Features Whirl

On 25th April, San Francisco’s Whirl will release their new EP ‘Distressor’ in the UK. Last week we sent over a few questions for them to find out more about it, and - being a busy bunch - Nick from the band answered them at 3.30am, following a twelve hour drive.

First thing’s first: the only picture we can find associated with the band is some release artwork. How come? Are we just not looking hard enough?

Well, promotional photos aren’t our thing, so unfortunately you won’t have any luck finding those, although if you look hard enough you can dig up some live ones.

So, your new EP ‘Distressor’ will be released a little later this month. Can you tell us about it? Where did you record, who with etc etc.
Sure. It’s seven tracks long, clocking in around twenty-five minutes. We recorded live to analog tape in Palo Alto, California with Jack Shirley at The Atomic Garden (Magic Bullets, Punch, Loma Prieta). Recording was great, Jack knew what sort of sound we were going for and helped us achieve it on the record.

Seven tracks is quite a lot for an EP. Did you deliberately want it to be a long ‘un, or is that just how is worked out?

Seven songs was just the amount we had ready at the time and had been working with for a few months.

Speaking of numbers that are quite high, how does the band dynamic work with six members? Do you share the workload equally?

Generally one of the members writes a riff and everyone else sort of jams on it until we get the basic shape of the song, then we fine-tune the details later.

When you made the decision to record your music live, was that before or after trying alternative methods?

We had recorded a super rough demo ourselves via multi-track recording, only because that was the only way we could make it sound somewhat decent. Recording live with the recording equipment we had at the time would have been out of the question if we wanted to retain any actual clarity. But we knew going into the studio that we wanted to make it as natural, raw and atmospheric as possible, so recording live seemed the way to go.

Do you have to do many takes?

We averaged about 1-5 takes takes per track I’d say.

And finally: which of your songs would you prefer potential new fans to check out first?

Probably ‘Leave’, ‘Meaningless’ and ‘Sandy’. Each song has a different dynamic to it and together they fairly well sum up the sound of the band.

Whirl - Leave by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

Whirl - Meaningless by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing

Whirl - Sandy by TheSoundsOfSweetNothing