Gosport man embraces music as it ‘cures’ his clinical depression

Brian Hug, 78, has always had a love for music and song writing after being in a band called Cherry Smash and taking inspiration from his older brother’s music career, Mike Hugg, who was the founding member of Manfred Mann.

He is now dedicating his time to writing and creating music that raises awareness on topical issues that he feels passionately about and has recently released his latest track.

He has since released a number of songs on Spotify and his latest is called ‘Stop Messin With Me’ which is an awareness song about pollution and climate change.

Brian, with his band, toured across Europe for a few years but when his father became ill, he returned to take over at the family business, Hug Jewellers, which was established in 1890 by his grandfather.

He spent his years in Gosport running the business, which was thriving, but due to the pandemic and the increasing cost of gold, he had to sadly close down the renowned store.

As a result of the store’s closure, Brian was diagnosed with clinical depression where he could ‘barely function’ and had no inspiration to do anything, and it was when his wife had an idea of him to start recording music again.

He said: ‘I started writing really because it was a cure. After the shop closed, it gave me clinical depression and I was diagnosed with it and at that point, I didn’t want to do anything and I couldn’t function, but I had to do something to mitigate that and my wife actually encouraged me to start recording some of the songs that I has written over the years.’

The video, which accompanies the soundtrack, was taken in St John’s Church, which is frequently used for community events and now has a recording studio inside.

The track features his brother who appears in the video playing the drums throughout.

Brian added: ‘It is a thing that I am on a mission to do now.

‘I have started to believe in myself again and get more confidence as time goes on to the point where I have completely conquered the depression and I won’t be going back there.’