Leland Whitty x Awake
Multi-instrumentalist Leland Whitty of BADBADNOTGOOD announces his debut solo album Anyhow due December 9th. Across the 7-track project, Whitty uses a do-it-yourself approach to composition, production and multi-instrument performance to create an album that is a look inward, expressing something personal – a reflection of the experience of music itself.
Along with the album's announcement, Whitty shares the lead single "Awake." The new song combines synthesized keys, descending strings and layered horns combining cinematic composition with jazz and rock influences. Anyhow features Whitty on guitar, synthesizer, woodwinds, production, composition and strings. For the narrative across the album, Whitty drew from photographic or cinematic sources rather than a specific story. The aim was for the production and arrangement to imply the kind of structural narrative found in jazz improvisation.
BADBADNOTGOOD’s Alex and Chester were also guests on the album, alongside other friends and notably Whitty’s older brother, Lowell – which Whitty credits as being a central musical inspiration in his life. This is the first time they had the chance to fully work together. Whitty built the album from small excerpts rather than have a more rigid intellectual compositional technique. He would envision the whole scope of a song, asking friends to contribute to shift each tracks’ rhythm and energy. Whitty’s role was both performer, composer and in some way a director, asking contributors to execute in an organic way and editing the results.
Anyhow follows Whitty's work on several film score projects in 2020, including Disappearance at Clifton Hill (Albert Shin) and Learn to Swim (Thyrone Tommy) along with the stand-alone single "Violet Nights" created with a l l i e and Birthday Boy in 2021.
Read more about it on Consequence.