Nashville’s Hamil Rich Battles Schizophrenia With Music On Debut Album 'Weights' Releasing April 22

Courtesy: Echo Ave

Nashville, TN - Singer-songwriter Hamil Rich will release his debut album Weights on April 22. Rich has crafted 10 songs with deep imagery to grapple with and overcome mental illness. At age 20, he was diagnosed with severe obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) after years of disruptive behaviors. He began taking an antidepressant to cope with fear and anxiety while attending Trevecca Nazarene University with a major in Commercial Voice. It was during that time he began hearing voices that intensified to the point of threatening his life. Music became a way to find peace, to escape the noise in the labyrinth of his mind. At age 24, he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and began to receive treatment.

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With self-awareness came songs. The title track “Weights” poured from his vision of being stranded and walking into the ocean, entranced by the moon as it looks like a pair of eyes. “Sometimes when you look into someone’s eyes you take on everything that they’re going through,” he says. “You just go to that place with them no matter what. I imagine walking out into the ocean until your head is underwater. You drown with them in whatever you’re going through.”

Themes of selflessness, disorientation, discovery and the purity of love permeate through this lush musical expedition. Recorded in Nashville at East Side Manor, Rich took to the studio only to sing while the instrumentation formed organically in the moment with experimentation from local musicians. The result is a debut for wandering souls, an invitation to delve into the inner workings of the self to find resolution in the gravity of life that unites us all.  
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