How Whitney Widened Their Sound and Found the “SPARK”

Paolo Ragusa
·13 min read

The post How Whitney Widened Their Sound and Found the “SPARK” appeared first on Consequence.

For their third studio album, Whitney decided to press the reset button. After the pandemic brought Julien Ehlrich and Max Kakacek together for a much longer writing session than they had originally planned for, they’re returning this month with their dazzling, ambitious result. SPARK, out Friday, September 16th, is a thoughtful and necessary expansion of what Whitney is and can be; the close-knit folk of previous LPs Light Upon the Lake and Forever Turned Around is still well-represented, but on SPARK, it’s been swirled around a kaleidoscope.

Perhaps the largest adjustment to Whitney’s now signature sound is a deeper emphasis on arrangements. The Chicago-based duo strived to re-center their sound on “classic pop,” with swells of strings, hi-fi production, and moments of cinematic wonder. Where Whitney merely wrote about the malaise of growing up and getting older on Forever Turned Around, they’ve now imbued that age and experience into a more active and intriguing sonic environment.

But speaking to Consequence, Ehlrich and Kakacek are nothing but humble and genuinely grateful for the experience of making SPARK. “Life was spinning out of control for everybody over the last couple of years, and this record just felt like the only thing that we were holding onto that was a positive and uplifting force in our lives,” says Ehlrich of writing and recording SPARK during the pandemic. “I don’t know where I would be emotionally if music wasn’t going well!”

It’s definitely been an emotional couple of years for Ehlrich and Kakacek, who found themselves quarantining together in Portland at the start of the pandemic and who were both dealing with breakups throughout the writing of SPARK. But as they finished writing the songs, processed the loss of their relationships and the death of both Kakacek’s grandfather as well as their friend and mentor, Girls’ J.R. White, they moved to a studio in Tornillo, Texas to record the album with producers John Congleton and Brad Cook.

There, the dazzling form of SPARK took shape, and allowed for Ehlrich and Kakacek to dig deeper into creation than ever before. “Arrangement-wise… I think it’s less of a conversation from time to time,” says Kakacek of his and Ehlrich’s process. “We’re really just speaking through music to each other.”

That camaraderie is evident in the album’s illuminating lyrics, which span from quiet epiphanies to observations on being a touring musician in the pandemic age, in the patient repetition of album highlight “Self,” in the ecstatic joy of “Memory” and lead single “Real Love.”

Ehlrich also sounds different on SPARK; his usual falsetto still appears but less frequently; when it is used, at times, it’s more naked, vulnerable, and expansive. Several of the songs call to mind the eclectic work of Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), another vocalist who picks and chooses his vocal range very carefully, and whose penchant for moving arrangements are right in line with Whitney’s ambitions.

Above all, SPARK is an album born out of patience and love. Though they’ve conceptually moved deeper into the emotional rabbit hole, there’s a bright, joyous center that every Whitney album has had so far, and this one boasts it simply in its title.

Check out the full Q&A with Whitney below.

It’s now been over two years since you began work on SPARK. What has the journey been like?

Julien Ehlrich: Just in the most basic terms, obviously, life was spinning out of control for everybody over the last couple of years, and this record just felt like the only thing that we were holding onto that was a positive and uplifting force in our lives. There were truly countless times while we were making it where we were both like, “I don’t know where I would be emotionally if music wasn’t going well!”

Max Kakacek: I moved to Portland on March 14th, 2020 — I remember we were supposed to see the Blazers that night, and the NBA shut down, I think, the day after. But it ended up being the longest time that I’ve spent living anywhere but Chicago, even though it ended up being like a ghost version of Portland, because the city was essentially shut down.

So it became a completely different process, where we were just giving into this vacuum of creativity. Obviously, we were feeling the burnout from COVID, and the realities of the situation and the despair — that energy was palpable. But we were also in this little housing bubble with two close friends just making music as much as we could. And that’s the story of how it started. If I had flown, or chosen to fly, like three days later, I don’t know how we would have made the record.

