FAC Insights: Tinnitus Awareness with Jack Rubinacci

FAC Insights is a forum for us to showcase and share long form pieces looking at various parts of the music industry and the society that shapes it. Pieces take the form of videos, interviews, discussions, articles and more.

Jack Rubinacci reached out to us to raise awareness about Tinnitus and share his journey. Tinnitus is a ringing or buzzing that comes from inside your ears, rather than from an outside source and affects many artists and musicians. It’s important to take care of our hearing and also find support in others experiencing Tinnitus.

Jack Rubinacci:

I developed tinnitus at the age 27. I was demoing a quiet acoustic song in my little flat in Oslo, and the next morning I woke up exhausted, the kind of tired that scares you. And that was when I noticed it, a high pitched noise in my brain. That was the last time I ever heard silence.

My tinnitus developed because of acoustic trauma. Most of the damage was done back home in Birmingham where I was lead singer of a popular local band called Honeyman. We were getting a lot of attention at the time so we worked really hard. We rehearsed 5 nights a week in a room the size of a bag of crisps, and we played LOUD! Then on the weekends we gigged. Back in 1998 people’s knowledge was mostly geographical. Meaning that, access to the internet was still not easy, so the knowledge and advice you got was mostly based on the people in you immediate vicinity. No one was talking about ear protection around us. Not the managers, the sound men, other musicians, no one. Because no one talked about it, no one did anything about it. That was a mistake and why I feel so passionately about helping other musicians avoid the same decisions I made.

Tinnitus is the constant ringing of the ears or the perception of sound, when no sound is actually really there. It can come in many different forms, such as swooshing sounds, high pitched tone, or different tones at the same time. The first signs of tinnitus can be the actual tone itself which can come and go in its early stages, or the feeling of “fullness” in your ears after a long recording or rehearsal. If you are experiencing this, then its time to take your ears seriously and start protecting them.

Here’s something to think about. We treat our ears like they were an old iron hammer found in the back of a shed that belonged to our grandad. In other words, indestructible. We take them for granted. The reality however is far different. Our ears are some of the most sensitive and complicated parts of our body. They are an amazing feat of engineering and once damaged, they are irreparable.

Tinnitus doesn't just affect your ears either. Damaging your hearing can make it tough on your mental health. The idea that as musicians, we have damaged the very thing we rely on, can be tough to deal with mentally.

The most effective way of lowering your chances of getting tinnitus, is to take hearing protection seriously, not just some of the time, all of the time. Find yourself a pair of ear plugs that work for you, and invest in them. And if you can, try to get 2 pairs, because at some point your most likely to forget one pair or leave them in another gig bag, and thats not cool if you are at a gig or rehearsal session. I use -30 dBA molded silicon ear plugs that cost me around 80 quid. I have 4 pairs, because I can’t be without them.

Ear plugs work. A good pair, from a reputable brand will lower the amount of volume entering into your ears and take a lot of the stress off them, helping you reduce your chances of ear damage.

If you are concerned about your hearing, Tinnitus UK offers fantastic advice and help. They have a fantastic team there. I also run a website called www.helpmytinnitus.com where you can find out more information on sound levels, ear plugs and lots more.

To all my fellow musical sisters and brothers out there, please protect your ears and take this seriously. So you can continue to thrive and do the thing you love doing.

More Resources:

Help Musicians share advice and can help you access affordable hearing protection here.