Music - Stoic

'Morningside

"I wrote this song in 2018 while traveling in Australia. I had one of those long nights out where I encountered so many realisations about myself and how I'd been living.

Someone mentioned in passing 'that if you run away once you'll run all your life' and that just stuck on me. Walking home in the early hours of the morning I came to a railway crossing. Morningside train, it really felt like if I wasn't going to move forward and change, then I might as well be dead already.

End of line for my old ways. Welcome to Morningside train of change."

'Shine

"The idea of shining is a hard concept to grasp when you're down and out, can generally feel like you're a black hole that swallows all light and joy for yourself and those around you. I wrote shine in that very headspace, I was in Byron Bay facing another manic depressive episode, suffering writer's block. But just like with Days Awake, I decided to be frank and honest about my situation. As I finished the first verse my friend texted me to ask how I was doing and to tell me she missed me.

The notion that I do actually matter to someone picked me up enough to finish the song, I felt like it was given to me on a plate really. You always shine for someone I guess, even on the days when you can't shine for yourself."

'Might Be Maybe

"It might be maybe was initially a retort from my producer Paz, about a suggestion for a certain texture that could work on another track we were working on. I can't remember what that texture was, probably an acoustic part... but that phrase, "it might be, maybe", hung around my neck for a week. Just that notion of constantly second-guessing every thought, every comment. Even when you're fronted with sunny days and love on your plate, you're always waiting on the gate to break and the tide to sweep you back to THAT place. Trying to let go and go with the flow is easier said than done I guess. One day I might get there, maybe..."

'Chasing Fools Gold' Single

"Chasing fools gold is about watching someone you love bend over backwards for a job they absolutely despise, for a company who couldn't care less about them. We all have to make a living, it's not about taking a shot at someone who feels stuck but to be so young in the grand scheme of things, to be so full of potential, waiting for something to happen is a tragic waste of time. The track came together really quickly from conception to completion, everything just seemed to flow. As soon as I played the chords I knew there was a song in there and it's the first song that has streamed through production without having sat in my bank of songs for 6 months to a year."

'Never Mind' Single

I guess never mind centres around the conversation you have between you and your partner, that stumbles along the lines of 'i'm only going to have one'. Both of you know deep down that this statement is untrue. It wasn't even that you lied when you said it, it's just the naivety that exists within you genuinely believed that you had the power to escape the gravity of your best friends, all with nowhere better to be, revelling in the ambient glow of a pub garden at 8 pm on a fine summer evening. No luna tide nor universal pull could escape the inevitable black hole that presides.

'One more' quickly descends into two, two becomes shots and before you know it you're standing in the smoking area of a local nightclub you swore blindly you'd never enter again. It's a quick phone call to your partner to plead your case, but with spirits behind you, you also know that now is a great time to pour your heart out and tell them how much you appreciate them. If that doesn't get you out of the dog house, maybe flowers will? This main bulk of this song and narrative came together really quickly for me, probably because I've walked it personally so many times before, but even in the rewrites of the verse it always felt like it was on the tip of my tongue. It was a fine balance between making myself look like a toxic waste of space and one of those mistakes we-ve all made, and will likely make again. I really wanted to capture the lighthearted side but also the anthemic side of the tale and I think we've captured that.

'Fear No Fight' Single

Fear no fight, there is a certain level of irony that walks along with that statement. It's certainly a paradox, fear no fight but fight on fear. Put in a corner that fight or flight mechanism will surprise you every time. Something I felt all too familiar with living with PTSD for longer than I'd of liked. The statement is not a challenge, the fight was life and I'm still here, so.

Being in that state all the time is really draining, life did feel like a dream at some points, especially on the good days living in Australia. It felt like I escaped hell until I inevitably had to wake up to my reality.

I think the music video lends itself well to that trippy vibe, as do the lyrics in the second verse. 'standing in your own grave you’re holding the spade, as you look down at your hands see you start to decay'. If you ruminate on that long enough you start to feel time a little more harshly.

I haven't decided whether or not that’s scary and/ or empowering.

