A family playing punk to beat away life’s troubles
Support service workers Luke and Vanilla have worked out a slightly different outlet to let go of the trauma they see during the day. By Maddy Croad.
Walking into Luke Penrose and Vanilla Martin’s home, the first impression you get is that a quiet suburban family live here. Dinner’s on the stove, coffee is in the pot and there’s a stroller in the hallway.
It isn’t until Martin points out the closet-sized room off of the entranceway filled with guitars, recording equipment and amps, that it’s clear there’s more happening here. “We just call it the studio,” Martin said, microphone in one hand and a baby in the other.
Penrose and Martin have been playing in their post-punk synth pop band Social Union since the first Covid lockdown, after realising they both needed a reprieve from the things they saw during the day. Their days involve working in suicide postvention and supporting youth who have left state care.
Martin, an adviser to Pegasus Health’s suicide postvention team, said moving into such a weighty role was a natural path. Postvention ensures loved ones who are left behind after a suicide are supported to decrease the risk of “contagion” suicides, she said.
After experiencing a cluster of suicides in her family growing up, she helps “people who are left behind”, making sure they are safe. “Exposure to the the suicide of someone you know immediately makes you 40% more likely to attempt or die by suicide. The grief that comes with suicide is unlike any other grief.”
Penrose, who started his career making development programmes for teenage boys who have had police called on them, now works with Voyce Whakarongo Mai to help youth who’d had experiences in state care.
He has dealt with families being reunited, domestic violence and troubled youth – all the way to young people in prison who wanted another option for breakfast. “I love it,” he said.
When the Covid-19 lockdowns started, both Martin and Penrose were hit hard. As essential workers, they were forced to do their jobs “from a screen”, which both found hugely difficult. It was then, on the verge of breaking down, that Penrose said to Martin: “Let’s make some music.”
Three years on, the band had gone from a hobby to an outlet, which both said had helped them immensely. “It’s still taking me every day to do self-care and reflect on the conversations that I’ve had,” Penrose said. “To me, it’s my safety plan to stay above board.”
They recently signed with German record label Blackjack Illuminist and their debut album is due to be released in the new year. They hoped to tour Australia and Europe, and to show others that parents could do anything.
“It’s really important for other people to go, ‘oh there’s a couple that has kids and they don’t just have to be parents’,” Penrose said.
Social Union plans to release a new single, Waiting For Red, on December 15, their music can be found onSpotify.