GROOVE ART FEATURE
Alex Southey
Dogs Aren’t Great With the
Weather Change
contributed by Jason Pilling
“He recorded it with a single SM58 in a cabin…” is the lore associated with a certain famous musician. And many indie artists probably dream about the same, but Alex Southey actually did it his own way.
The limitations are the charm, and Southey is very good at not overcooking his arrangements. What Southey feels inside…how much imposter syndrome?....we don’t need to know. We just get the result, and it’s good, and it would probably be nice if more indie artists would embrace the rawness - at least in the taste of this reviewer.
For the actual vibes themselves….they are similar to the above mentioned famous musician but more folky. It’s mostly voice, acoustic guitar, with simple adornments from virtual and rented instruments. We’d liken it more to what might happen if you locked Thom Yorke in a room with the resources we’ll describe in a moment.
Like Yorke’s, Southey’s lyrics are always non-specific but evocative. This reviewer never really knows what they are about, but it doesn’t matter because the vocabulary and the pictures painted are good. Southey dabbles as an abstract painter as well…so perhaps that’s not a coincidence.
For resources…Southey reports that he made the record over a few months with nothing but a laptop, including the laptop microphone. It was mixed and mastered by the man himself in Logic Pro. A single guest performance by local cellist Maggie Koncewicz appears on Track 2. But it’s not Southey’s first rodeo, as he’s worked with accomplished engineers and producers on previous releases. Like the fabled SM58 in the cabin, there are skills and experience evident here to make these resources work the way they did.
In summary, Southey’s work will feel authentic to pure listeners seeking realness. It will also be a joy and inspiration to other songwriters to hear a peer succeed artistically “without all the other shit you don’t need”.
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