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| Photo by Chris Casella |
Sit Down; Eat an Ice Cream Cone, and Be Glad, Right Now
By Matt Chrystal
William Elliott Whitmore, an Iowa farm-boy by day, an alt-country troubadour by night, has long been known from coast to coast for his authenticity, DIY work ethic and his prowess as a singer-songwriter. But on his latest album, Kilonova, he has, perhaps, just made his most punk rock move of all: Performing a collection of other people's songs.
Kilonova, a collection of ten cover tunes, finds Whitmore colliding head-on with his influences to the point where both the songs and the man sound like something new. "My brain opened up during this album and put me in a different spot than I usually am," he recounts of the experience.
Mr. Whitmore speaks with the utmost reverence of the artists that influenced him, a heterogeneous hodgepodge of heroes that are highlighted on the album, including the likes of Bad Religion, Johnny Cash, Bill Withers, and Captain Beefheart. Mr. Whitmore also speaks with the utmost sincerity when he makes it known that, when he does a cover, he wants do it in his own voice and own style and make it his own.
Hearing artists like Waylon Jennings cover other artists like Billy Joe Shaver led William Elliot Whitmore down a rabbit hole of discovery, and he hopes Kilonova will do the same for his listeners.
I caught up with Mr. Whitmore, while he was on a break between legs of his current tour. He answered my call from his grandmother's farmhouse in Iowa. From there, we got to talking about his career in the music business and the making of his latest album. He shared some of his philosophies on life and his love for astrophysics.
Uncool Uncle Matty: Your new album, Kilonova is made up of ten cover songs. I am assuming these are your Top 10 favorite songs. Was it difficult to narrow your selections down to just ten?
William Elliott Whitmore: Yeah, it was really difficult. Out of the thousands and thousands of great songs out there, to take it down to ten was hard. There were some that were always going to be on there, some that I have done live for years like "Ain't No Sunshine" and "Don't Pray On Me."
It was a winnowing process to narrow it down, but it was also just super fun. It was like the old days of making mix-tapes. I mean, I still make mix-cds for friends. That seems like such an old school thing to do now. I guess it's all about playlist now. But, whatever format it is, it's just fun to curate a little list of songs for someone, maybe a girl you like, or whoever.
UUM: Were there any songs you regret having to cut?
WEW: There was a John Prine song called "Sam Stone" that I was maybe going to put on there. It's just a really great song. There's also "Sally Bangs" by J. Roddy Walston and The Business that I have done live. I was going to put that on there and then didn't. Those are just a couple examples of songs that either didn't fit in with the rest or just didn't make the cut.
UUM: You pay homage to artists ranging from Bad Religion to Bill Withers to Captain Beefheart. And, now, you are also talking about John Prine and J. Roddy Walston. That is quite an eclectic sampling.
WEW: Like most people who are into music, I have a really diverse record collection. And I do collect records. Sure, I have some cds and mp3s but I love vinyl records. I look through them, and I see the Monks, and then I see Thelonius Monk, and there is everything in between. I wanted this album to reflect that diversity.
UUM: The title of the album is Kilonova. I haven't seen this discussed much so I wanted to ask about it. Kilonova is an event where two stars merge with a black hole. Is this an accurate metaphor for how this album came to be?
WEW: I became really interested in the kilonova phenomenon. Apparently, one of those happened that scientist were actually able to observe. It was about a year or two years ago. I heard about it in the news. That word, "kilonova," just came into my brain. I have always been fascinated by space and celestial happenings and all these things that are going on in the universe that are just so hard to wrap our minds around, they don't hardly seem real.
Neil DeGrasse Tyson has this great book called Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, and it really breaks things down for a dummy like me or maybe for dummies like most of us that don't quite understand all that stuff. So, anyways, that word was stuck in my brain the whole time I was working on this album.
To me the word represents two stars coming together and making a black hole, but it's also where all precious metals are from. Like millions or trillions of years ago, there was a kilonova that made heavy metal. It made gold, silver, and platinum. I mean, however far away those stars collided, they made this dust, this essence made it here. Any piece of gold you have ever held in your hand is here because of stars exploding. Stuff like that just trips me out. So, really, for this album, it represents two things coming together to make something else. Two stars collide and their lives are done, but they came together to make something else. That energy didn't just go away. It changes, and it moves, and that dust floated through the galaxy and became the gold wedding band that was on your mother's finger. I just love stuff like that.
