B-Side Guys

Gurf Morlix wrote “Is There Anyone Out There” during pandemic lockdown and poured all that isolation into the original recording. Sophie Gault’s cover doesn’t deny that loneliness—it just refuses to face it alone. Where Morlix’s version was abject solitude, Gault’s interpretation burns with what the press materials call “communal fire and bittersweet melancholy,” transforming a song about being unreachably alone into something closer to a campfire singalong for the spiritually adrift.

The geography matters here. “Waubaushene, to the western islands / Giant’s Tomb, to Go Home Bay / Honey Harbor, out to the Watchers”—these aren’t random place names but coordinates for a journey across Georgian Bay in Ontario, each location marking the singer’s movement toward some unnamed destination. When Gault asks “Anybody going my way,” the question shifts from rhetorical despair to genuine invitation. Morlix provides backing vocals that pair his curt delivery with Gault’s higher register, and the harmony reimagines the song’s thesis: maybe nobody’s going your way, but at least you’re not asking the question into a void.

The track opens with what the press release describes as “a soft pull at metallic guitar strings,” immediately establishing the deafening appeal of near-silence. Gault—one of Nashville’s fiercer Americana rockers known for whiskey-soaked punch—softens her sound here, letting organic warmth infuse the production. It’s a strategic choice for an artist whose upcoming album UNHINGED explores the beauty in chaos and the pulse in the backroom of a bar. This is the calm before that storm, or maybe the moment of clarity during.

The lyrics capture something stranger than simple loneliness: “Ghosts are restless, calling my name / They mispronounce it, a bit, but just the same.” It’s the kind of detail that makes the supernatural feel mundane—of course the ghosts get your name wrong, they’re ghosts. The horizon whispers words the singer has never heard but somehow understands, and she won’t ask why. Gault has discussed conquering bipolar disorder and emerging empowered with songs to show for it. Maybe that’s what this cover understands that the original couldn’t: sometimes the question “Is there anyone out there” matters less than the act of asking it loud enough for someone to hear.

Gault has known Morlix for years, credits him with shaping her guitar playing through late-night sessions working out his licks. Covering his song isn’t homage—it’s conversation across the water, two voices calling coordinates to each other while moving in the same direction.