Amelia Curran‘s national breakthrough album, War Brides, was released on Six Shooter Records in 2008. She was already an established and esteemed writer and performer in her home city, St. John’s, Newfoundland, and around the East Coast, but with the backing of the upstart and influential Six Shooter label, her name became one that was known across the country and beyond Canada’s borders. She quickly became a mainstay on Canada’s public broadcaster, CBC Music, and began touring and playing high-profile festivals all over the place.
Subsequent albums, Hunter Hunter (2009), Spectators (2012), They Promised You Mercy (2014), and Watershed (2017), further cemented her status as one of Canada’s finest singer/songwriters.
Multiple awards and increased recognition piled up. Since 2014, she has become increasingly active as an outspoken advocate of mental health awareness and systemic reform. She is the co-founder of It’s Mental, a grassroots community organization that focuses on the funding and sharing of knowledge on mental health realities and first aid mental health training to help safeguard our communities, families, and friends.
Curran is also busy as a documentary filmmaker and producer, with mental illness and health awareness and advocacy a common theme.
When I started planning for the production and release of Fly with your Shadow, Amelia was right at the top of the list of guests that I hoped to land for the show. I was thrilled to finally catch up with her at the end of March, 2021. She told me all about what’s happening with her music and advocacy, spills the beans about an exciting and ambitious project that she’s planning, and of course has a lot of interesting things to say about acceptance, inclusion, and advocacy.
“This Video” started Amelia’s activism in 2014:
These days, she’s actively involved with It’s Mental, which she co-founded. Check out their valuable work here: https://itsmental.ca
You can find out more about Mental Health First Aid training through MHFA: https://mhfa.ca/en/home
Amelia is also on the board of directors for the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: https://suicideprevention.ca/
You can buy Amelia’s most recent albums through her website: https://www.ameliacurran.com/musak-1
They are also available on Bandcamp: https://ameliacurran.bandcamp.com/
Music credits:
“I am the Night” is from the album They Promised You Mercy
“Watershed” is from the album Watershed
“The Mistress” is from the album Hunter Hunter. It’s available from Six Shooter Records and iTunes
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