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| Melbourne artist Whitley
is a contradiction. The cheeky, charismatic 22-year-old
exudes charm and quick wit. Yet his music and lyrics
belie an older soul, one with tales to tell. |
| Whitley seamlessly blends organic acoustic flavours with electronic overtones creating songs with hushed, whimsical tales of love and loss. |
| “I can relate to the tragedy of the comedy involved with the story line. My more serious side is the music, so I can get away with being a clown everywhere else,” he says. |
| Whitley’s previous incarnations in hardcore and punk bands were tempered when he was dragged along to see alt-country stars Keiran Cane and Kevin Welsh by a friend’s dad. He had an epiphany and was converted to the “songs that made sense” and started listening to traditional country. The result of these influences has produced a folktronic sound all of his own. |
| Whitley first met producer and collaborator, Nick Huggins, from watching him play the Mississippi folk instrument the steel lap guitar (dobro). The friendship evolved through a shared love of music and Nick was the natural choice to work on the album. |
| The pair took a pragmatic approach to recording, decamping to the surrounds of Nick’s family home in Port Lonsdale converting the old house into a studio with a sleeping barracks out the back. |
| Instead of a rigid schedule and time restraints, recording revolved around the Geelong footy fixture and the surfing tides. |
| “We planned the whole album around the footy and the surf. It was a matter of working around that stuff. You don’t want to do anything when you’re not feeling creative. So we would only create and only write and only make music when we wanted. |
| “Nick is a mad Geelong fan and he refused to record on any days when Geelong was playing. And it would really influence the way Nick recorded that week. If Geelong won, he would be up beat [clicks fingers] and on fire and if they lost he would just be miserable.” |
| In between Geelong matches and early morning surfs, The Submarine began to take shape, coming to life in the bathrooms and bedrooms of the house. It is this organic approach that results in the songs creating an intimacy that invites you in to join in his happiness and heartbreak. |
| The Submarine was then mixed by Jonathan Burnside [The Sleepy Jackson, Nirvana, Faith No More, Fugazi] in his studio. Whitley felt that Burnside had an understanding of the organic recording process and could really bring that out. |
| What emerges as The Submarine is the sum of all these parts. Whitley is the tumbleweed soul that is quickly/slowly beginning to swindle the hearts and minds of club kids and farmer's daughters alike. |
