Epitaphs
Honestly, what is there to say about depression and suicide that hasn't already been said.
In June 2017 we lost Adrian Owens. He was 41 years old. Ado and I first met in Sun Studios, Dublin back in January 2003, he came in to take some photographs of us while we made the 'Lights Out' album, and I kept in touch with him from that point onward. He would later contribute the now iconic artwork to the 'Leaving Eden' album, which was just the perfect image for that recording.
In February 2019 we lost Kirk Jones. He was 44 years old. Kirk and me go further back. In 1991, when I was 16, I went to a multimedia scheme here in Liverpool, and Kirk was there. Kirk sang and I didn't, so before too long we were playing together. I played my first gig with Kirk, it was an acoustic show with about 20 people in the audience. We played Iggy Pop's 'The Passenger' and at the end Kirk started riffing on the vocals from 'Jump' by Kriss Kross... ''Kris Kross'll make you (jump, jump)''... except he changed it to ''Mick Moss'll make you (jump, jump)''. Haha. There's about 3 songs now that, whenever I hear them, I think of Kirk.
And now, in August 2020, we lose Sergio Dunkley. He was 45 years old. We go even further back. I'd known the guy since I was 11, we went right through high school together, he was in my class. Sergio shaped my musical taste quite a bit. Around 1989 he put his walkman headphones on my head and said ''listen to this''...what I heard was Slayers 'South Of Heaven'... wow. He also did me a cassette of Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' and made his own inner sleeve for it complete with hand-drawn artwork.
In the 2017 re-release of 'Leaving Eden' I covered this topic the best I could. I had written most of the songs for that album during a particularly black period from which I never thought I would emerge. But I did. Here are some of my words from the inner booklet... ''Like a colour-filter placed over an image, diminishing the other colours, emotions have a powerful affect on how we perceive our existence. Happiness has us feeling like we never knew anything else ... like we couldn't even imagine the grim choke of sadness. So take the time to remember that if you ever find your happiness filtered out by some other heavy emotion. The positive elements are still there, waiting patiently for you, they haven't disappeared. They will return.'' What is there to say about depression and suicide that hasn't already been said? I'll say one thing. Notice how I use the word 'loss' in each of the paragraphs above. No matter how worthless you think you are, people feel your LOSS. You have value. Don't ever forget that. Mick Moss August 27th 2020