Backstage panic attack at concert changed my life 

Niamh McCarthy was living at warp speed as an assistant to U2 and Madonna until she experienced burnout. Following her work with Deepak Chopra, who teaches meditation and breathwork, she set up a wellness app 

Niamh McCarthy, founder of the wellness app Mindful Nation. 

‘FOR me, music is life. Music has the capacity to change your mood, as well as having a really profound physiological effect. So, when it came to designing a new meditation app, incorporating music was, for me, like a no-brainer,” says Niamh McCarthy.

The 30-year-old music management assistant turned founder of the meditation app Mindful Nation is speaking to me over a video call from Athens, where she “very bizarrely relocated” in the midst of the pandemic. She will soon be returning to Los Angeles, where, judging by the flash of brightness in her eyes, her heart belongs, despite the locals’ persistent mispronunciation of her name.