We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Stefan West. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Stefan below.
Alright, Stefan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I first knew I wanted to do this professionally when i was 11 years old, I had been playing piano and trumpet for around 3-4 years and I was in a performing concert band playing 2nd trumpet. I remember i looked over at the bass player and the drummer and my whole world just narrowed in on those two. they just seemed like the coolest two people in the room to me. It wasn’t to long after i got a bass guitar and started learning how to play, my brother got a drum kit and my sister got an electric guitar, I played their instruments as much if not more than they did haha. My obsession with pop punk and all that genre of music felt like the most amazing thing in the world to me, I felt like myself when i was jumping around my room playing those songs. I have had alot of hurtles along the way, which is true to any endeavour especially creative ones, but those early moments were when i knew for sure this is what i wanted to do forever.
Stefan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
my name is Stefan West, Im a singer/songwriter whos music is somewhere between indie rock/ pop punk/ folk and pop. my main theme throughout all is exploration, exploration of what it means to be a human being living in todays age.I, like alot of people alive today have had ongoing struggles with mental health, and have had big troubles with drug addiction in my past.
I have always been on the alternative route of practises to help combat these things and i think that is one of the things that has made me stand out in my approach to finding my way through substance abuse and mental health problems. These themes also come through in all the music that is set to come out in 2024, I explore relationships with partners, relationships with family, my best friend comiting suicide, how self help can go to far and just end up being and endless road of never being good enough, embracing hardtimes and understanding that our destiny is what we make of it, falling in love and wanting to spend the rest of your life with someone, then the flip side being all the romcom cliches that are teaching us to hold on and romanticise about relationships when true love can also be letting go, my own misunderstandings with drug addiction and trying to find my way through mental health without taking any of the mainstream approaches of medication/western therapy, because these routes have never worked for me in the past.
My album “Cambridge” which is set to come out in 2024 explores all of these topics covering multiple genres throughout. theres like upbeat pop punk songs, theres 90’s rock n roll tracks, theres this really cool jazzy number, there are acoustic folk songs, and everything in between.
for me i want to be as open and honest as possible with the way i communicate with the world and with the songs i write, we have this incredible Oppurtinity as artists to be able to tackle subject matter that otherwise might not be able to be spoken about, but when its weaved into melody, with the music evoking emotion, and the words Spiraling into the listeners minds, we are able to convey another perspective that may shift an otherwise rigid subject.
My music is for all the explorers out there, for all the people who are on a mission to learn what it means to be the truest version of themselves, I hope that the songs can find the people who love/need them and i hope it can resonate in the way for others as it has for me.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I think it would be my own struggles with mental health and drug addiction, in my teen years i got diagnosed with anxiety (it seems crazy saying diagnosed now that i know how normal it is for everyone to feel anxious) but for me at the time for whatever reason, it was really bad. I would shake in the corner of my room and run away from home for weeks at a time. I tried the medication and physchologists but it didnt feel correct for me.
So the self medicating begun, I started just with recreational use (we had been drinking for a little while already) of alcohol, exctacy, speed, marijuana, mushrooms, and then it started to get a little heavier with ICE & Heroin, i only dabbled in the use of opiods, I had a very bad experience where i stopped breathing and vowed to never take it again, then ICE became a huge part of where we lived, that turned in to a very big problem for myself and alot of people i know.
I was on and off (mostly on) for 7 years before I moved away from my home town to get away from everything, we had lot alot of friends to suicide by this point and had two friends have very severe overdoses in my house prior to leaving which made the decision feel like if i didnt go, i would never be able to leave.
The self medicating was not good, I know that. But I wasnt always just trying to run away, I was also exploring what it meant to be me and how i could help myself otherwise feel better. now dont get me wrong, those years were filled with panick attacks, and crippling anxiety, but there were moments of clarity within it. once i had moved to melbourne it lead me to begin to see a kinesiologist, I have now been seeing her for 8 years and theres no way id be the person who i was today without her, I continued to take heavier drugs on and off for the next few years until i finally stopped completely two and a half years ago.
Throughout all of this time I have learnt meditation, yoga, breath-work, different types of philosophies, and different paid practictioner’s to utilise whether it be kinesiologists, reiki, massage, accupuncture, all to help understand why had ended up in the positions i had and how i could be help my mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health.
I say all this because i think thats the resilience, its not being able to quit drugs, its not being able to not feel anxious anymore, its learning all the different ways you can help youself and then learning how and when to utilise them, its also learning to accept that this human experience isnt ever going to be good all the time, its not supposed to be, so how do i have as much love and compassion for myself when im at my lowest and what can i utilise not to help me forget about the low emotions but to help me find my alignment again and make a desicion thats going to best serve me in this moment. sometimes im really good at this, and othertimes i feel like a toddler, but i also think thats the process and thats how we continue to become a little more ourselves every day.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I think its to spread that message of resilience above, not that i have anything perfect or downpat. but that throughout the process of learning these things for myself i have realised just how different each and everyone of us are, now i know we are all human beings and we are all the same. But our needs are so vastly different to one anothers, so through exploring ourselves, our practices, our set in stone belief systems, the things that make us feel good, the things that make us feel bad, how we respond to the world around us, we can learn what we need, granted they constantly change. but we can learn how to help ourselves the best way we can. we can become accountable for our emotions, our responses and our actions. thats like true freedom.
To be honest i don’t think i’ve every written that as a mission, but its always sat underneath the surface, I just want to spread love, i want to show that exploration can really show you whats beneath the surface, theres no one answer to anything, but you can explore and find it for yourself.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://stefanwestmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stefanwest_/
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/stefanwestt
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@stefanwest_
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0PBx1cYritKInSKLkn3Zea?si=1V7mZKq0Rca7mjtGMnPMsg
- AppleMusic: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/stefan-west/1411114453
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/search?q=stefan%20west&t=1702286417761
Image Credits
All photos take by Jake Plumridge