Band helps kids with mental, behavioral issues
Members of the Pray for Sleep band remember well the struggles of their teen years.
The four-man heavy-metal group from the northern suburbs of Columbus wants to return to schools to help.
The band has designed a program for school assemblies called “Scream Back.” Members, ranging from 19 to 22 years old, share their music and personal stories dealing with their mental and behavioral health challenges when they were younger.
“Our main message is that we are not alone,” said Reno Houston, 20, the band’s drummer. “Everyone struggles with something different.”
The statistics are staggering. The Ohio Health Department reported recently that the suicide rate among those 10 to 24 years old increased 56% from 2007 to 2018. Experts estimate that one in five teens experiences a mental or behavioral issue.
Houston and the other band members - Hayden Kissler, 19; Grant DeCrane, 22; and Ethan Carlson, 20, shared their stories in March when they performed their first Scream Back show at Grandview Heights High School.
DeCrane, the lead singer and guitar player, said he was abused during his elementary school years.
“I went through a lot of anxiety and self-harm,” DeCrane said. “I went through lots of counseling. I didn’t talk about it for a really long time.”
DeCrane said he found that music offered him a creative outlet that really helped.
Houston concurs. As a teenager, he dealt with anxiety issues and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, he said.
“Music helped us get through a lot of stuff — whether it was listening or playing it. It worked for us; it’s got to help somebody else.”
Kissler, who plays guitar, said he went through bullying and bouts of depression during his middle-school years.
“I didn’t reach out because I was scared,” Kissler said.
When he was in middle school, he would have welcomed a program like Scream Back, he said.
Houston said the group believes it’s important for youngsters to get past the stigma of mental-health issues so that they seek help if they need it.
“We have gotten past it, but it’s not like we don’t struggle with it anymore. Nobody’s perfect,” Houston said.
Bryan Stork, a counselor at Grandview Heights High School, said Pray for Sleep’s Scream Back event “went well and had a very positive impact on our students.”
The band met with a number of students who stayed after the performance well after classes were dismissed for the day.
“Musically, they are very talented; however, they were also very professional and worked closely with a group of my students to plan an event that would fit our specific needs,” Stork said.
The band has normal ambitions to be a success, hoping that they can make music a career. The band has recorded about 15 songs that they now offer through Spotify and Apple Music — and their goal is to get a recording contract.
One early success was winning a competition held by WRKZ The Blitz (99.7 FM) to land a gig at the Rock on the Range festival at Mapfre Stadium in May 2018.
Not wanting to miss that performance, Kissler didn’t attend his Olentangy Orange High School graduation ceremony.
The amazing thing, Houston said, is that the festival gig was only their fourth show.
He said he remembers telling people: “‘We don’t know how it happened, either, but we’re going to keep rolling with it.’ ”
It was also during summer 2018 that the band started on its commitment to raising mental-health awareness. That August, the group donated all the proceeds from a concert to Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
As a result, the band linked up with the hospital’s On Our Sleeves program, which is designed to raise awareness of mental-health and behavioral issues among youths. The Band passes out information from the program at its appearances.
Karri Schildmeyer, senior director of corporate alliance marketing at Nationwide Children’s, said she appreciates how the group uses its music for peer-topeer messaging.
“We find it really admirable that they, like us, want to break the stigma around children’s mental health,” she said.
For more information about the Scream Back program or to contact the band, go to: https://www.screamback.org.