UUM: Whoa. I feel like I was just talking to Neil DeGrasse Tyson for a moment.
WEW: That's high praise; he's a hero of mine. And to stretch this metaphor out even further, think about your parents, right? Those are two people who came together to make you. Things come together to make something else, right? So, that's why the cover of the album is of my great-grandparents holding a fishing string between them. I deliberately chose that photo because of that theme. Those two people got together to make my grandpa, who got together with my grandma and made my mom and so on down the line. Nature is just full of those examples. I started to think about that musically, like what had to come together for me to make these songs and give them to the world.
UUM: Speaking of things coming together to make gold, you recently signed to Bloodshot Records. You are an artist known for punk rock influences and an alt-country sound, so it sounds like BSR is a label that was tailor-made for you. How did it take six albums and fifteen years into your career for you guys to find each other?
WEW: When I first started out, I was on Southern Records out of Chicago. They were mostly known for weird, artsy rock. The woman who ran Southern saw me at a show and offered to sign me up. She rolled the dice on a guy playing banjo who didn't fit in. I was playing shows opening for hardcore bands. I never played punk. I was just a big punk fan, but I loved playing country. I didn't come up in the coffee-house scene. I was playing country music in the middle of DIY punk scenes.
I did three records with Southern then got involved with Epitaph Records. That's the label started by Bad Religion's Brett Gurewitz. They had this thing called Anti Records for the more oddball stuff so I got involved with them as just a natural progression. I felt at home between Nick Cave and Tom Waits.
I've stayed on good terms with all these labels and people but it all just ran its course and it was time for me to do something different. Then Bloodshot Records offered me a slot on their 20th Anniversary triple album of people covering Bloodshot Records songs. I did this cover of an old Neko Case song, and that was my foot in the door. One of the guys at Bloodshot used to work at Southern Records and asked me if I wanted to work together again. It was a case of something coming back around to me fifteen years later. That's a long story of how I got here, but it just had such a natural, organic way of happening. It is the perfect home for me. Bloodshot is the nexus of rock and punk and country. It was a long path to get here but it just makes sense that I got here.
UUM: You are currently touring with your label mates, Murder By Death, can you share how that experience has been so far?
WEW: It's been great! We were just on the West Coast. I got a little break and now we are heading East. It's been really fun. I've toured with them before. We started out together and I remember playing a show in the singer's [Adam Turla], basement in Bloomington, Indiana. They stuck out immediately to me back then. They had a cello! They had this gothic, western, folky, chamber music that became rock n roll. It's been a few years since I toured with them, though. It just so happens that they have a new record out and I have a new record out, so we thought we should work together on a big tour and fly the Bloodshot flag! The folks in Murder By Death and I have been touring a long time, so we just know what we are doing out there, there's no weirdness. It's just professional and that just makes it more fun.
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| Murder By Death by Tall James Photography |
UUM: Getting back to Kilonova for a moment, most of the songs were originally recorded with full band accompaniment; and, on your record, there are some moments that find you with a back-up band. How do the songs change again when it's just you and your banjo on stage?
WEW: There's been times in the past where I had a band. My friends would come along with me and play. But for almost my entire career on the road, it's just me. All of my records have at least a song or two with a band, and it's a real struggle for me about how much to do that because when you come out see me live, it's just me.
I try not to drench the albums with too much instrumentation; but, sometimes, it's just fun to bring my buddies into the studio. Just know, that no matter what the album sounds like, if you ever come see me, it will usually just be a stripped down thing. Hopefully, people can dig too.
I have had that push-and-pull for years about how much to add to each record. With Kilonova, I wanted plenty of songs with just me but some of the songs like "Ain't No Sunshine" just needed a funky backbeat. These records will be around long after I am dead; so, if it's going to be repeated forever, then it should live in a certain way on record. There's the immediacy of the moment in a live show, and then there's that long term thing with a record.
UUM: Speaking of getting together with your friends, you have a new video for the Harlan Howard-penned song, "Busted." It is similar to your video for "Healing to Do," where it's just you and a couple buds hanging out and jamming. Is that a pretty regular scene back on your farm in Iowa?
