THE INDIE ROCK WORLD is still subconsciously taking cues from humorless dorks like Thom Yorke and Win Butler—masters of the solemn and cerebral. Which is exactly why the blogosphere loses its collective shit over a band like Whitney, whose grand ambition is simply to write good pop songs.
“All we want to do is write the most honest music we can,” says Julien Ehrlich, the Chicago group’s drummer and lead singer. “It’s probably a little bit selfish, but we just want to write stuff that gets stuck in our heads.”
Whitney is a low-key supergroup, formed around the creative nucleus of Ehrlich, who drummed for Unknown Mortal Orchestra before joining guitarist Max Kakacek in indie darlings the Smith Westerns. The duo formed a songwriting partnership in the beginning of 2015, following the dissolution of that band.