‘Life is a beautiful gift. It’s going to be filled with euphoric highs and depressing lows, but when we are at that low point we need to know that it’s ok to speak up’
Usually when I write songs, I write them for me. It’s my way of expressing myself. My way of getting my thoughts and feelings out. “Speak Up” is the first time where the words I penned weren’t for me. I’m from Shannon Co.Clare, a town where everybody knows everybody. Over the last few years a number of awful stories broke out around the town in a short period of time, all with the same horrific outcome, that someone has succumb to mental illness. “Speak Up” is split into 3 different parts. The first verse Is about how these stories have become such a regular occurrence and the effect that it takes on the people close to them “Another day, another tragedy, another broken family” it’s about how we hear this news and we all tell each other that we are going to be more open and honest with each other but despite these promises we still keep are cards close to our chest and repeat the same vicious cycle over and over “We agree that were gonna change, but we never do”.
Two years ago I lost one of my mates to suicide and that’s what the second verse is inspired by “I still think about you all the time, bout how we never got to say goodbye.” I think that’s the hardest part about it all, the lack of closure. How one day you can be laughing with your mates, planning out things to do in the future and the next day they’re gone without another word being said. The shock that comes with the suddenness of it all is one of those feelings that sticks with everybody in these moments. this shock leads you to question what you could have done to try and help in that moment despite there being nothing you really could have done “now I sit around and wonder why, looking for answers that ill never find.” I know this isn’t just a problem in my hometown however, this is an issue that is widespread across the county, the country and beyond. the bridge is where the real message of the song is. It’s a message to everyone, regardless of who you are, where you’re from, what issues you may have going on in your life that even though you may not think it or feel it, there are people there for you. People who care about you and want to be there for you in those bad times “you can talk about it, you can let it out, cause I would rather listen than put you in the ground.” If anybody takes anything away from this song then I want it to be this. Life is a beautiful gift. It’s going to be filled with euphoric highs and depressing lows, but when we are at that low point we need to know that it’s ok to speak up and be honest about how it is we are truly feeling. Just because it feels like the end doesn’t mean that it is or that it should be. There’s a poem called “good news if you wish you were dead” by an artist named Lucas Jones which encapsulates everything better the I probably am so i’d like to leave it on this “I’m not saying you won’t, you will definitely die. So if that’s what you want just give it some time. And if you just keep waiting, the good news is this, your wish will come true but till then you would live.”
Please look after yourselves and look out for each other.