By Jim Barber
Beyond the obvious musical mastery that Alex Whorms displays every time she touches a keyboard, strums a guitar or unleashes her dynamic voice, there is the beautifully complex soul of an exceptional artist who has things to say, ideas to convey, emotions to wrangle with, a spirit to unpack.
All of this is on evident and evocative display with the release of her extraordinarily compelling and evocative new EP, Daylight Chasing Dusk, which sees the native of Pickering, Ontario (just east of Toronto) working through a deeply contemplative, self-revealing, bravely soul-baring time in her life, using the medium of her artistic abilities to process feelings, thoughts and notions of personhood that have been challenging her mental health and happiness for much of her life.
The subject matter and the context in which the songs for Daylight Chasing Dusk were composed and recorded are the main reasons why Whorms waited to release the tracks into the world. They are more than just deeply personal, they are songs created in the midst of a young human battling sometimes oppressively difficult mental health struggles, including an insidious and less understood form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Whorms was also wrestling with her identity, her sexuality and her place in the world as a woman, and as an artist.
Creating the music was indeed cathartic but releasing it meant exposing those wounds, those challenges, those innermost doubts and conflicted feelings to the world. She just wasn’t ready to do that at the time, but is so now.
“We actually finished recording this EP about two years ago. And I felt that these songs were much more personal and vulnerable than anything I’ve released before. Of course, it depends on how closely a person listens to lyrics and how much they infer from them. I think in my previous work; there’s a song that I think people will be able to tell that it was inspired by an eating disorder I went through. Or there’s a song that’s pretty explicitly about some of my difficulties with mental illness. And there’s another song that even acknowledges my queerness. I have definitely touched on these subjects in my music in the past, but in a much more subtle way. So, there was a bit of nervousness about, ‘are people going to think differently about me if I release this? Are people going to think anything about it?’ And I think I came to the realization that I don’t think anything is going to change. I don’t think anybody is going to think any differently. It’s just going to be another album of songs. I’m also less uptight about being more honest about some of those challenging topics,” she said, adding that she realized that sharing such profoundly personal moments and being so vulnerable, so real and raw can not only be cathartic for her as the creator of the music, but also can be a powerful healing tool for those hearing the songs.
“Through sharing some of my journey, I realized it’s actually helpful to other people, which has been mind blowing for me. I always thought I was dealing with fairly aggressive depression, but I was actually diagnosed in August of 2024 with PTSD. So I’ve had like a year now of kind of figuring out how to manage my symptoms better and to recognize symptoms as being symptoms and to also tie in my feelings about myself through that lens and my feelings about my music because my music is very, very closely tied to my experience of trying to figure out who I am and how I want to proceed, how I want to do things with my art and my life and all of that. And trying to figure out is there value in me sharing this at all? Like, is it for me that I’m sharing this or is it actually helpful to other people to talk about challenging topics more? And it turns out that it is. On CPTSD [more on the C part in a bit] Awareness Day on Sept 2, I put up a little post saying that I’ve spend a couple years in therapy dealing with these symptoms and found out this is what it is. I said if people are experiencing any of those symptoms to maybe get it checked out. And I was surprised to get about 20 responses from people who say they had the same diagnosis, or that they hadn’t heard of CPTSD, but that it resonates with them and that they’re going to get it checked out. So little things like that seem to be helpful. Is it changing the world? No. But it might help one or two people here or there, and that feels good.
“It’s also a big difference learning how approaching these challenges head on and addressing them in my own life kind of explained why I wrote certain songs. Why did the songs on this EP feel like I was moody all the time? Why did I write an EP and call it Daylight Chasing Dusk? And why do I feel like the ‘dusk’ part is so much easier to live in than the daylight part when I look at my perspective on things and my attitude about things? Why do I have the collection of all these songs that are really tackling some of the most difficult things I’ve been through? And it kind of tied it all together.”
So, what was the result of these deliberations, this soul-searching exercise that led her to release Daylight Chasing Dusk in September of 2025.
“Again, my mental health diagnosis was just over a year ago, so it came after the songs were written and recorded. I think everything just kind of clicked into place and made sense. And I understand now why I wrote that music. And I’m also okay with things about me that I thought were wrong before. I feel like I can just accept everything that I am and what I’ve been through and the songs that I’ve written and stand behind them and perform them with confidence and without worrying what someone may and may not think about them, and just hope that the music can maybe resonate with somebody else in a positive way, whether it’s musically or lyrically,” Whorms said, adding that while she is heartened by the fact that her music can make a positive difference in some people’s lives and that she is happy to use her talent and her platform to advocate to causes that are close to her heart, her vocation and passion is always going to be to create and perform music.
