Corook on mental health and music
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We partnered with the Hi, How Are You Project backstage at ACL 2023. Check out this insightful and inspiring conversation Kendall Washington had with Corook about the intersection of mental health and music. Corook is a singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Nashville, TN. Their carefully crafted and fun music has taken hold, and we understand why! Check out our full series of ACL artist interviews here.
(The following questions and answers have been lightly edited for clarity.)
Q: You have always been so open about what you’re going through — dealing with your anxiety and things like that. Why are you so vulnerable?
A: You know, I wish that whenever I was younger, or just at any other stage in my life, or even now, that there were people who said how they were feeling. Because, I think especially with so much access online, we’re getting everybody’s highlight reel. And that’s really hard to compare yourself to every single day. So yeah! I just think it’s important to be honest with where we are.
Q: Why is mental health so important to you? I mean, that’s great, it should be, but why?
A: Um, I think because I struggle a lot and have ever since I was a little kid. And I think that was really alienating, to struggle and to hide, specifically. And I think that one of the biggest cures for when I’m feeling a certain way is to just say it out loud. It often either goes away or lessens or I just feel supported.
Q: When you were a kid, at what age did you first start experiencing signs that something was going on mentally?
A: Pretty young. I remember kindergarten, it being a fight to get me to school every day. I would just cry and cry and cry. I just had some super separation anxiety from my mother and, um, yeah. I think the world is really big and scary when you’re young. Or it can be, if you don’t know how to deal with that feeling and you don’t know how to talk about it. So that’s why I try to talk about it as much as possible — because it’s really normal.
Q: How did you conquer that? I mean, there’s no way to completely jump over the hurdle with mental health, but there are ways to learn how to deal with it and manage it.
A: Yeah, for sure. And I think I’m still learning a lot. I see an awesome therapist every week. She has taught me so many tools, whether it just be taking a deep breath, meditating, taking a nap, just slowing down a little bit — even when you think you can’t slow down, you can, you know? And I think that’s something I’ve had to remind myself of over and over again. I’m still learning a lot.
Q: Speaking of learning ways to help your mental health, when did you discover music and how did that help you with your mental health?
A: I think music was one of the first tools I had for my mental health. It’s maybe my most valuable processing tool. It has been ever since I found it. I taught myself how to play guitar on YouTube and immediately just started writing songs from that. I didn’t even care if I knew two chords, I was like, “I’m writing a song with these two chords,” you know? It honestly really came super naturally and felt like a way that I was healing myself in real time.
Q: If you could tell something to your younger self right now, what would you want to tell them?
A: I think I would tell them that it’s totally fine that you’re a little bit different than everybody else. Soon you will love and accept it and there will be tons and tons of people who will love and accept it. And stick around. Don’t go anywhere. There are many people that love you and there are plenty of resources and help out there — this being one of them.
WATCH THE INTERVIEW