'Neon Sheep' Single

It wasn't so long ago that I had to take a fair amount of medication every day for my back. The days sucked but when I finally managed to catch some sleep, however sporadic my dreams would always be a sweet relief. 'Waking I arrive home' and realise that it was just that, a dream.

No matter how bad things got though, however low I might have felt, there was always a voice. It would remind me everything would be alright, one day I'd see it. I just had to wait out the tide of time I guess. Neon sheep is a power-up tune really, embrace the highs and ride out on the lows. Till you done burnt-out your bones.

'2009' Single Cover

'Days Awake' EP

Days awake E.P…. In 2017 Alex James Dobson (Stoic) picked up the guitar for the first time.

His whole world had once revolved around sport until a freak accident in 2015 left him with 5 fractured vertebrae. Knowing he would have to leave his ambitions of joining the army and his love of sport behind, Alex spent a good couple of years coming to terms with his new reality, in his own words “it definitely wasn’t pretty”. Around the time of his 21st birthday he decided to take up music.

What started out as a shot in the dark, quickly snowballed into a passion, a therapy and a much needed hobby. In 2018 Alex approached Soundview Studios in Stevenage, and under the tutelage of Carl Dawson, Alex began to develop his guitar skills and theory. Having had the near death experience, he realised the importance of wasting no time in pursuing one's dreams and left Stevenage for Australia to travel for a year, under the premise with Carl that he would come back to record an Album.

True to his words he returned with a notebook full of songs, and recorded his demos with Carl at Soundview who then introduced him to Pascal Magdinier, a local producer in Stevenage. 8 months in the making, the Days Awake E.P was born. The selection of songs was chosen to represent the highs and lows of life since the accident. It's not an album that will come later... but it's an opening statement...

'Days Awake'

"Days Awake has a few meanings for me, all which seem to contradict each other. On one plane there is a great joy, music has really offered me a new lease on life, and Days Awake was the first time I realised I could actually write a song. But on the other hand, it hangs heavy on me. It's a reminder of how dark things really got, whether that was with the medication, chronic pain or manic depression, it's a time I'm often longing to forget. I didn’t expect people to be able to relate to the song, but suffering seems to be universal and everyone has got their story to tell."

'Riding Road Oasis'

"Riding road Oasis is to me, the antithesis of Days Awake. It's a power up tune, my letter to the world of where I'm at and where I'm going. As many great songs have been written, this one was born in the afterglow of a two day bender. Gathering up the pieces of my brain on the long walk home via Riding road, from my friend's house ruminating about how far I'd come, how I knew in my bones that I was going to be chasing music full time, just finally feeling content on a cool breeze of peace. I turn my head and see a sign on someone's gate. 'Riding road Oasis', I knew as soon as I saw it that it was a song, a gift from the universe."

'Say What You Mean'

"You ever ask your partner what they want to eat and they say "you pick I don't mind”. So you rattle off a bunch of suggestions, the usual suspects but none of them seem to hit the spot. Eventually your partner tells you the obscure choice you forgot to mention, and you’re left wondering why they didn't say that in the first place. This is “Say what you mean”….. we've all been there. For Christ's sake just say what you mean. It offers some light hearted fun to what is quite a heavily themed E.P. It was a latecomer but it deserves its place all the same."

'Liquor Loaded Love'

"One of those tracks that was a couple years in the making, I had the hook for ages I just couldn't get it to sit down with the right verses.It was only when I was drunk, singing in the living room with my close friend Azher, listening to vinyls both frantically scribbling down ideas. "Scratched up record playback, like a needle in the haystack". I think when we wrote that we had ideas of happy inflections but when I let that sit for a few days it seemed to open the door to Liquor Loaded Love. Which is, in its essence, escapism. When you're bathing in the warm glow of false bravado of alcohol, it's really easy to detach from the shit show that might be the reality you call your own."

'Peaches' Single

“I wrote peaches back in 2018. Much of my music up to that point had been quite introspective and heavy, so I wanted to write something lighter and more hopeful. The main trigger for the idea of peaches was just constantly listening to and being consumed by the divisive nature of mainstream media. Every story always seemed to strip away any semblance of humanity. Peaches is just realising the insanity of that and embracing the beauty and wholesomeness of getting trashed with your one.