A very important part of the work of YoungMinds is the support it provides to the parents of children and young people with mental health issues.  One of the often forgotten aspects of any illness is the situation of the carers whose own lives are impacted by the responsibility that they take on in looking after someone else.

In our two-part interview last week, Lupen Crook mentioned his partner, Sam.  She was the person who first suggested that the band should lend its support to a charitable cause.  With the EP now released, I was interested to get her perspective on the project, as well as her relationship with Mr Crook and his musical output in general.

As Lupen Crook’s partner of several years, what’s it like being involved both emotionally and domestically with someone with schizoaffective disorder?

I always think of it as living in a shadow. My life is dictated by an overpowering force I cannot control, touch or see. Some days are amazing, some are bearable and some are sheer moments of hell. It is hard to know what day to expect, how long it will last and whether we will both come out of it together. Emotionally it is a battle we will never win, which is made more difficult by the fact we were never aware we were even signing up to it. Nonetheless, he’s my best friend, child, husband and enemy all rolled into one. With that combination, why would I ever give up? I guess the answer is that it is bloody hard work.

Mr Crook’s lyrics are brutally honest, if sometimes tangentially expressed.  How do you feel about the songs that cover you and/or your relationship?

They are the things he can never say in ‘real’ life, which makes me sad but it gives me the chance to understand his thoughts for that moment of time. I have to appreciate some people never get that insight, whether their partner is mentally ill or not.  However, there are some songs I will never voluntarily listen to. I would rather not be reminded of some of the events that have happened, let alone having all my friends and family listening to them too. On the other hand it’s quite nice having a running record of my life.

You were the inspiration behind the band getting involved with YoungMinds.  Why did you think their involvement in this type of cause was important?

Because of the misconception of young people and artists: if a young person is mentally ill, they’re attention seeking; if an artist, he’s an alcoholic or drug addict. I am supportive of third world charities etc, but I also think what of your child sitting in their bedroom slicing themselves with a pair of scissors while you absently cook dinner? What of your friend who cries themself to sleep, sure the devil is stalking them? What of a neighbour too scared to leave the house and you just call them anti-social and “weird”? What of those people? If you have a voice, use it, and under the circumstances there is no better voice than Lupen.

What’s your advice for anyone living with, caring for or otherwise supporting a friend, family member or loved one with mental health issues?

Do not judge, as no one knows the judgment of God. I cannot really offer any advice apart from that, but also to take one day at a time and never forget about your own life. The brain can be a strong and wonderful tool, but it can also be fragile. Make sure you take care of yourself too.

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The band has chosen to direct any EP-related donations made by fans towards the YoungMinds parents’ helpline service.  We’ll be telling you more about this service on the website next week.

You can download the Curse Of The Mirror Wicked EP here.

Whisperin And Hollerin published a lengthy feature on the Curse of the Mirror Wicked EP yesterday.  Part review, part interview, part editorial, it’s a detailed response to this release in particular and the band’s overall ethos in general.

“Whilst it may initially feel like a comedown from the adventure of previous releases, about five listens in these songs get into you, and they stay, putting this up there with some of the best songs they have ever written. Having had this EP for about a week, my I-pod is starting to sigh with my predictability. It’s a compulsive listen that grows. Few bands are worthy of the near sycophantism. It’s a new dimension to what they do, these self-referential confessions told with elements of remorse. The context of this release makes each track poignant, with the themes never sounding more explicit than on ‘Devil’s Son.’”

As a semi-objective assessment of both what the band has been up to this year and the ideas behind this latest project, we think you might enjoy it.  It’s a great summary to read alongside our own two-part interview published last week.

You can read the feature here and download the EP here.

In the second part of this feature (first installment here), Lupen Crook talks about the broader concept behind the forthcoming EP and outlines some of the ideas that inspired its songs.  He also explains the reasons for choosing to support YoungMinds and why the charity’s work deserves your attention.

The new EP is called Curse Of The Mirror Wicked.  What does this title symbolise?

Cats, mirrors, magpies, and triangles are all images that have both assisted and resisted my development over the years. It once struck me that paranoia is merely a heightened kind of vanity. In our day and age, for me the mirror represents vanity and in turn represents paranoia, which in turn leads us straight into the lobby of lunacy. I wonder whether, when the ego is provided for too much – or in fact the ‘animal self’ is too weak to keep the ego in line – dangerous and uncontrollable states of mind can arise.

