Dawson Gool reflects on his roots and homesickness on new EP ‘Bark Mulch’

Canadian singer-songwriter Dawson Gool is your typical run-of-the-mill rural small-town guy. Those who lived in his town were either extremely closed off or obsessed with school sports, and according to him, almost everyone drove a truck. Now, after moving from Vancouver to Montreal to Boston, Gool is working through the discomfort of moving and finds nostalgia in his hometown bubble on his sophomore EP, Bark Mulch, which was released on Feb. 20.

Drawn to acoustic melodies, the EP has been in the making since fall 2023, more than a year ago. The first song he ever wrote for the EP was the title track, “Bark Mulch,” when he was living in Montreal two years ago. It was snowing, with temperatures ten degrees below freezing, in Vancouver, his hometown, Gool tells me through Zoom. He felt homesick for the nostalgia of where he grew up or the places he once lived. On the title track, he sings, “Tape me on the fridge again / Remember when you were always / Waving softly / Come and grab me / Falling, freezing, melting on me.”

He reminisces about his youth, growing up on Vancouver Island off Canada’s Pacific Coast, where his parents would do yard work. Every few years, his parents would spread large piles of wood chips or bark mulch around the garden in his backyard. This prompted Gool to write down concise, single words that captured little moments while in Montreal, with “Bark Mulch” becoming the genesis of the EP. Filled with feelings of a hazy, sun-drenched summer, the song is infused with warm imagery that Gool becomes a master of interpreting throughout the EP — “Late July, sweet and hot,” “pollen sky” and “burn my feet as I walk along the road.”

But first, the EP opens with fragmented memories on the track “This,” inspired by the iconic singer-songwriter and poet Patti Smith, who begins each Instagram caption with the words, “This is…” before going into detail about the photo. Gool wanted to apply that concept to describe how he was feeling on the opening track after experiencing a breakup a few years ago. On it, he sings, “This / This is getting torn apart / Curse your head despite your heart / This is 50 car alarms.”

Despite the seemingly simplistic single-word track, Gool paints a vivid picture that lingers with listeners long after the last note. Lines like “All I heard, you’re drinking alone tonight in your hometown” and “What a way to let yourself down” suggest a sense of sadness and disconnection, as Gool tries to overcome the heavy weight of memories and the pain of moving on — or, for whatever reason, bringing someone back to the past.

“I had a breakup a few years ago, and the feelings around that…then [it] kind of shifts away from that into little chunks of childhood memories and feelings,” Gool explained. “It’s really fragmented, though; I guess it’s not exactly a concise thought. It’s more just little pieces and little chunks of feelings stitched together almost.”

Gool moved from Vancouver to Montreal to Boston, leaving little pieces of his heart scattered across each city or town. Despite initial stereotypes about being closed off in new environments, he admits that “there’s no reason to not be yourself in a big city.”

“Meeting new friends, seeing who you wanted to spend your time with and what you want to do on the your free time is a tough cycle to go through,” Gool shared. “I feel like a lot of people go through that…moving to a new city from a smaller town in rural Canada, or something like that.”

Combining traditional sonic elements like pedal steel and banjo with contemporary storytelling and acoustic production, Gool’s brand-new EP uses detailed and descriptive imagery to make you feel like you’re wrapping yourself in a warm blanket and sipping a cup of coffee on a cozy autumn morning. A raw, introspective and richly folk-inspired collection of songs, it dips its toe into the spirit and sound of Vermont native Noah Kahan, ultimately capturing the vibe of small-town life and the pain of nostalgia. Primarily recorded in friend Mark Falk‘s bedroom, Gool describes the new music as “more natural” than his previous EP, January, Backdoor (2022), in order to send listeners into a nostalgic haze.

“I wanted to spread out the process of this EP and do it in my friend’s [Mark’s] bedroom, just with gear that we borrowed,” he explained. “I feel that kind of naturally, I was wanting it to be more handmade…a little bit more ragged and rough than the previous EP, which was definitely the goal.”

Gool took memories from all the different places he’s lived, writing the track “Dogs” about a home he lived in right after returning from Montreal. As the landlord had planned on tearing it down, Gool and a few of his friends lived there while waiting for the development permit — a “classic Vancouver story,” he said. It draws you into Gool’s world filled with imagery and description that radiates into warmth. A reminder that they had to leave, he sings, “It’s just half an acre on a corner / Now we’ve gotta leave…Inside one of your boxes to remember / You put inside a paint chip.”

“We were making memories in this place, and [it] had chipped paint and uneven floors and stuff like that, and then I kind of [got into] that nostalgic mood,” Gool said. “The dogs… [I was] thinking about my neighbors dogs when I was younger… ‘the dogs are out’ just feels like such a classic phrase that someone would say.”

But things change. Memories change, Gool realizes. Perspective is different no matter where you go. While Gool captures this aching pattern with “Dogs,” he offers a nostalgic hug with “Landscape.” He paints a picture, both literally and figuratively, of seeing the world differently than his brother as their perspectives have shifted. He repeatedly sings, “You paint everything you see, the landscape looks different to me.”

While Gool and his brother were looking at two different things in the first verse, Gool was actually inspired by the house he grew up in on Vancouver Island for the second. He describes having cedar floors that were “old and tattered,” with many “nicks and dents,” scratches and burn marks. For Gool, “it felt like a nice metaphor of being imperfect and getting scratched up,” even as he and his brother viewed the landscape of life differently.

Homesickness comes in all forms when your heart is tethered to a sense of perspective and meaning. From old, raggedy carpets, paint chips and scratches to Bark Mulch — and, over time, fleeting summer moments and the passage of time — things look different to some people, especially to Gool. The song “Bark Mulch,” a closer in its own right, creates a heavy yet gentle sound that builds into rich layers of musicality, becoming the essence of the 12-minute EP that makes you feel seen and heard on a dark, wooded road. A poetic and wistful reflection on youth, love and nostalgia, Gool invites you into his softly meditative sound, saturated in his driven indie-folk style. It ultimately makes simple things, like writing postcards, feel meaningful in his small-town Canadian soul.

“I hope that people take away the feeling of looking at their hometown a little bit differently, and having to reframe the scenery they grew up with in a positive way, even though a lot of people move into, [or] moved out of their small town for a reason,” Gool said. “There [are] beautiful parts of it, I think, that are pretty easy to forget, but important to remember as well.”

Get your tickets to see Gool live on the Bark Mulch Tour here.

Keep up with Dawson Gool: Instagram // Spotify // TikTok // Website