Local artist uses music to move on from multiple stabbing incident

REGINA – It may not be the most conventional method, though music helped Andrew Brandt move on from a terrifying ordeal.

Brandt, 18 at the time, was crossing through Victoria Park on Oct. 1, 2009, with a friend when a man wielding a box cutter tried to rob them.

Brandt fought off attack, being stabbed seven times in the process.

“In the moment, I didn’t even notice,” he said.

Adrenaline can have a way of clouding memories, but the attack brought lasting effects, which included sleeping problems and difficulty walking around downtown.

He got through the trauma by putting the experience into words.

“These scars can tell you such a story,” sang Brandt on Saturday while practicing with his band.

His song ‘Scars’ is one of thirteen news songs on Braindead Romeo’s upcoming album, to be released in the coming weeks.

Stabbings have been put in the public spotlight after several high profile incidents this month.

The stabbings included four employees of a Toronto office, five young people at a Calgary house party, who all died, and four people at the Cornwall Centre.

Despite those tragic events, it’s important to note that, Canada-wide, stabbing homicides have actually gone down in recent years. According to Statistics Canada, they have dropped from 204 in 2011, to 164 in 2012.

While those recent stabbings brought memories from Brandt’s incident back to mind, he has moved on.

“I’ll always have the reminder of it, but I’ve got something creative and good that happened from it, too,” said Brandt, who had to get ten stitches for one wound on his head.

And he has message for victims of stabbings: “To not give up on humanity. There’s as many depraved and messed up people as there twice as many to you get through something like this, and help you get back on track. Don’t count people out.”