Photo by Bug Carrasco

“High School Gym” is not an actual place that exists on this plane. For cosmic countrypolitan Dougie Poole, it taps into a place only known in dreams where you can meet back up with everyone you know who has died. While 2020′s breakthrough sophomore LP The Freelancer’s Blues waxed on everyday existentialism through a wry weed cloud of words, the Brooklyn songwriter’s latest single moves beyond itself with clearer views on greater quandaries at hand, and so does his sound. Softly thumping along to a bass and drum path dotted with Americana borealis synths, Poole’s voice hangs more lowly here, and though a more serious turn on looking at this life (and the hereafter) with the universal unknown, sobering sincerity sounds just as compelling on him.

Directed by: Austin Julian-Sley

Dougie Poole’s “High School Gym’ single is available now on Wharf Cat Records.