During the making of his new album, Q Marsden (formerly just Q) was diagnosed with schizophrenia. In this interview he opens up about how that affected his music, his relationships, and his life.
September 3, 2026
Q Marsden has spent the better part of the past decade trying to understand himself. The 27-year-old singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist first examined his own mind—and grabbed the world by the ear in the process—with the acoustic-heavy, sun-dappled Thoughts, released in 2018. The ambitious compilation moves through the relatable stages of relationships, from the spark of infatuation to the messy inevitable end. The only thing is, Q didn’t have firsthand source material to draw from. “I wasn't in a relationship,” he shares. “I wasn't going through anything. I wasn't with anybody. But my brain, I realized it has the ability to create things that happen to me that aren't real. I just make stories out of them and try to relate to everybody by just allowing my brain to brain and do its thing."
Forest Green, a 2019 follow-up, featured songs like the trudging "I Get Tired" and the fraught "Anxiety," some of Q's earliest attempts at expressing his complex experiences with mental health. With his latest release, DO YOU SEE ME?, Q is fully deconstructing his mind for all to see and parse through for greater collective understanding.
Q was diagnosed with schizophrenia during the making of this album, which spanned nearly three years, but he's been living with symptoms of the disorder since 2017. "I noticed that there was a lot of noise," Q recalls. "I would always explain it to people, and then they were just like, 'Oh yeah, I have those, too.' But then I'm like, 'No, I'm home alone and I'm trying to sleep. I'm hearing different pitches of voices and they're not me.' I know it's not me because I'm telling it, 'Stop, stop.' I'm moving in my bed, waking up, jumping, 'Stop.' And I ended up talking to it."
Through imaginative songs that sonically build out the intimate experience of life as it blends with mental illness, Q explores his own stability and his ability to maintain. The first track of the album, "silly boy," opens explosively with Q's isolated vocals: "If you survive these crazy days, I'll jump around and sing a praise/ You can't walk around and mess with me." This intentional assemblage of lyrics allows Q to buoy himself, while addressing the depths of the auditory hallucinations he’s come to know. "I'm talking to the voices," Q explains. "I'm talking to that frequency of myself that when I dive into it, it brings me down."
DO YOU SEE ME? is as transparent and rejuvenating as it is gut-wrenching and perspective-altering. Q's capacity to resiliently embrace his own truth is only transcended by his willingness to vulnerably share it. Here, he does that graciously.
We’re here to talk about your incredible album, DO YOU SEE ME? I live with bipolar type one and I was actually hypomanic when I listened to this album. I was just like, ‘Oh my God.’ How did you embrace the experience of making this album as compared to your previous releases?
Well, one big aspect of all of this was time and actually taking the time to understand myself and understand the patterns, the waves of the ups and the downs, seeing where my weak points were, seeing where the strongholds were, seeing where the high points were, seeing where my confidence drives, seeing how it is to live above it, seeing how life is on medication, seeing how life is without medication, seeing how it is when I live in spirit, where I can live above it frequency-wise, understanding all of those things. I had to live some life.
After that, I was just like, okay, how can I transcribe all of this into music? How can I be patient? How can I emulate my feelings without using my words? How can someone hear and see what they can’t see, but how can I let them feel that and see that? That’s where it all stemmed from.
On “silly boy” you say: “If you survive these crazy days, I'll jump around and sing a praise/ You can't walk around and mess with me.” You add, “Will this silly boy ever see good life again? He got like five other homies that’s living up in his head.” Could you talk about the specific experience or series of experiences that led you to these lines?
Well, really it starts off probably when I'm 18, 19. I’m 27 now and I grew up very religious. With that happening, they teach you that there are three different voices. There’s God, the devil, and you. This is before I even knew about any mental illness that I had.
I kind of always interpret everything as being something spiritual or a morality issue. I had a lot of guilt and a lot of shame that was held because I thought I just wasn’t living in faith or living in this idea of whatever I’m supposed to be, which is why these types of voices are coming. That’s where I would start off, with that section of the story. But then eventually I ended up living my own life, started to make friends, have experiences, travel, expose myself to real-life circumstances. I noticed that there was a lot of noise. I would always explain it to people, and then they were just like, ‘Oh yeah, I have those, too.’ But then I’m like, ‘No, I'm home alone and I’m trying to sleep. I’m hearing different pitches of voices and they’re not me.’ I know it’s not me because I’m telling it, ‘Stop, stop.’ I’m moving in my bed, waking up, jumping, ‘Stop.’
