Prepare yourselves, Whitney King is here with another banger titled “Losing Control”!This is Glasgow’s newest band, they are very young and yet they carry on the tradition of dad-rock with anthemic, singalong guitar riffs, and a stomper of a pogo beat.
Start to finish, tracked straight from their Barras flat, the sound of “Losing Control” is huge enough to rouse even the dead man’s neighbors. It is all about going berserk and this is something the young gunslingers are all about as the movie so vividly portrays.
The artists may be barely out of university, but Whitney King pens songs as mature as they come. Their third single is “Losing Control,” yet one can hardly tell given that track’s shiny, fuzzed-out stomp. While they’re probably just as keen on a brew and an early bedtime as any other native of Glasgow, they’re quickly beginning to establish themselves as one’s to look out for in Scotland’s indie circuit.
I had a chat with the band about inspiration, mayhem when recording, and where songs like this come from. ..
Listen to Losing Control
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What is your stage name?
-Whitney King
Is there a story behind your stage name?
-We wanted to give off a bluesy feel and felt it was important to have something that would look cool written down. Think Albert or BB King. There’s also the added fun when people ask which of us are Whitney.
Where do you find inspiration?
-We all have different musical backgrounds, our inspiration comes from all avenues of rock, metal, blues, country and punk music. We’re constantly trying to do something new and are always on the lookout for new musical ideas.
What was the role of music in the early years of your life?
-All of us were interested in music at young ages, our drummer Shannon learned to play at home and would practice in a shed in the garden. Both our guitarists picked up guitar in school and joined bands. We still play music we listened to in the car with our parents as kids. That stuff is part of our band DNA.
Are you from a musical or artistic family?
-Nothing majorly impressive. Though music was always close to us and we were brought up learning the importance of treasuring it. Some of our Dads’ll jam on the guitar and can hold a tune but we’re not related to rockstars or anything.. though I’ve heard Steven’s Gran can play a mean sax solo.
How did you learn to sing/write/to play?
-Mostly solo practice at home, some of us started to play because of our parents but that can only get you so far. I think coming up in the age of the internet and youtube gave us a boost. Half the band also attended music school together in Glasgow, this is how we met in the very first place. We had great chemistry and even better teachers.
What was the first concert that you ever went to and who did you see perform?
-That would be different for each band member, as for me I can’t remember the first concert I saw, but I remember very well going to see Metallica for the first time, it was a big deal, had to travel 500km and while there were on the stage I couldn’t actually believe that they were there and that concert was happening.
How would you describe your music?
-We’re a modern rock band with a heavily blues-influenced guitar-driven sound. Our songs range from heavy metal to the realm of pop, punk and even folk at times. Sometimes I refer to our sound as: ‘loud gig music that people can jump to’ I think this works for us, we like to get a crowd on their feet and keep them on their toes.
Describe your creative process.
-It’s like making soup. Music soup.
What is your main inspiration? What musician do you admire most and why?
-Again, I take everyone in the band would give a different answer, but as for our style, I think we can all agree that took inspiration from artists like AC/DC, Chris Cornell or My Chemical Romance.
Did your style evolve since the beginning of your career?
-Definitely, I’m sure we now find ourselves more unified in style, when we started we were more bluesy, and then we had acoustic period over COVID. These days we get pretty rocky and hell yeah, we love it.
Who do you see as your main competitor?
-We don’t think in these terms, music is about fun and staying together for hence, hence even if we wanted to name anyone, no one would come to our minds.
What are your interests outside of music?
-Having pints in the pub. But on a serious note, Josh loves making cocktails, he’s really good at it, Zak enjoys recording and probably knows everything about fantasy and horror writers, Shannon knows all the secrets on how to make the best wine on this planet and Steven, believe it or not, loves to go randomly for fishing in Japan. As for me, I’m the nature and hiking guy.
If it wasn’t a music career, what would you be doing?
-Anything that is fun and pays the bills. I don’t believe that any of us could do a serious job for the entire life.
What is the biggest problem you have encountered in the journey of music?
-Promoting our music is the most challenging part. It requires lots of work and consistency, and if you have other things on your mind and you work full time, it can be tricky to find time to do it consistently. And even though you put a lot of effort to it, a strong outcome isn’t always guaranteed.
Why did you choose this as the title of this project?
-That’s the main line in the chorus, it’s easier to remember the song if you use a repeated phrase from the lyrics as a song title.
What are your plans for the coming months?
-Hopefully a bigger tour, that’s our dream. We’ve been doing pretty well locally and we are ready for the next step. We’ll also be releasing more music this year, but that’s all we can say about this for now.
Do you have any artistic collaboration plans?
-None so far, but we are open to that. It would be awesome to go on a tour with other bands.
What message would you like to give to your fans?
-You learned the chorus of “One More Night” and “Under City Lights” so fast that you amazed us, we still can’t forget the first time people sang “One More Night” during our gig in Perth. Let’s do the same with “Losing Control” and “Dead End Road” so we will never have to stop singing together.
