Minnesota Rock Singer Channels His Grief Into New Album
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Nearly four years ago, the founder and lead singer of the rock group, The Honeydogs endured the most painful moments of his life.
Adam Levy's son, Daniel, committed suicide.
"His mother and me were just, what could we have done more?" he said. "What went wrong?"
Daniel, 21, was an artist, living in upstate New York, who had battled depression for about four years before his death in January of 2012.
"There's no getting around the guilt of losing a child to suicide," Levy said. "It's profound and it haunts you."
He may never understand it, but Levy has spent the past few years trying.
In the art that his son left behind, he found vivid illustrations of the personal turmoil his son was experiencing.
"It reflects his inner world, which was a world of great anguish, great pain," he said. "It felt like I was opening up a huge vault of treasure or something that was insight into who my son was."
Inspired by those drawings, and as a way to process his own pain, Levy produced a new solo album, which goes on sale Oct. 23.
"I'd say a year and a half after his death, songs started to emerge that felt as though I was honoring my son's memory," he said.
The new album, Naubinway, is named after the town in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the family scattered Daniel's ashes – the last place his mother remembered him smiling.
It features his artwork on the cover, dark images that may now provide some light.
"My hope is that I'm part of a larger conversation about reducing the stigma around mental illness," Levy said.