Humans are so utterly concerned with the relationship between themselves and everything else around them. Eyes looking into a mirror that in turn are looking back. Thoughts that trace lines, refracting and reflecting back into the mind. People believing, feeling, and knowing, that certain things are afoot when in fact the only evidence for their belief exists within their mind… these are very frustrating experiences. Such scenarios panic the senses, fray the edges of nerves and are often the beginning of a spiral into all sorts of psychological mayhem.

I guess that’s where this title comes from: thoughts like these, silly ideas.  Because of the mind’s ability to be so irrational, ultimately, for me, the greatest human mystery is our mysterious relationship with ourselves. Deludedly, I like to believe mental illness is a symptom of our evolution – growing pains of the mind.

Tell us about the songs on the EP.  What subjects do they cover and what was their inspiration?

Sunshine Devils is about being human. I have recently dreamed of Death Valley – oh, the wonder of living life in that hot heat and inescapable surroundings, to see if I were able to survive in those conditions, as only few animals can. It was written as a vocal line after I’d slept the night in an internet cafe in Oxford Circus. I had staggered half-awake into the crossroads at 8am, to witness the beautiful and insane rush past me on their way to work. Hardly a desert setting, yet I felt so separate from all else around me, this song seemed to encapsulate that mood of being in a desert perfectly.

Just before the release of The Lost Belongings EP on July 4th I lost my voice due to a bout of laryngitis. The thought occurred that this could well be a curse laid upon me for my ill actions and cruel methodical practices: karma. As I’ve said, this kick-started the beginning of a relapse, so Love Underground was initially a song about that, and embracing the almost certain fact that this band and our music are destined to spend their life lost to obscurity. Boy That Won’t Be Told is simply about the terrible treatment of my partner Sam, who bears the brunt of my awful psychosis and ill-tempered pokes to the side.

Devil’s Son was written whilst wandering the streets of London, mad as I can be, at a time when I was completely hell-bent, moon-drunk and beastly; ill at ease with everything around me, looking forward to the prospect of disappearing forever. Of Lovers And Lost Children is the last song written in this chapter of songs (and that includes the forthcoming album), simply about a man admitting to himself and his love what he has become, a man seeking forgiveness. Dead Girls And Daggers always was and remains a simple ‘throwaway’ song: a drunken dance number, pure pop, a bit of fun with sinister subject matter pinning it to the ground.

The EP’s release supports the YoungMinds mental health charity.  What do you think is the importance of this organisation in particular?

In discussions over the summer, there was talk of focusing the new album around a project like this, on the subject of mental illness.  However, it became clear that this was inappropriate and slightly unjust. We didn’t want this to appear as a marketing ploy, so the decision was made quite hastily to record a live session and release it as a charitable EP before the album. We used the fee from our most recent gig to go back into Ranscombe Studios for one day. Jim Riley contributed to the cause with a very kind discounted session. We recorded, mixed and mastered these six tracks in seven hours. As for the choice of charity, it goes without saying that my recent episode was a definite factor. As myself and Bob Murderbird are parents, it felt even more appropriate to select this charity in particular.

I don’t believe we can cure a mental illness. I’m not entirely sure I would want to if it was possible. Nevertheless, understanding mental illness is an absolute necessity if we are serious about pushing forth and succeeding as a society. YoungMinds deals with children, teenagers and the parents of those who may be suffering from mental illness. A parent will naturally suffer awful pangs of guilt, sometimes leading to a dangerous denial of their child’s deteriorating behaviour and mind. Mental illnesses remain an awkward subject and I have been keen to tackle that. Awareness can only lead to further understanding, and understanding is paramount to our survival. If we don’t survive ourselves, we are working towards a blank future. Children are the future, so YoungMinds was the charity I wanted to focus this release upon.

As 2009 draws to a close and a shiny new decade is only a few weeks away, how do you feel about the future?

Terrified, but in bloody good company.  So goes the Crooked Family.

