The Lael Project marks Mental Health Awareness Month with third posthumous single from LAEL SUMMER, ‘Insidious’

THE LAEL PROJECT honours the US observed Mental Health Awareness Month with today’s release of ‘Insidious’ (True Grove Records), the third posthumous single from New York’s soul/pop artist LAEL SUMMER, initially recorded in 2017, shortly before her tragic death by suicide, aged twenty-four.

‘Insidious’ continues Lael’s legacy of encouraging open conversations about mental health, suicide awareness, and eating disorders.

In September 2024, artist Marla Mase founded The Lael Project to pay tribute to her daughter’s life and music, and to carry out Lael’s wish to “help just one person” by fostering open discussions about depression and other mental health challenges, with Marla believing the sharing of stories, music, and experiences are a genuine gateway to healing.

“By sharing Lael’s story – our story as mental illness is a family ‘disease’ – we hope it will give others the inspiration and courage to share their own,” she said. “To let them know they are not alone, and that it is OK to open up, to speak, and that there is no shame or judgement in what they are experiencing. There are billions of you out here ready to listen and to connect and that perhaps together we can pave a way towards healing. I am a firm believer in the power of storytelling. It is a path, I am sure, out of the darkness.”

Written and demoed on her iPhone just weeks before her death, ‘Insidious’ is an intimate, honest look inside Lael’s lifelong struggles with depression, suicidality and eating disorders.

The track – produced and mixed by Tomás Doncker and James Dellatacoma – features Lael’s raw vocal extracted from the original demo. The result is a moving plea, shedding light on the pain and confusion endured by those struggling to cope with mental health illnesses.

“We built a track that supports Lael’s vision,” explained Doncker. “She already had all of the lyrics when we started writing the tune, and the mysterious and darkly brooding atmosphere was already quite evident. Lael was surely no stranger to intensity as far as her lyrical, melodic choices were concerned, always choosing to approach the subject matter of all her songs head on. Fearlessly.”

Lael spent several years in treatment centres, and credited a seventeen-month stay in Utah as lifesaving. After high school in NYC, she earned a Bachelor of Music from USC’s Thornton School of Music. During her brief but impactful career, she released two albums, ‘Burden To Bear’ (2013) and ‘Life In Color’ (2015) via True Groove Records.

“’Insidious’ is not just a song; it’s a call for compassion and a mirror for the millions who struggle with the emotional instability and unreliability that comes with having a mental illness,” added Marla. “I believe those struggling with mental health will see themselves in this song. You feel you have it under control and then suddenly you don’t. It’s back, full force. Lael would call this insidiousness ‘the murderer’ living in her brain. It helped her personify it, to understand that it was not her, it was the illness.

“One of the symptoms of mental illness is to isolate, to make you feel hopeless and defective, a burden, and this song is outing those lies. Lael was not afraid to sing about what she was dealing with, she needed to do it, to express all her fears. She was fearless in that way, brutally honest lyrics about her experiences. She did it for her survival, and she did it with the hope her story would help others recognise themselves, know that they aren’t alone, and to seek help. The song is a hand reaching out through the dark saying, ‘I hear you, you are not alone.’ It’s Lael, still helping just one person, maybe more.”

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