William McCarthy

Welcome to episode 111 with William McCarthy who is a musician, songwriter, and the former lead singer of the band Augustines.

Bill grew up around mental illness, alcoholism, and poverty.  When he was 19, his mother died by suicide after many years of addiction and deteriorating mental health issues.  His younger brother was also diagnosed with a mental illness and also died by suicide whilst being held in prison without the proper care and support.

These experiences, and the story of Bill’s childhood, largely inspired the songs for the first Augustines record and his story, and that of the band, was told in the documentary ‘Rise: The Story of Augustines’ which came out in 2018.

I caught up with Bill to chat about his early experiences with mental ill health and how they form the basis of his personal crusade to raise awareness around mental health issues.

We chat about being in a band and life on the road.  We chat about how mental illness is misreported by the media and how that informs stigma, and we chat about human connection, showing compassion and the need for good role models.

Bill has recently been to Canada to play music and speak to school children about mental health and we chat about that too.

William McCarthy is one of my all-time favourite musicians from one of my all-time favourite bands so to say this episode was special for me was an understatement!

You can find out more about Bill and everything he’s up to via his website here: www.williammccarthy.org

You can follow him on social media @williamjmccarthey

You can buy his music via Bandcamp here: Music | William McCarthy (bandcamp.com)

The documentary is available on amazon, watch the trailer here: RISE: The Story of Augustines (Official Trailer 2019) - YouTube

 

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