A Donegal singer who was driven to the verge of suicide by depression has battled back to win a major music award.
Undiagnosed dyslexia led to Glenswilly man Conor Maley being bullied and laughed at throughout his school years.
The depression that ensued followed him into his adulthood to the point where one night he found himself on a bridge considering taking his own life.
Through his music the 22-year-old has managed to shake off the illness and he has just been informed that he is the winner of this year’s Eon One Take competition.
Conor entered the contest with his autobiographical song ‘Lost Boy’ which he will get to record next month in London under the guidance of Steve Levine whose CV boasts producing for Motorhead, Culture Club and the Beach Boys.
After leaving school without his Junior Cert, Conor Maley is now back at college studying digital marketing which will act as a bridge to a marketing degree.
He told the Donegal News he hopes his music will help other young people who are struggling in the same way he did.
“I wasn’t diagnosed with dyslexia until I was 15 or 16 and I used to get teased constantly in school about being stupid,” Conor said.
“I was absolutely bottom of my English class and it got to the point where I give up trying. I completely lost faith in myself and I ended up with really bad depression.
“Being diagnosed with dyslexia did give me some relief but for a few years I was really really bad. People used to point my depression out me and it got to the stage where I found myself standing on a bridge one night.
“Depression never fully leaves you but I’m a much stronger person now and I love being around people. I wake up wondering what I can do to help others and it is music that has got me to this point. I wouldn’t be this happy without my music and without people telling how good my music is.”
Conor’s winning song ‘Lost Boy’ includes lyrics such as “I live a lonely life with a troubled soul and all the people just walk by while I’m collecting my dole…”
It was written retrospectively, looking back at his darker days.
“The song was written about how I was feeling and I don’t think I could have written it if I was still feeling that way. Being happy has definitely changed the way I write, almost like when you break a bone and it grows back stronger.”
The Glenswilly man admits that while he has been picking around with his guitar for a decade, he only began taking it seriously last year. Conor said that like most songwriters he has a thousand songs still unwritten but after winning the Eon One Take competition, he plans to keep putting pen to paper.
“I’ve been writing songs since I was 14 but if you chat to any songwriter they will tell you the same, I’ve about a thousand unwritten songs. I have about seven solid tunes of my own and another 30 or so that just need touched up.
“Winning the competition, it was crazy. Lost Boy was just a song that I wrote in my house and I saw the competition on Facebook. I said I would give it a go but I never thought for one second it would go anywhere.
“One of the prizes is a PA system so that will allow me to start gigging but I get to go to London too to work with Steve Levine.
“You never know who you will get chatting to over there and I’ll put the song out there and see where it goes.”
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