Content note: This article discusses suicide and mental health. It does not describe suicide methods.
Music has always given people a way to express feelings that can be difficult to put into ordinary conversation. Post-punk, new wave, goth and alternative music in particular have often explored isolation, despair, anxiety, alienation and the darker parts of human experience.
That makes the stories of musicians who died by suicide especially complicated.
It can be tempting to look backwards and turn a person’s suffering into part of their mythology: the tortured artist, the doomed singer, the brilliant musician who could not escape their darkness.
But real lives are more complicated than that.
The five musicians discussed here made important contributions to music. They also had relationships, families, ambitions, disappointments, friendships and ordinary lives away from the stage. Their deaths were tragic events, but they should not be allowed to become the definition of who they were.
Their stories also remind us of something important for suicide prevention: you cannot always tell what someone is experiencing simply by looking at their career, talent or outward appearance.
Ian Curtis
Joy Division | Post-punk
Ian Curtis remains one of the most recognisable figures of British post-punk.
Born in Stretford, Lancashire, in 1956, Curtis grew up around Macclesfield and became fascinated by poetry and music. Alongside Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris, he helped create Joy Division, a band whose music would have an enormous influence on alternative and post-punk music.
Joy Division’s sound was stark but strangely beautiful. Curtis’s lyrics dealt with isolation, fear, relationships, mortality and emotional turmoil, while the band’s music created an atmosphere unlike anything else coming out of Britain at the time.
Their albums Unknown Pleasures and Closer became landmarks of post-punk. Songs such as “She’s Lost Control” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart” have continued to reach new generations of listeners.
Behind the growing success, however, Curtis was dealing with considerable difficulties.
He had epilepsy, and his seizures and treatment affected his everyday life and his ability to perform. The demands of touring and the rapid rise of Joy Division added further pressure. His marriage was also experiencing serious difficulties.
Curtis died by suicide in May 1980, aged 23, shortly before Joy Division were due to begin their first American tour.
His death has sometimes been presented as though it were the inevitable conclusion to the darkness of Joy Division’s music. That interpretation is seductive, but it risks turning a complicated young man’s life into a story with a predetermined ending.
It is more useful to remember Curtis as a young musician whose life contained both extraordinary creativity and serious difficulties.
What Ian Curtis’s story can teach us
Curtis’s story demonstrates how several pressures can exist at the same time: physical illness, emotional distress, relationship difficulties, professional pressure and uncertainty about the future.
None of these automatically leads to suicide. But when difficulties accumulate, people can become overwhelmed.
That is why noticing changes in someone matters.
If a friend, colleague or family member seems increasingly isolated, hopeless or distressed, don’t assume that their silence means they are coping.
Ask. Listen. Stay.
Adrian Borland
The Sound | Post-punk and new wave
Adrian Borland was one of the great under-recognised figures of British post-punk.
Born in London in 1957, Borland emerged from the punk explosion of the late 1970s. He first became involved with The Outsiders before forming The Sound, whose music developed into a powerful combination of post-punk, new wave and emotionally charged alternative rock.
The Sound never achieved the commercial success of some of their contemporaries, but their music has developed a devoted following.
Albums including Jeopardy and From the Lion’s Mouth showed Borland’s extraordinary ability to combine melody with emotional intensity. His songs could sound enormous while retaining an intimate, vulnerable quality.
When The Sound eventually ended, Borland continued making music. He released solo albums and worked with other musicians, refusing to abandon creativity even when his circumstances became difficult.
Borland also experienced serious depression.
In April 1999, aged 41, he died by suicide in London.
His death is particularly important to consider in the context of the way musicians with mental-health difficulties are sometimes portrayed.
Depression is not simply sadness.
Someone can be intelligent, creative, productive, loved and capable of making extraordinary work while simultaneously experiencing profound psychological pain.
What Adrian Borland’s story can teach us
One of the most dangerous misconceptions about depression is that it always looks obvious.
It doesn’t.
Someone can go to work. They can perform on stage. They can make plans. They can make other people laugh. They can create something beautiful.
None of that tells us what is happening inside.
Borland’s story reminds us not to use achievement as evidence that someone must be okay.
Sometimes the most valuable thing we can offer another person isn’t an answer.
It is the opportunity to say:
“You don’t have to pretend you’re okay with me.”
Kevin Wilkinson
China Crisis, The Waterboys, Squeeze and more | New wave and alternative music
Kevin Wilkinson’s story is different from those of the musicians who stood at the front of the stage.
He was a drummer and session musician whose work connected him with some of Britain’s best-known alternative and new-wave artists.
Born in Stoke-on-Trent in 1958, Wilkinson became involved in music at a time when punk and new wave were transforming British popular culture.
Over the course of his career, he played with artists including China Crisis, The Waterboys and Squeeze, as well as other prominent acts.
He was not simply a musician passing through recording studios. He was a father, husband, friend and active member of his community.
Shortly before his death, he was involved in organising a concert to raise money for people affected by the Kosovo conflict.
Wilkinson died by suicide in 1999, aged 41.
His story is a useful reminder that suicide cannot be reduced to a particular appearance or stereotype.
