Back in November, we wrote about the cancellation of Closure In Moscow’s European tour after frontman Christopher de Cinque announced the news with a bold and honest message to the band’s fans, revealing that he’d been suffering from a “debilitating anxiety disorder”.
de Cinque wasn’t the first Australian musician in recent memory to discuss his battles with mental illness. Nonetheless, whenever a local muso decides to reveal their diagnosis to the public, it’s a brave and often nerve-racking move, but one that’s important and sparks a healthy dialogue.
It’s particularly important in the wake of recent research that found that those working in Australia’s entertainment industry are more susceptible to depression and other mental illnesses as well as suicide than other Australian workers.
Now, Australian hip-hop favourite Chance Waters has just become the latest Aussie musician to share his struggles with mental illness with his fans. “2015 was easily the worst year of my life, but thanks to the support of my loved ones things are finally looking up,” he wrote in a NYD message to fans.
“I guess this is as good a time as any to reveal that this year I was diagnosed bipolar. For anyone who knows me well that news is probably not exactly shocking, but the diagnosis has been extremely important for me.”
“Hopefully it also explains how variable and erratic my behavior and moods are, and also why my creative production fluctuates so much and has been so unreliable.” Waters went on to recount how his dipolar disorder affects his day-to-day life.
“Sometimes all I want to do is tour and interact with people and create art, other times I’m depressed for months and can’t take the garbage out, sometimes I’m totally normal, sometimes I’m text book lunatic and can’t recognise my own families faces,” he wrote.
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“This has been normality for me since I was 13, I had never considered that there was a name for what I experienced and that it was something I could act on and manage, that possibility was never even raised for me until my late 20’s, I guess that says something about societies attitude towards mental health.”
He also touched on how being bipolar has affected the progress of his career, revealing that a new album has been “gathering dust” because he was “frankly… too scared to face the social obligations that come with releasing it”.
“I didn’t want to let anyone down again. This year I’m going to do my best to keep rolling with the punches and actually share with you guys everything I’ve been working on in my good moments, without worrying so much about how it’s received. I’ll see you all soon.”
2015 was easily the worst year of my life, but thanks to the support of my loved ones things are finally looking up. I…
Posted by Chance Waters onThursday, December 31, 2015
