Track-by-Track: Weatherell Looks Closer at His ‘Lonely Soul’ LP

Songwriting can unlock so much more than songs that sound good. For Weatherell, the moniker of musician Sean Hackl, his new album Lonely Soul helped him learn so much about himself and the world around him. With nine tracks, the debut Weatherell album carries a lot of humanity. It explores what it means to let go, to change as a person, and to find your way back after personal loss. In Weatherell’s case, it was the loss of someone close to him, but it could also be the loss of a friendship, a romantic relationship, or even losing a sense of yourself. It all led to the powerful lyricism that has found its way onto the record.

In writing Lonely Soul, Hackl took his time, which let him grow alongside the songs. You might say that the person who released the record is not the same as the one who began composing it. It’s been a journey of personal and creative growth that has taught him to trust himself, embrace vulnerability, and harness confidence as a musician and songwriter that he didn’t always have. Although much of the record was self-driven, Hackl did receive some help along the way. He was open to collaboration and, fortunately, found musicians who understood his vision. They also challenged him to view his music in different ways. Those challenges helped create a more complete piece of work.

With Lonely Soul recently released, Hackl joins us for an exclusive Track-by-Track rundown of the album, zeroing in on the meaning and purpose of each song.

1. Something Beautiful”

“‘Something Beautiful’ began as one of my deeper experiments in blending rock and electronic music. I was inspired by seeing Canadian alternative/electronic artist Debby Friday perform her song, ‘What A Man,’ back in 2023. I was drawn to that song’s driving bass groove, and used it as a starting point for a demo built around a similar driving bass line, tempo and electronic drums. However, I wanted to push it toward something more energetic and danceable.

“Working with co-producer Sam Arion, we introduced breakbeat rhythms, a Behringer TD-3 acid bass synth and dirty guitars; most importantly, we changed the main bass from a driving bass into one that grooved. After finishing this studio demo, I began working with co-producer and engineer Dylan Frankland on re-recording the live instrumentation and giving the track its huge, gritty brit-pop/rock character.

“What began simply as a driving bass-track ultimately became something much bigger: a song about trying to find love for yourself while caught in a cycle of addiction, and one that ultimately transcended the original demo to become my favourite song on the record.”

2. “Candy Eyes”

“‘Candy Eyes’ was one of the quickest songs to come together on the record; I actually think I wrote the whole song in probably two days. I was messing around on guitar at my home studio back in 2023, and I came across this idea for the main rhythm guitar riff—it’s this fast-paced descending chord set that I thought was really unique. I was really into the band Bully at the time and loved Alicia’s (Bognanno) songwriting, so I wanted to write something in that vein. And I demoed it out, and it really didn’t change much from the original composition.

“‘Candy Eyes’ is a song about the dangers of masking one’s feelings, staying closed off from the world, and the way in which addiction and mental health have vast consequences, not just for those facing it, but for those close to the person suffering as well.”

Weatherell ‘Lonely Soul’ album artwork

3. “Shelf Life”

“‘Shelf Life’ is another one of the more rock/post-punk oriented songs on the album that came together pretty quickly. I also wrote this song in 2023 and was heavily influenced by acts like Militarie Gun, Dazy, and again Bully. I wanted to write something that would get people jumping up and down, while also emulating this sort of big U2 sound in the verses. This song is actually one of the most dynamic songs on the record, and I think it turned out so great because of its more simple production compared to some of the other maximalist productions on this record. This really helped it hit hard in the final mix.

“‘Shelf Life’ is a song about the finality of life and love, and how you don’t always know when things are going to come to an end. How certain relationships finish sooner than others, how people pass unexpectedly, and how the time we spend with each other means so much more once we understand the finality of our time together.”

4. “Lonely Soul”

“‘Lonely Soul’ was really the heart and soul of this record. It was after writing this song that I knew I wanted to pursue making a full album. I originally wrote the main guitar riff, and from there made about 20 different incarnations of the demo. This song has gone through so many stages, and working on it really taught me a lot about production and songwriting. This song felt like my baby, and I’m so proud to see it grow up into what it is today.

