On a Sunday in Brooklyn, music and mental health advocacy came together in a way that felt both powerful and personal. Something tender and intentional happened at the Brooklyn Paramount. You could feel it in the air: the sense that everyone was there for more than just a show. Sound Mind Festival wasn’t your typical lineup. It was a rare combination of music, community, and mental health advocacy brought together in one of New York’s most beautiful spaces.

The festival, produced by Sound Mind Live, invited attendees to engage with music as both entertainment and medicine. With a lineup that included American Authors, MILCK, BØRNS, Jordan Carlos, and more, the programming was designed to ground and connect. Between sets, speakers from the mental health field took the stage to remind us that healing doesn’t have to be solitary. It can look like singing in unison with strangers. It can feel like dancing your grief out of your body.

And for once, that mission didn’t feel like a marketing hook—it felt real.

“I think people are thirsty for a space where they can think about hard things with the guidance of music,” MILCK told us. “Activism is essentially love for humanity and our future, so it's like swaying to a bunch of love songs.”

She’s right. Her set moved between power and softness, balancing protest with imagination. At one point, she introduced “Sisters of Winter,” a new track she called “VERY cathartic,” explaining, “It addresses the times, while leaving a lot of space for beauty, mysticism, magic, mystery, and imagination. I really need that right now, to ease the grief we are holding about the atrocities of the world.”

That emotional honesty carried throughout the night.

For Zac Barnett of American Authors, it was a return to familiar ground. “Brooklyn is where this band took off, so this is home to us,” he said. “Sure, listeners in NYC want to have fun, but I also feel like they have a sophisticated ear and want to hear an artist tell a story.”

The band leaned into that ethos with a set full of buoyancy and vulnerability. They debuted a new song called “Daisies,” which touches on self-growth and change. And of course, “Best Day of My Life” still feels like summer. “Love it!” Barnett said when asked if he ever gets tired of the hit. “That song changed our lives for the better… Seeing the joy it sparks in people is a true gift.”

Then came BØRNS, whose dreamlike sound has always floated somewhere between the cosmic and the intimate. But this performance felt more raw, more human.

“I’m inspired by using less,” he said. “In the past I experimented with lots of layers of sound to create an atmosphere, but I want to hear space now. I haven’t been using tracks or in-ear monitors, so there’s a whole new sense of freedom.”

That stripped-back freedom played out on stage. Where other sets leaned on polish, BØRNS leaned into imperfection. “I’m in the unpolished chapter,” he told us. “I want to hear mistakes and stuff out of tune. It’s exhilarating.”

For all its gorgeous production, Sound Mind didn’t aim for flawlessness. It aimed for presence. The room really created a space to slow down and check in with your self, the music, and everyone around you.

Mental health is often talked about in data, headlines, and crisis language. But Sound Mind offered something much more powerful: a reminder that connection is a form of care. That joy and catharsis can share a stage. That art can still surprise us into feeling something honest.

As I left, I thought about what Barnett said when I asked what he’s learned about longevity in music: “Be a nice person, be open to adapting & making changes, love what you do, never quit.”

In a city known for noise, Sound Mind made space for something else: a deeper kind of listening.