Whistler Allen opens up about first solo release “Small Yard” EP

Mar 31

Interview by Sydney Hise

Between being a freelance artist and drummer for indie-rock group Hippo Campus, Whistler Allen keeps himself busy with creating his own music. Though Allen has mostly kept himself out of the limelight, he recently debuted a solo EP titled Small Yard last November. Composed of five tracks, Small Yard is just a taste of Allen’s songwriting and range as a musician. Shortly after the EP’s release, I got the chance to chat with Allen about the project’s concept, dealing with anxiety, and how his experiences shaped his music.

PLEASER: So, how does it feel to be releasing music on your own as opposed to in a group? What is different and what is similar?

Whistler: Yeah, uh in Hippo [Campus] I’ve had less of an experience. I have not had much experience in Hippo, releasing like my words, or any melodies or songs, specifically, that I've written. So it's pretty different in that sense.It 's a different type of reward, I think. With Hippo, there's already like a following and all this stuff. So, it's always like hoping that people like what we keep putting out and stay with us. Whereas, this process was very new and nobody's really heard my music except some of the people who like, dig through SoundCloud. So yeah, the anticipation was different. The expectations were different. The emotional experience was different because I'm expressing to the world my feelings….but yeah. Feels good.

Awesome! I've been really enjoying listening to it. It's very much like a winter EP, it feels very winter.

W: Funny that you say that because I originally was like, hoping to get it out this summer. Its working title forever was just like “Summer EP”, or whatever. And then it just, you know, it takes time to make stuff. And then there was a music video idea and all this stuff, then it eventually became this fall-time thing. And when I started doing the artwork I decided to try to do the cyanotype stuff…once I decided on that, it was like that blue hue. It's cool that you feel like it's a wintry thing, because I think it ended up coming out when it was supposed to, as opposed to the summer, which it maybe wouldn't have like, felt as right in the summertime. It’s just pretty moody.

Could you tell us a little bit about the concept for the artwork? And the concept for how you wanted everything to look, and everything to feel in terms of presentation?

W: It started with a friend of mine who actually shot the music video. When we were younger, we used to make a lot of videos together, like through middle school and high school that were really bad, but super fun. We were really both obsessed with like, YouTube and that whole vlogging world and it wasn't that we were making vlogs necessarily, but he was really good at doing art films and all these things. And he was also taking photos and there was a specific photo of his that is actually in like the bottom left corner of the front cover! That was like my original plan was just use that and like do something with it. But once he then sent me a bunch of photos…I think I had the idea of potentially doing the cyanotype, like sun printing is like another pretty general term for it. I think I saw that on TikTok or my girlfriend Demi showed it to me, and I was like, “that's pretty cool and seems easy”, it's not easy. It's so difficult. Then I just started playing in Photoshop. I've never used Photoshop before, but our visual artists for Hippo––David Kramer––knows how to use Photoshop. So I was just like, hitting him up on like simple little tricks and tips. And I just started diving in and like taking all these photos and layering them together. But yeah, that's a long story. I'm a visual artist, I like doing digital art a lot, I just don't do it that much. So…I think over these last couple months, I've been like, realizing that I should just be doing it more, and my project is obviously a really easy way to do it. I'm working right now on a new Blossom poster for our next Blossom event that comes out soon. And yeah, I don't know, I just had the urge to do it all myself as much as possible.

Next question I have for you, is that you said in your album announcement on your Instagram, that the songs are your babies. Is it hard to release things that are so close to you into the world?

W: Um not really, I think part of that was me trying to be like, silly and stupid. Not be like, too serious? I didn't have too much struggle. I was pretty eager to get these out. I've been eager to get them out there really, a couple of them are like seven years old. Some of them are three to four years old. And so it's just been a long time coming. It actually was a pretty big relief…It took a while to figure out what I was going to do, but like, you know, originally, I wanted to have an album because I have a bunch of other songs that I think are cool.

Did you write anything specifically for this project? Or is this all stuff that you had kind of like on the back burner in the archives?

W: Yeah, the latter, everything had been around for years. I definitely, like dug into them some more and tried to produce them out more. “Coming Home” was pretty quick, I mean, there’s not much to the song so it was pretty quickly finished. Then, “New Boy” I recorded years ago and sent it to Nathan [Stocker], and he added like some guitar and a little drum, and some hums and extra vocals. But um, “Little Man” was the most recent like really had to dive in and like break it down because it's a bunch of like, parts that are so different from each other…I needed to find a way to make them fit because I liked all of the parts…In a way, it was almost like three different songs or two different songs in one that needed to come together and be. “Baseball Cap” was an old song of mine, but “Little Man” and “Running” I wrote for Hippo for the Bambi sessions. I wrote those two, and they just never really got through.

That's really interesting to think about, if that would have like––that's really interesting.

