians as being particularly vulnerable to depression and other forms of mental illness. Upwards of 70 per cent of the thousands of artists polled for many of the studies say they’ve experienced symptoms of depression, anxiety or panic attacks.

Winnipeg musician Kevin Kratsch knows these feelings first hand.

After working on a musical project under the name Kevin Roy for five years, he found himself being consumed by the business side of his career, which, in turn, was disconnecting him from the artistic side. Kratsch struggled with this, yet continued to write and perform until one late-night writing session pulled him in a different direction.

He sat at his piano, words and music flowing quickly, and penned the track Darker Days, an intimate, introspective look at his own battle with depression and anxiety that he is releasing today, to coincide with Bell Let’s Talk Day.

“It was the most vulnerable piece I’d ever written before, almost like a breakthrough moment for me. Once the song was written, I performed it a bit as Kevin Roy at shows and the response was incredible; I had a lot of people come up to me and talk to me and open up about different struggles of their own and it created a lot of conversation at shows with people,” says Kratsch.

“It got to the point where I was realizing this song was way beyond anything else I was doing, it felt way more me than anything I was doing, so I stopped my Kevin Roy project shortly after. This song was almost the catalyst for that.”

When Kratsch was preparing to make a new record, Darker Days was the track he sent to producer/musician Rusty Matyas; Matyas has since been open about his battle with alcoholism and informed Kratsch at that time he was about to enter detox to prevent liver failure. The pair reconnected afterward and began to form a close bond as they supported and empowered one another during the creation of the debut Mister K album, In Event of Moon Disaster.

While much of In Event of Moon Disaster touches on similar themes as Darker Days, its tone is one of optimism, of finding the strength in being vulnerable and instilling hope that those darker days can get brighter.

It’s Kratsch’s hope that by being open about his struggles with mental health, his music can contribute to lessening the the stigma surrounding the topic.

“Being in the arts scene, I see so much of it and I honestly, it’s pretty devastating to see the state of a lot of colleagues and friends of mine and it’s really opened up the conversation a lot. I think in the last 10 years or so, with initiatives like Bell Let’s Talk, there is a push toward destigmatizing this topic,” says Kratsch.

“There’s strength in opening up about your mental challenges or struggles.”

Kratsch has released four singles from In Event of Moon Disaster and will perform Saturday at 9:30 p.m. with Sierra Noble and Tyler Del Pino at the Handsome Daughter. The debut Mister K album is expected to be out this summer.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @NireRabel