“I’m a musician first and foremost. I’ve already started writing and recording the next album, actually. So, it is always going to be music focused. But I do think music and arts can definitely help with advocacy. For instance, I am performing at an event by SACHA, which is an organization here in Hamilton that supports people who have experienced sexual assaults. So, there’s advocacy in art and I will continue to use my music to do whatever I can to help and be a good community member, but definitely music is first.”
Mental health is slowly becoming something that society, families, government and individuals are becoming more aware of, more educated about, and more comfortable talking about. But the brain is still very much a mystery, with new research, new knowledge new treatments and new diagnostic processes seemingly coming every day. PTSD is now relatively well known as a condition that impacts first responders, military personnel, those who have witnessed or been victimized by violence. But even there, that is only the broad strokes understanding of the ailment. More and more people are getting the diagnosis who are not from those communities or vocations, and even the forms that PTSD can take is becoming more complex. Whorms’ diagnosis was for something called CPTSD, a newer incarnation that impacts those who have suffered repeated trauma over a longer period of time – the C stands for Complex.
“It really doesn’t have its own completely official diagnosis yet. It’s a fairly new area of research that people are working on to eventually have it get its own separate diagnosis. From what I understand and from what I have been told, the distinction is a little bit more like if you experience traumatic things over time, and especially experience them when you’re younger, it influences the way your brain actually develops as you grow up. So, it’s less about one specific incident and more about the repeated trauma that happens when you’re young. And there are lots of different symptoms that people can experience. Difficulty regulating emotions is one thing. Feeling a little bit disconnected from other people is another. I also have experienced dissociation and kind of leaving reality a little bit, so to speak. That’s something that a lot of people experience,” Whorms explained.
“I’ve learned some techniques to kind of recognize when I’m experiencing a symptom and trying not to take it too seriously. But I definitely was in that mode while we were making this EP and I didn’t really fully understand all of that at the time. And I was definitely really, really hung up on a couple of situations that inspired these songs. I was definitely having some trouble mentally pulling myself out of situations that were no longer happening, and just kind of puzzling over that, wondering, like, ‘shouldn’t I be over this by now?’ And then of course getting the diagnosis felt like I was being handed this whole other thing to deal with at first. I think the first seven or eight months were really intense where I was just feeling kind of angry about it. But now I’m really grateful to know and understand now. At first I was angry and wondering did I really need to have this big, stigmatized label handed to me. But, you know, everyone has stuff they have to manage.
“I think just being able to even say this stuff out loud now makes me feel better. I’ve realized that if anybody thinks differently of me now it’s not important. The only people who have reached out and contacted me about it were just grateful for sharing. I think part of the reason that now is the right time is that I have been around a bit more. I have been out there performing and doing things related to my music more. I think when you’re a musician and when you’re trying to promote music, you get a lot of practice in deciding what you’re going to release and what you’re going to post on social media, and how you’re going to approach it. Even with just promoting a song, you don’t know if people are going to like your song or not. You don’t know if you look silly when your lip synching on TikTok. But there’s a certain threshold of cringe that I’ve just gotten over at this point. As artists, we’re trying to put ourselves out there and promote something that we spent a lot of time crafting. And then we’re saying, ‘here’s this thing that I spent a lot of time and money making. Here you go,’ and some people are just going to hate it, right? But other people are really going to like it. It’s always a little bit of a nerve-wracking thing to do, but having now released as much music as I have I can kind of just accept it all as part of the process.”
Whorms has been performing for most of her life, and besides her solo shows, works a lot with singer/songwriter/bandleader Jacob Moon on the Classic Troubadours Live shows that he orchestrates, celebrating the music of legendary bands and artists such as Joni Mitchell, The Cars, Fleetwood Mac and more. So even since the songs for Daylight Chasing Dusk were completed two years ago, a lot of life, a lot of shows and experiences and travel and audiences and personal interactions have happened over those two years. Combined with the therapy she has undergone in recent years, the CPTSD diagnosis and proper management of her symptoms, Whorms is significantly more psychologically resilient, and has developed more layers of emotional callous to fend off the vagaries and vicissitudes of any negativity she may encounter.
“I tell myself today that my worst show in 2025 is still better than my best show in 2022, right? So that’s a comforting thought. And the thing is, I don’t even remember things I’ve messed up in shows before. Everybody else, in the band, in the audience, has forgotten about it. And even now, my attitude is so different. If I mess up so spectacularly that people remember it years later, I’d be like, ‘well, at least you remember me.’ I’m not worried about that kind of thing anymore.,” she said, adding that the recording process for the songs on the new EP ended up being very fruitful and fulfilling, but when it came to time sing some of the songs onstage, starting with ‘Younger Self’ which was released in February, what was she to talk about? How would she introduce them?
