Wednesday, July 25, 2007

New Interview: J.D. Whittenburg

By Erin Rice

This Friday, J.D. Whittenburg and band celebrate the release of the self-titled album at Sons of Hermann Hall. But, like most albums, this didn’t all happen overnight, particularly for frontman Whittenburg.

J.D. Whittenburg self-titled album

From starting out in Austin, coming to Dallas and beginning Trainwreck with Rob Stave, then switching up genres for the new band, and now getting a DOMA nomination for his efforts, this has been a winding road through Musictown, thus far.

For Whittenburg the desire to play music started when he was wee lad. “I’ve always been influenced I guess by more alt-country, before it was called alt-country. I always thought of it as Austin songwriters: Townes Van Zandt, Steve Earle, Butch Hancock, and people like that.” Those influences went into his first project with Stave, but for the new album you won’t hear any pickers or twang.

You might, however, hear J.D. playing an instrument that’s new to him: “I’m playing the piano now. I had some lessons when I was a kid, and I haven’t touched one in 15 to 20 years… but once I decided that it was going to be really hard to find a piano player, I got on Craigslist, found a keyboard, and decided I was going to do it myself. Even though I’ve never played a gig sitting behind a piano… it looks like I will be soon.”

In coming around to crafting this newer sound, J.D. got come help along the way from other local heavy-hitters in the pop/rock/alt-indie crowd. Most instrumental was Salim Nourallah. “I reached out to people whom I felt were the best at what they do, so I hooked up with Salim, whom I felt… was the best producer.” From there Salim helped J.D. bring in others who are adept in the singer/songwriter pop ways, like Carter Albrecht from Sorta, Daniel Hopkins from Radiant*, and Chris Holt from The Slack, among others.

There’s a good and bad side to bringing in all these local, big-time contributors. The good is clear: you pull on board everyone you think will make the album the best it can be. The bad, however, is that you have to deal with the fact that these guys and gals all have their own projects that came before yours. J.D. confesses that, “The whole time I was in the studio I kept asking Salim, ‘How am I going to play this live?’” For anyone who’s met Salim the next bit of advice might not come as a surprise: “He said, ‘Don’t worry about it’ – and he’s a big Beatles freak – ‘do you think they were worried when they put together the White Album?’”

J.D. Whittenburg Interview

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Clearly it was good advice, because J.D. has his band now, made up of several friends in the business, including Bruce Johnson and Travis Hopper on guitar, Josh Warr on bass, and Eric Grubbs on drums, with backing vocals from Amanda Newman. “It’s really fun because we’re all friends, and now we’re in a band together. It sounds very similar to the CD, [and while] it’s not exactly the same… it’s definitely got the same feel… and we’re doing the songs justice.”

Apparently the music community feels the same, because J.D. Whittenburg and band’s efforts have been nominated for Best Album of 2007 in the Dallas Observer Music Awards. When asked about his reaction to the news, J.D. responded “Well I looked at the other nominees and was humbled, not to sound silly, but I really was. I mean, I’m up there with Midlake, and these bands that have been getting all this press, and PPT, and all this kind of acclaim. So it feels really good.”

Spanning alt-country to pop-rock, opening bands to headlining, just having fun to a possible 2007 DOMA, it’s been an odd trip for J.D. Whittenburg, which he and band celebrate this Friday. Sharing the bill with him are Smile Smile, Salim Nourallah, and the “dreamy” (according to a joking J.D.) Johnny Lloyd Rollins and cohorts.

Listen to the full interview by clicking on the podcast above.

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• Arts > Popular Music > Pop
• Arts > Popular Music > Singer / Songwriter

Comments

Bill Holston Verified

You couldn't pay me to miss this show. This is really going to be a fun show at a great venue. I hope there's a huge turn out. Actually, I'd come to this to see the rest of the bill. Oh, and wonderful photos from Ms. Allison V Smith. Nice interview Erin

2 years, 3 months ago ( Link to this comment | Suggest removal )