Whimsical - Head In The Clouds, Feet On The Ground

AÑO: 5 | NÚMERO 47

THE 13th UN A R E V IS TA IM A GINA RIA

WHIMSICAL HEAD IN THE CLOUDS, FEET ON THE GROUND

[ Interview with Neil Burkdoll and Krissy Vanderwoude from Whimsical by Pablo Müllner. ]

HEAD IN THE CLOUD, FEET IN THE GROUND

Whimsical is an Indiana band who made a name for themselves back in the day. Their first album, 2000’s “Setting Suns Are Semi Circles” is today a dream pop cult-classic. You may think: “What a fabulous name!” (But wait and listen, much more surprises to come). Sadly, the band dissolved a couple of years later with the follow up recording almost finished. As poetically puts it, their record label Saint Marie Records: “everyone adrift in confusion an ennui, the way all relationships end.(But) Time passes, and the heart longs for what it once had.” Guitarist and mastermind NeikBurkdoll and exquisite vocalist Krissy Vanderwoude got back together in 2016, in order to complete the album, so the poignantly alive “Sleep To Dream” (2017) has finally happened putting an end to a long silence. This story of struggle and artistic success is inspiring for novel artists and it is for listeners alike. And of course, it is a new beginning, and the prospect of new beautiful music to come. So welcome forever, Whimsical!

Hello, Krissy and Neil, which by present times is equal to saying hi to Whimsical, for now you are working as a duo, am I right? Did you record the whole “Sleep To Dream” album as a duo with studio guests? How does it feel to being a creative partnership of two, after being a full band?

Krissy: Yes, we are working as a duo presently. For the most part, we will continue on that way, with the exception of a few guest spots on our next album. Neil and I work really well together and aren’t afraid to tell each other when we want something to change about the song. We share ideas, try new things, give honest feedback and are truly open to suggestions. In the end, we both want the same thing, which is a great song and we will come together to do whatever it takes to make that happen. It is a true collaborative process that really works well. We are so honored and happy that the other band members from our “Sleep to Dream” lineup (Brian, Mark and Andy) are willing to play live with us and help to carry out that part of the dream. We do miss writing with them, but everyone is living in a different state at this point, so it is unfortunately just not very practical for all 5 of us to write music together anymore.

Neil: Sleep to Dream was recorded as a 5 piece band that also featured Mark Milliron, Andy Muntean, and Brian Booher. When the band ended in early 2005, we all still remained friends and there was no bad blood whatsoever. The band had just run it’s course and I personally was too involved

with my other bands at the time. When I found the long lost hard drive in 2015 that had our missing Sleep to Dream album on it, I knew that I wanted us to finish the album. Krissy and I finished the album ourselves and decided at that time we still wanted to continue forward. We started recording songs for our Brought to Light albums as a way to test out how we could move forward as a duo. It was only after Sleep to Dream came out that we were offered a reunion show, and we would only do it if it was the original 5 people from the album.

All five of us live in five different states across America, but we were able to make it happen.

Well, I am ashamed since I booked the interview quite a time ago, and I handed my questions so much later, Sorry! but trust me: The only way for me to ask some decent questions is taking a good listen first! And I can say Whimsical music grew on me very naturally! And I even found some inspiring connections, really! But first things first, Sleep to Dream sounds very fresh, organic and well, graceful as a galloping stallion. It is hard to believe the story behind the complex time you had to release it! How come?

Krissy: First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to listen to our music and for paying such careful attention to the songs, so that you could truly get a feel for what we do, before coming up with your questions. I am really happy to find that you liked what you heard! As for the delay in releasing it and the span of time that it took to do so,

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I will let Neil tell that part of the story, as he is the one who found our long lost album recordings and really helped to set the wheels back into motion.

Neil: I sort of answered this earlier, but I had been searching for this lost hard drive for over 10 years. One day I found it in a box in my garage.

I instantly knew this was the missing drive and I had to take it to a computer specialist to retrieve the files from it. Once I loaded the sessions into Pro Tools, I was happy to learn we were about 90% done with the album when we stopped recording. The songs on Sleep to Dream were written from 2000-2004 and it’s nice that people hear them now and think of them as new and fresh. It’s such an odd story that the album was finished and released on Saint Marie Records so many years later. This version of the album is so much better

than the version that would have been released in 2005. I was able to go through each song and edit/ change parts around and make each song as perfect as they could be. I didn’t have the knowledge in 2005 to do that and it was really only after watching many videos on Youtube that I learned how to fix the problems on the album. I think Whimsical has our own sound and each album will be slightly different but also retain the melodic and “Pop Song” feel that we are sort of known for.

