Absentee’s New Day: Positivity and pushing through adversity

The overarching message in rapper Absentee’s new single ‘New Day’ is one of positivity and pushing through adversity.

Absentee, who’s from Perrystown and is a past pupil of St Mac Dara’s Community College in Templeogue, collaborated with singer Qbanaa for the upbeat, summery track.

‘New Day’ also features input from members of the D12 Inc collective, including producers Mickzart from Crumlin and CameronTVP from Drimnagh.

Absentee told The Echo about how exploring mental health through his music acts as a form of self-therapy for him, and he shared the message he hopes to get across with ‘New Day’.

A theme that consistently runs through your music is mental health. How does exploring this topic through your music help you with your own mental health?

For me, the two have gone hand-in-hand with each other for years, since I started writing and even before.

Writing started off as a form of self-therapy and expression for myself to learn to be happy, as I wasn’t in a great place mentally.

So, as many people have said before, I’m sure, music has really saved me from myself.

I do my best to be as honest as I can with myself when writing but it’s still hard to let everything out on to the page, sometimes you either don’t want to say something you’re thinking because then it becomes real, but eventually it becomes bottled up and that’s never the answer.

This is the second time you’ve collaborated with Qbanaa, as she previously appeared on your single ‘Blue Skies’. How did your initial collaboration with her come about?

Our initial collaboration came about through social media. one of my producers Mickzart (Michael Ward) had shared a video Qbanaa had posted on lnstagram of herself singing, and straight away I knew I wanted to work with her.

Her voice at the time was perfect and exactly what I was looking for in a collab. I messaged her straight away and we got chatting about music and we went from there.

Did you write ‘New Day’ with the idea of having her vocals flowing through it in mind, or did that come through later in the process?

I didn’t write ‘New Day’ with any other vocals. CameronTVP (Cameron Steele) got in the studio, we listened, and knew something was missing and straight away we knew Qbanaa would fit perfectly, and she did.

We’ve found a good energy in collaborating with Qbanaa and it really works well, she has an amazing voice and has gotten even better since we first worked together.

I hope to keep collaborating in the future as it’s a great match.

How did you feel the first time you heard the final version of ‘New Day’?

When I heard the final version of ‘New Day’ there was a mixture of feelings; excitement, pride and relief all come to mind.

It’s always exciting creating, making and releasing music, then when you make something you are genuinely proud of, it’s something special entirely.

And then you’re relieved that your hard work comes together and you can start the hard work of getting it out there!

But the first time I heard ‘New Day’ in its final stage I was beyond happy, it is our best work to date, I feel, and we are very excited to have it out.

The song has upbeat, positive overtones and it seems to convey that no matter how you’re feeling, there’s always potential for better things with each new day. Why did you feel it was important to create a song with that message?

I felt it was important to convey this message because I think people need to hear it.

We are told this every day, but sometimes it’s still not enough, so if I can be one more voice telling one more person that tomorrow is a ‘New Day’, and that things can get better than I will be.

It also is a point I’m making to myself that I know I’m still not where I would like to be mentally, physically and the rest, but just to keep trying to be better and to keep going.

That’s the message I want to get across as much as possible.

‘New Day’ is out now on all streaming platforms.

For more information visit linktr.ee/Absenteemusic