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The Songs that Save Our Lives
On using music to endure the worst of our mental illness.
A few weeks ago, I was catching up on my Instagram stories (I’m really bad about doing the Instagram stories, and checking them, but that’s a whole different adventure) and I came across the Kerrigan-Lowdermilk story that showed their new merch. And when I saw the “Holding On” shirt, my heart nearly stopped.
It may just be the most beautiful t-shirt I’ve ever seen. The reason for that? Well, it goes back a ways.
I first discovered Kait and Brian’s music the summer after I graduated from high school. This story may be mostly apocryphal, as I don’t trust my memory from back then, but I have a vague recollection of cramming into my best friend’s car, getting on Interstate 405 after a night at the beach, when “Freedom” (from what was known at the time as The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown and is now The Mad Ones) blasted through her speakers.
Those of you familiar with this song — and you all should be — will know that this moment is almost too perfect; a bunch of teens crammed into a car on a balmy SoCal summer night, windows down, spirits high, when the perfect road trip anthem comes on. I fell in love with the song as much as I fell in love with that moment. As we didn’t have Shazam at the time, I held on to…
