Help raise mental health awareness through music!

Hi, my name is Darryl and I am 41 years old (at the time of writing).

In around 2000, I recorded and released two musical albums, but then something happened to take me away from that path. I still don't know what it was, but to try to figure it out, on World Mental Health Day, I started listening to my old music and made a music video of me doing so.

This then turned into an idea for a feature-length film, which is now completed. It tells the story of my journey through my own mental health issues in the best way I know how - through music.

The film premiered on the 28th Feb in the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California, and received very positive feedback - my presence at the film festival has also allowed me to make new connections with other filmmakers around the world, and there's a few new potential ideas for collaboration and future projects, which is very exciting!

On a more personal level, I am working on my third album - I started it in 2014, and I think it's time to finish it. I expect to have the music finished by the end of 2023, and I'm hoping to get as many people involved as possible - I have several musicians who seem interested in contributing to the tracks. I'm ALSO hoping to release the album as a film, in the same way as I did for A Scrapbook of What's Yours, but with a LOT more planning and foresight - an actual narrative, actors, etc. (I have some performers on hand already!)

I am also hoping to start filming a short film in the next few months - it's a narrative story, with dialogue and everything! I have a potential lead actor and a cinematographer, I will most likely create the soundtrack myself (potentially with a few collaborations with the people I mentioned earlier).

Finally... I am in discussions with a mental health charity here in the UK, and they seem interested in funding one of these future projects (possibly the short film, as it has a clear message that addresses mental health awareness). If I somehow end up with more money from this fundraiser than I know what to do with, it will go straight to them.

Thank you for reading this far!