Since 2016 Mindful Vinyl has been spreading awareness around mental wellness working hard to remove the stigma and create understanding. Founded by The Orchard’s very own Michael Heyliger, the initiative connects these important conversations to music.
At The Orchard, we prioritize health, wellness, and self care, and we’re proud to work with organizations and initiatives who instill the same message. We pride ourselves on being a people-first company and encourage our employees to take part in and talk about the matters that matter most to them.
As part of the Mindful Vinyl mental health initiative, classic albums including Time’s Up by Living Colour and Live At Ken’s House by Mike Doughty were re-released on a limited edition green vinyl. A portion of all proceeds from the green vinyl album sales benefited the JED Foundation, a nonprofit that exists to protect emotional health and works to prevent suicide among teens and young adults by strengthening mental health, substance abuse, and suicide prevention programming and systems. In June 2018, The Orchard was honored with the Media Award for leadership in mental health by the Foundation at their 17th annual gala event.
Here at The Orchard, we recently celebrated the release of these green vinyl albums with a day dedicated to mental health and wellness, where we heard from special guests from the JED Foundation along with Dave Bellevue from The Orchard-distributed act Oxymorrons, who talked about his own personal journey. Heyliger also gave some background on Mindful Vinyl and the various albums and artists involved.
Originally released in 1990, Living Colour’s Time’s Up features the singles “Type,” “Elvis Is Dead” and “Love Rears Its Ugly Head.” Re-issued via Megaforce Records, artists featured include Maceo Parker, Little Richard, Doug E. Fresh, and Queen Latifah. Openly honest and transparent about his own challenges, Mike Doughty wrote in his memoir The Book of Drugs, “There’s an emotional-pain crisis in America, and it’s incumbent on us to make medical care and talk therapy normal and accessible for people who suffer from depression and anxiety.”
Time’s Up and Live At Ken’s House are the seventh and eighth albums released under the Mindful Vinyl banner. Other titles released in the initiative include limited edition represses of Living Colour’s Stain, Fishbone’s The Reality Of My Surroundings, and the Silver Linings Playbook Soundtrack.
For ongoing information, please visit Mindful Vinyl or the JED Foundation.
