James Blake suffered "suicidal thoughts" during the early days of his career.
The 29-year-old musician has revealed that when he first started touring after achieving international fame at the age of 21 with his tracks ‘Limit to Your Love’ and ‘The Wilhelm Scream’, he struggled with anxiety and depression because of his lack of interaction with other people.
He said: "I was taken away from normal life essentially at an age where I was half-formed. [On the road], your connection to other people becomes surface level. So if you were only in town for one day and someone asked you how you are, you go into the good stuff … which generally doesn’t involve how anxious you feel [or] how depressed you feel."
The Mercury Prize-winning artist developed unhealthy eating habits whilst on tour, and says the "chemical imbalance" that caused only furthered his battle with his mental health.
Speaking at the annual symposium of the Performing Arts Medicine Association (PAMA) on Sunday (01.07.18), he added: "I would say that chemical imbalance due to diet and the deterioration of my health was a huge, huge factor in my depression and eventual suicidal thoughts. I developed [dietary] intolerances that would lead to existential depression on a daily basis. I would eat a certain thing and then all day I would feel like there was just no point."
James’ comments come just one month after he slammed those who describe his work as "sad boy music", because he finds the label "unhealthy and problematic".
The ‘Don’t Miss It’ singer wrote in part of a lengthy statement on Twitter: "I’m overwhelmed by the lovely responses to ‘Don’t Miss It’. But I can’t help but notice, as I do whenever I talk about my feelings in a song, that the words ‘sad boy’ are used to describe it.
"I’ve always found that expression unhealthy and problematic when used to describe men just openly talking about their feelings. To label it at all, when we don’t ever question women discussion the things they are struggling with, contributes to the ever disastrous historical stigmatisation of men expressing themselves emotionally.
"We are already in an epidemic of male depression and suicide. We don’t need any further proof that we have hurt men with our questioning of their need to be vulnerable and open. It is only a good thing to talk about what is on your mind."
James Blake’s depression struggle