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The download link for the Curse Of The Mirror Wicked mini-site will appear on this site on Monday morning.  In the meantime, any questions or comments are welcome.  If you can make it to any of the band’s gigs in Gillingham, Maidstone or Kentish Town this weekend, we’ll see you there.

Next Monday, Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds will release the Curse Of The Mirror Wicked EP.  One factor behind this project is Lupen Crook’s experience of schizoaffective disorder (not the same thing as schizophrenia – read more here).

He’s decided to talk about this in more detail to help explain the band’s decision to support YoungMinds, so I asked him to answer a few questions.  First off, he explains his medical history and its relationship with his creative output.

You were diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder in your late teens.  How did this diagnosis come about and how was it treated?

As a teenager I was a strange, wiry person, prone to introversion and mania. I sought help from a family doctor at 15, but medication failed to calm my racing mind and extreme nerves.  After raging into my local doctor’s surgery, maddened, desperately crying and shouting, I was taken straight to hospital. I was just 17 then, and spent the following four weeks residing in one of Medway’s psychiatric wards. I was a complete bloody mess.

I was put onto a long-term course of anti-psychotic drugs. I was told by my team of doctors that my ‘obsessive interest’ in music and its associative delusions were causing my symptoms to worsen. They advised me to stop at once.  Given the nature and extent of my obsession, I felt I had no option but to refuse their advice.

Less than a year later, I spent a further five days in the same psychiatric ward and then again a few months later found myself at my wits’ ends, taking up residence in a hospital bed. That last time I discharged myself and disappeared off the radar completely. When I reappeared a few years later, I was signed off sick until 2010, and that was that, until now.

Ten years later, what are the challenges of living with the condition on a day-to-day basis?

Living with schizoaffective disorder on a day to day basis is simply learning to live with yourself. It is not any more or less difficult than anybody else’s struggles and strifes, because it’s all relative to who you are and how that feels.

Looking back upon the last ten years, in a sense the doctors were right, because art and music have provided me with a cloak behind which my mental illness has been able to gain potency; my personalities do stray into realms of dangerous imbalance.

On the flip side of that ever-spinning coin, art and music have provided the perfect passage through which I can express myself.  For the majority of time, with the support of my partner and close friends, I am able to operate and live comfortably being the twisted and often troubled individual I am.

There’s a long and clichéd tradition of associations between “art” and “madness”.  How does schizoaffective disorder impact your creativity?

For better and for worse, over the last seven years I have been learning to employ the symptoms of schizoaffective disorder, thus drawing a degree of advantage from them. Deep depressions force one to face the mirror and feel the full weight and consequence of certain actions. Psychosis can frighten and confuse, leading the mind into seemingly uncharted areas, far reaches of a metaphysical room. Mania gives chase; when the floodgates open, waves of creation crash and flow through you in such a way that all of these symptoms can, on occasions, be seen to serve a very useful purpose.

One must always question whether schizoaffective disorder is the reason my mind has sought cause to find solace in art and music, or in fact did my mind’s natural and unhealthy interest in music and art cause such a condition to gradually develop within me? As well, it must be said that art and music are merely vehicles in this equation. The true concentration of any artist must be the exploration of the human psyche and its relationship with its surroundings.  Therefore, ultimately, I can only count this condition as a blessing.

You experienced a relapse over this summer.  Things seem a lot better now.  What’s your perspective on the past few months, looking back?

I haven’t had an episode like this one since I was 17. It was what initially inspired the decision to do something to try to raise awareness of mental health, because it is a strange and awkward subject for people to deal with.

As always, the relapse was a combination of different things, but ultimately a build-up of stress through failing to keep myself fit and healthy. I was drinking too much, smoking too much, eating badly and not sleeping.  It got to the point when my mind turned in on itself and all hell broke loose. It was a harsh reminder that I do suffer from schizoaffective disorder, and that I must keep both body and mind in a far better condition.

I am also fairly certain the method of writing I have used over the last few years also featured heavily in this recent descent. It is perfectly plausible that my mind was simply serving a reminder; drawing my attention to some particularly dangerous habits I have been letting form. For some time now I have been placing myself in situations where the mind experiences extreme measures of guilt, regret, and anxiety.  As these self-induced waves of crushing anxiety run over and through me, it would seem I produce my most excellent material, especially lyrically.

