FEATURE:
Backstage Pass
IMAAGE CREDIT: Omnibus Press
Why the Book, Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual, Is So Essential
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THERE have been some…
IN THIS PHOTO: Tamsin Embleton is editor of the new wonderful and must-read book, Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual
heart-breaking and troubling tweets from some huge artists recently. Before we get to that, there is an invaluable book called Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual. It should really be in every artist’s tour rider and bag. Kept backstage too. Have a copy on the tour bus. Even if you are not an artist but still work in the industry in some form, there is psychological insight and great advice that is invaluable. I have read it and, when researching for this feature, I have been really struck by the words of Tamsin Embleton and the contributors. Embleton has worked in various different roles in the industry; so this book is coming from a place of experience, neccesity and knowledge. In 2018, Embleton set up (the) The Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC); advice and help from professionals who know the industry and can provide that tailored and authoritative help. Embleton is a psychotherapist and someone whose book is full of useful advice. I shall come to that soon. First, here is some detail about The Music Industry Therapist Collective’s objectives and mission statements:
“The Music Industry Therapist Collective believes that those working in the industry need access to high quality psychotherapy from registered and experienced psychotherapists who also have an in-depth inside understanding of how the music industry works.
We are a collective of therapists with an abundance of experience of working within and around the industry in various roles across all sectors. We have extensive experience of working with mental health and addiction; from high-end treatment centres to the NHS.
We understand that the working conditions of the music industry can exacerbate pre-existing psychological difficulties as well as sow the seeds for new challenges.
We believe that the music industry is home to many vulnerable people who are drawn to a sense of community as well as to the cathartic outlet music can provide. The music industry is an unpredictable and highly competitive environment, with many stressful elements to negotiate including: touring; career uncertainty and transitions; burnout; depression; boundary management; the pressure to gain and maintain success; self-doubt; performance/social/financial anxiety; weathering negative critique; addiction; the pressure on outside relationships; unsociable working hours; sexual assault, trauma and rape; conflict management and difficulties within industry relationships; loneliness and isolation, to name a few. Each therapist in MITC has their own unique music industry experience and psychotherapy specialisms to help provide the best care possible for our clients.
Our mission:
To provide access to high quality psychotherapy to those working within the music industry.
To provide a safe, confidential, trustworthy and culturally-sensitive space for clients to share, understand and process their experiences leading to increased self-awareness, resilience, self-compassion and self-agency.
To collaborate, pooling our clinical expertise in order to provide insight into the myriad psychological difficulties facing the music industry today.
To increase our knowledge of these issues through our clinical work and surveys, allowing us to produce informed guides, best practice documents, workshops, podcasts and blogs.
To support each other as solo workers in the field through regular meetings and peer-supervision.
Our vision:
To help alleviate the mental health issues which are faced by those within the music industry.
To change perceptions around mental health and the music industry
To promote a trauma-informed approach to mental health within the industry.
To tackle some of the barriers that prevent people from getting help – stigma, prejudice and ignorance”.
I would anyone in the music industry to buy Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual. It is beautifully written. Artists such as Philip Selway (Radiohead) have testified about its essential nature! The fact that this should be on tour with every artist as a mental health bible almost. It is so passionately written. As Tamsin Embleton writes in the book, putting this together has been a labour of love. She is rightly very proud of the book. She spoke with Iraina Mancini on Soho Radio (listen from 1:00:57) recently. She also featured on Lauren Laverne’s BBC Radio 6 Music show on 18th May (listen from 1:08:37). On 17th May, Matt Everitt spoke with Tamsin Embleton (listen to Steve Lamacq’s show from 2:10:18) about the pressures of touring and the effect it can have on artists’ mental health. May was Mental Health Awareness month, so it was very important this was spoken about! There has been a lot of promotion. I hope that this has reached so many people. As a journalist, I can definitely take a lot from Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual. This is why you need to get it:
“This comprehensive manual will help musicians and those working in live music to identify and cope with the various physical and psychological difficulties that can occur during, or as a result of, touring. It covers topics including mental health, peak performance and performance anxiety, addiction, group dynamics, relationship problems, dealing with the media, physical health, diversity and inclusion, crisis management and post-tour recovery. Written by health and performance professionals, this timely and essential book provides robust clinical advice, cutting edge research, practical strategies, resources and detailed illustrations. Each chapter is underpinned with personal recollections from musicians and prominent touring personnel, including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua , Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Will Young, Angie Warner, Dale 'Opie' Skjerseth and many more. Touring and Mental Health is designed to be picked up, put down, read at length and passed around the tour bus.