I ended up talking to it. I lived alone for a while, especially during COVID. I would be back and forth, just talking. The next thing, an hour passes, I’m drained. I’m out of it. I’m like, ‘What is going on? What is happening?’ I always just let it be. I would talk to people about it. Earlier days, it’s like, ‘Oh, you have demons, you need to fast, you need to get casted out.’ All these things. I had someone come up to me and try to cast things out of me, like, ‘Oh, I got a couple of them out, but you have a couple more left, so we'll get to it tomorrow.’ I was just like, ‘Dang, okay.’
Those things messed with my brain heavily. There was a lot of being alone for a while. It was almost as if the voice manifested itself because I was also alone. I know it’s a lot of genetics, but being alone, your brain kind of evolves to entertain itself.
To get to the line, it’s like, if you survive these crazy days, I’m truly going to jump around and sing a praise because you can’t walk around and mess with me. I’m talking to the voices. I’m talking to that frequency of myself that when I dive into it, it brings me down. I'm human, so the ending: "Will this silly boy ever see good life again?," it’s like when your grandma says, ‘Oh, you're so silly. You don't know you're going to be okay? You always have been, no matter what.’
That's the sentiment of where that comes from. It's the duality of all of it. You have a higher version of yourself knowing what's going on, but then you also have the lowest version of yourself being confused. I feel like when you live in those two together, that equals true faith. That's when you can actually live in a way where you never thought because you have to fully combine both of them to really see a new outcome.
I've personally experienced psychosis quite a few times, and you become inundated with the experience of feeling what you're feeling and how it can be addicting. I'm addicted to mania. I know that that is something that I strive for because it feels good. It feels like I'm aligned with the universe, with God and my ancestors, whomever else. How long were you impacted by schizophrenia before you were diagnosed?
Since 2017, I would say. It's been nine years.
What was the very first inkling you had that something was different?
I had a conspiracy mindset within the context of love and relationships. It’s one thing to jump to conclusions, and everyone can make stories in their head, but I would just be fully engulfed in an idea that was literally not true. I'd speak about it out loud. Then, I’m living out the effects of that idea that didn’t happen.
They said it was OCD, so it’s rumination and R-OCD — relationship OCD. I couldn’t trust anything. I couldn’t be present. I always had to be in the idea of knowing rather than just experiencing in the moment. All of these things seemed like normal personality traits of all human beings. But then when I let loose, then that’s when I really saw. I was like, ‘Oh, there's something really off.’ That happened in 2020, specifically.
Yeah, that was a rough year. How long do you think music has been an outlet for your experiences in neurodiversity?
It's always been something I love to do, but when it consciously became like, ‘I’m going to use this to express even what I don't understand,’ was probably 2018. I made this little project called Thoughts. It was just these thoughts that I had. There was a lot about relationships and heartbreak and everything, but I wasn't even in a relationship. I wasn't going through anything. I wasn’t with anybody. But my brain, I realized it has the ability to create things that happen to me that aren’t real. I just make stories out of them and try to relate to everybody by allowing my brain to brain and do its thing; come up with the wildest situations that literally have never happened to you. Then you feel like it's so real and it's like, ‘Oh, it's happened to me.’ It's almost like I'm method acting.
I completely relate. I personally feel like it's my mission to relate to everybody and to be — well, I think I'm the Chosen One when I’m manic. That's just how I operate. “do you see me [LISTEN]” is extremely moving. How did that vision come to life? Were you trying to tap into any specific energy?
So this was 2024, and I already had the first part of the song where it’s like, “I hear a voice that says go to hell and don’t come back up, do you see me for myself, or is it all a game?” One morning in the summertime I woke up and I was just the lowest I could possibly be. Then I went to the studio. I have it all on video as well. I went to the studio and just freestyled it. After that I listened through it, it was like 80% there, and I started to just plug in words. I was like, ‘Okay, let me just change that for it to flow better. Let me do that.’ I did it in like 15 minutes.
Wow.
