The Music's frontman Rob Harvey has revealed his struggle with depression, following the lukewarm reception to his band's second album, 'Welcome To The North'.
He told the BBC: "I believed I was a young, untouchable great singer who could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. Everybody has an image of themselves in their mind. I had an image of myself, and when things change or life moves on, that's when people struggle. For me that happened at quite a young age. [Touring] America changed me a lot. I became greedy. It was all about wants and needs and that's not me as a human being. That's not the kind of person I am and I didn't like the person I'd become. I was putting myself under a lot of pressure and allowing past failures and things like that to control the moment, instead of just expressing myself like I used to be able to. I'd lost that especially as a performer. I was half the singer I used to be".
He admits that, at his worst, he was suffering up to fifteen panic attacks a day. He continued: "I kept thinking 'Hang on a sec, I've should have a good life here, why am I feeling this way?' I'm in what I believe to be one of the best bands in the country and I'm sat panicking about random stuff, distorted thoughts. Suicide became an option. I became a very unhappy young man. But even suicide is the act of an ego - that's the final act of an ego to protect oneself from being wrong. When your body's physically shaking and you can't keep still and you're sweating, and you're sat watching your TV, and your heart's like a machine gun, that's when I got to the point where I was thinking, 'there's something not right here'".
However, he says, the first stage of recovery came quite easily, after discussing how he felt with his manager: "I checked in [to rehab] and got myself sorted for a few weeks. After that it's just been constant care and attention. I've been sober for two-and-a-half years now. Staying fit, eating well, seeing a regular therapist whenever I can, whenever I've got things to talk about".