The first part of the song, which seems to be about Ren’s contemplation of suicide during the worst parts of his chronic illness that was eventually diagnosed as Lyme disease, had been written and finished for some time, but still felt incomplete to him, even though he had planned to make it his next release. He recently was thinking again about his childhood best friend Joe Hughes who committed suicide in 2010, felt inspired to write the second part of the song, and quickly reworked the song and video to include it.
There’s more detail in Ren’s own words here:
Also take note that he’s raising money for the Anglesey Royal National Lifeboat Institute, who put tremendous effort into trying to find Joe’s body (sadly without result), and he’s donating profits from the sale of his first album, Freckled Angels, to Joe’s family. Links are in the pinned comment on the YouTube post.
This isn’t the first time Ren has commemorated Joe Hughes. He wrote a song “Freckled Angels” that he performed first at Joe’s funeral and made it the title song of his first album. It’s much sweeter, but still heartbreaking.
