For Pat “Doc” Dougherty of theyself, being a musician means purposefully carving out your own space: creating stages wherever, whenever, and however you please, and making music on your own terms.

Doc’s first exposure to music came in their youth, at a summer musical theater camp. Growing up in a staunchly Irish-Catholic family in the Main Line of Philadelphia, the camp created the fertile ground to meet peers who played in youth bands and get a taste for being on stage. In what they describe as the musical-theater-nerd-to-rock-’n’-roll pipeline, this early glimpse at the music scene demonstrated the endless possibilities of performance and their immediate connection to it. “Once you know you’re drawn to [performing], you try to find any avenue possible to get to it,” they say. “[Musical theater] felt like an option that would get me on stage.”

Not only did theater camps open their eyes to the allure of the stage, but it also eroded some of the prejudgements that they had about the “correct” way to become a musician. “I don’t know if it’s the Catholic upbringing in me seeing things as hierarchies like you can’t just do something,” they explain. “You have to work your way, you have to go through intermediaries. It felt like it was met with skepticism, like ‘You can’t just be a musician.’” 

That perspective continued to shift into later adolescence, as they grew more enmeshed with the local DIY scene in and around Philadelphia. “Getting into the DIY scene, there was definitely this attitude of getting a gig in the city … it felt like you almost needed to be a part of something to get there. It wasn’t until meeting other crazy theater kids at DIY parties when I [realized] that you could just do this,” they explain. ”That was just pedestrian to my friends, but I thought, ‘Wait, you can just create a stage wherever you want?’ I couldn’t believe that people just let you do this. It was just liberating to me and anything I could get my hands on, I thought we could do. I realized that I was only doing [theater] because I thought that was the only way I was allowed on stage. It felt like [music] is what I was supposed to be doing.” 

Buoyed by the possibilities and freedom of music as a creative outlet, they built connections through the Philadelphia scene, sneaking into the city to play at bars and clubs throughout young adulthood. “You realize no one is going to just ask you to do something,” they explain.  “It became this thing where we just started a label of our own and put our music out there.” In the early 2000s, they brought this self-starter attitude to the Twin Cities, where they began to meet new bands and create their own space in the Minnesota scene by leaning into the core DIY ethos of the scene: if there’s something that can be done, it can be done yourself.

Beginning with their first band, Fairfax, AK, that translated to starting their own record label, self-producing their own music, printing and packing CDs, and organizing their own tours. At the same time, Doc and their bands followed a Grateful Dead-inspired approach to sharing the music itself, encouraging taping of their CDs and releasing music for free on available services like MySpace. Despite being a new face in the scene at the time, Minnesota music offered them a space to explore their sound and share it with a willing audience. “There is that space to explore whatever you want to do up here,” they say, “and people were really receptive to that. It allows for different scenes to flourish.” 

Finally, after years of playing with other bands and touring the country multiple times over, Doc’s focus is on theyself, their current project borne out of the sunsetting of a previous band and the desire to reorient their sense of making music. “[theyself] came from this space of thinking that I should have been having more fun, rather than thinking about the latest record and how much attention it got, and how this next record needs to get more attention, and being constantly worried about the next thing,” they say. “The new rule [for this project] became: This is going to be the project that all of the things you thought were too unreasonable or too stupid or too out of place, you can do here.” 

With a specific directive to not think about press or attention or accolades, Doc set to work crafting the music by writing a song a week. Eventually, a sound emerged: a swirling concoction of bluegrass, classic country, alternative, roots, soul, and disco. It exists outside the bounds of one singular genre. 

Drawing on inspirations like Nick Drake and Nina Simone, their music juxtaposes gentle folk with house, blues with disco, all with an acoustic guitar. Softly crackling lo-fi soundscapes provide the backdrop for plucky guitar riffs and slightly distorted vocals. It’s an expansive, earnest sound that feels the product of a time gone by, but deeply timely at the same time. It balances tension with vague optimism, beckoning the listener closer while wrapping them in a blanket of existentialism. Ultimately, it’s music derived from simplicity, allowing whatever sounds will be to just be.

Theyself’s lyrics take a similarly simplistic approach, releasing any self-imposed expectations on creating specific material and allowing the music to develop as it may. “I’ve tried to force the muse,” they explain. “It doesn’t work. Every time I’ve pushed a song across the goal line for the sake of finishing something, it always ends up being material I never use … chase after feelings instead. Search for sounds and Ideas. Focus on what made you fall in love with the work in the first place.” Their lyrics explore personal truth over-elaborate, fictionalized stories, weaving through themes of family, music, anxiety, and life. The music becomes a platform to revel in the vulnerability present in each of us. “Music was an escape hatch from the world when I first started,” they explain, “and now it’s just how I process it.”

While mainstream success was never theyself’s goal in making music, their work hasn’t gone unnoticed by the music community: they were nominated for “Best New Band” by City Pages in 2017, earned a #7 spot on the “MN Records of the Year” by KBEK FM for their debut EP Wolf Tower in 2018, and listed as an artist to watch in 2020 by Twin Cities Pride Magazine. Doc also plays guitar with indie rock act Elle PF. As a live act, theyself is busy gigging around the state, appearing at festivals, breweries, and events at local music hubs like Winona, Rochester, and Duluth. They just wrapped a Tuesday night residency to celebrate the release of their most recent album 1500 at Minneapolis’ 331 Club. 

1500 as an album represents a full circle moment for the growth of theyself; after years of windshield time touring across the country, Doc’s trusted van reached the end of its lifespan. Recorded using the van as a vocal booth, 1500 presents a stripped-down version of a theyself live show, encapsulated by the vehicle that guided them along the way.

As an independent, DIY artist who purposefully shirks standard formulas for making music, theyself is about continuing to push boundaries and celebrate art at its purest. “Music is one of those things where whenever the mountain is presented, [my thought] isn’t ‘I’m screwed.’ It’s ‘Oh cool, I didn’t know you could do that. I don’t know how to do this now, but we will get there eventually.’” 

theyself plays at Mortimer’s on Sunday, June 4, and Palmer’s Bar on Wednesday, June 28. theyself will be officially releasing tapes of 1500 into stores in June at Treedome in Rochester, Electric Fetus in Minneapolis, and Caydence Records in St. Paul. They will also be performing a residency throughout the month of August to celebrate 5 years of their radio show Desert Islands. Find more dates here. Catch Doc on KFAI’s Desert Islands on Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-12 p.m.