Fri | Mar 29, 2024

Qraig Voicemail calls for a listening ear

‘I suppressed my emotions’

Published:Monday | May 2, 2022 | 12:06 AMStephanie Lyew/Gleaner Writer
Qraig’s upcoming 12-track  album is titled ‘Listen to Me’.
Qraig’s upcoming 12-track album is titled ‘Listen to Me’.
Qraig shared that the past two years have been the better part of the healing process.
Qraig shared that the past two years have been the better part of the healing process.
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Craig Jackson has spent the last two decades navigating one of the world’s most demanding environments. But whether people identify him as a recording artiste named Qraig or by his voice and personal style, one thing he knows people are unlikely to identify him by, is his battle with depression.

“I came to the realisation that I was damaged,” Qraig said of his emotional struggles.

He added, “A traumatic experience takes life, or time to fix. Everybody’s experience has a different timespan and maybe, because a person does not face their trauma head- on, the healing process does not begin. The first step of healing is accepting – that’s the step I took – something I never thought I would experience.”

May is a challenging time for the artiste. It is the month that he lost a friend, who became family. Oneil Edwards, one of the three members of Voicemail, was attacked by gunmen on May 10, 2010, and later succumbed to injuries.

“I lost a big brother in 1992. I was in school then and it messed with me academically. I couldn’t focus; trust me, school became rough. But I met Oneil in the process. The bond we had is like a brother. I never dealt with it. I suppressed my emotions, [and] for years I would have spells and wake up in the night bawling, not crying, bawling,” he shared.

The past two years have been the better part of the healing process, he said.

“In the beginning, I spoke to a professional and it wasn’t helping, but that was because I wasn’t being honest with myself. I have had days where I couldn’t function. For the past two years, I have been up to some self-evaluation and I got a lot of time to go over things, to analyse where I was before, to when I am now. May was my worst month every year because my energy would just get low, my vibrations would just be off. But last year, I decided to turn things around. My mentality towards May is to approach it with positivity. I try to help others and share as much of myself as I can,” he shared, noting that it happens to be Mental Health Awareness Month.

In Qraig’s wise words, “You have to trust yourself to be honest about yourself,” to be aware that you are experiencing emotional breakdown, whatever it may be, “and that’s why the truth hurts for so many persons”.

The dancehall entertainer also opened up about times when he felt he was not being heard. He shared that as a public figure, there is already a challenge to find persons who genuinely give a listening ear.

EXPERIENCE

“From the experience, people don’t listen to us. They take what they want from what they hear, and that’s what they run with. Firstly as a man, I can say men go through a lot and many women don’t understand .… because men generally don’t speak up and out about it. Instead, it all that is bottled up, and that creates rage in some – now, when you reach rage, there is no fixing it. And we are left to wonder where that anger we’re seeing in some people comes from,” he explained.

The Where Is The Love singer, songwriter and producer further explained that those who needed to know, knew what he was going through, because he still had to maintain a private life to protect his family.

“It’s true, many will know about me as an artiste, but I am still human. There are a lot of persons who choose to post personal things; I share a little because I must protect the ones I love. I have also learnt that people will have their own perception, no matter what you post, so make sure you cater to you first. A private life is a happy life,” he said.

In his forthcoming 12-track album, Listen to Me, he gives more of himself than he has before. It is a memoir of love, pain and loss. The lead singles, I Vow and Eazzy Shake, have already been released.

Qraig said that the legacy of Voicemail lives on in the pulsating beats of the music they have produced since their emergence in 1999. He has plans to release Damaged, a track from the album which speaks to losing Oneil.

“That track took me three days or more to record because I’d break down every time. That word, ‘damaged’, does not describe who I am now, but I had to record it. I guess ‘survivor’ is what or who I am now. I can’t wait for persons to listen to me singing that song, and my team is equally excited, which makes me more happy. I’ve found a team that reciprocates that positive energy, and I just want people to see that the work was put into it and give a listening ear,” he said.

stephanie.lyew@gleanerjm.com