The Whigs

Lili-Anh talks members of The Whigs–

With three studio albums and numerous tours under their belts, the three members of The Whigs, Parker, Julian and Tim, have gone through quite a lot in the band’s eight year history. In fact, Tim is a relatively new addition to the band, coming in to replace the original bassist in 2006.

Their latest album, In The Dark, was released recently and when their tour stopped in Montreal a few weeks ago, I had a chance to discuss that among other things with the two founding members of The Whig; Parker and Julian.

CONFRONT: You’ve been around for quite a while now so can I have a quick history review on The Whigs?

PARKER: Yeah. I guess we started the band in 2003 and put out our first record independently in 2005. We recorded ourselves, distributed ourselves and then about a year later ATO Records picked us up and put out the first album again. Then we made Mission Control in 2008 and we have the new album In The Dark in 2010.

CONFRONT: You guys have got quite the catalogue of albums now!

PARKER: Yeah, three albums!

CONFRONT: And actually, In The Dark came out on March 16^th, which is pretty recent. How has the response been?

PARKER: It’s been good. You know, critically, I think it’s been kind of divided. We’ve gotten a lot of hate and a lot of praise. It’s been interesting that it hasn’t been a lot of…middle of the road. It’s either they really don’t like it or they really like it.

CONFRONT: There’s no mixed feelings or “ok”s?

PARKET: Yeah, it’s kind of funny but I like it.

[Julian joined in at this point]

CONFRONT: What do you think has been the evolution in your sound from Give’em All a Big Fat Lip and In The Dark?

JULIAN: We were talking about this yesterday. For us, I think that a lot of people who have heard our first record, we felt like we had returned a little bit back to some of the eclectic tunes that we remember doing on our first album. Some of the folks that heard our second album, which offered more of a live, straight-rock record, maybe hearing this is a little different. But we went back to Athens to record it so we got to be at home and be around a lot of the people that inspire us in the Athens music scene.

CONFRONT: That’s cool. Did you guys go back to the same place you recorded the first one? In a fraternity house, as I’ve heard?

*laughter*

JULIAN: No, we didn’t do that again! We went to a proper recording studio this time.

CONFRONT: Ok. And did it make a big difference? Or not that much?

JULIAN: Um…it’s definitely different I guess because the studio is meant to be recorded in and they have the equipment for it.

CONFRONT: Of course.

JULIAN: It’s nice being there but I guess if you set up in a house like we were sort of forced to do the first time because we didn’t have the money to go into a studio, you end up capturing whatever that environment is, you know? It was sort of this big mansion that we lucked out with. So I guess it depends. We liked that, maybe we can do it again sometime.

CONFRONT: Really? You’d choose to record in a house rather than a professional studio again?

JULIAN: Well I mean, it’s fun, you know? And I think if we’re having fun, then it could sort of yield the best results.

CONFRONT: Yeah, for sure! Now, I’m going back a little but how did you guys come up with the name for your band?

JULIAN: We didn’t really have a name when we booked our first show so admittedly we booked it, we were really excited and we sort of ran into an obstacle when the booking agent asked me what the band name was. We didn’t have anything for him. We’d been working on new songs and all that so we hung up with him and we went back to practice. We came up with different ideas and I think Parker had come up with “The Wigs”, like wigs on your head. And we had a friend that suggested putting an ‘h’.

CONFRONT: To make it a little different?

JULIAN: Yeah, and we were in college and we thought, you know, we could always change it right? And it stuck pretty quickly so we never changed it.

CONFRONT: Well that’s also a little problem, once you get out there with that name, it’s hard to change.

JULIAN: Yeah.

CONFRONT: So how’s the tour been so far?

PARKER: It’s been going really good. Been having fun, the audiences have been really nice to us.

CONFRONT: That’s great! I also saw that you guys have been touring a lot, how is it? Living on the road like that, how does it affect you?

PARKER: I guess you miss out on some kind of normalcy that a lot of people are used to. You know, doing laundry…I’m doing it right now, here at the club.

CONFRONT: Really? The venue has stuff for you to do your laundry?

PARKER: Yeah! It’s pretty cool. Um…you can’t really get on a normal sleep schedule; it’s hard to get into a routine. You end up meeting a lot of different people, forming relationships in a different way. Like, seeing someone in a specific city and seeing them over time, like over 5 trips of hanging out with them for maybe 30 minutes, you can slowly sort of develop stuff with people. But all in all, it’s definitely the lifestyle that we all chose and that we like.

