Charleston singer-songwriter Pierce Alexander, who wrote every song on his debut 2022 full-length album, The Minutehand, recently chose to try his hand at a cover of the grunge-era classic, “Doll Parts” by Hole, one of songwriter Courtney Love’s most affecting tunes.
Love’s version is already somewhat minimal, but Alexander strips his rendition down even further, relying on his vulnerable, emotional delivery and a billowing electric guitar part that sounds both dreamlike and immediate. And unlike Hole’s version, there is no screaming on Alexander’s “Doll Parts,” just a disturbing calm that hints at darkness underneath.
If you’re wondering why Alexander picked this song, the story is as unexpected as the cover itself, which was produced by Michael Flynn (Slow Runner). Alexander is partnered with Think Music LA, a music licensing and publishing company, as is Flynn.
“They were having the artists in the company do a covers project,” Alexander said, “And they had a long list of songs where all the rights were approved and everything. So I was trying to find a song that I felt like I could take and do my own thing with it rather than just doing an imitation. Something about [Doll Parts] really stuck out to me — not just because I really love the song, but because I felt like I could bring something new to the table with it.”
Alexander got his start writing his own songs after leaving his high school band, and even as he did so, he had no idea what he was going to do with them.
“At first, I wasn’t really sure what I was about to do,” he said, “But I just knew that I wanted to keep doing music and my passion was songwriting. I tried to figure out what my sound was for a while, and I just started recording these demos. I didn’t really have another singer, so I said to myself, ‘Okay, well, I guess for now I’ll just sing.’ And I honestly didn’t know if that was going to stick or not. But the more that I did that and recorded the demos, I started to figure out different things about my sound.”
A string of singles and an EP followed, but Alexander didn’t release a full album until The Minutehand in 2022. It’s a sweeping, cinematic blend of acoustic folk, orchestral swells and open-wound vocals that sounds like some dreamed-of version of Nick Drake if he was still with us.
The album’s emotional tone comes directly from the period when the songs were written.
“When I did The Minutehand, it was in 2020 when I was writing a lot of those songs,” Alexander said. “So the world was obviously in a crazy state. A lot of those songs that I wrote during that period actually ended up on that album.”
As for the sound, which can move from deeply intimate to full-on anthemic, Alexander can pinpoint sources for that as well.
“I think it had a lot to do with who I was listening to at the time,” he said. “I was listening to older music by Neil Young and Simon & Garfunkel and some newer music too by Chris Cohen. His album, Overgrown Path, was very influential to me. I liked how it blended elements of rock with those folkier elements. I just had a vision in my head of combining all of my different influences into something that I felt like was fresh.”
Now, with his recent release of his “Doll Parts” cover, Alexander is thinking about his next move.
“I’ve been working on album No. 2 with Corey Campbell from (popular Charleston rock band) Babe Club, and we’re about halfway there right now,” he said. “So the next goal is to start releasing some singles from that.”
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