The Corona Virus crisis has seen millions of people around the world affected in a number of ways, but perhaps two of the most noticeable effects have been on connection to and with other people, and also mental health. With so many people having to self-isolate or work from home, and missing out on so much of what was part of their regular and daily lives, the idea came about to create a series called The Green Room hosted by artist, A&R, song-writer and producer Jenna Andrews where individuals – those in the entertainment industry and professionals in the field of mental and emotional health – would come together to discuss the issues that affect them and how they cope with them. The most recent episode of the series saw Jenna be joined by, along with Erica Riba, L.C.S.W, actress Emily Kinney, best known for her role as Beth Greene in The Walking Dead and PW chatted with the two of them over Zoom to find out more about the series and what they’d like those who tune in to take from it.

Thank you very much Jenna and Emily for taking time out of your weekend to talk with me. For those unfamiliar with The Green Room, Jenna could you just explain a little about what it is and how you got involved?

Jenna Andrews: I basically wanted to start The Green Room because mental health was and is something that struck a nerve, a chord, with me..depression, anxiety and all that stuff is something that I’ve dealt with my whole life, and I have so many amazing artist friends and close friends of mine who deal with it as well. I just figured it would be such a good platform to be open about it, to talk about it, and also to expose the writers’ room a little bit, because that’s how writing songs is – I wanted to show people sort of how songs come about, and I wanted to merge the two concepts in terms of talking about real things, and I think these things are what people want to hear; both just hearing us talk about it, you know, but also in song. I think that’s really important; I think that’s what you’re supposed to do. Songs are therapy for people.

True story – I have Music Is Therapy inked across my lower back.

JA: It totally is. I guess naturally it is, but I think as you go along in your life and you go through more things, it becomes more and more therapeutic. In the beginning you’re like ‘Oh I do it to sing’ or whatever, but as you go along, and as you, you know, go along the journey of life, I feel like the song-writing process becomes more therapeutic..maybe as much, or more so than performing. What do you think?

I grew up with a dad who was a session guitarist in the 1970’s so I was always around music, but it wasn’t until I hit my late teens, early 20’s that music really started to resonate, lyrically with me; that’s when I really felt connected to music and how it spoke to me, if that makes sense? I found that I could relate to music probably better than anything; it gave me that connection that I needed to sort of ground myself again, while I was dealing with various things.

JA: I love that, what do you think Emily?

Emily Kinney: I feel like song-writing is such an outlet for me. I can think of certain bands; I mean one my favourite bands is Frightened Rabbit, and like listening to those songs and feeling understood; finding comfort in other people’s lyrics and stories. It’s a great way to connect, and even if you’re not personally friends with the artist, you still feel connected in a certain way, by hearing their stories and it’s just a really great way to connect. But for me too, writing is a such a great outlet to channel how I’m actually feeling. I might not be the most confident person, but when I get a chance to write or perform or whatever, I get a chance to get my side out; my side of the story. It’s definitely therapeutic, rather than keeping it inside.

JA: That’s exactly why I wanted to do this; and yeah that was the general concept of The Green Room. It became a lot more about mental health when Covid happened, but I just wanted to merge the two ideas; to talk to my friends about it and see what they were going through.

The series has been created in partnership with The Jed Foundation and She Is The Music, both non-profits. How did the collaboration come about?

JA: The Jed Foundation is an amazing foundation when it comes to mental health, that I knew about through Noah Cyrus. I asked them to be part of an event that I did earlier in the year, in January, when I had a couple of artists perform and I just loved..I just wanted to donate, to do what I could to help. When this came about it just seemed right in terms of a collaboration. As for She Is The Music, I am very much a female forward thinker; always trying to support new artists, especially behind the scenes; female producers, female song-writers and such. I just felt it was important to involve music as well. It’s not that I won’t talk to guys or have them as part of the series, but I just feel like She Is The Music is such an important thing..

