Saturday, Dec. 31, 2011

Raleigh musician highlights depression in youth

A pretty girl in a feather vest stomps up the stairs to her apartment and flings herself down on the couch with a bottle of wine and the TV remote. No signal. She stands to go back outside, but can’t bring herself to walk out the front door.

Back to the couch. The world is shades of gray. The girl never smiles.

A new music video by a young Raleigh musician seeks to show the impact of depression and anxiety on young people who feel too stigmatized to talk about their problems. Jordan Okrend, 20, just released “Bottled Up,” a single from his upcoming EP. He hopes the song and video will remind young adults plagued by depression to open up in order to heal.

“I was thinking about how people feel powerless and hold back on doing what they want, because they feel bottled up inside and don’t know how to express it,” Okrend said.

Okrend has already begun performing the song around Raleigh. The new music video debuted Dec. 1 on YouTube. An independent artist, Okrend is holding a contest to boost song plays and raise awareness of the issue of depression in young people, in addition to promoting the rest of the album, which will be released later this winter.

Timely topic

Suicide is the third leading cause of death in the United States of people between the ages of 10 and 24, said Jennifer Rothman, young families program director with the North Carolina chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Rothman works to educate parents and schools about mental illness in children and teens. Bullying or negative peer reaction often cause young people to bottle up their emotions rather than seek help, Rothman said. Creating art and music about the issue helps shift the cultural climate and make open discussion less taboo, she said.

“Teens really look up to artists and celebrities, so I think the more they hear people coming out and talking about it, the less the stigma becomes,” Rothman said.

Okrend wrote “Bottled Up” in 20 minutes last year. The Wakefield High School graduate says he’s gone through similar hard times, which is why he decided to write about the issue – he sees depression and anxiety as universal experiences that can feel isolating.

“It doesn’t resolve in the song, but it does in the video when it goes from black and white to color,” he said. “She has the power to change that.”

The music video was shot around Raleigh by local production company Focus Media during two days in October: in a home near Stonehenge, near a restaurant in the Warehouse District, on Aviation Boulevard near the airport. Sharp eyes can pick out Moore Square and downtown Raleigh in a couple of shots.

The girl in the feather vest featured in the video is Durham resident Marina Montes, who is also Miss Durham 2012. Despite her years as a beauty queen, Montes said she battled depression while being bullied in high school. She spoke in New York high schools about teen depression during her stint as Miss Long Island 2010, so she connected with Okrend’s song right away.

“They’re not easy years,” Montes said. “It doesn’t matter who you are or what social group you’re in, it’s something that affects us all.”

Rising stars?

Montes is also a model, actress and recent UNC-Chapel Hill law school graduate. She’s studying to take the bar exam this spring.

Okrend has been playing the guitar since he was 7, and writing and singing his own music since high school. He’s been in a couple of rock bands over the years, but nothing that lasted. He began playing original songs at open microphone nights around Raleigh when he was 15.

“I just had music in me, I guess, so I kept playing,” he said.

Okrend recently took time off from earning a music degree at Appalachian State University to focus on his personal musical work. He describes his music as “poppy and soulful with an edge.” “Bottled Up” features Okrend on guitar and vocals, with upbeat guitar riffs underlying serious lyrics.

The rest of Okrend’s new six-song album, titled “Rising Up,” will be released later this winter. He sings about other topics, but there’s a common thread.

“The theme is rising up, coming out of the darkness,” Okrend said.