Electronic artist Alison Wonderland knows firsthand what it's like to experience depression.
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Experiencing this difficult place inspired the Australian singer/songwriter/producer to write the track "Happy Place," which reflects the ups and downs of mental illness. She revealed on Twitter that she wrote the song when contemplating suicide and making the choice to reach out for help.
"I wrote it about making choices. I made the choice to call my friends," said Wonderland. "I've never been in such a dark place and I hope when people hear it they know that there are ways to get out of it and it can be OK."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I hope that when I release it, it speaks to you and helps bring u light</p>— ALISON WONDERLAND (@awonderland) <a href="https://twitter.com/awonderland/status/927283254075342848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 5, 2017</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The track starts open and calm then builds into what Billboard calls a "jungle gym of clashing noise" as she sings about trying to stay in a happy place. The deeply personal message reflects the sentiment behind her upcoming album, Awake — her first since 2015.
"I feel like every single person out there has felt really low at one point in their life, and it's just so taboo," she told Billboard. "I think mental illness is something people should be more open about. Things could be prevented. There's times where I'm really glad I last minute texted someone like 'Oh, I'm really not good.' I have really great people around me, but it's really important to show people that I've been there, but I got through it."
