Alexander Wolfe mines the darkness of depression on “I Can’t Get To Sleep”

In anticipation of Wolfe’s fourth album, standalone single “I Can’t Get To Sleep” pulls together intricate vocal harmonies and a richly textured acoustic track to immersive effect. The layers of plucked guitars and gentle snare almost obscure the darkness at the heart of the track, which Wolfe reveals in conversation.

“I've touched on depression before […] but I don't think I've ever been so open about my own. The depression, the anxiety, living under a cloud; it's all in there, raw as anything. It feels pretty weird talking about it to be honest, which is a bit of a problem in our society. That stuff has such a stigma surrounding it, especially for young men. There's some mad statistic that depression is the biggest killer of men under 40. That's fucked up. Most people I know struggle, especially the artists. I think it kinda comes with the territory.”

Digging past the beauty of Wolfe’s vocals, you’re able to grasp at this meaning with both hands. Stunning lyrical couplets such as “These pills don’t let me breathe / They just stick me to the floor” ring heavy with bittersweet accuracy for so many.

“I recorded a demo of the song as I was writing it, while it was still raw,” Wolfe adds, explaining the process of the song’s inception. “That's the version I ended up using. Steve Pilgrim came in and put some drums on it and we put some strings on there too but essentially it's the original demo. It just had some magic stuff I didn't want to lose, some honesty I wouldn't have been able to recreate. Sometimes you have to know when to leave things alone.”