Alex Ward’s Solo Project Is a Master Class in Authentic DIY Musicianship
Alex Ward is a team player. He’s spent 25 years playing with various bands—he’s the guitarist for Hembree, which just celebrated its 10-year anniversary—and his good-natured enthusiasm is evident from the stage to the greenroom. But Ward is also a decisive individual with the drive for solo ventures.
Low Tempo, High Times is the debut album from Ward’s self-project, Significant Brother. Not only has he written, performed, engineered and mixed all of the songs by himself, but Ward has also challenged himself to pull together everything from graphic design to music videos.
“For better or worse, this is completely unfiltered ‘Alex’ and my vision,” he said. “No one was telling me, ‘Don’t do that.’ Or, on the flip side, no one was saying, ‘Oh, this is great. Keep going.’ This was all an internal, isolated project, and I had to trust my gut and the idea I had for each of the songs.”
Ward doesn’t have any formal sound engineer training. What he does have—in spades—is perseverance.
“In early high school, my dad and mom helped me buy Pro Tools, which had just become accessible for the first time to home studio musicians,” Ward said. “I was all self-taught. I started learning how to set up microphones and record my brother Austin playing drums. We would over-track me playing guitar.”
Ward read through the manuals, then recorded his high school peers’ bands for $10 an hour. It was a process of trial and error, a trend that continued when he began teaching himself another music software program: Ableton.
Ableton is a digital audio workstation, popular in part because of its built-in instruments and sound effects. Ward uses these features sparingly and includ
es disclosures when the instruments in a song are sampled instead of performed live, as is the case with the single “Look at You Now,” which he worked on during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the music video for “A Temporary Phase,” Ward’s mouth and eyes are superimposed over a 3D-printed statue that mouths the lyrics and blinks slowly at the viewer. It’s uncanny, but it’s not AI. He got the idea for his mini-me when he was walking around a mall and spotted a shop selling lifelike models.
“I could have created something with AI and not spent the time and money to have this actual statue built, which now is just sitting back here and staring at me at all times,” Ward laughed. “But I’ve always been drawn visually to tactile props and tangible objects.”
Ward has spent his life pursuing music, from learning piano and guitar as a child to now releasing his first solo album. But that doesn’t mean that the creative process is always easy for him.
It took Ward nearly four years of on-and-off work to produce Low Tempo, High Times.
“I would go through waves of motivation, or lack of motivation, or more likely with just being distracted by other things,” he said. “You know, whether it was band commitments or a new video game would come out…because no one was telling me to focus on this project, I’d be like, ‘Oh, Death Stranding 2 just came out! I’m going to devote 40 hours to that, and I’ll just work on my project whenever I feel like it again.’”
As the end of 2024 closed in on him, Ward sat down and committed to a deadline. The result is an album with a compelling, immersive sound and a distinct artistic vision.
“Corner of My Eye” might sound like an appeal to a would-be lover, but it’s “literally about telling someone not to skip over my song in Spotify,” Ward said.
“Please don’t pass me over,” he implores the listener.
The track’s drums were recorded during a Hembree session. Ward had already developed some of the lyrics and begun demoing the song, and he reclaimed it when he felt it starting to change too much as the band tracked it.
“This happens all the time, where people bring a song to Hembree or a different project,” Ward explained. “This was one where I felt like it was starting to get away from the message and how I was hearing it in my head.”
One of many reasons why Hembree has so many dedicated fans is because their egos don’t get in the way of their music. Each member has other creative outlets that they balance with the band, and they all trust each other to make the best decisions for Hembree and themselves.
“If this was our high school or college band, I guarantee you there would have been arguments along the way. That’s just how things work,” Ward said. “And then, getting older, you lose that preciousness and are able to be more understanding and have a better dialogue with your bandmates.”
The yet-to-be-released “Put It Over There” was the first song that Ward began working on, way back when. It has a deceptively simple chorus, anchored by the repetition of the phrase, “Put it over there, we’ll pick it up later.” In actuality, it’s about one of the most complicated decisions that a person can make: whether or not to have a child (and when).
The track was the last on the album to be completed. It describes an intimate conversation without diving too deep into specificities, striking a delicate balance between casual listenability and storytelling.
The single “Less Me, More You” (out Aug. 22) is in the vein of indie sleaze that recalls the height of the Arctic Monkeys.
“I got a clean conscience and a dirty mind,” Ward sings.
It’s easy to picture him with the classic slicked-back hair and leather jacket of Alex Turner circa 2014.
His brother Austin shines on the drums here, as always. No sample will ever come close to the Wards at their peak.
Whether you’re already a fan of Hembree and their long-time project Noise FM or you’re hearing from Alex Ward for the first time during his solo artist debut, it’s time to mark your calendar.
Low Tempo, High Times will be released by Significant Brother on Friday, Sept. 12.