624 pages for £40 seems like the greatest investment you could possibly make! Every artist will go through mental health struggles. Rather than this being Tamsin Embleton writing about her experiences alone, she is the editor of this book. Written by and with psychotherapists, psychologists, coaches and health professionals with intimate knowledge of the music industry, this is a collective tome that has this sole desire of being there to help people in the industry. To inform them about resources and ways of coping with all manner of mental health issues, troubles and strains. From relationships in bands breaking down, to ways of coping with isolation and loneliness, this is truly wonderful and invaluable. This, as we read here is a unique and hugely needed book:
“Comprehensive
The first book of its kind, this extensive, timely and essential book is written directly for the music industry and aims to help musicians and those working in live music to identify, process and manage the physical and psychological difficulties that can occur on the road or as a result of touring. Inside, you’ll find guidance on mental and physical health issues, relationship challenges, preparing for performance, media training and much more.
Authoritative
This clinically robust guide is written by performing arts clinicians including psychotherapists, psychologists, doctors, dieticians, and sleep, sexual health and addiction experts — all with specialist knowledge of the live music industry and the people who make it happen
Fully illustrated
Touring and Mental Health includes practical guidance, resources, psycho-education, diagrams, illustrations and vignettes from musicians and touring personnel.
Packed with insight
Each chapter is underpinned with and brought vividly to life by personal recollections from musicians and touring personnel, including Nile Rodgers, Justin Hawkins, Philip Selway, Charles Thompson, Katie Melua , Kieran Hebden, Jake Berry, Tina Farris, Taylor Hanson, Trevor Williams, Lauren Mayberry, Pharoahe Monch, Jim Digby, Will Young, Angie Warner, Dale ‘Opie’ Skjerseth and many more”.
I have read Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual, and I am grabbing a copy and keeping it with me at all times. I love Tamsin Embleton’s writing and her sharing her aims and experiences. Together with experts who have this knowledge and experience when it comes to psychology and the particular struggles in the industry, this is going to be required reading. You may wonder why I am underlining and italicising that point – why am I so keen to ensure that everyone reads this book?! Well, through the years, we have seen the impact extensive touring and burn-out can have on artists. The past few years have been extraordinary and unusual. The pandemic which started in 2020 isolated fans and artists. There was this scary time when we were divided and unable to go to gigs. The struggle on artists then was immense. From having to find ways to make money to trying to perform virtual gigs so they could connect with their fans, it was extremely hard. When things reopened and started to return to normal, there was this stress of venues being booked up. So many artists played so many gigs in order to ‘catch up’. This has the effect of them having to cancel shows because of depression and exhaustion. Now, even though there is not quite the same competition to book venues, tour scheduled seem immense and worrying. Even huge artists like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift – who are on their Renaissance and Eras tour respective – have so many dates booked! I can only imagine how gruelling it is for them.
PHOTO CREDIT: MART PRODUCTION/Pexels
Travelling between cities and putting on these high-energy and long sets every night is going to take their toll. They are responding to a combination of demand, and also a need to connect with fans following a period when touring was not possible. I do worry what happens after each gig when doors are closed and they are alone. They need to put on a façade and ensure that they keep going. How much support do they get from the tour organisers, their labels and the industry as a whole?! Last year, Wet Leg, Sam Fender, Arlo Parks, and various other artists has to cancel dates because of exhaustion and the damaging impact on their mental health of such hard touring. I am going to come back to Tamsin Embleton’s book and a couple of recent cases of artists stepping back from touring. First, and in reference to a spate of artists cancelling gigs to look after their mental health, The Guardian wrote how it should not be a new normal for artists to have to cancel gigs in order to protect their psychological wellbeing:
“In early August, Yard Act were at Stansted airport, waiting for a flight to Sicily, when singer James Smith hit a wall. “It felt as if I was in a cattle shed,” he says. “I was banging my head against the table saying: ‘I can’t do this any more.’”
Since the Leeds post-punk band released their debut album, The Overload, in January, their touring schedule had been relentless. Critical acclaim and a Mercury nomination had only amplified the pressure – bigger bookings kept coming, and the band was determined to play them all. “That weekend we were playing a castle with The Flaming Lips,” Smith says. “It was a dream come true. You feel ungrateful saying you can’t do it.”
