LITTLE ROCK — We’re going to tell you about the band, and we’re going to tell you about the band’s splendid new single, and the show at which the band will celebrate the release of that single. But before we get there, let’s get this part out of the way.
Whale Fire?
“I wish we had a cool story,” says Whale Fire’s John Steel, 33, on the origin of the North Little Rock group’s moniker. “We had gone through a ton of band names and most of them were terrible.”
But then band member Clay Grubbs, 30, had a revelation while listening to Andrew Bird’s song “Plasticity.” There was a lyric in the chorus that sounded like “whale fire,” which stuck with Grubbs and seemed like a good name for the four-piece, which also includes John’s brother Matthew, 30, and drummer Will Vick, 27.
This was fine to the rest of the group and the name stuck even after someone noticed that, oh, Andrew Bird wasn’t saying “whale fire” at all. It was actually, “well, fine.”
Doesn’t matter. Whale Fire carries far more poetic heft.
The group marks the release of the new single, “Dream of Me” backed with “The Fabric,” in a Saturday show at White Water Tavern in Little Rock. The single is available at the usual digital outlets and those who make it to the show can grab a copy on good ol’ vinyl.
They are a pair of indiepop tracks, with an expansive and ambitious feel. “Dream …” kicks off with a tight guitar line and Grubbs’ story of dreaming lovers at what may be the end of their respective ropes. It has an atmospheric vibe that concludes with a beautiful, wordless, falsetto chorus and that makes you wish it wouldn’t end quite so soon. It’s a song that began as the band was noodling around during practice one night, Grubbs says, adding that he ended up changing the lyrics right before recording.
John Steel handles vocals on “The Fabric,” which began life as a riff on his acoustic guitar but then was brought to life by the band as a swelling, cascading track that rises to an epic, hypnotic groove.
The self-released songs are the first salvos from the band’s as-yet-untitled debut LP (an eponymous EP was released in 2010), which should be out in a few months. Engineering and mixing of the tracks was handled by band pal Michael Stephens, while the band coproduced with Stephens.
The recording process was “pretty casual for us,” Steel says. The band members would roll into Stephens’ Pizza Party Studios in Sherwood when they had time and get their parts done and piece everything together.
“There was less pressure than with all of us playing together at the same time and trying to lay down a good take,” Grubbs says.
The important part, they say, is getting hold of their live sound in the studio.
“I think we were able to capture the songs the way we wanted them to sound,” says Steel, who, along with his brother and Grubbs, began playing while they attended North Little Rock High School.
For now, the unsigned Whale Fire band mates are content with handling things themselves, though they would not be averse to label offers.
“We like the process of having control and doing things ourselves, but if something legitimate came along our door would be open,” Steel says.
Whale Fire
Opening act: Colin vs. Adam, Sea Nanners
9:30 p.m. Saturday, White Water Tavern, 2500 W. 7th Street, Little Rock
Admission: $5
(501) 875-3400
whitewatertavern.com
Weekend, Pages 34 on 09/27/2012