WEW: That's exactly it. The "Healing to Do" video was actually shot in my grandmother's house. She passed away, but her house is still here with all her stuff in it. It's kind of like an open house. We keep beers there and just all get together there. After she passed, I just felt like I should make a video in her house. I feel like she would have loved that. It was super fun. The video for "Busted" took place at a friend's farm, but it had the same vibe. We just wanted to get together like we do anyways. Just play and film it. I wish I was better at coming up with ideas for music videos, like maybe try and come up with some creative narrative or something. I mean Kendrick Lamar videos are like little movies, but I don't have the budget or creativity to do something like that. Yeah, just film us playing.
UUM: Is that your dog in the video?
WEW: Nope. That was my friend's dog, and that was his cool '57 Chevy. It wasn't my house, dog, or car. It was just some trickery to make me seem cooler than I am.
UUM: We have talked a lot about cover songs, so I'm wondering which of your own songs have you heard covered that really stuck out to you?
WEW: I take a lot of pride in my songwriting, so it was kind of weird for me to do an album of all covers. I can think of two top notch examples of my songs getting interpreted in a beautiful way, and it just happens to be by my friends.
Murder By Death covered "One Man Chain" that really stood out to me. And my friend, Esmé Patterson does my song "Not Feeling Any Pain" and just makes it her own. That song belongs to her now.
I have also seen kids covering my songs on Youtube and that gets me emotional. That is just so nice. There wasn't Youtube when I was a kid, but that is what we did. We would sit and play Johnny Cash songs or Pearl Jam songs. I learned to play guitar by playing the songs of my heroes. It's such a satisfying thing to hear someone else play my songs. I hope people that I am covering now feel the same way when they hear me.
UUM: Have you gotten any feedback from any of the original artists?
WEW: Brett Gurewitz from Bad Religion told me he loves my version of "Don’t Pray on Me." He liked how I made it a folk song. It was really touching to hear that he liked it.
UUM: You brought up having so much pride in your own songwriting. So do you already have plans for a follow-up album, or are you trying to just live in the moment?
WEW: The whole time I was working on Kilonova, I was writing for the next one. I try, to varying degrees of success, to write every day or at least think of stuff to write. My brain opened up during this album ad put me in a different spot than I usually am. That helped me with writing my own songs. Maybe I will record that new shit next year. I want to give time to this tour and enjoy this current album and, when that ends, just move on to the next thing. There's always part of me that is working on the next thing, and then there's part of me that wants to just sit down, eat an ice cream cone, and be glad, right now.
UUM: Sit down; eat an ice cream cone, and be glad, right now. Words to live by.
WEW: Well, I won't say to live like each day is your last because, sometimes, you have to live like you have many more days left, because you probably do. So maybe eat an ice cream cone and be glad, but make sure you also have some groceries in the fridge for tomorrow.
UUM: Last question is actually about today and tomorrow. The collection of songs you put together on your Kilonova mixtape work well as a soundtrack to the world around us. With that said,what are your thoughts are on today's America and your hopes for the future?
WEW: Oh, man. There's a cynicism and a hopefulness that coincide in my brain. There's a strange comfort in just knowing that we have all made it this far. I have always had some sort of unsettling feeling of disillusionment when it came to the state of the world. Now, it just seems to be more heightened. I just have to remember that it was ever thus. On the other side of my cynicism and disillusionment is optimism. It's not rose-colored glasses optimism, it's a sense that I know people every day that are cool and nice and loving and are just as sick of this shit as anyone else is. It like there are always two opposing football teams out there. Red, Blue, Republican, Democrat? It's all an illusion, we are all just people.
I have friends on both sides. I have relatives I disagree with, but we are all just trying to figure out what's for supper and trying to live the best we can. We are all just people. We will make it through! We just need to be a lot cooler to each other.
Unless, of course, if you are some Nazi extremist piece of shit then sorry. I can't get with you, dude. Those people gotta go to hell.
The new album, Kilonova, is available now on Bloodshot Records.
William Elliot Whitmore and Murder By Death will be performing at:
Bowery Ballroom, NYC on Oct 17
Music Hall of Williamsburg, Brooklyn on Oct. 19th
Asbury Lanes, Asbury Park, NJ on Oct. 20th
For more info go to www.williamelliottwhitmore.com.
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