Born out of the break-up of Smith Westerns in 2014, Whitney are a Chicago collective led by best friends Max Kakacek and Julien Ehrlich.
Their modus operandi is to make music that is timeless and heartfelt, with hints of nostalgia and moments of serenity that draw listeners in from the very first listen.
Despite their established musical relationship, the new project required Kakacek and Ehrlich to develop their songwriting partnership from scratch. “We had been so close throughout this entire period of weird transition after Smith Westerns broke up, but we’d never written together,” explains vocalist-drummer Ehrlich. “We were just kind of screwing around but there were flashes and moments that we knew we had to follow.
“I learned how to write lyrics and was taking baby steps in terms of my contribution to the band. Max was doing his own secret stuff and one day he bought a tape. We just wanted to see what it sounded like. I think in the back of our heads we both knew it was gonna happen, but once it happened we were like, ‘Oh shit!’”
This lightbulb moment fuelled Kakacek and Ehrlich to record their debut album Light Upon The Lake, with the studio process a labour of love that brought with it many a memorable anecdote. Whitney recorded with none other than Jonathan Rado of Foxygen fame, but their initial connection with the Californian came about fortuitously.
“Tobias Jesso Jr. had apparently heard our music and showed it to Jonathan at a party,” Ehrlich explains. “We didn’t know either of them so it was pretty wild when Jonathan got in touch. Once we got word that he liked our stuff and wanted to work with us, we went out to LA to record the tunes. It felt like the right thing to do. Jonathan is an amazing dude and he has the best work ethic out of any musician I know.”
Rado, Kakacek and Ehrlich recorded directly to tape, a decision the drummer says was their only real option. “It just sounds a lot better to us and there’s a real satisfaction of pressing real buttons as opposed to just clicking on a computer screen,” says Ehrlich. “Actually pressing ‘record’ and hearing what you just did on this physical thing that’s playing back to you – we’re just kind of obsessed with that, it’s where all the music that we worship came from as well.”
On a personal level, Ehrlich emphasises the importance of making music with Whitney for his mental well-being, expressing his gratitude to be able to turn his experiences into lyrics. “Songwriting is definitely a kind of therapy for me and how I come to terms with everything. I was going through a pretty gnarly break-up at the time of writing the album – it only feels really natural to be doing the thing that I love the most.”
Whitney pride themselves on their spirit of collaboration, with their songs coming to life through an exchange of ideas. “It’s not like Max and I will write a complete song and then think, ‘This is great for Whitney,’” says Ehrlich. “One of us will come up with an idea and then the other will make it better, and we kind of just go back and forth.”
Through this process, Kakacek and Ehrlich translate their romantic successes and failures into grand, immersive tracks brought to life by a six-piece live band. “We have six people onstage so there’s a lot to look at,” Ehrlich says. “We don’t just play the track – the whole time we’re having a constant conversation with each other, making each other happy by playing cool shit.”
Despite having seen many corners of the world in his career so far, Ehrlich expresses his excitement to be heading to Australia next year on the Laneway Festival tour. “I came over to Australia for the first time when I was 19 and loved it over there. I kind of figured we’d get the offer to do Laneway, and once we did I was freaking out. The rest of the band were just kind of like, ‘What do you mean? Like yeah, we want to go to Australia, but why are you freaking out so hard?’” Ehrlich laughs. “I just know how well curated it is and how beautiful the festival is and I was just like, ‘You guys don’t understand!’”
Now that Whitney are becoming a success on the international stage, Ehrlich can look back with satisfaction at how far the band has come in such a short amount of time.
“At a certain point, once we finished the record, I thought I’d just be happy if 20 people enjoyed it while it impacted their life on some level,” he says. “Once we surpassed that, everything since then has just been some sort of gift. It’s just like, ‘Wow, we’re now selling out shows all over the world.’ We put tickets on sale for a show in Copenhagen and sold 500 tickets in one day. When I hear stuff like that, I can’t help but smile.
“I’m really fortunate to basically be doing the only thing I know how to do for a living. This is something we’re completely obsessed with. We put our hearts and souls into it.”
Laneway Festival 2017is onSaturday February 4 at Sydney College of the Arts. Whitney’sLight Upon The Lake is out now through Secretly Canadian.
