Bad Alice music

suzy from bad alice Playing acoustic is about as punk rock as you can get, in my opinion! It’s SO raw and visceral plus you’re not hiding behind any effects – it’s just us, the guitars and the music.

Suzy from bad alice If you like it, great, if you don’t, great too cos at least we made you have an opinion about SOMETHING! Ha ha! I’m Suzy Johnston lead guitarist and vocalist with the band “BAD ALICE”. I’ve been playing in bands for around 14 years and I still love it, I guess it’s part of me.

This band is something special though. Let me explain….I have spent the last 16 years (successfully) battling manic depression – also known as bipolar disorder – during this time I graduated from Uni, toured West Coast America with my previous band, coped with 6 psychiatric admissions and wrote my autobiography “The Naked Bird Watcher”.

“BAD ALICE” is a natural progression from this as a lot of the songs are, and will be, about mental illness and social issues which face everyone, particularly young people, today. 1 in 4 people will have a mental health problem that will require medical intervention at some point in their lives. 1 in 4. That’s a hell of a lot and we want to bring it to peoples’ attention. Music is a great way to do this so we hope you like what you hear. Listen to it, talk suzy from bad alice about it, but above all THINK about it.
Happy listening!

linz from bad alice What can I say? It must have been fate. About three years ago I was looking to start a band and found myself answering Suzy’s ad.

linz and suzy from bad alice I’d been playing guitar since I was nine and have been singing with bands since I was in my teens. We just seemed to click straight away – as writers, as performers and, most importantly, as friends. Starting an acoustic rock band has been challenging – no longer can we hit a distortion pedal for dynamics! It’s forcing us to be more innovative and we’re rising to the challenge if I may say so!

As Suzy is working to break the social stigma attached to mental health issues this means I have to empathise with her lyrics in order to do them justice. In doing this, I see how these issues apply to everyone. Sure, not everyone will suffer from mental illness in their life but everyone has their ups and downs and everyone feels alone at times. Music is an excellent form of expression and, for me, it expresses the idea that nobody is alone, no matter how you feel. I’ve always found that music can help to get you through even the toughest situations, it’s certainly helped me through some tough times, and Bad Alice is an opportunity for us both to reach people and show that there are others who understand.
Rock on!

News for 2010 - With us both increasing our work committments, Linz and I have had no choice but to go our separate ways with her off to London while I still write and work on mental health issues and its recovery as well as still composing music and writing lyrics. Obviously performing 'live' is no longer a practical option for us but our music is still available either as donwloads or cds as we hope that the message of our lyrics will still help people and be seen as a way of voicing their pain and offer them the hope that they will get through the dark times.

Take care and travel safely - Suzyx

Books by Suzy Johnston

The Naked Bird Watcher is the book which I wrote and is all about my experiences of living with a mental health challenge and manage it , learning to cope with self harm and psychosis . But it’s more than that ( I hope!) it’s about living - good reliable friends, a sense of humour (?) and realistic goals for the future.

So why did I write it? I suppose it started off in the hope it would be a cathartic excercise - (it wasn't) - after I had nervously shown the opening chapter to a few close friends they encouraged me to continue and 18 months later The Naked Bird Watcher was done and dusted. Since then I have written The Snow Globe Journals which is harder hitting account of The Naked Bird Watcher and basically I am just saying that we all have a hand of cards dealt to us and it is how we play that hand that determines the route our own particular life will follow.

Yes, I have bipolar disorder but I equate that with having a positive attituded focusses on the challenges of psychosis and self harm and coping with them. It also links to the lyrics of modern music which voices much of our mental distress. My third book is When Do I Get My Shoelaces Back? and it is the diary I kept when I was having a psychotic episode which lasted almost 7 months after a physical illness meant that I could not take my meds. I hope this book lets people see what psychosis is like and how important it is to have good nursing care and support to deal with it as well as giving coping skills - and how to manage a recovery.

If you’re interested in finding out more about what we do why not check out www.thecairn.com