After a busy summer and fall recording in Toronto, Amelia Curran’s new album, Watershed, will be out on March 10th through Six Shooter Records. She co-produced the album with Chris Stringer, who is known for his work with bands like Timber Timbre, Jill Barber, and Elliott Brood.

Curran is no stranger to consistent recognition from music awards like the JUNOs, Polaris, Borealis, and ECMAs, but these days, she’s well known as a steadfast advocate for the state of mental healthcare in NL, and her new album fuses two facets of her professional life: the celebrated musician and the founder of It’s Mental.

“The tenor of this new album is openness (not to be confused with optimism),” a reflection in part of Curran’s public efforts to battle the stigma of mental health issues in the arts.

Through the album’s focus on vocalization, Curran establishes a core feminist dimension to Watershed’s theme of speaking up with singles “Gravity” and “No More Quiet.” The latter song “is a powerful takedown of gender tokenism and slams the door on those who perpetuate inequality.”

Throughout the album, Curran’s lyrics express agitation, frustration, and exhaustion with demanding that mental health issues be addressed in NL. Curran has been speaking at various industry conferences and schools on the matter of mental illness.

She recently produced and directed CBC’s “Gone,” a documentary about art and suicide that recounts the loss of several of her close friends, and Curran’s own struggles with depression, treatment, and self-acceptance.

“The root of advocacy is somewhere near exhaustion and rage. I am tired and I am angry,” Curran has said of her efforts to improve mental healthcare. Other songs on the album, like “Try” and “Stranger Things Have Happened” address a similar fatigue and hostility with the music business. “It’s no place for art,” she says.

In addition to the release of Watershed, 2017 will see Amelia Curran’s first literary publication, Relics & Tunes, a collection of lyrics and notes, via Breakwater Books.