For Shihad’s Jon Toogood, the prescription for acute tinnitus: make more music
As frontman of Shihad, one of New Zealand’s greatest rock bands, Jon Toogood had long since come to terms with the quiet hum of tinnitus – but a Covid infection turned it up to 11.
Tinnitus is a curse familiar to many rock ‘n’ rollers who have spent too many hours in close confines with crashing cymbals and loud guitar amplifiers.
As frontman of Shihad, one of New Zealand’s greatest rock bands, Jon Toogood had long since come to terms with the quiet hum that had been his background soundtrack since the age of 20.
Although he had called Melbourne home since 1998, in 2021 the singer-songwriter decided to shift his family back to New Zealand after the gutting experience of farewelling his beloved mother, Yvonne, via video call as she lay dying during the Victorian lockdowns.
When he contracted Covid soon after returning to his homeland, that mildly annoying occupational hazard in his ears suddenly veered towards life-threatening.
“Two weeks after catching it, I got woken up out of a dream, and there’s a car alarm basically going off in my head: it was my tinnitus, but turned up to f..king 11,” said Toogood, 53.
What was once manageable was no longer: in desperation, he checked in to a hospital ER after that first 36-hour stint of ear-aching wakefulness, and required sedatives to knock him out. The months that followed were maddening.
“I was getting to the end of my tether with it, all the while having full-blown panic attacks, because I’d be reading bedtime stories to my kids, and then not being able to be present because there’s this car alarm going off my head,” he said. “I was starting to get pretty dark; it was like ‘Shit, I don’t know if I can live like this’.”
He eventually received a remedy for this acute condition thanks to a cognitive behavioural therapist who specialised in treating returned soldiers with PTSD.
Silence is the enemy of tinnitus, she told him, and she had a better suggestion for a mindfulness technique for this lifelong musician: playing music.
Her unique prescription opened the floodgates for Toogood to pen a series of acoustic songs centred on the grief of losing his mother and beloved brother-in-law, but also the sunny days that lay ahead.
“The music needed to be gentle; I didn’t need the soundscape of Shihad to write those,” said Toogood. “This was all very personal, very local; I needed it to be small, and to be able to hold me and go ‘There, there, Johnny. It’s OK; that was shit, but life’s still beautiful’.”
After more than three decades of high voltage rock ‘n’ roll with Shihad – which has issued 10 albums since forming in 1988 in Wellington – Toogood’s debut solo album is a delicate, emotive set titled Last of the Lonely Gods.
Following its release on Friday via Warner Music, the singer-songwriter will undertake a four-date solo tour with shows at the Gold Coast (November 14), Brisbane (November 15), Melbourne (November 16) and Sydney (November 17).
“I’d never really thought about releasing a solo record, and one of the reasons for that was really superficial: I always thought my name was a bit ridiculous and cartoonish – even though it is my real name,” said Toogood with a laugh.
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