Well that story is actually very inspiring to me, because I have a novel I am trying to get published for a long, long while! So… Anyways!

I got a background on quite a few bands that been tagged “dream pop” or “shoegazing” or “ethereal”, and Whimsical strikes me as a very different one, in the best of senses, like

the brave, weird “new” girl that one day arrives to the class, if that is a good comparison…

Do you think that circumstances made you tougher as a band?

Krissy: It has been very important to us from the beginning that we stray away from a cookie cutter style of songwriting. We were never hoping to sound like any other bands, or follow any formula for typical dreampop or shoegaze music.

We draw from a large pool of musical inspiration, so naturally you will hear lots of those different influences in our songs. Yet, we also love that people usually can’t think of another band that has our sound. I love that we are doing something original with our music. In some ways we aren’t “shoegaze enough” for the likes of a few, but for others they love the fact that we are different and doing something unique. We are trying even more new directions with this next album and we are very excited about how different some of the songs will be. Regardless of how our sound may evolve, there will always still be the Whimsical “signature” on the songs we write, which will make them easily identifiable and exclusive to our sound.

Neil: I am in the minority and what I consider “Shoegaze” is not what most others feel is Shoegaze. I can argue all day long about it, but all we try to do is make dreamy and catchy music. I will always say we have more in common with The Cure than My Bloody Valentine and I’m proud of that. There are so many bands trying to emulate MBV now and that was not the case during the original Shoegaze boom. I write 90% of my songs on an acoustic and then transfer it to electric guitar with effects added. We have never been super effects heavy and relied on them to make our songs come alive. I think our new album will show some different sides to our sound because I don’t have to worry about the songs being performed by a five piece band and I can do whatever I want musically. I have more freedom now to make the songs however I want without limitations. It’s true that some fans of the genre consider us too “clean” sounding, and that’s ok. We do this for our own enjoyment and that’s what’s important at the end of the day.

I need to point that out, and also mention the fact that “Whimsical” is an adjective that almost necessary makes you think of a child.

And I think is very refreshing when artists connect and also declare openly to be in touch with childish things. And even better to whimsical child behaviour. Did you think of all those implications when you chose the name of the band?

Krissy: If I am honest, I have never been a big fan of the name and I have not been shy about letting Neil know that over the years. Haha. He came up with the name so I will let him tell the story of why he chose that.

Neil: Haha, yeah, Krissy hates the name and has told me many times. I came up with the name Whimsical in 1995 after my previous band Mystified Thinking ended. My old band was very dark and had very long songs and I wanted a new beginning with my new band. I still wanted to make dreamy music, but I wanted shorter songs that were positive and not based on being depressed.

Whimsical sort of summed up the whole idea of the band at that time. I probably wouldn’t name the band Whimsical now of course, but what’s done is done. It was only after that I sort of realized the name of the band is sort of laughable. Oh well, I guess it is unique for us and our band.

Did you put together a “live band” for Whimsical? Have you been playing live since Sleep To Dream came out?

Krissy: Playing live again was something that we never thought we’d be able to make happen.

However, I shouldn’t be surprised at this point that we have managed to turn that dream into a reality as well, at the rate things have been going. This has all just been one incredible, almost unbelievable, dream come true! The thought of actually trying to find a way to play live again came about as a result of April Zimont (shoegazer queen and genius behind Kalamashoegazer) asking us if we had any interest in playing the legendary festival. At first Neil and I thought something along the lines of: “Yeah right. I wish. There’s no way we could ever really make that happen”. However,

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Neil decided to go out on a limb and reach out to all of our original “Sleep to Dream” members, just to see if by some miraculous chance they’d be willing to help us make this dream come true. To our surprise, they were all on board. It still almost seemed too good to be true at that point, but they were committed to learning their individual parts, they practiced for months and promised they’d be on board with us to play our first live show together in 13 years. This amazing show took place on November 4, 2017 and it was probably one of the most memorable nights in my entire life. Because of work schedules, and the fact that everyone had to travel in from different states, we only practiced one night together, which was the night before the show. I will never forget how big I smiled after we finished practicing our first song together with the 5 of us in the same room. We sounded as though we had been practicing together regularly and I was SO proud of these guys! I was in complete awe of their dedication and commitment to making this happen and so grateful that we were

really going to be able to pull this off. It was a huge gamble, but we all believed we could do it and we did! Aside from one small equipment difficulty during our live set @Kalamashoegazer, it couldn’t have gone better. The positive feedback from that show was so humbling and inspiring and we are still floating over the experience! We haven’t played again since then, but we are working on setting up another great show in Chicago (thanks to our friend and fellow shoegazer Cory Osborne)!

