Last year, Peabody native Justin Clancy attended the Boston Music Awards as a guest. This year, he returns with four award nominations.
The multi-genre artist has been making music since he was in middle school, but gained popularity last year with the release of his music videos for “TV Dinner” and “Work in Progress.” His debut album, “The Color Blue,” came out in June and has more than 300,000 streams on Spotify and 50,000 on Apple Music.
The 23-year-old is nominated for New Artist of the Year, Unsigned Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, and Video of the Year (for “Work in Progress”). Voting on the award show’s website ends on Nov. 4 and the actual show is at the House of Blues in Boston on Dec. 12.
“It’s a funny story,” said Clancy. “When I went last year I kept my ticket because I told myself I was going to come back and be nominated for at least one award. I never thought I’d be nominated for four.”
Clancy describes himself as an artist, an advocate for addiction, and a survivor. He has been sober since the age of 19, and is the co-founder of a non-profit organization called New England Addiction Outreach (NEAO). Clancy used to work as a community outreach coordinator and treatment advisor for Banyan Treatment Center in Wilmington, until his music career and the loss of his father became too much to handle.
He spent the summer traveling the country on the last Vans Warped Tour. Right before he left for his dream tour, Clancy’s father died of cancer on July 19. The next day, he completed an interview on New England Cable Network to promote the tour and his album. The following Monday, Clancy grabbed his bags and left on the tour bus.
“My dad’s final wish, while he was in hospice, was that his services didn’t conflict with the tour,” said Clancy.
He came back to Massachusetts, performing at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield on July 27, with his father’s funeral the following day. Not even 24 hours later and Clancy was back on the road, headed to his next show in North Carolina.
“It was a new state, a new city, and new people every single day,” he said. “The only time I was able to mourn his loss was when I had a moment to myself on the tour bus during the late night drives.”
Although his work in addiction recovery means everything to him, he said having to step away from his job was needed in order to really focus on himself. Clancy said it’s easy for anyone working in an industry that focuses on helping people to feel burned out when they aren’t taking the few minutes a day to focus on their own mental health.
His goal for the two new albums he is working on is to stray away from the “recovery artist” that people have come to know him as. Focusing too much on trying to send a message has him less focused on his own recovery at times, he said. He wants to be a walking message and doesn’t feel the need to address his recovery in every piece of music he creates.
“I spent so many years taking care of other people,” he said. “I kept forgetting to take care of myself.”
Clancy said for those who know him personally and reach out for advice, he will always be open to sharing his tales of recovery and the five years of highs and lows he has endured. The new albums he is working on have completely diversified sounds, given he wants to create a “little bit of something for everyone.”
“I don’t want to be a martyr for recovery because I’m not perfect, no one’s perfect,” said Clancy. “I’m just an artist.”