The Corona Virus has led to many people evaluating various aspects of their lives including their health and well-being. To what extent have the two of you done the same?

EK: Well obviously because of Corona Virus, we’re all staying home more and for me there’s certainly a slower pace to things, you know; not having to drive to auditions or not getting to go to the comic book conventions, stuff like that. Without having that in my life, I have a lot more time at home and there’s more time to sort of evaluate my life before Corona Virus and how maybe there were things stressing me out that I didn’t even realise.

Now because I have this time to myself I can reflect on that. But I think it also makes you think ‘Oh what are the things that I’m really missing?’, like – it sounds so silly but in the beginning I was missing little things like going to the grocery store. I didn’t realise that little things like that kept me going, in a way, but now as it’s gone on, you start to go ‘What are the things that I REALLY miss?’ I really miss my family, I really miss going to see live music. I think you start to realise what things you REALLY value and hopefully when the world starts to open up a little bit more, you can be more conscious of what you’re putting back into your life, which things were maybe causing stress..I think it’s a hard time for a lot of people, but I also think the time for re-evaluation can be a good thing.

JA: I really believe that, it’s so true. This crisis has really allowed us to think about what’s important and what’s not so much. Personally I feel like I’ve gone through such a massive change these last four months just in terms of really understanding what I care about and what I want to focus my energy on – I always think that the universe is doing this to us on purpose, to give everyone a reset. Covid is horrifying and it’s so sad, but sometimes I think we almost behave like robots always carrying on a certain way even if we maybe don’t actually like it; and maybe this is the universe’s way of telling us ‘Hey, slow down, reset everything’ – even in terms of the environment.

I just think it makes a lot of sense. Everybody that I’ve talked to – literally every single person – has gone through some sort of revelation through this period, so I feel like; I’m just a believer that everything happens for a reason. It’s weird when all these other super negative things are happening but..I don’t know how to explain it, but in terms of myself and my friends, I totally felt what Emily was saying. There’s definitely something to be said about this time and getting to think about what you value and what really matters.

I think it’s going to be a case of looking back on this time, maybe a year or so from now, and thinking or realising just how much life has changed. Not just in terms of the planet but also as individuals and as a society. There’s a unity among a lot of people now that, to my mind hasn’t been seen for a very long time, and I know I certainly never thought I’d experience something like this in my lifetime, but I for one am quite proud of all this unity I’m seeing, but sad about how it’s come about and because of what it’s cost us. I like to think we’ll somehow learn and grow from this, and like you said Jenna, you believe everything happens for a reason, maybe this IS the reason. Maybe it’ll teach us, or at least remind us, to be more compassionate, to be more united in standing up for one another. That’s all we can hope for, surely?

JA: Absolutely, yeah.

Emily, despite starring in several other series beforehand, you practically became a global household name overnight when you took on the role of Beth in The Walking Dead. To what extent did that role, and that show change and impact your life?

EK: Man, I don’t know where to start. It changed my life in a lot of ways, just like any new job. I had new friends, new co-workers and then on top of that, even though I had done stuff on Broadway and been part of other shows like you said, to be on one where the amount of viewers was way bigger than anything else I’d done..my connection to people just changed, even in little ways like going to the airport and in my every day life. As a performer, I learned a lot. Most jobs for an actor are pretty short; maybe you’re in a play for a year or maybe you just do a guest star part so that’s just like a couple of weeks on a set, or even if you do a series maybe it’s just a year, but I was on Walking Dead for four years and it’s still a big part of my life because I still go to conventions, I still go to Walking Dead premiere things – it had become a big part of my life in terms of community, and in terms of my career and artistic journey.

Being on that show also, you know, I learned a lot, because of my co-workers and I got to really perfect my craft as an actor. It affected everything really; my every-day life and also professionally, as it led to other opportunities that I maybe hadn’t had before.

Being thrust into the limelight at any age can be a daunting experience, particularly if like many you’re used to just going about your daily life with no hassles from the media and such, so how did you handle being thrust into that kind of a global spotlight and the new interest people suddenly had in you and your life?

