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Credit: Adam Elmakias
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Nirvana's Kurt Cobain killed himself in 1994. INXS frontman Michael Hutchence took his own life in 1997. And both became more famous as a result. You may not know the name Maika Maile, lead singer for There For Tomorrow, an Orlando alt rock group. You should. He beat depression and suicide, the best he could, with music. And he makes music in hopes of showing others that suicide isn't a solution. He told Planet Green all about it in a recent chat.
Maika’s personal life has been a big struggle over adversity. When he was younger, his sister died in a car accident. His father committed suicide about a year later. He doesn't usually talk about this part of his life. We appreciate the openness. As they say, if it helps one person ...
PLANET GREEN: So your latest album, "A Little Faster," is about dealing with depression, dealing with adversity, and winning.
MAIKA MAILE: Yes. I can rely on music to release myself. I've come to terms with everything that's happened to me. I've learned to do that. I had to learn to do that as a child.
This album, it's almost a journal. My lyrics are very run-on sentences, just to get it off my chest.
PG: Did you keep a journal when you went through all this?
MM: Not really. When I say run-on sentences, (I mean) I find myself around standard grammatical style. Everybody limits themselves to that with lyrics. I've dubbed my own language, Maika-nese.
I just like to say as much as possible without any limitations of syntax or grammar. It all makes sense with the melody.
PG: Are you trying to inspire people?
MM: Definitely ... Now that we've built this awesome following, I think it's time to really help a lot of people out with music.
Losing people like that, I've definitely had some walls and things to hurdle over. I think as long as I just really try to center myself and put myself out there for others to see ... I think there's a lot of people hurting in this world, at all different kinds of levels.
I think it's a struggle. We try to inspire ourselves, that inspiration and chemistry, that works with us—and honesty in lyrics and honesty in music.
PG: It sounds like it could pretty damn depressing?
MM: There for Tomorrow, the name of our band. I think that's the very, very hopeful understanding that we all have in the belief of just, tomorrow. There's always something to look forward to.
When I bring up past events, it's bringing up the subject of them, where I am going ...
PG: Is there any song in particular that you want to point to?
MM: There's a song called 'Deathbed' ... When getting over the loss of a loved one or an erroneous relationship or something, it's that time period where you remain very still, with nowhere to go. You're indecisive. You just keep moving and going on day by day ...
It creates a very indecisive whole world around you until you just start to move on, to keep on going. It's that whole point before you decide to move on.
PG: What would you say to someone going through a though time who's reading this?
MM: I am as well. I think we all have little times where there's just low points in our lives. It's a shameless plug to point to our music. But it is from the heart and we love what we do and we do seek to inspire ourselves and hopefully in turn inspire others.
PG: Do you have any particular causes you support?
MM: Personally, for me, it's depression awareness, suicide awareness. There's a lot of people who are really neglected in this world, lost in the shuffle.
I really believe in music as magic and music as a healing power and remedy to all those feelings, whether it's writing and constructing your own music, or just listening.
PG: Music can make you feel worse, like The Smiths?
MM: Or some Johnny Cash songs, or (Nirvana's) Nevermind. But I love that album. Just don't listen to it when you're too depressed.
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