Alex Coley is a Nova Scotia-based songwriter and indie-folk musician with an affinity for novelty, big feelings and good questions. Built around his soulful, worn-in voice and wrapped in tender harmonies, Alex Coley & Afterlove explore the elemental tension between joy and pain; heartache and healing; what was and what will be.

I don’t want to talk, I just want to be with you. The ending of the relationship that inspired “Silent in my Car” felt definite, but Alex longed for the friendship they had before things were romantic. He simply missed sitting silently in her company.

His vulnerable and intimate lyrics will be sure to dredge up feelings you forgot were there – inviting you to gracefully move through melancholy. The deeply emotional, stirring song offers a clarity you can often only find when you get really quiet; at the end of a long winding road traveled alone.

1. Tell us the story of this song, why did you choose to visualize this song specifically? 

I wrote this song at a low point during the pandemic. When I was loneliest and hadn’t touched another person for 6 weeks. So even though ending the relationship was right, I kept finding myself longing for her company That’s really what this song is about, that longing for a person. Longing for the ease you felt around a person. After our breakup, I often wished that we could just sit silently together; I just wanted to be effortlessly near her again – not debriefing our break up or fighting about who did what, just silently in her company. There’s something about this song that feels universal and simple; I just missed her.

This song feels so nostalgic to me and the lyrics are full of visual language. It’s a song that I have really clear visual associations for – sitting alone in a car, in an empty parking lot, in the dark, under the glow of a single street light. It made Silent in my Car and easy choice for a video. This is also a song the band really wanted to highlight. It captures the emotion and honesty of our music and we wanted to bring more attention to the song through a video.

2.What was the inspiration behind this video(visuals, storyline, etc.)? 

 We really just riffed on the visual that I described above – sitting alone in a car, in an empty parking lot, in the dark, under the glow of a single street light – and we got really lucky – a big fog bank rolled in and gave the video a texture I’d hoped for. We also played with the idea of how we could bring the memory of my ex into the video. We didn’t want to use any tricks, but we tried to capture the feeling of longing, of having her on my mind, and of missing her. Really, it’s a simple song with a simple video based on a simple idea that is just shot really beautifully. 

3. What was the process of making this video?

Connor Robins, the lead guitarist in Afterlove, directed the video. He’s a long-time friend so it was easy to get creative and throw ideas around. We had explored a lot of different ideas before deciding to keep things simple. When we brought John Walsh (cinematography) and Joe Ciarrocco in to assist they brought things to life. John and Joe have such a goodeye for beautiful shots and tasteful lighting. Once we had the general flow of the video fleshed out, we borrowed my pal’s old VW, found an empty dark parking lot to get started, and then zoomed around old town Lunenburg in search of cool shots. 
Forthcoming debut album The Arc arrives at the end of this locked-down, fearful era when gazing backward was all we had, serving as a beautiful reminder of the transformative power of introspection. Alex Coley & Afterlove‘s music reminds us that the darkest, windiest days are often the days we feel deeper and love harder.