Pitchfork In Sight Out: Whitney

Chicago Athletic Association hotel was pleased to host Pitchfork’s In Sight Out conversation with Chicago-based rock band, Whitney prior their performance at Pitchfork Music Festival 2019.

In this edition of In Sight Out, a series of podcasts from Pitchfork that explore new perspectives on arts and culture, music writer Leor Galil speaks with Whitney.

After Chicago glam-rock outfit Smith Westerns broke up at the end of 2014, guitarist Max Kakacek and drummer Julien Ehrlich broke off to experiment with a different musical approach. They synthesized sweet Chicago soul melodies, plaintive country songwriting, and gentle ’70s folk: Ehrlich took on lead vocals behind the kit, and his comforting falsetto coo solidified the sound they began to make under the name Whitney. Their 2016 debut, Light Upon the Lake, made them indie-rock darlings, and catapulted them to unassuming stars in their hometown.

Before Whitney performed at the 2019 Pitchfork Music Festival, Kakacek and Ehrlich sat down with Leor Galil at the Chicago Athletic Association to talk about their band’s history and their forthcoming — since released — second album, Forever Turned Around.

The hotel has it’s own conversational podcast series, Checking In, preserving history in the making. You can listen on this site, or visit us on iTunes.