Issue Twenty-Two: Whitney

There’s been a Whitney shaped hole in many of our playlists these past three years, as we waited impatiently for more of their sugar sweet folk melodies. With their new album, ‘Forever Turned Around’ about to drop, we thought it would be the perfect time to catch up with the Chicago duo. Calling the pair as they chilled backstage at a festival, we talked Neil Young and being done with cool.

It’s been a pretty crazy few years for you guys. What’s been happening between ‘Light Upon the Lake’ and the new album?

Julian: We just toured for a long time. When you start a band from ground zero, you don’t really start making money until promoters realise you’re worth tickets, so with the first album cycle you can end up over doing it. We immediately wanted to start writing, but when we got home we realised our brains were a little bit fried - it took us like nine to ten months to do anything we really cared about. (With this album) we put pressure on ourselves and pushed each other to work harder and I’m so glad that we did that, making sure that the end product would be something that we could be proud of forever.

Something that struck me in particular was the album title, what made you choose ‘Forever Turned Around’?

Julian: The main meaning that both of us hung onto from that (phrase) was the idea that forever isn’t real, everything is always changing. Half of the songs are still relationship songs, and are about the ups and downs you experience from that, feeling forever turned around in that way, feeling completely lost to complete commitment and love. Other songs are about being turned around in a different way, like complete exhaustion or substance abuse, just watching the world going round which isn’t so fun at the moment.

The album’s still very major key. We knew we wanted to continue writing positive sounding songs but this time with more of an introspective and sceptical lyricism. We’re not happy with where America is at, and it’s why the album isn’t one hundred percent positive, but we’re still trying to find hope in a place that isn’t so hopeful. We wrote songs for the record that sounded too dark, but we weren’t able to finish them, as we were like this isn’t what people need right now - they just need a melody that brightens their day.

Does expressing your inner most thoughts in your music make you feel vulnerable?

Max: With the lyrics we definitely have a conversation, we had it this time with one of the songs where we were like “do we want to sing this every night, because it will become part of our lives?” And if the answer is “no” then we go “okay we won’t put that in.” It’s not about being vulnerable it’s about being honest, we want those songs to still feel relevant to us in a years time.

Speaking of honesty, would you say you’re done with the concept of cool?

Julian: Completely! When we were younger and in other bands like Smith Westerns people would prioritise the image, and obviously image does have a part to play, but you have to put your time and effort into things that are actually important. As we get older the music side of things is the only thing we care about holding on to.

Max: Whenever you try to jump on a trend it always ages poorly, so we try to commit ourselves to writing songs that are important to us. Trends and image always seem so bizarre years later, but good music will always be impactful.

Words by Eleanor Philpot, illustration by Franz Lang