E: One of the things we talked about on The Green Room was that I was sort of dealing with that side of things. I was and always will be grateful for the show and the part I played in it, but at the time it was very much like – I feel like I’m quite introverted and to be honest I can be a little bit more shy – but now I’m on this show and a lot of people feel like they know me, so I sort of had to get used to this idea, and reality, that people would be and were excited to see me, which was a great thing – I’m not saying that’s bad – but I had to sort of get over the fact that I can be a little introverted, and that those kinds of experiences could be and were at times overwhelming to me. It wasn’t something that I was used to, but one thing that was good was that I did have my cast-mates who were going through a similar thing. I think having that rapport with them was really helpful. And having certain friends that I could lean on.

Things shifted, and it did feel like pressure, and sometimes it still feels like pressure you know, because if you’re on a show like that, that’s so big; it doesn’t happen that often; after you’ve been on a show that had 20 something million viewers every week, not every project or TV show you’re a part of is going to have that success, and you can start to measure…I had projects I did after that which I felt super strongly about and that I loved, but you can’t expect it to have that base kind of success in terms of viewers. You have to look at each project as its own thing, and have different expectations for each project. There is a certain amount of pressure though to like, recreate that kind of success but the reality is everything, every project, is its own journey

.

Jenna, you started out as an artist with Def Jam before moving into A&R and mentoring, so you’ve very much seen the music business from both sides. Looking back, and reflecting on where you are now, how might you say they’ve both impacted you mentally and emotionally? With several artists under your wing, how do you cope with the pressure – not just that which you might put on yourself, but also that which comes from wanting to do the best you can for others?

JA: In terms of A&R, I’m actually mostly writing music and in production, stuff like that. I’m very much involved in the artistic process, so in terms of your question I feel like because I was an artist, well, I’ll say two things. One, looking back on my artist career; I had such high anxiety when I toured; it was too much for me and I felt like I wanted and needed to be in a studio, and to create that way. Touring was a huge pressure for me and I found it very hard to handle. Second, what I bring into my career now is that I know what those pressures are like so I can relate to what an artist is going through. I feel like whether it’s on the production side, on the song-writing side, on the A&R side, I finally feel like I know how each thing works from both sides. I know what I didn’t like and what I did. I also put a lot of trust in connection; I trust my gut a lot in that sense and I really just want to follow my spidey-senses in terms of what I feel is right. You don’t try to push something when it doesn’t feel right; so I keep it natural and I feel like I’ve been very lucky with the people that I’ve worked, and work, with.

Do either of you have any regrets over the career choices you’ve made, given the stress and anxiety that comes with what you do, or are you both believers that if you want something bad enough and are truly passionate about it, you can’t regret anything, even when you’ve got to take some rough with the smooth?

EK: I am so happy, like I can’t believe it. I think back to moving from Nebraska to New York City, writing down in my journal things that I hoped would happen, and they have happened. But, no one in my family is in this industry, so you can’t know what an experience is going to be like if you’ve never had it before. There were and are certain pressures that I wasn’t anticipating but overall, I am so happy of the fact that I get to be an actor, sing, do all the things that I love to do, as my every day job. I love that. For me I guess I’m willing, even if there’s things that like with any job are difficult..I love it.

I don’t regret my career choices. I mean there’s always this thing of like…I didn’t realise when I was in it sometimes just how much of a reach Walking Dead had, because I was in it; I was on set working and maybe certain things about my life really didn’t change – I lived in the same apartment the whole time I was on the show – and maybe there are opportunities I could’ve taken that I didn’t realise I could’ve, but with that side of things, you can’t really know until you’ve done it.