CONFRONT: Well yeah, if you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t do it right?

PARKER: Right.

JULIAN: I guess some of why we started playing was because we love making albums and touring, playing together, playing in front of people, playing live. It was kind of the idea behind starting a band for us so we love it but yeah, it is a bit weird and you get used to it. I think we tour so much that being home is almost stranger than being out on the road. But yeah, we like it but there are pros and cons, I suppose, like in anything.

CONFRONT: Yeah. About touring though, one name kept coming up on your tours; Kings of Leon. You’ve toured with them quite a few times so I was wondering, how is it touring with one band over and over? And especially with such a big band?

JULIAN: They’ve been really great to us and actually, and they got so huge during the time that we happened to be touring with them, we’re sort of in debt to them for taking us out.

PARKER: Also, touring with them, you definitely learn their songs really well but you learn a lot about what they do to prepare for a show, how they take care of themselves after the shows. How their lifestyles affect whatever they do onstage, which is cool.

CONFRONT: Yeah! And have you taken in anything from what they do into your way of doing things?

PARKER: Yeah! We definitely learn stuff to do and stuff to not do.

CONFRONT: That’s great. And do you guys have any pre-show rituals?

PARKER: I do a lot of warming up, stretching, that kind of stuff. Not really any rituals.

JULIAN: I sell merchandise but it’s not really a ritual as much as a job. The vocal warm-ups are pretty interesting-sounding though! I wish you could hear them. Sort of odd noises, like a chant or something.

PARKER: They’re pretty embarrassing. [he did an example of his warm-ups]

CONFRONT: That’s actually kind of like what I used to do in my choir classes!

PARKER! Yeah! You know the drill!

CONFRONT: Yeah! You’ve been around since a while so you kind of saw the transition from the old way the music industry worked and the new kind of internet-run music industry. How do you think that has affected bands and the industry?

PARKER: I think it’s a little more single-driven. You know, with the internet, you can download specific songs off iTunes so it’s kind of reverting to how it used to be in the 60s. It used to be: you made singles and then if you got really popular, you made an album. Most rock and pop bands didn’t make albums back then; albums were reserved for more classical and serious musicians. And in the 90s, people got kind of sick of buying an album with 12 songs for 2 songs that were good. Now, they can just go on iTunes and get a couple of songs instead of getting a CD single. So I think it’s kind of going back to the old way.
CONFRONT: That is an interesting point of view; that the whole thing is reverting back to old ways but differently.

JULIAN: Yeah it’s different…I mean, I guess our band didn’t really sign and tour like we are doing now before the internet had taken over so we’re used to this way of getting your music out and digital downloads and all that. It’s good too because a lot of bands can get a crazy following just with the internet. It costs a lot of money to tour, to go overseas and our music can be heard worldwide without us actually going anywhere. There are advantages to it but it’s different just because we buy records and we make them. In the studio, we talk about an album, shaping that album and what songs would fit. We’re sequencing the album so that it’s a nice listening experience. If people only listen to one song, then it’s different because they’re not really on the same page.

CONFRONT: For my last question, I’m going to ask you to draw something that represents you.

PARKER: I didn’t know what to draw and I would’ve drawn nothing so I sort of just drew myself. I could’ve just drawn something abstract, which would’ve been probably more something I would’ve done but I didn’t want to be making too much of this simple assignment. Pretty much nothing that I could draw represents me because I’m terrible at it and other than some spontaneous, abstract thing that I would do that might represent me for the instant that I’m doing it, I’m not a good visual artist.

JULIAN: [he added to Parker’s drawing] I felt that Parker…he’s tall and I think he could play basketball if he wanted to. He chose music, he’s very talented. He has big feet. He can dunk. I’ve always wanted to dunk so basically, this is a vicarious drawing saying “I wish I could dunk.” So I’m drawing Parker mid-air. I took his drawing, gave him a basketball, he’s mid-air and about to dunk. He’s down by one point. His team is The Whigs; I’m on that team just ‘cause I want to be…I’m probably on the bench. He’s playing The World just because it was easier that way. He’s at the three point line dunking. It’s just pure domination right there. I don’t even know how The World got that many points.

*laughter*

CONFRONT: Thank you so much! I hope you guys have a great show tonight!

JULIAN & PARKER: Thank you!

To learn more about them, you can check out their official site: http://www.thewhigs.com/

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