There Is Beauty In Everything with Dan Stevenson of Frontierer/Lift (& Rhys)

The Heavy Mental Podcast

In this episode, Rhys speaks with musician and lecturer, Dan Stevenson.

You might know Dan as one of the guitar players in Scottish mathcore band, Frontierer.

Frontierer are known for their heavy, erratic and aggressive form of technical metal. Having seen them perform live at ArcTanGent in 2019 (which seems like a lifetime ago now) I know firsthand that they bring an intense amount of energy and enthusiasm to their live shows.

But, in direct contrast to the “noise terror” of Frontierer, Dan has just finished writing a solo record which is at the complete opposite end of the sonic spectrum.

The record is called “There Is Beauty In Everything” and it relates heavily to a breakthrough Dan had with his mental health.

It’s unconventional, raw, interesting, moving and most pertinently, uplifting — I say this because Dan has aptly named and released the record under the name “Lift”.

Dan created this record during a difficult period last year in which he experienced a loss. The record was born out of a sort of necessity to process what'd happened and to comprehend the emotions he was experiencing.

Even though he was in an extremely low place, Dan had the idea to try and write songs that would reflect the mood he wished to be in, rather than the state of mind he was then in.

This is when the record really started to take shape.

In this conversation, we talk about:

• Dan’s history with his mental health and being a really emotional kid.
• We talk about his time at uni and how he had spells of poor mental health before discovering fitness as a means to cope.
• We also talk about how a mental health breakdown and psychotic episode, prompted a big change in Dan’s life.
• We also talk about burnout, setting boundaries and self-care.

Thematically, we also talk:

Creativity, baby loss, meditation, the Scottish/Welsh music scene, burnout, setting boundaries, self-care and reconnecting with nature.

I really loved chatting to Dan and really connected with the record too. Any of you Bon Iver fans out there, you should definitely pick this one up via Venn Records when it's released.

Peace.