JA: I’d like to add something to what Emily just said. My thing is this. I feel like any artist has always wanted to be an artist. Artists are considerably emotional people; we try to have logic but mostly we’re driven by emotion and we wanna spill and share that all the time. And in terms of having regrets and experiences, I think sometimes it can be like artists might find certain moments in life had to deal with, not just perhaps because of anxiety or depression, but because they can be so sensitive. But being able to express those feelings is also cathartic, so to be able to go back to something and to have your art reflect that is pretty powerful.

EK: One of the things we talked about on The Green Room too was even when you get your goal, even when you experience some professional success, it doesn’t fix maybe other issues that you might have, so you still have to pay attention to other aspects of your life. It’s not like all of a sudden all of your problems are fixed because you have a cool job. What’s cool about The Green Room that you’ve created Jenna is that people can see artists in a way that just because they’ve had some success with a song or a TV show or whatever, it doesn’t mean that they’re not also dealing with things; that it doesn’t fix all of their problems basically.

JA: I think it’s really important, like Emily’s saying, for people to see and understand that artists go through similar things, just like we all do. The thing that’s different about The Green Room is that it gives people from the outside a look in to an aspect of an industry and the people in it that they might not have thought about much before. I feel like there hasn’t been something quite like that, and I feel like the experiences I have with my friends, as a song-writer and in my career..sometimes I feel like so out of body. When you get into these conversations in a room, in the writer’s room, you can and do really connect with somebody on a such a deep level and I guess it’s nice to expose a little of that; the power of music; the power of feeling. We shouldn’t be afraid of our feelings, in fact we should talk about them and share them in the hope that we can sort of come together instead of maybe feeling so apart

.

This is a bit of a two-part question. What do you do to focus on your mental health and make sure you take the necessary time to and for yourself and, as your episode of The Green Room goes up on YouTube this week, what would you like those who watch it to take from it?

EK: For me, talking about mental health is so important because it took me quite a while to reach out and get help and get therapy. I think the biggest message is that when you start to struggle, reach out to someone; a friend, find a therapist that you like. I really feel that when you talk about a problem, it lightens the load a little bit. The other thing is finding a creative outlet, like Jenna was talking about with song-writing. When we’re having a hard time, there’s something about making something with or out of those experiences or feelings, where it maybe becomes not such a bad thing, and you can go ‘Oh, this is something useful to me.’ Especially during this Corona Virus time, I’ve really been like ‘Let me check in with a friend’ – just to feel connected and not feel like I’m alone. Anyone you check in with is gonna have their own life and their own stories to talk about and you’re able to have that exchange, that connection, and maybe they’ll have ideas or ways that could help.  

Is The Green Room a series you’d both like to see run more long-term, say for another year or so as it keeps helping to get the message out about the importance of mental health and such issues?

JA: For me it’s something I’m certainly going to continue for as long as I can, and I hope Emily will come on as a guest again. I think it has an important message – I hope we can do many episodes. What I really wanna do is do episodes where we’ll have like, I interviewed another artist recently, Lennon Stella and another one of my friends, and I think it’d be really cool if we had all three of us get together and make an episode of that, if Emily would be down.

EK: Yeah totally. I think specifically when it comes to mental health and when there’s been an opportunity to talk about it, because it’s affected me and my family and stuff like that, I always try to and it’s so cool that Jenna let me be a part of this.

Finally then, what one piece of personal advice would you like or want to pass on to anyone who reads this, and who might be struggling with their own mental health? If you could say one thing to them, to give them just that little bit of encouragement, what would it be?

JA: I would say address it. Don’t be afraid, don’t be ashamed – talk to somebody. As Emily said, talk to somebody that you trust and just know that it can manifest into something good. Feeling sadness or pain just means that you’re real. Talking about mental health is something very important; do not repress it.

Watch Jenna and Emily’s episode of The Green Room below and you can keep up-to-date about upcoming episodes of the series here. The series airs bi-weekly on Dash Radio’s Twitch channel. You can find out more about The Jed Foundation by visiting their website and for more information about She Is The Music, check out their website or Facebook page. Jenna Andrews photo credits: Shervin Lainez.