For World Mental Health Day, Reverend and the Makers‘ co-songwriter Ed Cosens shares a new song on the theme. In the lyrics for appropriately named ‘Black Dog’ – a long standing metaphor for depression – Cosens refreshingly tells it precisely how it is. “I find myself wasting half a day waiting for the black dog to go away,” emphasizes the relentless nature of mental health struggles. ‘It’s just about waking up and feeling in that dark place where you feel unable to function,’ he says.
The song was completed at a songwriting retreat earlier this summer hosted by the Buddy Holly Foundation. The pretty acoustic guitar shuffle and heartfelt lyrics deliver the message honestly, and simply.
‘I’d had the idea for a while and then I started writing with Janie Price, who works under the
name Bird,‘ he says. ‘We sat down for half an hour and wrote together, chucking ideas down, and it all came together quickly. It was a really cathartic process.‘
Cosens hopes Black Dog will help ‘start a conversation’ and spread mental health awareness further. His forthcoming second album offers a similarly immediate variety of classic songwriting as 2021’s debut Fortune’s Favour, this time exploring into more personal territory for inspiration. Details to be announced soon