“I was lucky to be in a recording studio environment with a small group of musicians who I felt very comfortable around. So, recording the songs was one thing. But then it was like, ‘shit, what am I going to say about these when they come out to whoever is out there?’ I don’t know who’s out there and I don’t know how many people are out there. I think with the second single ‘Stay’ I wasn’t sure what to say about the story that inspired that one. So, what I did was I sent the song to a friend and asked them what they thought it was about. And they said it sounds like it’s about a break-up where you’re not ready to let the other person go. Which is great and that is not untrue, so that’s what I’m going to go with. As I said, I am just more comfortable not talking about what the songs are about. Like the lead single of this record is called ‘Wrong,’ and it’s about me accepting all the things, all the challenges with my mental illness and body image. Historically, I have had very, very high confidence but very, very low self-esteem. And I can admit that and kind of share how I was. So, it’s been a process over the last couple of years to learn how to talk about the songs on the EP now and evolving from just being able to admit those things to myself in the studio to now feeling comfortable and able and willing to talk.
“The process has been kind of like a feeling of stepping into power, I guess. Do I feel lightness? Not exactly. Another one of the million things I was worried about was that too much time had passed and maybe I had outgrown the songs, that maybe they weren’t valid things to sing about anymore. But now it just feels like the right time for me. I’m on my own timeline and I needed to do the therapy, I needed to do the self-reflection in between finishing the songs and now to really be able to do the songs justice as a performer. There’s now this satisfying kind of feeling of things clicking into place at the right time. That’s more of what I am feeling about the process now.”
Classically trained, and immersed in music from an early age, Whorms’ songwriting process is a combination of inspiration and organization.
“Generally, I write lyrics and music at the same time, and then I do a lot of editing. There are some exceptions, but 99 per cent of the time I do it that way. And I don’t necessarily need an instrument on hand when I am writing. I wrote a song while I was walking through Toronto recently, and I just sang the whole thing into my phone. So, phrases and melody tend to hit me simultaneously, and then I just do a whole lot of editing later,” she explained.
“I definitely have periods of time that I block off to be really regimented that way. And then as I’m running around doing all my other things that I do, ideas continue to come, and I just try to capture them as much as I can before they disappear from my brain. The songs on this EP happened pretty much that way. For instance, the moment I decided I can be feeling horrible, and I’m going to tell one person how I’m feeling, it made me feel better and that I can kind of keep persevering. And then the phrase, ‘wrong just feels so right,’ which is the tagline of the second track, ‘Wrong,’ that is what hit me first – ‘Wrong just feels so right.’ And then I built out the song from there. For the song ‘Younger Self’ which came out as a single too, it came about when I was scrolling through the first cell phone I ever owned in high school. And I heard the piano riff that’s in the song, which is something I wrote when I was 12 or 13 but never put words to, and I still liked it. Then the thought occurred to me, I was thinking back on what was going on in my life at that age and thinking about how different I am as a person now, and how much I’ve grown and how much I’ve changed and how much my situation has changed since then and the thought came to me, ‘why don’t you write a letter to your younger self.’ And that was the song that I ended up writing. The lyrics were from my perspective, looking back, but the piano music had been written by 12-year-old me. So, for that song, it was one line, one thought and I know then which memory or situation has inspired that song, and I just expand out from there.”
Whorms then discussed arguably one of the most emotive and evocative tracks on the EP, a lovelorn look at unrequited feelings and the angst of longing for that which you believe is unattainable.
“With ‘Wish’ I’m looking back on someone I knew that I was close friends with for several years. And you know, as I mentioned, I’ve grown quite a bit. So, I went from being, ‘I’m bisexual’ which I’ve known for quite a long time. But my attitudes towards that has evolved. Is that something I should talk about more? How much do I reference this? I had known for a while, but I wasn’t always ready or didn’t see the point in sharing it. And of course, as acceptance of it has grown and the queer community has grown, I’ve been trying to extend that acceptance to myself as well. But internalized homophobia and internalized biphobia is a very difficult thing to get over. At least it has been for me, so much so that I even played at the Toronto Pride Festival in 2023 and I didn’t even promote it. I knew it was important for me not to turn down that show, but I still had all this reluctance,” she said, by way of background.