You both wrote the album in Portland, but recorded it in Texas. Would you say both of those natural environments influenced the making of SPARK?

Ehlrich: Well, in Portland, we were kind of world building from inside our house. We weren’t necessarily influenced or inspired by the nature and the forests — it was actually comical, we didn’t hike once. We were kind of actively avoiding what was going on outside because of the pandemic and wildfires. We were joining some protests, but I think we were just kind of trying to create a space for ourselves or something. But in Texas, the studio that we recorded in is pretty legendary at this point.

Kakacek: Yeah, it’s called Sonic Ranch Studios in a small town called Tornillo, about an hour outside of El Paso. And it’s on a pecan orchard. So everything is completely desert, and then around the studio, it’s all irrigated, so it’s almost like a 3000 acre pecan orchard with just like, medium height trees.

Ehlrich: I went jogging like every morning we were there for three weeks. It was so nice.

Kakacek: There’s a specific type of wasp that lives throughout the season called Tarantula Hawks. They’ll just fly right up next to your head and check you out, but it’s only for a second…

Ehlrich: Yeah, they’ll only sting you if you provoke them.

Kakacek: It’s the second most painful sting of all stinging creatures. It’s like, second to the Bullet Ant. I think it’s an electric heat that it stings you with.

But anyways, the cool thing about that expanse is that where the trees drop off behind the studio is just big sky. Classic Texas. I remember watching a storm rolling from a lake — we were looking at a thunderstorm happening in Mexico, like 20 miles away. And it was just dry and hot where we were, so it was like we could see the sky opening up. It was incredible.

The album definitely features more some intricate arrangements — especially “Twirl,” which is a fascinating track.

Ehlrich: That song is a fun one to talk about, because it was the one song that we wrote, where we were like, “oh, yeah, this definitely calls back to old Whitney.” Because we wrote it as a folk song in the vein of something like Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon.” And then when we got to the studio, we tried recording it acoustic, but something wasn’t clicking. So John Congleton was like “hold on,” and then he did a bunch of like, Pro Tools wizardry and kind of set it on a different path. And then Max just hopped on the Juno, and we all started to see the same vision at the same time. We chased it and kind of caught the magic as fast as we could.

Kakacek: Yeah, that was one of those songs where I remember we left the studio that day and were just like “… what did we just do?”

But arrangement-wise… I think with lyrics and with chord structures, there’s a lot more “express” conversations happening over, like, what’s happening where, and intensively deliberating choices. But with the arrangement stuff, I think at least initially, for ideas, like starting things out, we both just spread out and kind of tinker and add stuff and compile. And then once something’s really built up, then maybe subtract some of the stuff that’s not working. But something more, I think it’s less of like a conversation from time to time. We’re really just speaking through music to each other.

There’s an interesting line in the song “Self,” where you sing, “This year’s halfway gone/ I know the feeling all too well.” It feels both about the pandemic specifically and about your identity as a touring musician.

Ehlrich: I’m glad you pointed that song out. It’s one that we bring up, because it’s a song that feels like all 31 years of our lives. Like, we would not have been able to create something like that when we were 24. Which I think is a good feeling as an artist, you know? It’s like the opposite of feeling lost. But that line also reminds me of that Frank Ocean line, “That’s a pretty fucking fast year flew by.” It’s maybe more deconstructed or something? I don’t know. I think it speaks for itself.

Kakacek: Yeah, there’s “Self” and there’s “Back Then” — but I think something we didn’t talk about a lot was not purposefully leaning into writing about the pandemic. Something about it felt too easy.

I think a lot of artists have felt the way in the last couple years.

Ehlrich: You have to earn it. You can’t just dive in and be like [singing] “everybody’s isolaaaated!”

Kakacek: But with “Self” and “Back Then,” the lyrics just kind of came out, and maybe accidentally, they were about the pandemic. And that’s the way I think we’re wanting for that to happen. It wasn’t forced, and it just kind of like popped out.

I also noticed that the drums on this album are totally different — there’s a lot of different textures, beats, and programming. As a band with a lead singer/drummer hybrid, did the approach to drums change the Whitney identity at all?

