How Drake Bell Processed His Trauma Through Drake and Josh Theme

New music presented a essential outlet for Drake Bell to get the job done through his childhood trauma as a teen — even if he was not informed of it at the time.

Bell, 37, arrived forward past thirty day period as the formerly unnamed target of Brian Peck’s sexual abuse in the course of his time as a little one actor on Nickelodeon. Bell in-depth the abuse — which led to the previous dialogue mentor to be sentenced to 16 months in jail jail in 2004 — on the Investigation Discovery series Tranquil on Set: The Darkish Side of Young children Television set.

The revelation has led fans to comb by means of Bell’s discography, which includes his 2005 debut album, Telegraph, which Bell wrote at 15 several years old in the midst of Peck’s abuse.

“A ton of my lovers are going back again to my initially album, which I actually wrote and manufactured and released when I was going as a result of it, when I was about 15 years outdated, while I was in the thick of all of that,” Bell explained to Kevin Quinn and Justin Crawford on the Wednesday, May 1, episode of their “Luminosity” podcast. “[The fans are] acknowledging, ‘Oh, my God, he’s been screaming from the mountaintops [about the abuse].’”

Bell ongoing: “[Music] was my journal at the time. That was how I bought via it. I would get in the studio and be entirely shattered, damaged and I experienced a very good close friend I was writing tunes with at the time and I would arrive in and be like, ‘Alright, this is what we’re composing about these days. I’ve acquired to get this out. This is what’s heading on in everyday living.’”

Bell rose to a new level of fame when he was cast on the Dan Schneider–helmed Nickelodeon sitcom Drake & Josh, opposite Josh Peck (no relation to Brian). The show’s topic song, “I Identified a Way,” was composed and executed by Bell in 2003 — and the actor suggests the song’s lyrics converse to what he was likely by way of at the time and provided a way for him to persevere.

“[I got] a whole lot of what I was working with out by means of my tunes,” Bell reported on the podcast, likely on to recite the refrain of the concept tune: “It’s gonna just take some time to realign / But if you look within I’m confident you are going to uncover … No one can break what is so unbreakable / I found a way, I discovered a way.”

By writing the lyrics to “I Uncovered a Way,” Bell sent a message to not only his supporters but also himself.

“I feel type of subconsciously, I was making an attempt to inform myself, ‘You attempted to split me, but I’m unbreakable,’” he explained. “If you in fact look inside and see who you definitely are and know who you are, then you’re likely to locate a way out. You are heading to locate a way by way of it. And so I found a way.”

Bell has continued to use music as a variety of therapy to this day. His new launch, “I Variety of Relate,” and its accompanying audio movie handle the abuse he endured as a baby actor and how he has coped with it ever since.

“The new music I just place out named ‘I Form of Relate’ talks about my abuse, my compound abuse, my childhood trauma, my automobile accident, a ton of matters in my life,” Bell mentioned. “It is a terrific form of treatment to be capable to have some outlet, no matter if you are composing the tracks or regardless of whether you’re discovering the music that discuss to you.”