I just went off. I was like, ‘Let me just let the voice take over.’ I have projects from 2019 and 2020 where I have let the voices take over and made projects with solely the voices. It’s honestly very addicting music, but very scary. I know it’s not good. I know it’s not good for human resonance. I know it’s not. I know it's crack though. It’s crack, but I’m just like, ‘I know it’s not it.’ This time I was like, ‘Let me just incorporate it.’ That voice was, either me, the voices—I just don't know what it was and I don't care to know what it was. All I know is that's what came out. When I listened back, there was a lot of conviction that I would feel on certain things.
I have a lot of controversial things. I was like, ‘Pass me that scripture, or pass me that sage, or pass me that incense, or pass me that rock. You looked at the moon and let it determine the way how you feeling, little boy, you got got. Pass me that cross, I'll crumble it down, you're praying to wood, you're praying to gold, you're praying to silver, you're praying to bronze. I just don't think that you will break the odds.‘
It’s very intense. I don't know if people really listen to it, but it’s a very, very, very intense verse. It challenges a lot. It questions a lot. My mom heard it and it’s one of those things that can shake your belief. It definitely shook my mom’s a little bit.
Was she just like, ‘I can't believe this is what you're experiencing?’ What was her reaction?
She was just like, ‘Wow. That's deep.’ My mom’s very, very Christian. She’s like, ‘I just wish you didn’t use the word ‘damn.’’ I was like, ‘You heard everything and that's what you're worried about?’ I was like, ‘Mom, I'm 27, bro. Come on, please.’
There's a line in the next song where you say, “What do I do when I can’t process everything?” What do you do? Also, was the layering of the vocals intentional there?
That part of the album, it switched. You start to hear more voices and more of those things. Those harmonics represent the voices in my mind.
What do I do when I can’t process everything? Honestly, I go buy a chocolate cake and then—no, deadass—I turn on SpongeBob. I go on my computer and I watch camera reviews because I love cameras. That's what I do. And I call a homie from Florida.
On “2shots [thank you]” you say: “You got a good heart, it’s your mind that worries. You got a good life. It’s your eyes that’s blurry. And if you try to fill that void, well, you don’t need to run to that anymore, silly boy.”
Yep. That’s my favorite line on the whole project. I love it, man. It really sums up everything for me. “You got a good heart.” We’re born with hearts that feel, so automatically that means it’s good. I don't think anger comes first from the heart. I think it’s sadness and then ego turns into anger and it causes malice. Like I say, “You got a good heart. It's just your mind, bro.” It's your mind that worries. I use the word "worry" because that's what stems from everything. Worry causes a lot. Worry causes you to come up with situations that aren't real.
Doing things out of worry is a very scary thing. Then, “You got a good life. Your eyes are just blurry.” It's the truth: sometimes we can't see because we're just worried. Then if you try to fill that void, whatever the void may be, everyone has their own voids and their own things. “Well, you don't need to run to that anymore, silly boy.” That's hoping the listener listened to the album and heard my experience; not to take everything I say verbatim, but it's more so of an opportunity. It's like, ‘Look, this is what I've been through and what I've seen, and I can see both sides of the coin. What will you do?’ That's up to you. That's really what I wanted the album to be about. The album is not about people seeing me. The album is really a question for them to ask themselves. That's really what it is. When they say, "Do you see me?" I actually want them to ask that for themselves. That's the core of it.
My other favorite line is the one before that where I'm just like, “I'ma leave this earth and this time behind, I'll just be glad that I leave my mind.” I really like that line because it just shows the boldness of just like, ‘Man, I'm going to just say what I got to say because I'm going to be gone one day.’ I personally am going to be very happy to leave this Earthly mind behind. I'm going to be like, ‘Phew, that was crazy!’
Don't want to do that again [Laughs].
I ain't doing that again, bro [Laughs].
What have you learned about schizophrenia as a condition that has made you feel less alone?
Honestly, that I have it [Laughs]. Like I said, I took the medicine. I was on Haloperidol.
Oh, I take that.
I took it and I was like, ‘It works.’ I was shocked. I was like, ‘Okay, so I'm not spiritually broken and I am not this and that. There's some chemicals generally going on.’ Immediately, I felt so good. I was like, ‘All right, so now let me just find a community of people that go through this and stick with these people,’ rather than being in these spaces that are telling me that I don't have this and I got to do this and all this foolishness.