Julius “Cole” Rassin was a gifted guitarist, songwriter, and performer from Wilmington, North Carolina. He started playing music at 8 years old, posted original songs on YouTube, performed downtown Wilmington for anyone who would listen, and once moved to LA to pursue a boy band dream.

In 2016, Cole was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, a chronic condition combining symptoms of schizophrenia with mood disorder episodes. He sought solace in his music but tragically never found the therapeutic outlet he desperately needed following his diagnosis.

In his own video description for a song called Beautiful, he said he wrote it “for anyone who’s down on themselves and needs to be cheered up and know that they’re beautiful because they are who they are.”

Cole died in February 2018 at age 22. In the months that followed, his parents Mary Belle Jones and Steve Rassin gave six of his unfinished songs to his friend Hannah Kol, a Nashville-based singer-songwriter. She took them into a Nashville studio and recorded them as the album Sunny Day. The release party, held that October at The Annex at The Brooklyn Arts Center in Wilmington, was where Music Heals Minds was introduced to the community.

Every guitar we donate, every therapist we fund, every instrument placed in a rehab hospital or SHORE program classroom, carries Cole’s name. The songs on his channel are still there. The ones Hannah finished are still playing.

Cole wrote for everyone broken and lost at some point.