“‘Lonely Soul’ is about finding your footing again after a major loss. The lyrics, ‘Starting up again, look at your lonely soul,’ are in a way about myself trying to find resilience after losing one of my closest friends and bandmates back in 2022. That grief really inspired much of the album, and writing this song gave me courage to pursue making the entire album. This is a song about loss but also resilience.”

5. “Stuck Between The Light”

“I wrote this song after returning from a European tour in fall 2022, on which I was playing bass for the Toronto-based dream-pop band, Tallies. We had the incredible opportunity to open for legendary ’90s shoegaze band RIDE in Düsseldorf, Germany. Leading up to this tour, I knew we would be opening for them at this show, and I had gotten heavily into their discography. We actually ended up seeing them three times on that tour, including the night we opened for them.

“That show was amazing, and upon returning to Toronto a few weeks later, ‘Stuck Between The Light’ was the first song I wrote. I like to say that it is my RIDE tribute song. I think that anyone who is a fan of Britpop, shoegaze and electronica can definitely get behind this track.”

6. “What’s In Your Heart?”

“I wrote the original demo for ‘What’s In Your Heart?’ back in 2020, and it was actually intended to be a song for my old band. After that project ended, I still wanted to find a way to bring that song to life. In 2023, I had started to compile demos for Lonely Soul and revisited ‘What’s In Your Heart?’ The biggest change between the original demo and the master is the huge dance part I added as an outro. This totally changed the song and gave it this epic new life. The song was always supposed to have this huge stadium sound, reminiscent of bands like The Who, but adding that ending gave it what was needed to make it onto the record.”

Weatherell, photo by Evie Maynes

7. “Ride Home”

“‘Ride Home’ was another song that I wrote back in 2020. I wrote it from the perspective of a father who is picking up their teenage daughter from a late-night party. The verses induce this melancholic feeling of being a teenager with loads of angst—feeling grown-up and like a child simultaneously.

“While in the chorus, we start to understand that the song is more about the father than the daughter: ‘Tell me it’s alright honey, there’s always someone by your side, feel like it’s temporary, there’s so much more to realize. I love my son, I love my daughter, but I can’t be here for forever’… This song is about wanting to be there for the people you love and guiding them towards a good life, but knowing you won’t always be able to.

“This song was always very melancholic and shoegaze-y, but I am really happy with how the final version turned out. The heavy parts sound massive, and the chorus melody hits really hard.

“I love this song and hope it reaches the people it needs to.”

8. “Consider This (A Part Of Heaven)”

“I started writing ‘Consider This (A Part Of Heaven)’ pretty far into the process of working on this album. I actually started producing the demo while I was on a writing retreat trying to finish the lyrics for ‘Lonely Soul.’ This song started simply with the groovy drums/percussion sounds you hear right off the bat, and from there I built it into this winding Peter Gabriel-esque alternative rock/dance track. The lyrics, however, took me many months to put together.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this one, and the lyrics are both heavy and playful, introducing themes of love and loss, failure and perseverance. The song is half about a relationship that ended too soon and is wrought with heavy feelings. While the latter half, particularly the outro/dance part, takes listeners back to a time when this relationship was young and thriving, when nothing could stop the love.”

9. “Get In (We’re Going Out)”

“This one is one of the most electronica-heavy songs on the record and has this permeating coolness to it, one that makes you feel like you are walking at night through the city streets, with a cigarette in hand and a slight buzz on. I wrote this song back in 2020, and it was also supposed to be a song for my old band; however, like some of the other songs on this record, I decided to pursue it with Weatherell and give it the production it deserved.

“This song really is supposed to be a feel-good track about just going out there and enjoying life, not letting any negativity get in your way and allowing yourself the freedom to be whoever you want. This song slaps, and once we play it live, it’s going to sound so huge. I cannot wait.”