His band and crew admitted they all felt the same. After consultation with their management and label, they made the difficult decision to cancel a run of shows in Europe. “Rest time at home is what our bodies and brains need right now,” the band said in a statement.
Yard Act are not alone in their sudden buckling, and their openness about why. A number of high-profile acts have recently cancelled tour dates, stating the need to attend to their mental health, from Wet Leg to Disclosure, Justin Bieber, Shawn Mendes, Gang of Youths and Russ.
This week, Arlo Parks became the latest, cancelling a run of US shows and explaining how the relentless grind of the past 18 months had left her “exhausted and dangerously low”. Her decision followed Sam Fender’s announcement that he was cancelling his US tour support slots with Florence + the Machine due to burnout: “It seems completely hypocritical of me to advocate for discussion on mental health and write songs about it if I don’t take time off to look after my own mental health.”
There are two factors at play here: a growing willingness among musicians to talk about mental health struggles and the demands of their profession, and an industry desperate to spring back to life after a devastating pandemic, with turbo-charged touring and promotional schedules to make up for perceived lost time.
Couple this with pitiful income from streaming, and the mounting cost of living, and the pressure to work more and chase success increases further. “Those opportunities are rare,” says Smith, of the endless touring momentum. “No one owes you those slots, and you can say no to them, but if you lose traction, and then those opportunities don’t come along again, that’s on you.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Wet Leg/PHOTO CREDIT: Chris McAndrew for The Times
Music Minds Matter (MMM), the music industry mental health service run in conjunction with Help Musicians, has noted a marked increase in uptake. “After a protracted period of relative inactivity there have been heightened numbers of people coming to us about stress, anxiety and performance-related anxiety,” says Joe Hastings of Help Musicians. MMM is able to direct those in need to a range of services, including a 24/7 hotline, therapy, online resources and peer-support sessions.
Music journalist Ian Winwood is the author of Bodies, a book that offers a fascinating, damning insight into the unhealthy demands and excesses of the music industry. While it “seems willing to have a conversation about mental health”, he says, “the litmus test is whether it’s willing to challenge the notion of ‘the show must go on’.
Winwood recalls interviewing a dope-sick Layne Staley from Alice in Chains, clearly in no fit state to face the media, and hearing Simon Neil from Biffy Clyro recounting the time he “collapsed in Toronto airport, placed on a gurney, wires sticking out of him” but still went on to play two Coachella shows “because he had trained himself to believe that the band’s career rested on two concerts”.
Of course many musicians are far from ever playing Coachella, and it is hard to believe that for them, cancelling shows for the benefit of their mental health would be received as warmly as it is for Parks and Fender – or that they would have the safety nets and support networks to do so.
IN THIS PHOTO: Sam Fender
But these high-profile acts’ open discussion of industry challenges could prompt a trickle-down effect. MMM’s Hastings notes that it is “important to enable artists to make difficult decisions on the basis of having a good understanding of what they need to take care of themselves and lead happy and healthy careers”. Bigger artists speaking about the mental health demands of touring may also educate promoters, venues, labels, managers and audiences, prompting greater empathy for anyone struggling at any level.
At any stage in your career, that understanding should not be so hard, Jenkins says. When she cancelled her dates in Spain, she felt heartbroken by the Spanish fans who posted crying emojis beneath her announcement on Instagram. She wrote back to every single one. “And I received so much love back,” she says. “At the end of the day, people just want to show you they care. They see that you’re vulnerable.”
She hopes that similar understanding of musicians’ vulnerability might extend to those involved in the infrastructure of touring. She talks of the huge effect of one Swiss host simply cooking her a warm meal and talking as they ate together. And of End of the Road festival being “the best festival I’ve ever played – because it’s just so well-organised, it allowed everyone to have a lightness about them”. These were “beautiful, intimate experiences, and examples of how care in real time resulted in a better performance”.
In every cancellation statement, and every interview for this piece, musicians have been quick to mention their gratitude for having a music career, for touring the world, playing shows, meeting their audiences. “I can’t express how grateful we are to have such an awesome fanbase,” Fender wrote. “Thank you for always sticking by us.” Parks spoke of how grateful she is “to be where I am today” and promised: “I will do everything I can to make this up to you.”
There is a fear among musicians, Winwood says, that if they ever complain, audiences with “proper jobs” outside the music industry will think they are ungrateful. But, he says, it’s worth remembering one thing: “If an artist has risen to a point where people know their name, they are already tough, they’re already resilient. So if they are telling you they are broken, believe them.”
