Interview by Kris Peters
Many artists have written about their struggles with mental health, but how many have written songs that actually sound like a mental crisis? That notion was exactly what Martin Jackson from Confyde set out to do when writing the songs for his latest three-track EP A Cowards Stitches, which was released today.
Written in the aftermath of a relationship break-up, Jackson found himself in unchartered waters, facing reality head-on after professional advice forced him to confront his inner demons and quantify them by bringing them screaming out of the shadows of his mind and into the harsh reality of light. It was a process which had the potential to be crippling, but given his love for and aptitude of music, Jackson elected to relay his thoughts and feelings through verse in an attempt to best deal with them.
The result is a schizophrenic trio of songs, ranging from the twisted and sonically challenging title track to the brutally honest Once Broken and the reflective Hxppy Nxw Yxxr, three songs that delve into the mindset of a person whose personal struggles are slowly manifesting into a tangible entity that can be defeated.
Jackson sat down with HEAVY to take us deeper.
"The writing process was about the same," he measured when asked if it was easier or harder to write songs that are deeply personal as opposed to general views. "At the end of the day, it still comes from a place of emotion, and things that I feel very strongly about. It's just this time it happens to affect me and my personal life. I think the process of recording and writing was easier. I was certainly a lot more freeform this time, even though Confyde's music is a bit more all over the place anyway, I always like to think there's strong hooks and it's still quite accessible when it needs to be. This time I kind of threw the rule book out a little bit."
In the full interview, Martin takes us behind the reasons he decided to take a more personal route on this release, dealing with his struggles, writing them into songs and music and how that process has helped, whether it was easier or harder to write such personal songs and release them for public consumption, offers an in-depth analysis into each of the three songs individually, what he hopes others might take out of the EP and more.
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