David Wimbish of The Collection joined Aaron on Live & Local this week, following the release of the band’s latest album and ahead of a festival they’re hosting this weekend in Saxapahaw.
Juxtaposing a bright pop sound with serious and introspective lyrics, “Little Deaths” is the band’s new album, their first full-length LP in six years.
“It’s our first record after getting signed to Nettwerk Music Group,” says Wimbish. “So it was really fun to actually be able to have the budget for a real producer, and make a record in Nashville, and get to try a lot of new things.”
Led by “Medication,” an emotional wringer of a single that’s raw and joyous and painful and life-affirming all at once, the album’s ten songs explore the often-arduous personal journey of depression and healing – written by Wimbish as he was going through a mental health crisis of his own.
“My brain got a bit destroyed for a few years, and it sent me into the deepest depressive states I’d ever been in,” he says. “And it took a lot for me to stick around and still be here. So this record was sort of my internal processing: how do I make sure that I still survive existing in this world?”
He did it, he says, with a timely assist from a friend.
“I was talking with her after the deepest worst parts of my life experience,” Wimbish says, “and she said, ‘Have you ever tried to be on meds?’ I was so scared about trying antidepressants, because I didn’t know many people that talked about them – so I just held a lot of stigma: ‘I’m gonna be a zombie, I’m not gonna be able to function.’ And she just said to me, ‘You deserve to live a life that’s not at 50 percent.’ And it just hit me so hard: ‘my feeling that I’m not worthy of getting better is what’s keeping me from getting better.’ And having somebody call that out is really what helped me get on meds, and get into therapy, and (feel) like I actually deserve to be able to enjoy my life as much as I can.”
It was in the midst of that turnaround that Wimbish wrote the songs of “Little Deaths” – including “Medication,” penned in a snowed-in Maine cabin in the middle of a blizzard.
“I woke up one morning and just started playing something on the piano, and was kind of moving around the room – and the words ‘I deserve to be well’ just came out of my mouth randomly, subconsciously,” Wimbish says. “And I was like, ‘Oh no, I just – I just wrote something that now I have to learn how to believe.'”
But ultimately that simple-yet-powerful message resonated – not just with Wimbish, but with countless others as well.
“It has been a pretty insane journey,” says Wimbish. “The song went, like, at least mildly viral on TikTok, I think two or three million views…and we were getting messages. You know, some days I would open (TikTok) and there would be 50 messages in my inbox, of people saying that they had tried ending their lives and then they heard the song and it was the thing that kept them going. Or they started getting on meds, and that’s changed their life, because they heard the song…
“And it’s been somewhat overwhelming, (and) I’ve just felt so grateful,” he continues. “Because to me, that song felt so personal. I thought, ‘this isn’t really going to connect with a lot of other people.’ And it was shocking to have it be the one that really did.”
(How about that friend, whose original insight was so transformative? “I wrote her,” Wimbish says. “I sent her the song when it was still a demo and said, ‘Hey, you know, you changed my life with this.'”)
The Collection has been touring all summer in support of the new album – and this weekend they’re taking over their hometown of Saxapahaw, with an all-day festival on Saturday, September 21.
The festival is called Soil & Sky, taking place at Benzai Bloomstead a few minutes from downtown; it’s the festival’s second installment after the band launched it last year. The Collection is headlining, joined by a powerhouse lineup that also includes local favorites Shirlette Ammons, Tre. Charles, and The Pinkerton Raid.
Visit SoilSkyFest.com to see the full schedule and purchase tickets.
Wimbish says the idea is to provide a space not just for music, but for healing and affirmation.
“Soil & Sky came out of this idea that we want to do more,” he says. “I don’t want to just be a musician playing shows and being entertainment. I really want to be able to offer something healing. So we said, ‘well, what if we create our own thing like that in North Carolina?’ A lot of data shows that since COVID, people are going to fewer events – one or two a year, instead of five or seven. So if this is going to be people’s one event this year, how can we make it something that is healing and open and accepting?
“This year we have therapists and neuropsychologists and meditation and yoga, in between the bands on the main stage, and local food and drink,” he continues. “So hopefully, if this is people’s one event a year, it can meet a lot of needs.”
If it does, it’ll be a continuation of the great work David Wimbish and The Collection have already managed to do.
David Wimbish stopped by Live & Local this week to discuss “Little Deaths” and the Soil & Sky Festival. He also played three songs: “Medication,” “The Come Down,” and “Spark of Hope.” Listen:
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