In the spring of 2017 I had the chance to sit down with Mitski to talk about music, self-care, and what was happening in her life at the time as she transitioned from being an IYKYK indie artist to being very well known across the globe. During that conversation she said a bunch of thoughtful, incredibly tender things, but this part has always stuck with me:

“I think the most important process for understanding the world and what’s going on in yourself is to name things. We name streets, flowers, people, experiences, identities – we need to name a thing in order to make sense of it. I think songwriting is another naming process, where you give a name to a big muck inside you, or at least a little part of the big muck, in order to feel like you know it, and know where to put it. So I could say that writing songs has been a gateway to a deeper understanding of myself, but I actually think songwriting has given me a much simpler understanding of myself, in that all these messy, dark, unknowable things can be named, and become 3-minute songs to put on an iPhone instead of stirring in the big goop of the mind.”

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MITSKI x LOGAN LYNN

“Naming The Big Muck Inside You”

Read our chat in full HERE.

Ten years ago this weekend I launched a public health campaign with a few people you may have heard of. We decided to try and make talking about mental health cool and used pop music and rock and roll to reach people.

And it worked!!

Ultimately saved lives and got to collaborate with literally all of my musical heroes. Won a bunch of national awards. Program got adopted by public schools across the State. Just an absolutely magical time in my life.

Thank you to Sheila Hamilton, Sabrina Carpenter, Macklemore, Flo Rida, Kevin Bacon, Alice Cooper, Violent Femmes, Blind Pilot, Jack Antonoff / Bleachers, Madison Beer, Viola Davis, Third Eye Blind, Mike Doughty, CJ McCollum, Ryan Seacrest, The Dandy Warhols, Brendon Urie / Panic At The Disco, my forever homies and collaborators Portugal. The Man, and the hundreds upon hundreds of other bands, artists, authors, actors, and friends who joined me in the campaign over those years.

We did a big thing and I love you all.

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Happy to be here.

I think it’s hard for people who meet me now to picture me before I got into recovery, and I love that for all of us.