A raw and vulnerable exploration of mental health, ‘Follow Me’ is the debut single from Melbourne-based indie-pop artist, Ksee Iris.
Ksee Iris, the moniker of Melbourne based musician Casey Smith, has just released his newest single ‘Follow Me’.
A drop-out of the Australian Institute of Music, Ksee Iris’ deeply personal lyricism draws from his own experiences with mental health, with an aim to break the stigma around it. “I suffer from a couple of different disorders,” he told us. “I’ve got post traumatic stress disorder, borderline personality disorder and Aspergers – it’s a bit of a trifecta.”
“I seem to see the world through a different light – which affected a lot of the music that I was putting out. It was heavily emotional, it was very dark – I thought, why not try to use that in a better way and highlight that it’s okay to be that way and forgive yourself for the actions that your mental state might dictate that you do.”
What you need to know
- Melbourne-based indie-pop artist Ksee Iris has released his debut single ‘Follow Me’
- A transparent and vulnerable indie-pop single, ‘Follow Me’ is about the complexities of mental health, self-forgiveness and accountability
- You can catch him at his single launch at The Palm Royale in Richmond on October 1
Find your next favourite act. Check out the best new music from local and independent artists here.
A relatable and transparent single about growth and accountability, a topic that’s rarely discussed in music, Ksee says “it’s about the feeling that you’ve done something wrong by someone – but you didn’t mean it, it happened because of the mental state that you were in.”
“I had an experience with my ex-girlfriend, where she could see that I was struggling and she really tried to help me […] but the more she did the more I seemed to pull her down into my world.”
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‘Follow Me’ asserts that the journey towards self-forgiveness starts with emotional honesty. “If people hear something in the song that resonates with them, they should start talking about it – getting it out definitely helps you start to move forward.”
“What I want people to know is that it’s okay to admit these things – it’s ok to admit to being the person you were and it’s okay to express it.”
“A long time when I was at music uni I really wanted to get into the music scene and create some really uptempo like – jazz pop,” Ksee states. “But then I wanted to reach people in different ways and make it a bit more personal, so I started down a path of writing about my own experiences. I released that perhaps the things that people understand the most are the things that we don’t really talk about.”
“The funny thing is, being personal in my music is not as hard as it used to be because I want people to know that this is me – this is what I’m like,” he says. “I want people to relate to this story because I’m pretty sure that most of us can in some way.”
“I think that’s the biggest thing of all – I think that being able to to forgive oneself for the actions that you’ve done because of your mental health issues – it’s a step that we all can’t all take based on the fear that we aren’t going to be understood.”
The single itself is professionally produced by Stuart Stuart, the ARIA-nominated mastering engineer known for producing Sheppard’s global hit ‘Geronimo’ and for spearheading The Veronica’s career.
“I sent him a track that I had recently written and he basically went like ‘yep. That’s the one – let’s do something’,” he remembers. “From there it was about a year and a half’s worth of writing 150 tunes within three months, which was a long time of writing a lot of tracks.”
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You can catch Ksee Iris at his single launch at The Palm Royale in Richmond on October 1. “It’s a nice, niche little cocktail bar that has a really cool vibe to it,” he says. “There are nice lights and the launch itself is going to be really done up.”
“Basically – it’s going to be a night to remember.”
‘Follow Me’ was also made with the much appreciated support from friends; Letizia Colombo, Ashton Wastney and Tibo Menut.
‘Follow Me’ is out now across multiple streaming platforms. Check it out by heading here.
This article was made in partnership with Casey Smith
