Dooms Children: Friend Of The Devil

We’ve all been dealt a bad hand at times. We’ve all faced death, destruction, or some other terrible fate. Some of us crumble at the challenge of fighting back, others rise from the ashes like phoenixes. Few have taken on all three until they’re blue in the face and stood to tell the tale. Then again, there’s few figures in music as vehement as Wade MacNeil. Having spent the last two decades redefining post-hardcore and punk as part of ALEXISONFIRE and GALLOWS (among many others), you could forgive Wade for feeling worn out and tired. However, it turns out taking time off between tour cycles isn’t an option for the Canadian, who’s solo project DOOMS CHILDREN is 11 tracks of pure catharsis. His self-titled debut is an album that’s needed, rather than wanted, by the man himself.

“I think making this record really helped me navigate a very difficult time in my life,” Wade smiles, from his home in Montreal, adding, “I feel very lucky that I have creative outlets I can pour that stuff into and write my way through what I’m thinking and ultimately get to a point where today I’m sat speaking to you about it.”

The difficult time Wade refers to is enough to bring anyone to the brink, yet he’s still here singing his heart out. Dooms Children digs deep into his darkest hours, sharing his scars from addiction, his learnings from rehab, and how he’s navigating the intricacies of life, death, love and loss in the modern age.

It’s the most honest he’s ever been on record, and it’s something he’s still not comfortable with. “I don’t know how I’m feeling to be honest, like yesterday I was incredibly anxious about it coming out. It’s a strange thing to open myself up to this level in my song writing, but then today I’m feeling very, very good about it.”

It’s that fluctuation of feelings that permeates every note you hear on Dooms Children. At times, you’ll wallow in your sorrows; at others, you’ll glow in glimmers of happiness. It’s partly by design, and partly by coincide – it’s as much a diary for Wade as it is an album.

“When I started writing it, the idea was that I’m going through a hell of a time right now, so maybe if I write some pretty songs that could help me, like if I’m writing nice music, it could help me feel a little bit nicer,” he affirms, adding, “I realised soon after that I’m writing these incredibly sad songs, yet they’re just so happy musically so I guess I wasn’t exactly doing that, but I like that there’s a few songs that push and pull. You’ve got very mournful lyrics, but everything is brighter and happier sounding.”

Whilst writing a record has certainly felt like keeping an audible diary for Wade, he knows he’s not out of the woods just yet. Dooms Children is a juxtaposition of the light and the dark, of purity and sin, and most importantly, it’s a journey. It’s about wading through the waters and working on yourself.

“I’m working on feeling okay daily, and I think I have some better concepts of how to do that now than I used to,” he reassures, an air of vulnerability piercing the conversation, adding, “there’s more fleeting moments of happiness these days, and I don’t know if I’m on the other side of it. I think it’s just about being in a place where you can appreciate it even when you’re going through it and being able to take a step back and find the moments where everything’s okay.”

Everything’s okay. It’s a phrase we hear less and less of these days. With global pandemics and political tensions continuing to press, mental health has never had so much awareness or held such importance. And it’s something Wade is keen to contribute to, as if paying it back for all the times music has helped him.

“I think we all have a lot more in common than people realise, because they don’t allow themselves to talk about it – we suffer in silence about a lot of stuff” he admits wearingly. “I think there is a changing narrative and a changing concept, or maybe just a broader understanding of mental health which is a nice thing for people to just support each other through, but for me, music has always had that response, and I’m happy trying to do that for others with my music.”

Music has done so much for Wade in the moments he needed it most. It’s been there all his life – just look at his career – yet it appeared in his ears when he truly needed a spirit guide. Not only did it help him find a way out of a hard place, it helped him find a direction for his music. In fact, it helped him find a time machine to the heyday of seventies hard rock. “Around the time of things feeling their heaviest for me, I was just listening purely to the GRATEFUL DEAD, which is something you can do with that band because there’s so much music so I was just getting very deep into that, and they tie into that concept of wanting to write some nice music.”

The impact of Jerry Garcia and his merrymen cannot be understated on DOOMS CHILDREN. There’s that campfire folk and psychedelic bliss the band are famous for, and there’s even a cover of their calling card Friend Of The Devil. Of course, nothing is by coincidence and diving into a rabbit-hole of sixties and seventies rock was a blessing in disguise for his mind. “I stopped listening to a lot of the heavy stuff that I’m known for because it was making me more anxious and I found myself listening to a lot of folk before ending up in this GRATEFUL DEAD black hole of music,” he smiles, something he does a lot throughout our chat. “It made me feel better and it just grew into this idea of making music that’s challenging and confrontational without that aggressive sound.”

It’s funny, isn’t it? That something so deep and dark, but so simple and light too, could take someone away from the sound they’ve spent half their life cultivating. And in some ways, it was all found through revisiting a simpler time. “The GRATEFUL DEAD were such a pivotal part of counterculture, they were a blueprint for so many things in current music,” he explains. “I think people have just forgotten about the concept of doing something nice – I think the punkish thing I could do at this point in my career is to not put out a punk record.”

If it sounds like he’s considering hanging up his post-hardcore boots, there’s no need to worry just yet. With a Slam Dunk Festival 2022 headline slot locked in for ALEXISONFIRE, DOOMS CHILDREN is the palette cleanser he needs to keep doing what he does best. “If I spent all my time doing just one project, I would be burnt out on it and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy it for what it was. I’ve been in that place before and so I think the fact that I have so many irons in so many different fires is not a problem for me, it’s a blessing and helps everything stay infinitely more interesting.”

Whether you’re holding onto post-hardcore nostalgia or seventies rock revival, one thing is clear: DOOMS CHILDREN is the dawn of a new day for Wade MacNeil, and that’s all that matters.

Dooms Children is out now via via Dine Alone Records.

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