IN FOCUS
BEING A MUM AND ROCK MUSICIAN WITH LYNDSEY MCDOUGALL OF NEW PAGANS
Lyndsey McDougall, vocalist of the Northern Irish band New Pagans, proves that you can be both a mum and a rock musician. With their latest track ‘Yellow Room’ Lyndsey and her band want to tackle the silencing of motherhood and postnatal depression in the music industry and give young, parenting musicians a voice, particularly in Northern Ireland. ‘Yellow Room’ is based on Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper, which
has been identified as an important piece of early American feminist literature. The story deals with motherhood, mental health, and the feeling of being lost. As a musician, mother and mental health advocate, Lyndsey can identify with the imagery of the short story. "I had read it when I just had my first baby. A friend of mine has given it to me. I don’t know what she was thinking, because it is quite dark and it’s kind of a Gothic horror 28
story. Somehow, I found it really comforting. When we started to write the song, I started to realize that I was using bits of the narrator’s angst and that sort of space that you’re in as a mum, at the start, when you don’t really know how to negotiate this new thing. So, the song is based on that, and it’s definitely based on those feelings of, not necessarily postnatal depression, but that sense of nearly being alone in the world with this new person to look after."
