theaussieword.com special interview with Whitacre.
How and where did it all begin for you? What drew your interest to the music industry? All of us in the band expressed a love/interest in music at a very young age, however, started focusing on our instruments at different ages.
What motivates or influences you in your quest to make great music? Everyone in the band has a deep desire to tell a story that isn’t told often enough – one of hope. Music is the vehicle that we use to communicate that it’s alright to not be okay and to spread a sense of hope.
What are your biggest goals you hope to accomplish as an artist? The ultimate goal is to support our families solely by playing music. We all hope to grow Whitacre to a point that we can pack 8 of us onto a bus (wives included) and travel the world playing these songs.
What can we expect from you in the coming months? Any plans to tour? We’re currently in the middle of releasing our debut LP ‘Seasons.’ Once the full record is out, we’re going to hit the road hard in early 2020 to get the music in the hands of as many people as possible. Both support and headline dates are being worked on as we speak.
Tell us a bit about your latest release and how would you best describe your music? ‘Peach’ is our most recent release. It was written as a promise to myself and my wife that even through our most difficult days together, we’re sticking to the promise we made. The song is being received well digitally and has become a favorite within our live set as well. Mountain rock is how we like to describe our genre – feels fresh in an overwhelmly redundant industry.
Give us an insight into your creative process. What gets you writing songs? The creative process comes really naturally for us – it’s just a matter of setting the time aside to do it. In the past, Paul (our frontman), would bring the songs to the table and the rest of us would add our parts. More recently, we’ll pack into a room together and share the songs in that space so everyone has more of a say in the direction a song takes.
Is there a hidden meaning in any of your music? While we don’t necessarily have ‘hidden meaning,’ we do our best to write in a metaphorical way that requires some focus and personal interpretation from each listener. The music feels more engaging that way.
Success, what is the secret to it? Working really really hard, all the time. Being respectful and knowing how to connect with the right people at the right time – and knowing when to leave them alone.
What has been your biggest career highlight so far? Playing Red Rocks was unreal. That was a dream we had from the very start of our career. Walking onto that stage in front of thousands of people was one of the most satisfying days of my life.
Which stars of the music industry do you find inspiring? The Avett Brothers and Dave Matthews are bands that come up really often. We love how they’ve tapped into the mainstream just enough to stay relevant for multiple decades, but even more so how relentlessly they tour.
Are there any new projects in the pipeline? Even though we’re in the midst of releasing our full length record, we’re about 5 songs in to the next project and thinking through where we want to have that album produced.
The music industry is huge, where do you see yourself a few years from now? We hope that within the next couple of years we’ve moved away from mainly playing support gigs and festivals to being the main event on a bill. Not that we don’t want those shows to still be on our calendar, but we’re working toward being the main event as fast as possible.
What is your favourite and least favourite part about this line of work and why? Our favorite part of being in a band is definitely the rush of a live performance. There is no feeling quite like walking on stage to a thousand people willing to listen to and support the art you’ve worked so hard on creating. The hardest part of this business is definitely the inconsistency. You never know when a show/tour will pop up, and waiting for that to happen can be grueling.
Name a few of your favourite Australian artists. Matt Corby is without a doubt. our first, second and 3rd favorite Aussie artist. Unreal sole and talent in that man.
The shape of the music industry has changed significantly over the years, including the use of social media, how do you feel about the industry as a whole and what does it mean to you in getting your records out into the public eye? I think there is a lot less luck involved in making music a career compared to 10-15 years ago. Social media, Spotify and other modern technologies make it so much easier to connect with your fans. If you have a vision and the drive to execute that vision, you can make your dreams come true.
How do you plan on cracking the international market? I’ve been meaning to ask our agent when we can do a Europian tour – thanks for the reminder!
Do you collaborate with others? Who is on your wish-list? We love collaborating with certain producers and engineers on our records. The process in the past has been figuring out who our favorite artists are working with and connecting with those producers/engineers to see if we’d be a fit.
What advice do you give for someone wanting to follow in your footsteps? Be kind, work smart and don’t give up. For every big show or big opportunity we’ve had come across our plate, dozens of hours of hard work have gone into making that happen.
A message for your fans. How do you best interact and respond with your fans? We can’t thank our fans enough for their passion toward our music. A few stick out in the forefront of our minds and it’s one of the most fun and rewarding things to have fans that are so stoked on what you’re creating.
Any last words? Right now is an exciting time to become a fan of Whitacre. We’ve got a ton of new music on the way, plenty of shows in the pipeline and we love meeting our supporters at live concerts. Follow on Instagram and Spotify to stay up to date on new shows and releases!
Website: whitacreband.com/
Facebook: facebook.com/whitacreband/
Twitter: twitter.com/whitacreband
Instagram: instagram.com/whitacreband/
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Spotify: Whitacre