We can’t wait to announce the official details!

Neil: We are in a weird position in that we now have our recording line up of Krissy and I, but also have our live line up that consists of our old five piece band from Sleep to Dream. Since we will rarely be playing live, it’s not a big deal, but it is a bit odd for sure. We have all remained friends and we were all friends before the band was around in the first place, so I don’t think it’s hard for the five of us to get together and play songs. We mostly just laugh and act like kids even though we are all

in our 40’s at this point. As long as we can make it happen, we’d like to play one show a year if we can make it happen. It’s an excuse for all five of us to get together and laugh.

Well, I am not a musician, but I have been told that I am a good listener… I listened a very complex, detailed guitar work, which to me is as difficult to imagine as working in a Space Lab, I know how much of a perfectionist guitarists can be about their studio experiments.

But I also listened very beautiful melodies, like Glow, which just does that, and Part of Me, to name a few. So a whimsical song is a balance of both things or how does it actually happen?

Krissy: Since Neil is in charge of the guitars, I’ll leave this one to him.

Neil: Well, I wrote all of the first album and about 60% of the second album, with Mark writing about 40% of the second album. I think we just try to write catchy songs that flow. Some songs work better than other songs, but I think we have our own style. We have never really written boring songs

that are just some basic chords for Krissy to sing vocals over. We have always had guitar parts that have a lot going on musically. What I mean is, the songs would still be catchy even if there were no vocals on them. I’m always trying to write a hook or melody at all times.

On the other hand, Krissy´s voice surprised me basically for being totally “effortless”, devoid of mannerisms, very cool indeed… Did you think that you came with that personal singing style once and forever or was also a craft you developed “in the road”?

Krissy: For as long as I can remember I have loved singing, but never really considered myself to have a style or premeditated direction I was trying to go. I just did what felt natural for me. I am not a technical singer, in the sense that I don’t know how to read music, I don’t know what the actual keys are that I am singing in, and some of the musical terminology may as well be a foreign language to me. Haha. I don’t have formal training (other than a few recent lessons I took prior to Kalamashoegazer, to help with pitch and

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performance while playing live). I just love music and I love singing. I am not sure why it seems to come easily to me, but it feels like a very natural process for me to write lyrics, melodies and harmonies for the vocals. Many people have said of my voice that they instantly know it’s me singing when they hear my vocals on a song. That being said, I guess I have developed a recognizable style/sound over the years.

Neil: The first time Krissy recorded her singing was for a song called Skyward at Twilight for my old band Mystified Thinking. We were still in High School and it was early 1995 I think. When that band was over and I decided to start writing songs that were more catchy and shorter, Krissy was the first person I asked to sing in the band. As much as I think I have written some good songs musically in the past, the songs are nothing until Krissy

adds her voice on top. She always surprises me with her lyrics and also the way she adds harmonies in a way that not many people could. I know I couldn’t do it, but I also can’t sing at all.

I mean, guitarists and singers have very different “mystics” and also very different ethics of work, so when a partnership happens it is a magical thing really. So how is going to manifest that in the near future. Any plans of new recordings? Live dates?

Krissy: I think it helps a lot that Neil and I have been the best of friends for over 20 years. Before anything else, there is a wonderful friendship, respect for one another and an unbreakable bond. There are no riffs between us, but we are also comfortable enough to call the other out if something isn’t right. We can offer up constructive criticism, and suggest changes in what the other

has written, without being offended and that really comes in handy when writing songs together.

Our overall dynamic and musical chemistry really works well. We are currently writing and recording our next album, to be released on Saint Marie Records. I began recording vocals for the 5th song this week and we have several others in the works. As for playing live, we will be announcing a September show that will take place in Chicago very soon! :) Neil: I have around 13 songs being written right now and hopefully 10-11 will be on our next album. Musically it’s a bit different but still Whimsical. I didn’t write any Whimsical songs for 11 years, so obviously things will be different, but my style is still my style. Sleep to Dream was different than Setting Suns are Semi-Circles, so I think we will continue to evolve as we go along.