He was someone who worked in music, had a family and was capable of organising an event intended to help other people.
What Kevin Wilkinson’s story can teach us
People in distress don’t always stop caring about other people.
They may continue working.
They may continue helping friends.
They may continue making plans.
They may even become particularly good at hiding their own difficulties.
This is one reason suicide prevention cannot depend solely on spotting a stereotypical “suicidal person”.
Instead, it depends on creating environments in which people feel able to talk before a crisis becomes overwhelming.
That means checking in.
It means listening without immediately trying to fix everything.
And it means taking expressions of hopelessness seriously.
Billy Mackenzie
The Associates | Post-punk, new wave and art-pop
Billy Mackenzie was one of the most distinctive voices to emerge from Britain’s post-punk movement.
Born in Dundee in 1957, Mackenzie became the singer and principal creative force of The Associates, alongside Alan Rankine.
The Associates occupied their own musical territory.
Their work drew on post-punk, electronic music, pop, soul and art-rock. Mackenzie’s extraordinary voice allowed the band to move effortlessly between vulnerability and theatricality.
Their 1982 album Sulk became their defining record, while songs such as “Party Fears Two” demonstrated just how far the post-punk movement could move beyond the conventions of punk.
Mackenzie was also a complicated and intensely individual performer. He never fitted comfortably into the standard image of a rock singer.
He died by suicide in 1997, aged 39.
His death has contributed to the mythology surrounding The Associates and Mackenzie’s intensely emotional music.
But there is a danger in allowing that mythology to become the story.
What Billy Mackenzie’s story can teach us
There is a long-standing cultural fascination with the “tortured artist”.
It appears in books, films, documentaries and music journalism.
But suffering is not what made these people artists.
Their creativity came from talent, work, imagination, collaboration and countless choices made throughout their lives.
Suicide should not be treated as the final chapter that somehow completes an artist’s work.
A person’s death does not explain their art.
Their life does.
Paul Hester
Split Enz and Crowded House | New wave and alternative rock
Paul Hester is included here because his musical story belongs firmly within the wider new-wave and alternative landscape — although an important distinction should be made: Hester was Australian, not British.
Born in Melbourne in 1959, Hester became a professional drummer and joined Split Enz before becoming one of the founding members of Crowded House.
Crowded House went on to become one of the most successful alternative pop-rock groups of their generation.
Their songs combined accessible melodies with emotional and often introspective writing. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” became an international hit, while the band’s albums established them as far more than a one-song success.
Hester was also a recognisable personality in his own right. Away from the drums, he developed a career in television and radio and became known for his warmth and humour.
Behind the public persona, however, Hester experienced depression.
He left Crowded House and later struggled with his mental health.
Hester died by suicide in 2005, aged 46.
His story is a reminder that mental illness can affect people who appear successful, funny, sociable and well established.
What Paul Hester’s story can teach us
Depression doesn’t discriminate according to career success.
Someone can have a loving family, a successful career and people who care deeply about them and still experience serious mental-health difficulties.
That doesn’t mean those relationships were meaningless or that help was impossible.
It means mental illness is complicated.
Prevention is therefore not about finding a single explanation for someone’s death.
It is about making it easier for people to seek help, talk honestly and remain connected when life becomes difficult.
Beyond the Music
These five musicians lived in different circumstances and had very different personalities.
They also belonged to different parts of the musical world.
Ian Curtis helped define post-punk.
Adrian Borland created emotionally powerful music that continues to be rediscovered.
Kevin Wilkinson quietly contributed to the work of major British bands.
Billy Mackenzie pushed post-punk towards art-pop and electronic music.
Paul Hester helped create some of the most enduring alternative pop of the 1980s and 1990s.
Their lives cannot be reduced to their deaths.
That is particularly important when discussing suicide.
There is a risk that stories about musicians who die by suicide can unintentionally create the impression that creativity and suicide are connected — that darkness produces great art, or that a particular kind of artist is destined to die young.
There is no romantic ending to suicide.
There is loss.
There are people left behind.
There are unanswered questions.
And there are lives that could have contained many more chapters.
What can we do?
Suicide prevention isn’t only the responsibility of doctors, charities or mental-health professionals.
Friends matter.
Families matter.
Colleagues matter.
Teachers matter.
Musicians matter.
Fans matter.
Sometimes prevention begins with something incredibly ordinary: noticing that somebody isn’t themselves and asking how they are.
You don’t need to have the perfect words.
You don’t need to diagnose them.
You don’t need to solve their problems.
You can simply listen.
And if someone tells you that they are thinking about suicide, take them seriously. Samaritans advises people not to be afraid to talk openly about suicide and to encourage someone in distress to seek support.
If You’re Struggling Right Now
If this article has brought something difficult to the surface for you, you don’t have to deal with it alone.
In the UK, Samaritans is available free, 24 hours a day, every day, on 116 123. You can call from any phone and talk to someone without being judged.
If you need urgent medical or mental-health help in England, NHS 111 can direct you to appropriate support.
If someone is in immediate danger or has seriously harmed themselves, call 999 or go to A&E.
You don’t have to wait until things become unbearable before asking for help.
Talking can be the beginning of something changing.
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