Who or what is Doglake? Doglake a place that does not exist but should, materialised by sounds and visuals attempting to get closer to it, whatever it may be. But most importantly, Doglake is the solo project of West Midlands/Swansea based singer-songwriter and visual artist Lee Bull-Terrier Phillips. Starting off as a youtube cover channel in February 2024, September saw the release of his debut self produced lo-fi indie pop album Songs from Doglake, a raw, amateurish album nostalgic for the 2010s bandcamp scene. Taking inspirations from the early albums of Car Seat Headrest, Frankie Cosmos, Teen Suicide and Alex G. The album was recorded, and for the most part written, in the span of 3 months, during the summer heat, in his bedroom, alone. Little received outside feedback throughout its creation shaped the messy production of the Garageband recorded album and the completed not perfect philosophy of his 18 year old self is heard through frequent audio artifacts scattered throughout the album. The release of Songs from Doglake also saw the release of its visual components: a self portrait album cover, a clown music video for the single Punch and Web 2.0 inspired Neocities website. These visuals worked alongside the music to further push the identity of what Doglake was at the time.
In March 2025, in collaboration with artist/producer Metanoia, Doglake released his first studio recorded singles: Hesitate and Small Horse, with accompanying Hesitate music video and Hesitate/Small Horse illustration by artist Bo Mondays, as featured on the Doglake Neocities homepage.
Later that year, May saw the release of Sparrow, my only one, 3 song indie folk EP inspired by the likes of Elliott Smith and Adrianne Lenker, evolving from the grunge / indie pop sound of Hesitate/Small Horse to something a lot softer and more stripped down.
Doglake is currently working on something, somewhere, maybe in collaboration with someone. Time will tell.