I was captured by dog of the north’s compelling storytelling and lo-fi aesthetics. The enigmatic Pennsylvanian doesn’t have much information online, but he kindly spilled all the deets on his album who they belong to, his influences, and his approach to songwriting.
Who are some of your musical influences?
There’s so much I love, but what really made me want to record was getting into stuff that took on the punk ethos in a more contemplative way.
I heard The Microphone’s The Glow Pt. 2 when I was seventeen and immediately went into my room and made my first “song” on a guitar I didn’t know how to play. It was terrible, but it felt damn good. When I heard that record, I felt like I could hear the sound of someone’s inner world perfectly imprinted on the music.
Around the same time, I really dug into Smog, The Mountain Goats, and the like.
For about a year, I didn’t really want to listen to anything that was recorded in a way in which I couldn’t see the “fingerprints.” Everything else didn’t feel as alive in some way. That feeling has long-since slipped away, but I still love scruffier sounds. I don’t have the means to record any other way, but I still don’t have the desire. Home-recording is too much fun.
Explain the title of your album.
The title of the new album is lifted from one of my favorite songs, Gram Parsons’ “A Song for You.”
Gram’s music is probably the thing that goes back the deepest for me. I grew up hearing those albums driving around every summer with my folks. There’s something so lonely and tender in his voice, and, especially in “A Song for You,” you can just hear him reaching out.
The lyrics are hard to parcel rationally, but I feel like it’s pretty easy to get a sense of what he’s saying. The song is about longing. I don’t know if it’s a spiritual or a romantic kind. I guess maybe just a love so strong that it’s devotional.
“Some of my friends don’t know who they belong to.”
I guess that’s kind of the loneliest possible feeling. I feel like, in that song, Gram knows who he belongs to, even if it doesn’t sound like it’s going so easy at the moment.
If there’s a through-line in my new album that’s it. All the characters know who they belong to. Even if it’s not so easy at the moment.
Do you start off with the music or lyrics first? Why?
Most of the time it starts out entirely separate.
I used to write a fair bit of poetry when I was in school, and I think some of it was pretty good. I have pretty much lost that muscle completely, but a poem and a song still start out the same for me. With a line or a couple.
The music usually starts off with me finger-picking around until I find a groove that feels right, and build something around it. When I finish a piece of music I usually search through my notes for a few lines that feel like they fit, and then clean up them up a bit around the music.
What’s the first concert you ever attended? What do you remember about it?
It must have been the Marshall Tucker Band. I think maybe at a fair. It was a good show and they have some good songs! Can’t get much prettier than “Heard it in a Love Song.” Unfortunately, I was pretty young and don’t remember much. But, I’m a bigger fan of music than I am a musician.
Ezra Furman, Sharon Van Etten, Courtney Barnett, and Wilco have put on some of the best shows I’ve ever seen. I work at an ambulance company currently, and don’t make much, but that’s where my spare cents go. No regrets.
Recent release you cannot stop listening to?
Advance Base has a new covers album out that I’ve been playing non-stop for a few days. I’ve only recently gotten into his work, but it was a perfect rabbit hole to fall in at the start of COVID. His stuff makes me want to burn my guitar and actually learn how to actually work a casitone.
dog of the north — Bandcamp, Spotify, Soundcloud