Fighting Shadows CD and video
"The way you look at me, The way you talk to me, I want to find dignity,
I want to find love, I want to find respect, I wanna fight these shadows in my head"
Lyrics from Fighting Shadows
Listen to Johnny's song
(Or download the Mp3 by right clicking the image then choosing 'Save link as')
Watch the movie about the making of the Fighting Shadows CD
About the song: Fighting Shadows
Johnny Matteson has devoted the past two decades to motivating and entertaining with his music and spreading positive messages about mental health through music.
Diagnosed with bipolar disorder at 19, Johnny forged a path back to respectability through work and study, and through his music, which has made him an esteemed and loved performer who has stood the test of time. In his 20s, following his diagnosis, Johnny felt keenly the weight of self-stigma and undertook a degree in health science to fight his way out of the mire of mental illness.
Johnny's new single is called Fighting Shadows, which he describes as a self-stigma anthem. Produced in collaboration with the Mental Health Foundation, Johnny is hoping the release of the single - timed for Mental Health Awareness Week 2009 - will be one more way to educate the general public about mental illness and raise awareness of the issues involved.
Johnny composed the single to launch the Foundation's 2007 research project about self-stigma at a special function in Wellington in front of the Governor General.
He says, "I was talking with [research author] Debbie Peterson at a staff retreat earlier in the year about the self-stigma research, and I said the concept of self-stigma is like ‘fighting shadows' - you're pushing against barriers that don't really exist.
"After that conversation, Debbie picked up on these words and named the research publication Fighting Shadows. Then Sara McCook Weir suggested that I write a song to go with the publication and the single developed from there.
"It took two-and-a-half months to write the song and, if you listen to the lyrics, it tells the story of one person's experience overcoming self-stigma. I wanted to describe it in a poetic form that everyone can relate to and can access. The verses talk about the person's negative experiences and the chorus looks back on those experiences and recognises that they were just ‘fighting shadows'."
The team working on the single was: producer, Christopher Banks (producer and songwriter for NZ band Deep Obsession), drummer, Gordon Joll (Herbs), backing vocals, Betty-Anne Monga (Ardijah), engineer and mixer, Nigel Foster (who has worked with the Exponents and Strawpeople) and a 4-piece string quartet from Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra.
Read the research report Fighting Shadows