W: It’s interesting to think about that for any of my songs. It would be a very, very different thing. We're getting there, I think, hopefully…I don't know. For you know, for years with Hippo, it was us in a room with our instruments. So we weren't like, writing outside and coming together. And when that started happening, by that point, my voice as a melodic musician hadn't really been heard in a Hippo, because I was just doing rhythmic stuff. And I was giving input on a lot of things, but I wasn't writing the melodies or anything like that because that's just not how we were writing the songs. I didn't have a melodic instrument in my hands.

I remember when “Chapstick” came out, and that was very much like, “Holy sh*t that’s Whistler on the song.”

W: That's just the demo, there is like a fleshed out version of that song that exists that we didn't release because we were releasing those demos, for some reason. But that was like, the first time that I was like, “Oh, my song kind of gets to see the day of light”.

Yeah, just thinking about when “Chapstick” came out, and how it was so cool that you had a chance to sing on stage like, I don't know, it's just interesting to reflect back on as a fan, and then to see you release your own project.

W: I'd be lying if I wasn't super stoked. That is the most listened to song on that record on the demos thing, you know, it's like hell yeah. It might be because it's new, it's a new experience. But either way, I was like, my ego got what it wanted, what I wanted. But I also eventually started to struggle a little bit with like, part of my show anxiety that I've been dealing with. I started kind of getting overwhelmed by having to sing and I'm a pretty shy person. So it was a little overwhelming from time to time, and now I don't think we'll probably ever play that song much anymore…but it was fun. It was a cool thing to just see people start to like, like the song.

That segues into my next question for you! You mentioned in “Coming Home” that you're more reserved. Does this make some of what you do a little bit more difficult?

W: Yeah, yes, it does. I was talking to my therapist about that yesterday. One thing I like people to know or would like people to know, I guess, is that I'm always down to have like, in depth conversations like this where you like, talk about that kind of stuff. So I'm never scared of that. I am reserved, and I think it does make things difficult. I used to not be so reserved when I was a kid. I was pretty cocky and pretty like into that. There were some moments in my growing up, where I don't know how, I can't necessarily pinpoint it, but I've just experienced some feeling as if, like, what I was doing was annoying…and I was just starting getting anxiety about, like, that type of arrogant personality…But I think I did really start kind of constraining myself and like, not allowing myself to be who I was. So yeah, it makes things difficult. It has made feeling like I have a voice difficult. In a group setting like Hippo, or like, doing something like putting out music and believing that it's worth it, and that people care. You know, like that kind of stuff. Definitely can hinder me from time to time, but I think releasing something like this is good. And learning that I don't have to be an arrogant asshole, to still be confident in myself and know that I'm good at things and make people deal with that sometimes. I'm a pretty big introvert in general, especially on the road and I think all of that reserved energy that I've been building up and like, really identifying with has made me more reserved than I need to be. So, that whole song is kind of like a, “Hey, people who want to talk to me, like around shows or after shows or in public like, doesn't mean that I hate you, I just don't like have the ability––”

Yeah, like It’s not your thing

W: Yeah, I mean you can catch me in moments where I'm interested in talking about this stuff…but I’ve been introverted easily for the last couple of years. So it's not too hard for me to talk. But on the road, it's tough because I feel bad. But I've had to learn to like, not feel bad. And also know that, like, if I were out there forcing myself I wouldn't be giving them the genuine experience of meeting me and talking to me. So yeah, you might not get to talk to me as often. But hopefully, when you do get to talk to me, I'm the person I would like to be for you and I can be the best me possible.

And that’s valid. I think that's one of the things as music listeners that we need to realize is like, nobody owes you time ever, in any regard of that, like, sense of that world, so it doesn't fall only on you. But yeah, I’ve got two more questions for you, second to last one: share a memory from the creation of this project that means a lot to you.

W: I mean, there's so many. Um, just the fact that people were willing to like work with me and want to work with me is huge. I get that that's like crazy to say but also I don't know, it's cool. The initial one was in like…January of 2020, so right before everything like, shut down I started working on “Baseball Cap” and “Running”...basically all of them except “New Boy”. And I started diving in with Caleb [Hinz], and Caleb was starting to become pretty busy. I had to kind of be like, “I'll give you some cash to work on these songs, but like, please come help,” and so that was a really big moment and turning point for this project. So I'm grateful for that. That was a great moment, and just like hanging with him and working with him one on one is always fun.

Okay, the last question I have for you: is there anything that we can expect from you in the future?

W: I hope so. I wanted to use this project kind of as a way to get myself into the world as an artist, and to get my feet planted kind of. So yeah, I don’t know what I want to do with myself. The reserved side of me is gonna say that I don't have a strong desire to gain anything from this, but then obviously the healthy side of me is probably interested in seeing things do well. And I know I have some songs that are kind of cool and unique, and I think it's just about finding the right person to work with. I don't know, that’s gonna be the struggle I think. But I do have a handful of songs and I kind of am curious about just like, starting to randomly put singles out, just for people to hear because I don’t have an end goal here. I’m not trying to have a “career” set for me, ever, if ever…so yeah. I think it’s just a space for me to be able to be creative and to have an outlet…I don’t know there will be some stuff. I can talk forever but there will be some stuff.