“I CAN’T GO ON…I MUST GO ON”
On July 4th in the summer of 1989, my mind declared independence from shared reality. After several months I became full blown psychotic. Following a horrific family tragedy and given the Insanity Plea, I was committed to Creedmoor Psychiatric Center in Queens, NY.
Gifted with a guitar from a forbidden love and getting reacquainted with my raw musical talents, the songs just poured out of me. With plenty of time on my hands and a functioning instrument, I banged out scores of original compositions, alternating between adrenalized punk/pop or mournful folk/blues, informed by the early work of Chuck Berry, The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello.
Self-recording since 2004, officially releasing CDs while institutionalized, my early output was captured surreptitiously on a Fostex portable 16-track digital recorder with an internal CD burner, featuring me playing all instruments and doing all the singing. I recorded in bathrooms and bedrooms of the locked ward of the hospital.
I was fortunate to win release from the asylum in 2009, and subsequent albums were recorded in the same multi-tracked one-man-band fashion at halfway houses while living on the campus and now at my apartment in Queens. Though I’ve embraced newer tools and more modern recording techniques, I continue to cultivate the naïve charm of my early releases, channeling the resilience and self-determination of those desperate days, the ingenuity and seat-of-your-pants creativity born from lack and gumption.
This album’s title is inspired by the indomitable spirit and paraphrased from Samuel Beckett. I felt this resilience and passion in the face of adversity while in the asylum and it’s still with me. Though my life has greatly improved I now employ the phrase to my music making. Emotionally winded by the rise of fascism in America, it takes all that I have to remain positive, and music helps ease the pain. So, if you too need a balm, an uplift, or an anthem to rally around you may find it here. And never lose hope because you can go on, you must go on, and you will go on.
My music honors the legacy of pop song craft, 1950s R&B, 60s British Invasion Rock, and 70s New Wave as channeled by a schizophrenic Black man. It’s D.I.Y. one-man-band Indie psycho pop, sounding like Bryan Ferry fronting The Monkees, or Frank Zappa locked in a closet for a weekend with only a copy of The Beatles’ ‘Rubber Soul’.
Lead single and other tracks from the new album ‘I Can’t Go On…I Must Go On’ released 4/10/2026
Top 20 most popular tracks
Issa performing LIVE
New album promo
“…crafting raw, genre-blending songs that channel his lived experience, cultural insight, and creative defiance.”
-City Voices Mental Health Blog
“…poignancy nestled inside of brightness…”
-Ms Gadget Podcast
“…combines social critique, mad activism and music in one with this old school rock…”
-All Those Walls Mental Health Blog
“…fascinating…genuine with great insight. A plus to the mental health community…”
-Poison Oak Mental Health Blog
“…never ceases to amaze, amuse, and bemuse…”
-Tone Deaf Tony Podcast
“…nice Beatles-style, amazing lyrics, sound…”
-Blues And Drouge Music Blog
”…smooth runs…nice lyrics…nice instrumental…super artist…”
-Nibside Culture Blog
“…really sweet sad songs…reminds me of Elvis Costello…”
-Fuzzbugg Podcast
“…songs are catchy, memorable, fun and important!”
-Lee Lee Sam Blog
NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
With DSM5- The Living Museum Band: The New School, Wollman Hall, NYC, 5/2000
Solo: Drug and Alcohol Treatment Clinic, Bellevue Hospital Center, NYC, 11/2004
Solo: Black History Celebration, Drug and Alcohol Treatment Clinic, Bellevue Hospital Center, NYC, 2/2006
With DSM5- The Living Museum Band: NYU Music School, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, 9/2009
With DSM5- The Living Museum Band: Kenny’s Castaways, NYC, 11/2009
With DSM5- The Living Museum Band: Kenny’s Castaways, summer residency, NYC, 6/2010-9/2010
Solo: Rebellious Psychiatry Conference, Afro-American Cultural Center Yale University, New Haven, Ct, 4/2017
Solo: Making New Meaning, Institute for the Development of Human Arts, East Village Access, NYC, 6/2017
Solo and ensemble: Free The Arts Festival, Healing, Liberation and Social Justice Open Forum and Performance, Brooklyn, Bronx, Harlem, 8/2017
Solo: The Story Collider, Consciousness forum, Caveat Club, NYC, 11/2017
NOTABLE EXPOSURE AND RECOGNITION
Interview announcing the release of the album ‘God’s Radio’ in the arts and culture blog ART BreakOUT.
Author of The Hospital Always Wins: A Memoir, published by Chicago Review Press 6/2016. The book has the notable distinction of being the first work published by an African American written from behind the walls of a mental institution. It was met with highly favorable reviews, interviews on multiple radio outlets including NPR, international press and a best summer read recommendation in Oprah Winfrey’s ‘O’ Magazine 7/2016.
Featured artist in documentary/independent film That Which Is Possible, a film about The Living Museum by filmmaker Michael Gitlin, 2/2015.
Subject of hour-long audio story The Hospital Always Wins, produced by National Public Radio’s State of the Re: Union, 10/2013. Program won the 2104 Edward R. Murrow Award for Best News Documentary and the 2014 Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Director’s Choice Award.
Featured artist in HBO documentary The Living Museum, directed by Academy Award winner Jessica Yu, spotlighting the achievements and participants of the open studio/program, 6/1999.
Featured artist on German Public Television program ‘Selbstbestimmt’ (Self-determined), 3/1997.
Discover my complete catalog HERE, a 20-year body of work
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