Donivan Berube‘s life has been turned upside down. Since the summer of 2016, the nomadic singer-songwriter, who accounted for half of Blessed Feathers, saw his marriage fall apart and, as a direct result, his band unceremoniously end. While in the midst of what he considers to be the strangest and most difficult time of his life, Berube slowly returned to music, this time without his companion and bandmate. Berube says his first (truly) solo song since his divorce, “Love Is A Dog From Hell,” took many shapes and forms in the year-plus it took to complete.
“The song came together over the course of 14 months, beginning right around the time of our separation. Of all the experiences I’ve had in life, that was undeniably the most difficult. Night after night spent alone, sleepless, wondering which direction my life would turn in, feeling like the days weren’t worth waking up to anymore,” Berube says. “I’d revisit the song constantly, changing the melody or adding a line. Altogether, I rewrote it six times before I’d finally got the guts to call it ‘finished.'”
That finished work (as well as a short song “Who Do I Turn To?”) got a visual representation that’s just as haunting and emotionally wrought as the song itself. The video for “Love Is A Dog From Hell” was partially shot by a Native American film company called Paper Rocket Productions in Arizona (where Berube now resides), with the majority of choreography-heavy footage being captured by Hear Here in their stylish Bay View headquarters. Both “Love Is A Dog From Hell” and “Who Do I Turn To?” can be purchased on Bandcamp as part of a sticker and postcard bundle. Watch the music video below.