Whesli is a music duo based out of LA, California who have been playing together since the spring of 2015 while continuously writing, recording and producing their upcoming debut EP set to release in April 2016.
In this interview spotlight, we speak with Whesli about music, influences, the new project, and more.
Full Q&A, links, and the video for Love Love below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_NsvQ6LaBc
Let’s dive a little deeper into You, the artist and your music. What attracted you to this genre(s) or style(s)?
We’re both from two completely different parts of the world, one from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and one from Stockholm, Sweden. So the music that we create and perform is a mix of both worlds and what we liked listening to growing up. The common ground we have when it comes to music is that it needs to feel real and authentic. We both look up to the great artists before us, such as Bill Withers & Amy Winehouse, who spoke and wrote from the heart and thats what we try to do with our music. We’ve heard our music be explained as a lot of different Genres, and i do think we find influences from a lot of different artists and bands across a lot of different styles of music. But we just try to write and play music that speaks to us, may it be considered Folk, Soul, Rock or any other genre. What attracts us about this style of music is the real connection you get with people when you play a song and they understand you. Its the best high to share that with someone.
What led you into this journey with music? And further, what drives you to push it out to the public?
We both started on different paths with music but ended up finding each other late 2014 in LA. We’ve both had been playing music in different bands before coming to LA, so when we met we were ready to dive in deep into creating what we wanted to create with music. We shared a similar vision with what we wanted to play so it was all a matter of getting our music out there.
The reason for us to push our music out there is to be able to share our passion with someone else, and even give a voice to someone who needs or wants one. We both have memories when we were young singing along to a Michael Jackson track or Nat King Cole, and just feeling that connection and empowering passion they shared. We have our own story to tell, and we ultimately want to share that story to create that connection that we felt as kids listening to artists we liked.
Who or what influences your creativity? Have your tastes in music changed over time?
What influences both of us is great music, when you hear something or see someone live that just has that wow factor. That motivates you to push even harder into what you’re doing.
Daniel: Yeah i think both of our musical taste has changed over the years, as it does for so many. I started of with listening to a lot of Blues (and still do!) in my beginning stages of my musical endeavors, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, Buddy Guy, Eric Clapton. Then when i joined my first Highschool band it turned to more of the Rock & Grunge (Guns N Roses, Nirvana etc). And now lately iv’e been really tuning into a lot of RnB/Soul music like Ray Charles, Stevie Wonder, Bill Withers, and dare i say Chris Stapleton (even though he’s mainly country, there’s a lot of soul in that mans voice holy s*it).
Whesli: I wouldn’t say my musical taste has changed over the years, id just say that it’s expanded. I grew up listening to Gospel and R&B music such as India Arie, Anthony Hamilton and, Kirk Franklin. Then when i got a bit older i started listing to more jazz, like Ella Fitzgerald, and Nat King cole. Now i listen to just about everything thing. Modern artists I like a lot are Matt Corby, Jack White, i love their sound/vibe/passion they put into their music. But of course i still also listen to the countless other artists with timeless music such as ACDC, Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix and others.
Were you trying to accomplish anything specific on this new project? Creatively or otherwise?
Our latest project ”Lost Love” is by far the most extensive project we’ve worked on. Whesli had the song idea for ”Lost Love” a while before we ever met. She was inspired to write a song by the emotions that was brought up the first time she ever saw a dead body, and how it made her feel. We tried to stay true to that overwhelming sadness, regret, anger and acceptance that you might feel and go through when you loose someone.
We produced and recorded the whole song on our own the way we wanted it to sound, and when we had a product, we got help from 3-Time Grammy Winning Producer/Sound Engineer – David Isaac – who helped us finish the song with the mix/mastering.
After we had the final mix, we decided to film our first music video for this song. We wrote out a storyline and spent a whole 24 hour day shooting it with the help of a production team. It was a new experience for us to create visuals to go with the music, but in the end we’re both very happy how i turned out. *A little interesting side note, the end scene when Whesli is walking up towards the grave, we planned to just have a normal sunset as the background, instead it turned out very intense. Thats because there had been a huge wild fire a couple of miles away, so the smoke from the fire turned the sky almost completely red and made it all look very apocalyptic.
What was the last song you listened to?
Whesli: The last song i listed to was Pretty Girls by Little Dragon
Daniel: I think it was Tennessee Whiskey by Chris Stapleton
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
Whesli: Vinyl. CD’s are great but i must go with Vinyl.
Daniel: I’d have to go with Vinyl too, its something intimate about listening to Vinyl.
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
Whesli: Bandcamp & Soundcloud is great, you can discover a lot of new music on those sites. Pandora is also a very good site to discover new music.
Daniel: I’d have to just say Youtube, its pretty easy to find good music on it and i always love the Live recordings better from the artists. Ive heard Tidal is great too because of its uncompressed music streaming, but i haven’t had time to try it yet, probably will soon though.
Other than the digital era overwhelming us with access to an abundance of music, what is the biggest challenge you face when trying to connect with or find new fans?
The biggest challenge we’re facing is exposure like so many others. We’re doing everything DIY so to find the right people to be able to build a team up around us is going to help us get more exposure and connect with more people. Thats also why we appreciate everybody so much that’s sharing/listening and supporting our music right now. They’re helping us move towards with our music and we hold them very dear in our hearts.
Where is the best place to connect with you online? Discover more music?
To connect with us the best way would either be Facebook or Instagram! We keep everyone updated with our gigs & what we’ve got going on at those sites. And as far as where we post most of our music is on our Youtube page. We have a few live recordings, songs, covers etc there that people seem to enjoy.
- https://www.facebook.com/WhesliMusic/
- https://www.instagram.com/whesli/
- http://www.youtube.com/c/WhesliMusic
Anything else you’d like to add before signing off?
We’d like to say thank you to MTM for having us for this interview. We’re very happy with what we’re doing and are purely doing it for the passion and love we have for our craft. Both of us are always going to play music because its what we can do for hours and hours on end without ever getting tired or bored of it. Its what we love to do.