Nowadays it feels like I can’t slow down and relax, if I do I just feel so… Useless.
I decided to do this blog not only for my love for music, but also my fear of feeling absolutely worthless. The only way I feel like I have done something productive everyday, is if I helped someone at least once. I’m not the kind of person who can eat, sleep, sh*t, and repeat… That’s just not how I work.
Worthlessness is empty, and I sometimes felt worthless before I found what I do now. Correction, before I found what I love.
In Earnest touches upon something I can certainly relate to as well, I find when I’m home alone I get very lonely and dying for someone to just be there. Loneliness is something everyone has to deal with. This is especially true with all this quaratine stuff.
That’s exactly why my family and I got a dog, and apparently I am not alone cause Sarah feels the same about her dog. “I absolutely worship dogs (I prefer them to people!),” she says.
All three of the band members had musical families and grew up listening to their parental influences. Sarah says, “for me personally, my Dad has been a drummer on the local music scene for over 40 years – I grew up listening to him play instruments around the house and tuning his drums on a Saturday morning.” She was dragged along with his band’s gigs from a very young age as well.
“I am someone who you could describe as ‘feeling things a little too much’ as I suffer from anxiety and depression, so any emotion that I am experiencing is always quite intense,” says Sarah. She uses these influences as a driving force behind her songwriting. “I like to be honest and open in my songwriting so sometimes I put it fairly bluntly,” she adds.
In Earnest is a really new project and only just got out the starting blocks with it! Their previous band ‘Carousel’, strung together a good crowd. “I guess I’m hoping that we’ll go one step further with In Earnest where we inspire people and encourage them to talk about mental health, which is our main aim,” says Sarah.
“Don’t you know too much already?
I’ll only hurt you if you let me
Call me friend but keep me closer (call me back).”
–when the party’s over by Billie Eilish
Sarah says that she is “a very socially awkward person, so I am awful at networking at gigs!” And to be fair, everyone is our age… Even Billie Eilish.
However, Sarah also says she’s probably a better songwriter cause of her mental struggles. She says, “it allows me to tap into more intense emotions and I can write music around that.” She also appreciates other musicians and creative people around her who are talking about their struggles as well. “It’s great that we can help each other and increase the awareness around mental illness,” she says.
“‘Put Me Under’ is a stream-of-consciousness about the loneliness surrounding depression and anxiety. My mental illness means that I can’t have a ‘normal’ job and it forces me to be self-employed, so I’m now a dog-sitter! The job does come with it’s own challenges – being away from home and in someone else’s house while they are on holiday. The song also touches upon the fact that mental health problems are invisible illnesses, but I just love that dogs don’t judge you at all and help to comfort you in those bad times.”
-Sarah (3/19/2020)
I’m really loving the fact that In Earnest are advocating such an important subject. Too many musicians have died because they were either lost in their own emotions or held their emotions too long to get help for them. It is vital that we as people to be there for each other. Just the same for fans of musicians who struggle mentally, the same people who are stuck at home in their own minds praying for all this COVID-19 stuff to end already.
If you live with a mental illness, then you know what I mean. #istayhome and #ilivefor these people who want to be touring instead of at home.
When I choke, would you try and help me breathe?
Can you love the version of me?”
–Version of Me by Sasha Sloan
I am sure everyone who gives In Earnest a chance will love their music just as much as we love the version of Sasha Sloan. But where’s that debut album…?
Well… that’ll come with time. But for now they are planning to release two sets of songs written by Tom and Sarah seperately. Sarah’s song is really experimental, because it tries to “capture my feelings as a soundscape and is bluntly about how debilitating depression can be.” Tom’s song is more intense, and portrays a feeling of being hit with intense emotion.
‘Come Upstairs’ is scheduled for their second release in July 2020. It is written from Tom’s perspective as he looks after Sarah while she struggles. It’s about desperation and sacrifice and doing anything you can to keep the one you love alive.
They also really want to tour! But that’s going to have to wait not only cause of the pandemic, but also cause they know they need to build a bite more of an audience who would want to see them perform live.
I assume no one cares, but I am so sorry for the delay of this article. It was supposed be posted at the latest of Monday… But that didn’t happen so it had to wait till today. ANYWAYS, I hope it was worth the wait!!
You can follow In Earnest on Facebook and Instagram, as well as listen to their debut single on Spotify (link to be fixed hopefully prior to the release) this Friday!
You can follow Unedited on Instagram (@unedited_music_blog) and Facebook (@uneditedmb), and listen to previous songs reviewed on Spotify.
Version of Me by Sasha Sloan and when the party is over by Billie Eilish were pulled from my greatest depressing Spotify playlist called happily depressed! Go check it out!!
Have a fantastic rest of the week, #staythefuckhome and remember to say #ilivefor someone at the beginning of the day!!!
The Minimalistic Music Blog 
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