“For this song, I was thinking about this girl I knew and the fact that if all of that was going on now I would probably have had the confidence to tell her how I felt. But looking back at the time when we were hanging out, I just couldn’t bring myself to talk about it. And it’s just the frustrating feeling of all that. So, the song is really about me kind of learning to accept myself. If you listen, though, it’s an unrequited love song: verse, chorus, verse, chorus, but then in the bridge, where I say, ‘there’s a hundred perfect stories you don’t get to hear out loud. I’ll never stop, you know, imagining what might have happened.’ At the end of the bridge, it’s wondering would we have ended up together if all of this was happening now, now that time has taught me to be proud. Even though the song is more about me kind of getting more comfortable with it, it’s through this story of looking back at this person I wished I asked out on a date all those years ago, but never did, and it’s too late now. And the thing is, you don’t have to be queer to understand that either. Most people have someone in their life they wish they had the guts to approach.
“’I wish you wanted me,’ is a line in that song. It’s just a feeling, a hope, looking for any kind of sign that she might have also been interested. And the song contains my favourite lyric in the whole album, which is why I named the album as I did, ‘it’s like daylight chasing dusk. I wish you wanted me.’ And feeling like, I’m here, and I have all this shit that, at the time, I thought was wrong with me, I thought was a problem, and I just put her on such a pedestal, and I’m saying, you’re all these great things, and I am all these not-so-great things, and we’re really from different worlds and I just wish I could catch up to you, like daylight chasing dusk. So, it’s a song that’s about a relationship I wish I could have had but it’s really also about me kind of lifting out of that mindset.”
Unrequited love is one thing. The endless ruminations about what could have been can be an oppressive weight on one’s psyche. But so can being in a relationship with unequal love. ‘Stay’ is along those lines, with the twist being that the subject of the song, the first-person narrative, is from the point of view of the person who isn’t ‘feeling it’ for the other person as they once did, and is looking for a way out.
“Yeah, so ‘Stay’ was one song I wasn’t sure what I was going to say about it when it came out. The first line that came to me in that song was the one that goes, ‘why you gotta give up so easy,’ and I was thinking about another failed relationship. It was one I didn’t want to be in anymore, like it was so over, it was not working, the other person, not only were we not a good match, but they were having some serious mental illness problems at the time. But I was really wanting to hang on to this relationship even though I knew it was wrong for both of us, just kind of not wanting to be alone,” Whorms said.
“To be completely clear, the true story of that song is that I was definitely the person in the wrong, which is why it was a difficult song to release. I’m not sure if people perceive it that way or not. I think most people don’t think about it that hard, so there’s a double meaning to it. It’s like, ‘why you gotta give up so easy. Why you gotta let go and leave me.’ It’s about begging you to stay with me and not leave me but also to ‘stay’ alive, that’s what it kind of meant to me. It was this really, really kind of gray area and difficult situation to wrap my head around because I was trying to cling to both of those things, and then feeling like, ‘do you want me to care or not?’ Do I owe you an apology for giving a shit, basically, and wanting to care for this person, but also kind of resenting them at the same time. So, it was a very complicated thing to go through, and to also write about. That line, ‘why you gotta give up so easy,’ was what came first. I really didn’t get it at the time, because I was still pretty young and naïve and I was very unwilling or unable to grasp the nuance of a situation like that at the time, and I just wanted everything to be just magically over, so I could be done with it and move on, without thinking about the other person’s feelings.”
Now that she has lived with the songs, looked back at how they came about, spent time healing, and processing what led to their creation, and is at a place of some strength and perspective, Whorms said she has little trepidation in playing them live.
“I’m really excited from a musical perspective. I’ve got a fancy Nord keyboard now, and it has a lot of bells and whistles and cool little sound tricks, which are really, really fun. When I play the songs, I’m not re-experiencing everything in the song every time I play them anymore. It’s more about the feeling of the music. And that aspect was also really important to me with this EP. I didn’t want it to be gloomy or sad sounding. There’s to be this sense of forward motion and a sense of groove to it as well. And I think that’s what really ties the whole project together for me is like, yeah we have our challenges and we kind of keep moving through them as best we can. And that’s cool, and that’s okay. We don’t need to hide or reject the shadowy parts of everything. It’s all part of a bigger picture and a bigger cycle. So, yeah, I feel very, very excited. I love performing these songs and the music is awesome.”
Whorms has a few solo dates this fall to celebrate the release of Daylight Chasing Dusk, including Sunday, Sept. 28, at 4 p.m. at Rooftop Revue in downtown Toronto, followed by a hometown show on Saturday, Oct. 4, at the Park Street Gasworks alongside Garrett Lajoie.
For more information on these and other shows, visit https://www.alexwhorms.com.
For information on Classic Troubadours Live shows featuring Whorms, visit https://classictroubadourslive.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, Ontario, Canada, who has been writing about music and musicians for more than 30 years. Besides his journalistic endeavors, he works as a communications and marketing specialist and is an avid volunteer in his community. Contact him at bigjim1428@hotmail.com.
