Somewhere beyond the clichéd potential roadblock of the sophomore slump lies an even tougher crossroad for musicians, one where the optimism of being recognized for your creative output begins to fade behind stagnancy, overwhelming change, and even grief. By all accounts, What’s Up is the record where Told Slant’s Felix Walworth reckons with these subjects, which range in lyrical matter from a version of New York City that’s nearly unrecognizable from the one they launched the project within back in 2012 to the death of a close friend.
Yet by no means is it an overwhelmingly bleak record, nor one that reflects a sense of mid-career crisis. Walworth credits this to the support of an ensemble cast list they brought into the studio that includes Hannah Pruzinsky (a.k.a. h. pruz), Hellen Ballentine (a.k.a. Skullcrusher), Mari Rubio (a.k.a. More Eaze), Florist’s Emily Sprague and Jonnie Baker, and Elijah Wolf (who also just released an album reflecting on his hometown). “If you want to go deep out of your comfort zone with your art,” Walworth proclaims,” it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with people you love and trust.”
With the help of this all-star band, What’s Up is a densely layered experiment in bedroom pop, slowcore, and, in one extended passage, near-ambient trance music. These 10 tracks are ultimately unified by their raw feeling, which stems from the fact that the band recorded them live to tape with a first take, best take mentality in mind rather than relying too heavily on post-production. “At the very least, when you listen to this record you’ll know exactly how competent we are as musicians!” Walworth quips.
With the record out now via Mtn Laurel Recording Co., stream What’s Up below (or listen here) and read on for Walworth’s commentary on each track.
1. “Real Love”
When beginning a record, it’s important to me not to give up too much too quickly, but also not to misdirect the listener. “Real Love” sets the emotional and sonic stage for the record, but it also simmers at a level that gives dynamic space to the rest of side A. The stakes are both personal and ideological, maybe in the simplest contrast on the record, which gives the later tracks more permission to hone in on specific lyrical subjects. This is the first track we recorded for the album, and the first I’ve ever made for this project where we’ve gone live to tape. I think the only aspect we overdubbed in the box was Emily’s synthesizer, which to me was the final thread that stitched the song together. She performed it in one take. We used an 8 track tape machine, and here’s how we used our available tracks:
Drums: six mics bussed to two channels
Guitars: two channels
Bass: one channel
Drone synth: one channel
Vocals: one channel
Backing vocals: one channel
Emily’s synth: two channels after we dumped to digital
Jonnie’s saxophone and Felix’s bongo combo: two tracks
A lot of the album was recorded like this, filling up our 8 track, dumping the files into the computer, and embellishing the songs with a couple more tracks digitally. I wanted to move away from the ability to edit things endlessly, and to focus on performing songs in their entirety without comping multiple takes together, or “punching in.” Recordings are always just a version of the song that got recorded, and there is no “perfect” version, so why would I want to record the guitar 10 seconds at a time just to get an unblemished take? So much is lost when we cover our tracks like that. At the very least, when you listen to this record you’ll know exactly how competent we are as musicians!
2. “Manhattan”
This song was tracked live, as well, with me on drums, Hannah on bass, and Jonnie on guitar. Jonnie played it dirtier than I’m used to, so I overdubbed a second electric guitar that accentuates the melody a bit more. Hannah played Wurlitzer after that, and once I recorded vocals it was pretty much finished. The hard part about recording this one was finding the groove. It’s such a simple song, so to be compelling musically the rhythm had to feel locked-in in a particular way.
3. “What’s Up”
Even though it’s the title track, it’s a bit of a lyrical outlier on the record. It’s about a very close friend who passed suddenly, and the feeling of trying to understand that kind of loss in that moment. The song doesn’t resolve, because the situation never will.
4. “Rain of God”
This is a nine-minute trance song about despair, which seemed like the only thing that could happen after the title track. I’d had the lyrics and melody in my head as a choir part (“Rain of God come cover us, come cover us before it’s too late”) for a while, but being able to improvise with Jonnie and Hannah so effortlessly is what really shaped this track. If you want to go deep out of your comfort zone with your art, it’s incredibly important to surround yourself with people you love and trust. Helen and Ceci came later to add to the choir, and Jonnie did some sampling of vocals, but all the percussion and synth work was done live to tape. I think the original version was more like 20 minutes long, but we decided to be merciful.
5. “Sailor”
I felt like the album needed some gentle simplicity at this point. It’s kind of the reward for listening to “Rain of God”: bright, simple, and sad in a way that’s less reckless, I think. I love Hannah’s bass playing on this one in particular, and Jonnie sampled a synthesizer to make those beautiful swells in the instrumental sections.
6. “Draw Blood”
I really turned my lyrical editor off for this one and just let myself be angry and grandiose. I also wanted to write about my hometown in a way that felt honest, full of love and hate and ego and compromise. It’s kind of a song about being addicted to living in hell. Lots to unpack here, but I’ll let you do that yourself. This is the only song on the record where I recorded everything myself. Talk about being stuck in your ways…
7. “Three Anchovies”
I wanted this to feel like a wide shot of an apartment building at night slowly zooming in on one window with its lights on. Whether I succeeded is up to you!
8. “I Am a Singer”
Insane song about self-hatred and hatred of others! Originally I wanted this to be a “normal” guitar song, but we ended up tracking bass, drum machines, and vocals live one evening and it felt so much more visceral than I think it could’ve in the rock and roll world. Shout out to Hannah for creating the nasty key change in the chorus to make it sound even darker and uglier. Mari and Emily added their special touches to this one, and in the end we had what surely has to be the most alienating track on the record. Nothing to root for here, and no beauty to be found!
9. “Marcie Come Home”
An ode to Marcie, who can’t come home. This one was so fun to record. When I was getting ready to record vocals, with the tape already rolling, Jonnie looked at Hannah and said, “Go, go!” And Hannah ran up behind me and sang the whole take with me, Carter Family style. We all loved the take and knew immediately that that was the one! First take, best take, as they say. This was especially true on this song.
10. “Hold You Down”
This is a song for lovers who are terrible at being lovers. Helen and Hannah really pushed it over the edge with their vocals on the chorus, and Jonnie’s performances on this song are some of my favorites on the record. Putting Jonnie’s saxophone solo through a bit crusher was Emily’s genius on this song. To me, the song resolves the record in a conflicted and uncertain way. I don’t like making records that answer their own questions.