Long ago I noticed this, that there is energy, nervous electricity that runs wild through my body and mind when I’m in these vulnerable states. Voices chatter incessantly and the only way I am able to calm my mind is to play the guitar and sing, which serves as a form of self-medication. I now realise such a method can come with a high price.

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Tomorrow, we continue with Mr Crook’s thoughts on the EP itself and why YoungMinds in particular was selected as the charitable focus of this project.

A recent interview with Mr Crook appeared in the Kent-based magazine The Gig Guide:

“I’m just following an age old tradition that is trying my best to observe, experience and then communicate feelings and thoughts and hopefully do so in such a way that is original and interesting. Most importantly I need to satisfy my own sick little traditions, my imagination, its fantasies and all those fruits that appear forbidden.”

Read the full interview here.

Exciting things are afoot and ahead.  Recordings are coming, live gigs… kill cats and t-shirts for acrobats. Shiny, new, precious things. However, let’s not forget that this music comes with a four-year history. Today we crawl like dusty spiders across the web, highlighting some memorable interviews that you might have missed.

Fly – Introducing Lupen Crook
April 2005:

Early on he played two ‘songs’ called ‘The Murderbirds’ and ‘Sex Scene #1′. He said that he’d like to make a classical album and these songs were ‘extracts’, “more like biro sketches that might appeal to those with less able attention spans”. Is he taking the p?

Shakenstir – Lupen Crook: The Man, The Myth, The Truth?
Autumn 2005:

… it is clearly my job to both ask and answer each question whilst the curious Crook perches, featherless and fortuitous in each of his matted manners and nervy words. The music he has written is uncomfortable and in places wildly unfashionable, he admits “perhaps I have endangered myself,” and I agree that he may well be walking on dangerous grounds.

Sabuhi Mir – Interview: Lupen Crook
May 2006:

He would like to call his next EP Caterpillar’s Friend. Does he like caterpillars? “Yeah, they’re ok, they turn into butterflies.” I point out that butterflies only have a very short life, and he replies that “they have a good life. They flit about pointlessly. Then they die. It’s a well good life.”

pennyblackmusic – Lupen Crook: Interview
July 2006:

“People insisted to me that fatherhood would relax my desperate enthusiasm and redirect my energies, that I would write ‘nice songs’, ‘happy songs’. Perhaps they thought fatherhood would make me a happier person. Quite the opposite. Knowing that my child will grow up within this society has changed me in the sense that my feet are now firmly on the ground and my sights are set.”

Subba-Cultcha – Lupen Crook
November 2007:

“We’re out of a record contract after our next release, so I want to start putting records together and sell them on the road – get 1,000 vinyls pressed and knock them out, then do some more – just keep it coming constantly. We’re gonna concentrate more on the live stuff… we’re just going to be like a gang stomping all over England, saying, ‘we’re here, and you’re fucking having it whether you like it or not’. That’s our attitude: just go and attack towns. In the nicest possible way.”

BBC Oxford – Marc West speaks to Lupen Crook
December 2007 (audio – RealPlayer required):

“Medway’s weird, you should come and visit it.  It’s sort of… I guess all towns, when you’ve lived there for your whole life, become weird.  But Medway’s definitely got something.  I dunno what it is… whether it’s particularly good or not, but it gets you.”

BBC Kent – Kent’s Unsigned
January 2008 (audio – RealPlayer required):

“It’s a mobile-a-zone!”

Rehearsal Space: Lupen Crook and the Murderbirds
April 2008 (video – YouTube):

“There’s flaws all over [Iscariot The Ladder].  It’s got a sort of really organic feel to it, just because we’re quite tatty people, so it’s naturally a bit shabby… but that’s alright.”

Hydragenic – Loss, Love & Lust: An Interview With Lupen Crook
June 2008:

“In previous works I have felt – perhaps through insecurity – that I must cover my subject and songs with lyrics layered heavily in cryptic analogies and puzzling nonsense. I am trying for simplicity… I am digging deeper than ever this time and the results shall have to be completely honest if they are to reach into people and sit as I intend them to be sat.”

Those were the best ones we could find.  If you come across any more, let us know.  Hopefully fresh interviews will be forthcoming over the next few months.