Kevin Bronson on March 11th, 2020

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The adage “It’s all in your head” became a scary reality for singer-songwriter and guitarist Andrew Stogel in 2018.

The Missouri-born, L.A.based artist, who played in the psych-rock band Dreamers Dose and launched the solo project LOVEYOU three-plus years ago, is now making music under the name War Strings.

In the spring of 2018, Stogel sustained a serious concussion that left him bedridden for eight months. The symptoms were soul-deadening; he couldn’t look at screens or even read. Music was locked inside his brain. But as his recovery progressed, Stoegel began working with various engineers to record the songs that would become the album “Who Cares How It Ends.”

It might seem counterintuitive that War Strings’ new songs are rough-hewn, noisy beasts, but they are the sounds of a broad range of pent-up emotions roiled by isolation. Munch’s “The Scream” set to distorted guitars, if you will.

“My Alien Heart,” released this week, shrieks with palpable anguish. “‘My Alien Heart’ is about being and feeling really alone,” Stogel says simply. “It’s a direct line into the echo chamber that is that isolation, dramatic and begging for someone to take me by the hand and show me out.”

“Who Cares How It Ends” is out in May.

||| Stream: “My Alien Heart”