In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international suicide helplines can be found at befrienders.org”.
I have referenced so much from that article, as I think that the conversation goes on. Artists are still cancelling gigs because of the effect it has on their mental health. Whether it is a case of booking so many gigs to make enough money to survive, wanting to reach as many fans as they can, or the obvious fatigue you get from long days, travelling and not being able to have a natural sleep pattern, there is perhaps not much chance to think about pacing and self-care. A more holistic approach to touring might not be possible, but we do need to ask the industry why so many artists are risking so much. It is not any one person’s fault. I think the past few years have been a challenge in so many ways, but there does seem to be this expectation that artists can keep on going because touring is something that love. How much thought is being given to mental health and ensuring artists are protected and do not burn out?! Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is such an important book that everyone in the industry needs to know about.
In cases where artists have to cancel gigs, they are always so apologetic and heartbroken! That feeling of letting people down (which they are not) adds another layer of anxiety and depression. We do need to have a wider conversation about touring and mental health. The fact that we are seeing great artists pulling back because they literally cannot keep going. The reality is that artists have to sleep on tour buses, they are moved from place to place, and their daily routine is so far removed from what everyone else experiences. Miley Cyrus’ social media team posted a message from her last month where she explained why she could not tour right now. Her Endless Summer Vacation album is one of the best of her career and of 2023. Normally, she would be on a massive tour promoting the album. Rather than charging in and doing dozens of dates, she has had to post a message saying that she needs to take time for herself. I have seen a tonne of support, but there are those who have been angry and accused her of letting fans down. That feeling that she is being dramatic and making excuses! It is angering when people lack that basic empathy and compassion. It must be disappointing for fans who were looking to see her on the road, but they must understand – as should everyone else – that touring right now would be more damaging then good. By going ahead regardless, we would risk more than some cancelled dates – we could well lose an amazing artist that we need in the world!
A message from Miley ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zEIyxn8342
— Miley Cyrus (@MileyCyrus) May 24, 2023
On 5th June, Lewis Capaldi tweeted how they need to cancel all scheduled dates before Glastonbury. His Broken By Desire To Be Heavenly Sent is one of the most successful and acclaimed albums of this year. It has been a chart smash, so there was this feeling he would be touring a lot before festivals start. Capaldi loves his fans and loves touring, but he has reached a point where it has got too much. He knows that his body and mind cannot continue to function healthily at this rate. Wisely taking some time away, you can only imagine how gutted he feels! Again, someone who must feel a certain burden and guilt at having to cancel gigs, it is vital that he is understood and given nothing but love and support. Rather than criticising him and thinking that he is well enough to continue touring, we need to ask why we are seeing artists have to cancel dates. It is not just major artists either. I have seen tweets from various artists expressing their stress and exhaustion. Asking whether they are doing the right thing (being in music) because they earn so little, and they have to play so many gigs just to make ends meet. This is why Tamsin Embleton’s Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is so important right now. Not only does it inform and support artists who are starting out or just about to kick off a summer of gigs. It is also there for people like Lewis Capaldi and Miley Cyrus.
— Lewis Capaldi (@LewisCapaldi) June 5, 2023
Where they can turn to and how they can look after themselves. From a culture of silence, to the impact on relationships (romantic and otherwise) touring and poor mental health can have, it is a must-read and own. I feel for every artist who has to suffer and go through such low moments. Music is a very tough industry. It should be one where artists feel happy and are able to deliver gigs and music to their fans without pushing themselves too hard and getting to the point of near-breakdown! The industry needs to be aware of what is happened and the devastating impact of relentless touring. I can appreciate it is a hard balance. Artists need to tour to promote their work and earn money, but there is that obligation and hectic itinerary that is maybe being seen in commercial and financial terms, rather than the negatives and personal impact. Fans pay a lot of money for tickets and travel, so artists do not want to let them down if they cancel gigs. We should not be at a point where the likes of Lewis Capaldi needs to cancel a string of gigs. Touring and Mental Health: The Music Industry Manual is a fascinating, informative, essential, brilliant and relatable book! After labels, managers and anyone else responsible for looking after artists’ mental wellbeing reads it, hopefully things can be restructured so that artists can feel supported and not obliged to fulfil so many tour dates. I say that confidently and with a degree of anger in my heart. Protect the people who give us so much joy! These people who we all need now…
MORE than ever.