Suicidal ideation, societal conditioning and connection through community with Hyphen

Welcome to episode 208 with Hyphen, who is a rapper, songwriter and political punk.

After finishing university, Hyphen found himself working in finance.  He also found himself bored, depressed and drinking to cope.

This came to a tipping point when a close friend of his died by suicide and his own mental health was pushed towards breaking point.  Hyphen started to experience his own thoughts of suicide and it was while working through this that he started expressing himself creatively by scribbling words in to a notebook. 

These words became poems and raps and then followed songs and these have evolved into his own style of punk, where he addresses racism, politics, equality and all manner of social justice issues and the state of the world in general.

In this episode I chat to Hyphen about growing up in Portsmouth, how he ended up in the corporate world, why he started making music and how that music helped him to deal with his mental health struggles.

We chat about suicidal ideation, finding authenticity, undoing societal conditioning and how to build true connection through community and shared experience.

We also chat about anger and racism, dealing with online hate and how to stay informed without being consumed and overwhelmed.

Hyphen’s newest single is currently getting played on BBC Radio 1 and it’s incredible to see a fully independent artist crossing over, with music that is calling out the bad parts of our society.  I’ve been a fan of his for a while now and it was wonderful to chat.  I think this conversation went to a lot of places that neither of us were expecting!

Follow Hyphen everywhere on @thisishyphen

Is music is available on all streaming platforms and his latest single ‘This Might Be It’ is out now and he will be on tour around the UK and Ireland throughout May.

Get tickets here:  https://linktr.ee/hyphentour?utm_source=linktree_profile_share&ltsid=8cd61d91-921f-4829-8a48-bb2ba9b9152a

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Thanks for listening!