Singer songwriter Bryce Lokken wanted to take a sensitive step into musical expression when he first heard of Vancouver Canuck player Rick Rypien's death.
Lokken, who taught music in Prince George for three years, waited what he thought was an appropriate length of time and then quietly posted the song he wrote the day Rypien died, August 15, 2011, on his Facebook page. Youtube and Canucksarmy.com recently took notice, and the people responded.
"The song is getting a lot more attention than I thought it would," said Lokken, who released the song Sunday night at about 10 p.m. "Eight hours later I was getting e-mails and tweets about it."
Lokken, who used to work as director of new media at The Citizen, is now a marketing student at Langara College in Vancouver. He said he usually promotes his own music pretty aggressively but just didn't feel comfortable adopting the usual measures with this song, simply entitled Rick, because of the sensitive subject matter.
"This is the closest song to my heart I've every written. It's really important to me and really close to home," said Lokken, who deals with mental illness himself. "I never want to be someone who is known to take advantage of other's misfortune -- it would be like someone doing a song about Whitney Houston right now, releasing it and hoping to make money from it."
The numbers of hits the song is getting and the number of e-mails Lokken is receiving is growing quickly.
Lokken reacted to its popularity by putting the song on iTunes for purchase, with 100 per cent of proceeds going to the non-profit Mindcheck.ca, a website created to assist young people identify and understand mental distress.
Mind Check is all about opening up the dialogue about mental health issues, said Lokken.
"It's time to get rid of the stigma, and in the spirit of Mind Check, I told the Canucks Army writer about my mental health issues, and then in a follow up e-mail I told him I wish I hadn't told him. But this is exactly what Rick suffered with and it could've have been why he died.
"People need to be able to talk about it, you know? Like I am still able to live a normal life and I do well in school, I have a good job and I have friends and a good family. It hit close to home because Rick was someone I looked at who was struggling with the same things I was struggling with, and so it really hurt when he killed himself because, wow, I have nothing but empathy and understanding for him."
When he puts his thoughts and emotions into the song, the pain goes away, Lokken said.
"Every day I receive more and more e-mails about people who are hearing the song more and more," said Lokken. "I don't know what will come of it but it's been neat. While there are people listening to the song and willing to pay and support a charity, I'm all for it."
Check out the video on You Tube then click through to purchase the song on iTunes at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuAM9FJ0ma8.
