Pop singer Jai Waetford shares how music and love helped him address his mental health problems

He was broke and lost. Jai Waetford has now told of his private struggle before he got back into music, and how he wants to help others face their demons.

Jai Waetford was broke, desperately sad and couldn’t figure out how what to do next.

A naturally upbeat person, the 19-year-old’s social media feed showed a very different image of his life and he couldn’t work out why the pictures didn’t match his reality.

The young man Australia fell in love with as a cheeky, talented 14-year-old on the X Factor didn’t think he was depressed — he thought it was selfish of him to be unhappy when he had a family who loved him, a roof over his head and a career.

“I was dead broke, I hadn’t made a single cent in six months and I couldn’t afford to even pay board to my grandparents for four months,” he said.

“I was eating two minute noodles … not having money wasn’t what worried me. I’d been there before — I grew up with my family not having any money.

After sharing his mental health challenges, Waetford is now an ambassador for the Australian Suicide Prevention Foundation and their You Are Not Alone campaign. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

“I didn’t know what it was but I couldn’t walk into my own house without this massive feeling of sadness that I was letting my family down.

“They saw potential, they believed in me and I felt I wasn’t being who I could be. I didn’t know how to get out of it, I felt so selfish and low at that time because I couldn’t find happiness in anything.”

Music helped pull him out of that hole. He would catch the train from his western Sydney home to the city to work with a friend in his studio from 8pm to 3am.

At the same time, he became close to an Instagram beauty model Isabelle Clarke, their friendship blossoming into a romance as Waetford finally confided in her about his depression.

“Because I was in such a vulnerable state, she came to know me really quickly. She was hearing everything I was writing about, everything that was going on in my life,” he said.

“She always told me to focus on the things that I could control and that sticks with me now.

“It’s a massive weight off my shoulders and opened up my mind to where I could find happiness. The music naturally started flowing, I found a rhythm in writing and in me and I knew what I wanted next for the first time in years.”

As he found purpose in his life again, the young songwriter shared his struggles in a candid video posted to his followers in August.

Sharing his vulnerability and the dark thoughts he had wrestled with for 12 months both helped people in the grips of their own mental health demons and attracted a backlash from those who dismissed his experience.

It also caught the attention of the Australian Suicide Prevention Foundation who asked Waetford to become an ambassador for their You Are Not Alone campaign to encourage 12 to 17 year olds with mental health crises to reach out to someone for help.

“I wanted to get involved and to encourage people to feel comfortable about speaking about how they are feeling and not worry they would be put down or thought to be weak,” he said.

“I’ve spoken to so many people who have said that they don’t understand how someone could be so selfish as to think about killing themselves.

“Clearly those people have never been in a position where you don’t know what is next or you don’t value your life because you can’t find happiness in anything around you.

Australia embraced the cheeky 14-year-old on The X Factor. Picture: Supplied.

“What I came to learn is sometimes things just happen and it’s really up to you to take the first step to make yourself OK.

“If you sit there in that hole and don’t tell people, if you keep it all bottled up inside like I did, people will look at you thinking something is wrong but because you don’t tell them what it is, they think it can’t be that bad. And then it can be too late.

“The main reason I was scared to let people know what was going on in my head was because you look at my social media and then if I was to tell them I was broke and didn’t know what my purpose was in my life, they’d be ‘Are you serious? Look at the opportunities you’ve been given and your social media looks like life is amazing, why are you complaining?’”

Waetford releases his new single Friends on Friday. Picture: Sam Ruttyn

Once Waetford had a song he felt confident would give his career a new direction, he found support from his record label Sony and quietly released Lost In You to test the waters.

That led him to work with producer James Angus and rising singer and rapper Carmouflage Rose and the songs kept coming.

Waetford then gave his fans the song Get Over last month and this week makes his official return to the airwaves with the single Friends, showcasing a musical shift which fits a 19-year-old pop artist.

“I’ve got another couple of tracks lined up for next year, we’ll just keep rolling new music out. Frequent releases these days are so important. With streaming, people want something new at a quicker pace,” he said.

“Now I’m just working hard at the craft of songwriting and singing. I just want to be really good at what I do and be confident in myself and my songwriting.”

Friends is released on November 23.