Whitney: “When you're recording yourself, you're making something that sounds a little more charming and less computerised.”

American folksters Whitney are appreciating the winter while warm at home, protected from their native Chicago’s snowy weather. At the time of our call, the duo also enjoy the last few calm months before they hop onto their run of dates early this year, leading them all the way to Dublin for a headline show on February 21. A welcome return to the Emerald Isle, Max Kakacek tells me: “I think all of us have a huge affinity for Ireland, and Dublin, too. One of our first shows ever was actually at Electric Picnic,” the singer and guitarist reminisces. “We had no idea what to expect, and it was, honestly, one of the most rowdy experiences ever. All of us were just like, what the fuck is happening? We did not realise what we were about to do when we pulled into the festival.”

The upcoming tour, set to kick off in Paris in early February and run well into April with dates in Canada, comes in support of Whitney’s most recent and fourth record Small Talk, an intimate yet impressively expansive collection of songs that finds the band on their best and most accomplished form yet, even compared to their acclaimed first couple of releases.
Marking their first self-produced effort, the new record was mostly written in a barn in Oregon, or in their Chicago apartment, all by themselves.

Drummer Julien Ehrilich reflects: “not having an outside perspective to see the entire project through just allowed us a little bit more intimacy and back and forth between us. I think you can hear that we didn't have the outside pressure of someone else to impress, and that we let the songs develop at a more natural pace.

“A major difference between this and getting studio space and working with a producer is that it costs the band money and time,” adds Kakacek, “so it’s done a little more professionally. That’s one of the reasons I like demos and b-sides, and I think most people do: the pressure for the perfect performance on tape is less burnt into the process.”

Indeed, Small Talk is scattered with an array of accidental elements and charming flaws that makes it feel like a gloriously alive and breathing piece of art, adding an undeniable distinctiveness to an already brilliant work. “When you're recording yourself,” explains Kakacek, “you let some stuff slip that actually adds to the human nature of the recording process. You're making something that sounds a little more charming and less computerised.”

This newly found freedom was found possible because, after ten years as a band, the duo have found themselves becoming less and less precious with their songwriting process, Ehrilich admits, adding that this newly found relaxed approach allows it to feel “like putting a puzzle together with your friend. It really does feel like painting together.

“We're just better at generating and throwing out more ideas,” he continues, “as a response to blockade, and then seeing what fits. We used to be really emotionally affected if we couldn't find the right words, or the right way to finesse an arrangement. And maybe it's part of getting older, dealing with those feelings in a more productive way. We wrote most of the lyrics by throwing as many ideas at the wall as we can until something sticks.”

Thematically, Small Talk is also bursting with intimacy, largely informed by the idea of grief, as the two had to deal with a number of important losses in the span of a year. As they were writing, Kakacek reminisces, some of these life-changing events were happening in real time, and putting those feelings on paper turned out to be almost a form of therapy: “The songwriting process, by nature, is fun and rewarding, and can be silly at times,” he says. “A song like ‘Darling’, for example: I was in the middle of a breakup when we were writing that. And the sentiment of the breakup in that song is kind of cliche, almost Dolly Parton-esque. It's just so silly that it was funny to me at the time. I was able to think, during the writing process, ‘this breakup's hilarious, in a way.’ That gave me kind of a break.

“And then, when you're moved on from something, revisiting these songs lets you appreciate them from a distance. Now, when I listen to that song, I'm like, ‘wow, I was really sad about this thing.’ In the immediacy, it gives you comfort and happiness. And then afterwards, you get to appreciate the gravestone that the song represents.”

This intimate and newly enjoyable writing and recording process could not have been possible without Whitney’s previous record, the 2022 SPARK. Whitney’s first attempt at an electronic sound, widely different from their previous folky efforts. This third record came about after the band had spent almost seven years reusing the same type of musical techniques, and found themselves widely overworked and desperate for a break out of the mold they had made for themselves. “At the time, we had been touring so much,” Ehrilich explains, “so we really couldn't get away from our instruments, or just the tools that we had sort of built Whitney around. So I think it made sense that when the pandemic hit, it was just like, we aren't forced to play the old songs every single day, so let's just stretch out a little bit.”

Although an interesting swing at something completely new, SPARK did not receive the critical acclaim that Whitney’s two previous efforts had, but offered the duo an occasion to breathe, refresh and “see what our strengths really are,” Ehrilich agrees.

“The way we had the studio set up when we were making SPARK did allow us to just work faster, and to not be quite so precious,” he adds. “It was the opposite of sitting with a journal at our desk with our acoustic guitars. More than anything, it was important for us to have space away from our normal instruments. Max and I really weren’t playing guitar very much – we wrote a lot of it on piano… We spent a lot of time away from guitar, and then coming back now, it still feels really good again to write on it. I just think we needed a break for the decade, maybe. It's like, okay, we are refreshed.”

This difficult previous album cycle, the two musicians insist, isn’t the reason why Whitney returned to their roots on Small Talk. Just as they did on SPARK, Ehrilich and Kakacek are not trying to please the critics, but to make something that feels true to themselves, fresh and good to write. So Whitney are leaving the electronics behind for now, and joyfully “leaning into the more human side of the recording process,” Kakacek concludes.

• Whitney play The Academy on February 21. Small Talk is out now.