Joy Ike teams up with Philly pianist Joe Kenney to offer hope for Mental Health Awareness Month in “Another Side”

Philly singer-songwriter Joy Ike has long been a voice of encouragement and hope amid struggles with self-doubt. In an interview last year with Harrisburg NPR affiliate WITF, she said “I used to spend probably about seven or eight years telling myself that I shouldn’t be playing out because there are people who are better at it than I am.” Her single at the time, “Say Goodbye,” was written to “remind myself to stop doubting myself all the time. I wanted to kind of turn my back to that voice and to that person or that version of myself.”

Joy Ike’s latest comes from a similar place of self-love and empowerment. A collaboration with Philly pianist Joe Kenney — who made a splash several years back by releasing solo piano covers of modern rock and pop songs by Cold War Kids, Drake, and Tove Lo — “Another Side” is a release for Mental Health Awareness Month that speaks candidly of the fog we can often find ourselves in (“Some days it’s enough, to get up, and make it to the door”) while offering reassurance that there’s a way through.

Ike repeats “Live another day, fight another day” like a mantra throughout the song to graceful, emotive playing by Kenny and stirring band accents. She acknowledges the lingering feeling of hopelessness, but assures us that there is something beyond.

Right now, it’s hard, but you must believe
If you give up now, you’ll never see,
The life waiting for you, i implore
if you can just endure:

There is another side, if you let yourself get there

Listen below; proceeds from Bandcamp sales of the song will support the National Alliance on Mental Illness. The song will also be included on Kenney’s fourth album, due out in October, which will include collabs with six Philly-area vocalists including Laura Lizcano, Chill Moody, and Aaron Parnell Brown.