“U K, G?”: eott IS BREAKING THE STIGMA OF MENTAL HEALTH IN THE UK

by Sam Le Roy 2 years ago

by Sam Le Roy 2 years ago 4min

Founded in October 2019 with the initial aim to normalise mental health struggles in the UK through a musical lens, eott has graced the instagram explore feed of so many of us, providing a bit of perspective on our lives in amongst the especially hectic day-to-day we’ve all been through for the past 18 months. Centered around the phrase “u k, g?” eott provokes conversation on the topic of mental health, breaking down the stigma surrounding it and always encouraging us to check in on our mates. We chatted to the guys at eott to learn more about their project, their come-up until now and the aims for the future – read on to hear all about it.

Hey guys! For our readers, could you give us a quick run-down on what you do and tell us how you define eott?

Easy! eott would be defined as a music mental health community that sits between a brand and a charity. We operate as a music brand but everything we do – clothes, media, music – is in aid of mental health.

When you launched back in 2019, what were your aims with the project? You’ve spent nearly 2 years developing the platform and working on a lot of positive things, do you think you’ve achieved those objectives?

Aside from our main purpose – normalising mental health – we didn’t really have many tangible goals as such. There were endorsements we thought would help our cause (like from Slowthai, Loyle and Keep Hush) but mostly we just wanted to make a new focused initiative in the music scene that people could resonate with and appreciate, and to get people chatting and considering mental health. It feels like we’ve done that for a few people, so yeah we have achieved so far 🙂

With “u k, g” as your first effort to break down the stigma behind mental health struggles and checking up on your mates – how happy are you to see that the work you’ve been doing has been able to reach so many people, educate and change some outlooks?

It’s pretty amazing when we think about it. Recently a friend told us they told their therapist about ‘eott’ and said it had been helping, and the therapist responded by saying ‘oh a few people have mentioned that!’ That’s beautiful.

You’ve managed to capture a group of people that are so heavily affected by mental health but are also more often than not the most silent; what do you think makes eott able to reach these communities? Is it through collaborations with music groups like Krudd and Beastwang, or the cimple messaging that you’ve become known for?

Partly the collaborations yeah, and the cosigns, they have helped give the cause some familiarity for sure. Also the ‘u k, g?’ is quite culturally relevant so that helps.

Also would like to think that our approach and language has a part to play, lots of the mental health media we saw prior to us was just presented in a bit of an alienating way, like even just using all these posh words and shit . We try to write all our stuff so it reads like someone’s just chatting to you, rather than on an essay vibe, you know? We hope and think that has helped our communication too

Looking forward, we’re emerging from the pandemic into a summer that is set to be a big change for everyone after being restricted and/or in lockdowns for well over a year now. What’s your message to everyone that’s mentally preparing for such an overwhelming change to daily life?

We think awareness and familiarity are important. Being wary that the move back into the ‘real’ world isn’t necessarily going to be smooth, and there may well be difficulties for you or your pals, we believe is a good start.

Could go far deeper into this and this isn’t going to change the world but for us awareness is the first step, and this understanding will help if any difficulties come one’s way, rather than ignoring or repressing them. (in our opinion)

Back to goals for the future. Now that you’ve become more of an established name, the goalposts have moved, and the possibility of making a big change to a lot of people is far more tangible than it was in 2019 – now that this is the reality for you, do you have an end game plan for eott, a vision so to speak, or are you really going with the flow and taking it week by week?

Thanks! You know what, somewhat week by week actually, if we’re honest. We’ve got a bag of ideas and aspirations but actually we’re just trying to take it one project at a time, rather than confusing it by juggling too much stuff.

Next thing (s) we’re working on are regarding rave safety, so hold tight for that.

For the most part, the end game plan is for mental health to be a normal and approachable section of conversation.