Interview Whereafter

Whereafter’s debut album blessed & depressed offers an unfiltered dive into raw emotions, blending despair and hope. We discuss their creative journey, “Blind Heart,” and redefining storytelling through music.

1. "Blind Heart" is your debut single. Can you share what inspired you to start this project and how it evolved into the deeply personal album blessed & depressed?
Ultimately I just wanted to do something authentic and honest and when I started writing the music I didn’t have any topics in mind..I was just writing music. When I sat to write the lyrics it took a while for me to land on what I wanted to write about and then one day it just happened and the topics all sort of tied together and that led the way for the idea of the interludes between the songs and to make it one cohesive piece of work. I just wrote about how I feel with my own struggles in the hope that others can listen and not feel alone in theirs.

2. The album explores the tension between despair and gratitude. How do you balance these opposing emotions in your music and personal life?
It’s a learning process everyday and some days are better than others. I dont know that we ever find the perfect formula but there are things along the way that you learn to do to take care of yourself and help you get through it. Especially when others depend on you or you have little ones to take care of you have to find ways to deal. I think the main thing that has been the biggest help for me is obviously music and the ability to write and get it all out. I good scream every now and again doesn’t hurt either.

3. What was the creative process for “Blind Heart,” and what message do you hope listeners take away from it?
I had the music for a while and the lyrics came pretty naturally. After Kellii added drums to the scratch tracks I made some changes based on what he played. I did that pretty much for all the songs because he added so much to them that I wanted to accent that in places. As for what I hope listeners take away from it. It can obviously sound like a negative song but I hope people who are struggling can listen to it and walk away feeling like someone out there understands because its so common to feel like no one else gets it or understands what it feel like sometimes and I just want the song to let people know that someone out there gets what you are going through and you are not alone.

4. Kellii Scott of Failure contributes drums to the album. How did this collaboration come about, and what did his experience bring to the project?
I met him at a Failure show a few years ago and he and some other people were talking about the drum tracks he recorded for some independent artists and so a short time later I reached out to him and he killed it. It really was that simple.

5. The music video for "Blind Heart" was created by Italian artist Daniele Arcuri. How did you collaborate to visually capture the song’s themes?
Daniele gave me a rough idea of his thoughts. I gave him a little bit of direction base don his ideas but for the most part he took it and ran with it and I didn’t really get in his way. I came across his work on the Internet and I reached out to him because I really liked his style and felt like it could fit the music well. More to come from Daniele and Whereafter on this release for sure.

6. blessed & depressed delves into living with depression. Was writing this album a therapeutic process for you, or did it present new challenges?
Both. Music is always the great medicine and release but writing it can also allow the opportunity to spend too much time in your head and raise self-doubt and anxiety.

7. As the songwriter, producer, and musician, what was the most rewarding and the most challenging part of bringing this album to life?
I think the whole concept unfolding along the way and finding different tools that I didn’t normally use to bring the whole thing to life. The album is very very different form what I thought it was going to be initially but it sort of took on a life of its own and started telling me what it wanted to be, if that makes sense. These ideas and concepts kept presenting themselves to me as I was building the concept and tying all the songs together and I just let it take over and tell me what to do. It sounds kind of crazy but I let go and just did what I was told at some point and I’m glad I did and didn’t try to overthink those parts and was just able to have fun creating and bringing it to life.

8. You’ve mentioned reclaiming the art of storytelling through albums. Why is creating a cohesive album important to you in today’s single-driven music industry?
It feels like streams are more important than artistry sometimes. It used to be exciting when an album released because you had this whole collection that you’ve been waiting for or that you newly discovered and it was fun to see what the artist or band put together as a collection and you got used to listening to some of those albums in order so much so that in your mind you could hear the beginning of the next song before it even started playing. 

I feel like these days it’s so much easier to record and release music. There’s a billion bedroom studios out there and there’s all these quantization tools, and vocal tuners and things to “perfect” the sound in non-destructive recording platforms and then you just throw it out on the internet and announce it and 6 weeks later do it all over again. Often times the songs don’t even sound that different from one to the next in sound, structure or production. The same compression, the same guitar tones, the same drum samples, etc. I think there’s something to writing a whole album or EP that changes things. You make decisions base don the collection rather than the individual song. Like “oh I can’t do that in this song because I did something similar in that other song.”

I joke that I did everything wrong on this release. I didn’t quantize everything. I didn’t map all the drums to the grid. I didn’t tune ever vocal to perfection or fix every “mistake” in the guitars. I released one song and then the album comes out instead of doing the single waterfall release. We’ll see what happens. Maybe it’ll fall flat on its face…but a the end of the day I did what I wanted to do and I’m happy I did it. I think every song is better and the whole experience is better because I did this as an album and not just a bunch of separate songs.

9. Which artists or bands have influenced the sound and themes of blessed & depressed? How do those influences appear in "Blind Heart"?

I don’t know. I’m horrible at this question. I don’t even know what specific sub-genre it is because I don’t keep up. It’s a hard rock song to me. I have tons of influences and artists I like from all genres and they all found their way in there somehow I’m sure.



10. Your music speaks to personal struggles and triumphs. What do you hope your listeners feel or gain when they hear blessed & depressed?

That someone else gets it and they aren’t alone in their struggles.

11. With "Blind Heart" setting the tone, what can fans expect from the rest of the album in terms of sound and storytelling?
It’s intended to be listed to as a singular experience at least once. When people hear it they will understand what that means, but each track bleeds into the next making it a full experience. Musically it has something for everybody. If you like good hard rock with strong melodies then you’ll like “Blind Heart” and “Wasting Away.” If you like dark heavy grooves with a lot of screams then you’ll like “The Curse”. If you like acoustic ballads then you’ll like “Crooked Line”. I wanted it to run the gamut of emotions so it’s all there.

12. After the release of blessed & depressed, do you have plans for touring, collaborations, or other projects to continue sharing your music with the world?
I have plans to continue writing and releasing music. The rest is dependent on how that is received. Its a tough world out there for touring bands especially these days so we will see, but for now I know that music will continually be released.

Whereafter