Interview: Whitley
Interview
with Lawrence Greenwood
Singer
& Songwriter of the band Whitley
Lawrence
Brian Grexenwood. Three words to sum up our interviewee. Well,
at least that's how he chose to describe himself in the given literary
space...
Forever
the larrikin, it is refreshing to meet someone in the music
industry who refuses to take themselves too seriously.
Better known within the music scene as Whitley, Greenwood has just
returned from a hectic two months touring over in the United States,
which he said was a huge adjustment for him.
But as he explains, "If you want stuff to happen over there and you try
hard enough, then things will open up".
And they certainly have for Whitley.
With booking and publishing deals now in the works over there, he'll be
heading back for "Tour #2" next month.
With a mere twenty-two years under his belt, Greenwood's age defies the
maturity-drenched soul of his music. His poetic anecdotes of love and
loss are impeccably interwoven with his husky croon, while eluding
cliché or over-sentimentality.
At his essence, he is a boy wielding a Gibson acoustic with many a tale
to tell. Undeniably, he is a boy with a musical future ahead of him -
having recently being named on Rolling Stone's Top 10 Breaking Artists
to Watch for 2008.
The 'Whitley' namesake was something of a tribute to the late blues
singer Chris Whitley, whom Lawrence has named as a significant musical
influence to his folksy style of balladry.
The original Whitley passed away whilst Greenwood was recording his
debut album "The Submarine" in 2005, so he felt adopting the moniker
was the right thing to do. Greenwood also attributes other artists such
as The Eels, The Sleepy Jackson, Sigor Ros and The Panics
as having
been influential to his particular take on country-rock.
His musical tastes have however diverged greatly over the years, being
an avid enthusiast of hardcore and punk sounds in previous years. Quite
the contrary to his musical tastes of late. "I think its not so much a
change of heart, I'm just always trying to do something new and
different because stylistically something would become quite boring
after a while".
It becomes apparent Whitley is very much a restless musician with a
continual need to itch his musical feet. "I'm pretty over playing
guitars at the moment. I just get bored with an instrument after a
while, when it’s just not interesting anymore. You reach a point where
I think your mind explores everything you want to do with it and you
just need to leave it. When you get used to an instrument you can feel
really unimaginative, so when you change instruments you come up with
new stuff to wrap your head around it again".
Whilst his whimsical tales were foremost complimented by his six-string
Telecaster throughout "The Submarine", Whitley informs that his
forthcoming record will be resonating with the old black and whites. As
he assures, "...The next album is going to sound very different from
the one I released last...".
His constant need for evolving new sounds has also seen him undertake a
handful of side projects, joining forces with fellow Melbourne bands
Seagull and Oh Mercy and collaborating with Jae [Laffer] (from The
Panics) to form Verses Vs Verses. "So far, it’s
kind of like My Morning
Jacket-ish, but very Australian. A bit of an Okkervil River vibe. It's
just long rock and dark songs, and we're going to use a lot of reverb".
Greenwood met Jae when he played support for The Panics on their
national tour last year. Having also played alongside other established
artists (namely Powderfinger,
Josh Pyke and Ben Kweller)
he most
certainly has some stories to tell.
"I had a weird moment with Powderfinger
on the last tour. Bernard
[Fanning] invited me up to sing Passenger.
That was a song I was
learning when I first got a guitar. So going from playing in my room to
actually standing at The Forum singing that song, with a huge crowd
singing it right back, that was pretty cool".
Always taking care with how to word his answers, he is rather ambiguous
when asked who he most enjoyed playing with. "Everybody we've played
with, we usually like their music and get along with. Everybody in the
bands are just good people and most of the people that you find in the
music industry are actually pretty reasonable people. The only real
pricks are in the mechanics of it".
So what does he think of music journalists? He takes a deep breath and
thinks for more than just a moment. "I think, um…I think the day that
journalism and money got involved with music was probably a bad idea.
But it's the same with everything else. You get good journalists and
you get bad journalists. You get good labels and you get bad labels. I
have no allegiances with them, but I don't hate any of them".
He certainly is clever with his well thought-out answers.
"It just depends, if the journalist really is into what they are doing,
it comes across as good and honest when you read an interview. I just
think in the past year or so I have grown really tired of reading
something that just focuses on one strange part just for them to get
ahead. I haven't been doing any interviews recently".
"I think I'm going to be far more cautious on the next record about who
I speak with and when it is, because the media is just so tabloid these
days".
With his experience in the industry, Greenwood has learnt a thing or
two. Most importantly, he asserts, "... don't give a fuck about what
people think. As you start doing better and better people will
naturally try to speak badly of you. Eventually you've just got to put
yourself in your cocoon, put your trust in labels and management and
just go for it".
So does Whitley prefer the studio or the stage? "I do prefer it in the
studio. The life on the road is just so abnormal and weird. But as soon
as I've been in the studio for a year then I start to hate being in
that room, so I want to go out and play shows and do exciting things".
As for song writing, he elucidates, "I'll mess around with a melody or
an idea in my head, I'll just do that for a while and they all build
up. When it's time to record you just get in the studio and do it. I
tend not to sit down, write a song and say to myself 'OK, thats penned
out, I can put it aside'. I do it bit by bit and try to be spontaneous
with it, because if you put a song away, then it becomes dated and you
don't relate to that any more. It needs to be spontaneous and flowing".
Considering his album was recorded almost two years ago, one would
assume looking back he would find it dated. "To me personally, yes
definitely. I think it applies still because if someone goes and buys
it now it's still to them what it was to me when I first did it, so I
don't worry about that. But I'm definitely looking forward to doing
something new".
Whitley
plays September 18th at the Northcote Social Club in Melbourne
before heading over to the US.
Brought
to you by The
Dwarf
|