Oh, I won`t go without mentioning I loved the work you did in between albums, of covers and self-covers, particularly on “Kiss them for me”, I love the song from my childhood, I think it is as psychedelic as pop music can get. And you did an excellent job, making it in your own guitar heavy-style and keeping that sort of “eastern”, “mantra” quality. And Nirvana`s On a Plane, genius! I know you already did a lot of covers, but I hope you release

some more soon!

Krissy: Thanks so much! We have had so much fun doing the covers and will definitely continue doing so together. We haven’t been doing as many lately, as we are working on writing and recording originals for the next album. However, it is something we both enjoy so you can expect to hear others in the future. We do have our version of “Crash” by The Primitives coming out soon, which has already been completed, as part of a C86 compilation that the legendary Estella Rosa (fadeawayradiate) is putting out.

Neil: We do enjoy doing the cover songs, but until we recently started doing them, we never did cover songs in the past. We are always worried that we will be known for our cover songs and not our originals, so that’s another reason why we have slowed down. We mostly started recording cover songs as a way to get our name out there again and to promote the upcoming Sleep to Dream album. Now that the album is out, we feel less pressure to always have a song released. ”Setting suns are semi circles” (2000) it is like a lifetime before now... And yet that only album maintained a good reputation for you during all these years. Now it is consider a true cult classic. What do you remember of those early days?

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Krissy: My early memories with Neil and the band, writing the “Setting Suns” album, and playing live are truly some of my greatest memories in life. I smile every time I think about any of it, as it was always such a great time, filled with lots of laughs and musical inspiration. To be able to write music with your closest friends, and experience all that comes along with it, is such a gift and one that I will never take for granted.

Neil: I’m not sure enough people have even heard our first album for it to be a “classic”, but we do appreciate you saying that. If I’m honest, the album didn’t turn out at all how I heard it in my head. If I had more time, I would re-record it now and make it how it should be. That’s sort of why we re-recorded Beautiful Virtue and Never Come Down. Never Come Down was written but never recorded for our first album. I remember us having a lot of fun, but it was also a lot of work back then. We rehearsed every week and played every 4-6 weeks in Chicago for about 4 years straight. I’d been writing the whole first album

for around 4 years prior to us forming the band that would record Setting Suns are Semi-Circles.

Krissy and I had tried to start the band for a few years but it was never meant to be until the summer of 1999. Even though Chicago was always supportive, it was a much different time and anything Shoegaze or Dream Pop was very much long dead by 1999. I feel like we are much happier now and more comfortable where we are now in the band, even though we do miss performing live.

I can name more than a case where a second incarnation ends up in a stronger, more accomplished band. So coming back to the present time, do you feel a new band right now?

In which ways so?

Krissy: Absolutely, yes. This feels like we are in the right place at the right time. It feels like it was truly meant to be, especially when I look at the way these pieces fell into place so naturally for us. We have been able to achieve things that once seemed impossible and all

of it has made me believe that dreams really can come true. Had we tried to finish “Sleep To Dream” back in 2005, it would have never been the album that we were able to turn it into in 2017. Although we loved the songs back then, our hearts just were not in it at that time, and it would have been evident. Not only that, but the audience reach would have been far more limited at that time. When we revisited these songs, so many years later, it was a surreal experience to be able to listen with such a fresh perspective. It gave me a new appreciation for the songs and inspired me to not only want to finish them, but also made me want to continue writing new music with Neil.

So many of the things that have transpired since then, and songs we’ve written together recently, have really made me confident that we are doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing, and right where we are supposed to be. Our time is now and I am so excited for

all that is to come for the future of Whimsical.

Neil: Yeah, we are happy to be where we are now. Sleep to Dream would have come out and been long forgotten in 2005. It’s funny how things happen for a reason. We are older and we appreciate Whimsical more than we did towards the end of the original band.

Plus we don’t feel the need to “make it” or go on tour at this point. We are each married with kids and life has completely changed compared to our lives in 1999. We are happy just being creative and releasing songs at this point in our lives.

Thank You, Whimsical, it`s been a pleasure!

Krissy: Thank you so much for asking us to do this. It’s truly an honor <3 Neil: Thanks for the interview and for supporting Whimsical.

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The13th U NA R EVISTA IMA GINA RIA