B-Side Guys

Matt Dowling examines disintegration through repeated questions that never get answered. “Do You Know What’s Changed?” cycles through inquiries about sameness and explanation, the Baltimore musician probing identity erosion as his SWOLL project fuses live rock energy with electronic and trap beats. Known for bass work with The Effects, Deleted Scenes, and Paperhaus on Dischord, Park the Van, and Misra Records respectively, Dowling constructs atmospherically dreamy soundscapes that carry psychological weight.

The track appears on Avoid Attach, an album whose title references avoidant attachment style—that modern condition of needing someone present and absent simultaneously. Dowling connects this to tools like social media and AI that enable simultaneous connection and distance, the kind of “avoid attach” behavior that feels particularly relevant now. His genre-defying approach incorporates nods to Unwound, Kraftwerk, Antelope, and Shudder to Think while weaving hip-hop, trap, post-punk, and new wave undercurrents throughout.

Dowling’s lyrics track someone fading from view, the repeated assertion that they were the pure and true one now dissolving into repeated declarations of disappearance. The marble and gray colors suggest monochrome existence, vibrancy drained away. Street encounters and old friendships receive cryptic acknowledgment—moments where someone gave in or ran out of time because they were better than they ought or fought to be. These observations resist clear interpretation, maintaining ambiguity about whether the speaker is mourning loss or documenting necessary escape.

Tracked by Dan Angel and Ben Schurr in Philadelphia, mixed by Alex Tebeleff in Los Angeles, and mastered by Sarah Register in Brooklyn, the production maintains SWOLL’s moody, layered approach. Dowling’s haunting falsetto delivers observations about bright lights and shade with controlled restraint, the photo booth imagery suggesting captured moments that freeze identity even as the speaker claims to fade. His visual-heavy live shows with multi-instrumentalist Erik Sleight and lighting designer Zak Forrest create immersive experiences, but “Do You Know What’s Changed?” works through sonic texture alone, the questions lingering unanswered as the track concludes.