Musician Oli Spleen has gone through the trauma of a toxic relationship, nearly dying at the age of 22 and losing his father last year to Parkinson’s.

All the struggle and hardship caused him to take a look at his life and make a decision to do all the things he dreamed of doing, this included making an album.

That album has now been made and ahead of its launch, which will include a party at the Hope and Ruin, Brighton, on February 9, Oli spoke with Argus reporter Jamie Walker about the traumas he has faced and why they have made him the person he is today.

“I WAS on my death bed and my doctor offered me the option to turn down my medication,” those are the harrowing words of 40-year-old Oli Spleen.

Oli was just 22 when he found himself in hospital due to complications relating to the AIDS virus.

He spoke about the pain he was feeling and how the doctors gave him the chance to stop taking the medication that was keeping him alive.

“I decided to keep fighting and live,” Oli said.

“From that point I looked at my life and wanted to do something to be proud of with however long I had left.”

What Oli wanted to do more than anything was release an album.

And now, nearly 19 years on from the moment where his life could have ended, he is doing just that in the form of Gaslight Illuminations.

Oli has been making music ever since his brush with death - he said that traces of AIDS in his system are at low levels and he is able to live life to the fullest.

Having been in a number of bands he was contacted by a producer in Paris who helped him release his debut solo album in 2013.

Oli said: “It didn’t feel like my album because it was his music but I added the lyrics to it.”

But being heavily influenced by French orchestral style, Oli set about creating his own masterpiece.

The catalyst to making music came last year when he lost his father, John Speer, to Parkinson’s - a degenerative disorder that effects the central nervous system and motor systems of the body - at the age of 84.

He tells the story of his death in one song from the album, which he entitled Almost Young - the video for which can be watched in the link at the end of the story.

“The video depicts the story I wanted to tell,” Oli said.

“I was there by his bedside for hours watching him get thinner and thinner it was quite traumatic and I had to have a way of processing what I’d been through.

“My niece played a young a young version of my dad and I played my older dad nearer his death.

“I recreated his death having my mouth open, like his was, and recreating what I witnessed.

“My sister was there watching and crying, she found it quite difficult.

“I also used my dad’s ashes as a shaker sound on the song Ghost.”

John plied his trade as a writer, predominantly an agony aunt for Jackie Magazine - the popular publication aimed at teenage girls during the Sixties and Seventies.

Oli said it was an odd experience watching his father having to think like a teenage girl but that it made him see how people can adopt different monikers.

He added that his father’s passing acted as the catalyst to Gaslight Illuminations being released.

“I did the eulogy at his funeral and then I wanted to do this album as well,” Oli said.

“I think the reason my dad asked for me the most when he was dying because I’d been close to it myself.

“It was very drawn out and more traumatic than I anticipated.

“I would not have been able to do this album if he hadn’t died “

Speaking of the album as a whole, Oli said it is not just memories of his father that pushed him to make the record.

Oli was also in what he describes as a “toxic” relationship with a man who was addicted to Crystal Meth.

“He said he wanted help and I thought I could be that person but he was too far down the line.

“I came in contact with the drug and it’s quite prevalent in Brighton now and it’s a real problem.”

“Some of the stuff I went through was particularly traumatic and its reflected in some of these songs.”

Despite the struggles he has experienced, Oli says it was a cathartic experience writing the album and that it helped him work through a lot of his grief and trauma.

Oli Spleen will be hosting an album launch party for Gaslight Illuminations at the Hope and Ruin, Queens Road, Brighton, on February 9 - which is also his 41st birthday.

For tickets and more information visit http://www.hope.pub/

You can listed to Gaslight Illuminations on Soundcloud.

To watch the video for Almost Young visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIbB4wyy-hg&feature=youtu.be