The Arc: Exploring heartbreak with Alex Coley & Afterlove
WRITTEN BY: KATIE GORDON // THE BOOM AT NOON
Alex Coley & Afterlove (Photo: Katy Maclachlan)
On February 28, Alex Coley & Afterlove are set to release their debut album, The Arc. On a chilly February evening, The Boom at Noon met with Alex Coley to talk about the band and the record at Crescent Beach - one of the places he found inspiration when writing the album.
“Afterlove kind of began at a party. I met some friends playing music and we said we wanted to play more music together and slowly the band grew until now. We have six folks in our band,” he says. Braden Kamermans (bass), Ted Morris (drums), Connor Robins (lead guitar), Sarah Roberts (harmony) and Dan Richards (keys) join Alex to complete the band. “The name Afterlove came from one of the first weekends we got to spend down here [in the South Shore] and spend a full weekend together. We were up late dancing and a Cher song came on and we told ourselves that we would let the universe tell us what our band was called… after yelling a Cher song together… it felt pretty obvious,” laughed Alex before belting out the words “Do you believe in life after love,” from the song “Believe” by Cher.
Alex has always written songs, but The Arc was largely inspired by personal experiences and surroundings during the pandemic. “If you've listened to my songs, you know they’re sad, melancholy and depressing so those feelings were pretty on the surface during the pandemic,” he says. “I was doing a lot of writing and I was going through a breakup, feeling pretty inspired and also had a lot of time on my hands,” says Alex. When pandemic lockdown restrictions meant he couldn’t walk on Crescent Beach, he often found himself watching the waves from the road. “Between the sad feelings and the beautiful landscapes around me - I think that inspired most of what’s on The Arc.”
Aptly titled, The Arc encompasses all emotions felt following heartbreak. “I want the feeling to be like a friend telling you about their breakup - not that I'm hoping to dredge up feelings of heartbreak in the listener, but I think for people feeling those things, I'd hope that it can be a message about how universal the experience of heartbreak is,” he says. “There are feelings of overwhelming anger and sadness and loneliness, but also moments of hope and resilience. I think it's about leaning into the full range of the human experience and finding beauty and hopefully comfort in it.”
Last March, the six-piece band played their first show together in a barn in Kingsburg, surrounded by friends and community members. In November they played a sold-out show at The Carleton. “Getting to sell out such an iconic Halifax venue was really special,” he says. “It's definitely validating and reinforcing. I think as somebody who still doesn't really know if I love live performance, it feels good when that many people want to come and listen to your music,” he adds. “It makes it easier to do and even compared to some of the little diners we've played in, to be playing in a venue with really good sound when everybody's there to sit quietly and listen to your music, it means you can kind of perform differently and offer them more of yourself. You can be a bit more vulnerable because they really want to be there.”
Leading up to the album release, Alex says the main feeling at the heart of the project is pride. “I just feel really grateful that I got to do this. I feel really proud of what we've produced. I love the band. I love getting to spend time with them and create beautiful things with them. So that's the main feeling and then also there's this totally bizarre experience of putting something out to the world that you care so deeply about, where on one hand you don't care how people react to it, and on the other hand that really affects me, I suppose,” he admits. “It got in the way of me doing it for a long time. I think a lot of my music's pretty confessional. I used the word ‘diaretic’ the other day in the sense of a diary, but also, diarrhea,” he laughs. “I think it’s a vomit of my feelings and that definitely stopped me from performing for a long time because I just didn't want to share that with a group of strangers. It's personal and a totally wonderful, fulfilling and exhausting thing to do.” Having the support of his bandmates has made it easier for him to be vulnerable. “I think having people that believe in and invest in your music in the same way you do is really special and important and being accountable to them was really important to me.”
The week following the album release, the band’s next single and music video “Hold It All” will premiere. “That's a song about the angry moment I felt where I didn't want to take all the blame anymore,” he says. “‘Hold It All’ feels like the truest expression of what we're trying to do, where it's folk songwriting, indie-folk sounds, but also a bit more rock and roll. We’re excited for people to hear it.”
The Arc is available on February 28. The album will be available on CD, vinyl, zine and streaming platforms.
Hear the songs and pick up the record at the band’s album release show on March 2 at The Sanctuary Arts Centre. The show will also feature special guests Braden Lam and Julia Cunningham.