Ehlrich: I think just procedurally. I was really just playing piano all day, every day, just driven to start writing on piano. While Max, just in our formula, started wrapping himself around more of the rhythm side. Obviously, we collaborate on everything.

Kakacek: One of the things about being shut down in our home studio was that we built it to be pretty self-sufficient. But the one thing we didn’t have was real drums and the other thing we didn’t have was live strings. So yeah, I usually would have people come to the crib and record, but that was just not happening during the pandemic. So one of the concessions that we made for demoing was sampling drums: For “Nothing Remains,” we grabbed the first drum break from “Kissing My Love” by Bill Withers, but it was kind of out of necessity.

Ehlrich: And that also meant that when we got to Texas, we had to re-record live drums, because we didn’t want to have samples as drums — they’re too expensive and we needed a bit more dynamic. So then it was kind of on me, and I straight up didn’t really play drums for a whole year. And when we got back to Chicago and I had to kind of shove myself back into it. I did set up a little drum set in my room and a bass in it. And I just played drums every day leading up to recording the record. It was the one of the first times I like felt nervous to play drums. I was like, “Do I still have it?” But yeah, recreating the samples was also a whole process. It was fun.

Kakacek: And since we didn’t have real strings, we had to decide what was going to stay on the Mellotron, and what we would actually put on strings — we had the Mellotron to kind of pencil in ideas for what strings would do. And then for some songs, like “Twirl,” we actually did replace them with real strings, but some songs like “Real Love” and “Never Crossed My Mind” we left the Mellotron strings and because we’ve grown to love the synthesized strings.

Speaking of “Real Love,” what made you decide that would be the first single off SPARK?

Kakacek: It’s a brave choice. I think it’s the most like itself on the album.

Ehlrich: It’s the most aggressive, out of all the songs. We were down to do it, but it was like a consensus choice from everybody. Everybody from the producers we worked with, from everyone who heard the record, all of our friends, the label, management, literally everybody was like, “that’s the one.” I’m glad though — it’s fun to read people’s reaction, because I think a strong reaction is good.

There are also some bigger changes to the vocals — what was your approach like vocally for this album?

Ehlrich: I think it was a range — like, my range was growing naturally. But I remember having a phone call with Brad Cook before we even went to the studio and he was like, “Do you feel like you’re capable of getting into character?” Sort of like singing from different perspectives. Because we had been sending him all the demos. And he was like, “I think that there’s room on this record to use many different aspects of your voice.” So I went into the studio with that in mind.

Then partway through recording, I don’t remember which song, it might have been “Self.” But it was one of the songs, and he brought that back up, and he was like, “you’re nailing it,” basically. Because I also sing every note. And there’s hella harmonies on the record. And I think that was what he meant, to get me supporting myself vocally — and I think it widened the Whitney sound.

Will you be going back to drumming and singing live on the upcoming tour?

Ehlrich: I mean… “Golden Days” wouldn’t be “Golden Days” without me drumming on it. So for all the old songs, I’m going to drum on them.

You’re about to head back on tour in support of SPARK. Which songs from the new album are you the most excited to play live?

Ehlrich: I think “Lost Control” is gonna pop off.

Kakacek: For me, I mean, I’m excited to play all of these new songs, it’s hard to choose, but I think we’ve never pulled off anything like “Self” live. It’s completely different than anything that we’ve ever done. I think that will be a challenge — there will be a day when we first play it and we’ll think “… this sounds so bad.” That’s how it always starts — it takes time to chisel away at how to present something properly and if it’s easy to play right away, maybe it’s not as easy as we think.

Ehlrich: Yeah, with “Self,” you don’t think of there being a lead guitar part, but I hear the most shredding guitar ever on that song, and I think [Max] should actually play it.

Catch Whitney on tour; tickets are available via Ticketmaster.

SPARK Artwork:

How Whitney Widened Their Sound and Found the SPARK
How Whitney Widened Their Sound and Found the SPARK

How Whitney Widened Their Sound and Found the “SPARK”
Paolo Ragusa

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