The musician opened up to 'People' about his mental health struggles and the tools he uses to support his daily wellbeing.
Music runs in the veins of Travis Barker's family, and his son, Landon Barker, is sharing how his real-life struggles inspire his pop-punk tunes.
In a recent interview with People, the 20-year-old musician opens up about everything from his budding relationship with TikTok star Charli D'Amelio, his mental health struggles inspiring his music and how he grew up with his Blink-182 drummer dad as an icon and mentor. Landon shares that he had to prove himself before getting signed to his father's Elektra Imprint DTA Records.
"My dad would be like, 'Show me that you want to sign,'" Landon recalls. "It wasn't as easy as being like, 'Sign me.' I feel like I had to prove myself to get the opportunity to sign to them."
The desire to make music felt inevitable to Landon. "A lot of people either do exactly what their parents did or the complete opposite, and I'm one of those who wants to do exactly what my dad did," he says. "I stepped into other hobbies like art and did a few cover art for friends of mine. I also was painting at one point, but nothing resonated with me as much as music did. I'll still design all my own merch, all my cover art and add little pieces of me to every single thing that I put out -- but I feel like that also ties in with music."
Landon says that his father realized he was serious about a music career when Landon wrote lyrics for Machine Gun Kelly's "Die in California." The single was co-written and produced by Travis and included on Kelly's No. 1 album, Mainstream Sellout, released in March last year.
Lanson explains that Kelly had recorded over a track he was working on, and Landon decided to release a snippet of the song on TikTok to get feedback from his fans. He says that it was at the urging of Kelly's girlfriend, Megan Fox, that the two teamed up to re-record the song, which then led to Landon inking his record deal.
"It couldn't have gone better," he says. "But I kind of didn't go into it with expectations. I feel like that is something that I do a lot in my life -- is not go through life with any expectations."
While he's grateful for the opportunities that end in such success, Landon's journey hasn't been all wins. The singer shares how his struggle with alcohol consumption clashed with his mental health struggles. He explains how his experience with derealization -- a disorder that causes someone to feel detached from their thoughts and body -- began because of "a bad habit with alcohol."
"I was abusing it and just abusing that substance, and then one day it just shocked me, and I had gone through that for months," he tells People. "It was awful, and I went through heightened OCD, heightened ADHD and heightened anxiety, all while disassociating and feeling like I was in a video game. I was watching my whole entire life through a movie screen. It was honestly awful. I always love to spread awareness about suicide and talk about it."
He adds: "Disassociating and dissociation kind of just hit me like a truck last year and it was just the most awful experience. It kind of started with: I would drink, and then the day after, I would disassociate really bad, and that's kind of how my habit of drinking a lot started. It was like, oh, I'd feel better the second that I had a drink, and so yeah, it kind of just all started and it all kicked up really fast."
Landon, who says he has "always" struggled with OCD, ADHD and anxiety, shared his experience through social media with his fans, an action that he believes helped him process the struggle.
"Looking to the public for support and more knowledge was honestly comforting for me and letting people know truly who I am, even on my phone through a social media platform, was actually kind of helpful for me," he says.
He says that his derealization experiences worsened after he got a concussion "around this time last year."
"When I got my concussion, I kind of just had to deal with it, and I would just, I don't know, I just hated life for three or four months. It was pretty awful," he shares. "I remember I would just go to the hospital once a week just because I would have such bad panic attacks from everything that was going on. The disassociation happened first and then it all just got worse when I went through my concussion."
The experience was one that Landon never wants to feel again. "I feel like eventually when you get through and get to the other side of everything and see the light in what you have and the people around you, it's honestly the biggest inspiration to keep going out of everything," he says.
Now in a better place mentally, Landon says he feels that it's important to share his experiences and how he supports his daily well-being to help others who might be struggling with their mental health.
For more with the Barker family, check out the links below.
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