Abby Magee may be young, but the local singer has plenty to say.
The 17-year-old released her new single “Second Chance” earlier this month and it's a deeply personal song about her battle with depression and the place she finds herself now.
“I have bad depression and anxiety and a couple of years ago I had tried to kill myself, then I spent some time in the hospital. I was really depressed and I thought: this is it for me I don't have anything to live for,” Magee said. "I met my boyfriend and we had our daughter about a year after we met. They showed me that I do have something to live for and that life isn't just what I thought it was. It's so much more than that and there's so much to live for.
“They were my second chance and nothing is going to knock me down because I have them and I'm stronger now. They keep me strong and show me that I am amazing and I do have purpose.”
Magee credits her boyfriend Landon Desrosiers and their 15-month old daughter Elsie-May for helping her find stability in her life. She has also turned to music and songwriting as a healthy outlet for her worries and her creativity.
“Any time that I am feeling upset or feeling down or even just stressed, music has been such a release for me,” Magee said. “Any time I start singing, all of the stress just goes away and all of the pain is put into my music. If I'm having a bad day I think ‘OK let's try to write a song and get these feelings onto paper and into something great.’
“I know that good things can come from the bad.”
Magee is still in the early stages of her career. She performed at the songwriter's showcase at Sidewalk Days, but otherwise hasn't had many opportunities to perform in public. She did catch the attention of Jared Robinson from Nebulus Entertainment at those showcases.
“The first year he really liked my music and the second year I got second place and that's when I got a free recording with him,” said Magee. To date she has recorded “Second Chance” and an earlier song, “Free,” with Robinson.
Magee is writing songs and hopes to record more songs as she continues to progress in her career.
She said that she has always wanted to express herself and share her experiences and she hopes that sharing the bad times she went through can help others. And if she can help other people, she reasons then that makes it not so bad that she had to go through some of the things she has gone through in her life.
“I want to have more songs out and my main goal is to just help people through my music,” Magee said. “I want to maybe inspire them with anything they're going through and know that they're not alone. There are people out there who care for them. I want people to be able to listen to my music and think ‘this makes sense to me’ and I want it to help them in any way that I can.”
