We sat down with the Chicagoan band beneath a distinctly outdoor umbrella that’d been erected indoors, and spoke about some pretty weird shit.
Last Saturday marked yet another year of St. Jerome’s Laneway Festival—a day of vodkas in cans and blow up palm trees and hoards of young men whose bucket hats would inevitably be stuck in trees by nightfall. But all that’s a small price to pay to see Tame Impala featuring confetti cannons and Mick Jenkins featuring vodka Red Bulls in the sun.
Among the pretty wild line up were Whitney—the result of Smith Westerns’ splintering back in 2014—whose debut record Light Upon The Lake soundtracked late-night whiskeyed Deep & Meaningfuls (and the resulting hungover breakfasts) everywhere after its release last June.
We met them underneath a distinctly indoor umbrella that had been erected indoors, to talk about friendship and the band’s inception. Naturally, the interview veered into bar fights and virtual reality porn.
How was the show? We didn’t get to see it because we got stuck in traffic.
Max Kakacek: It was okay, it was good.
Julien Ehrlich: You’re lying though.
No, I’m not! We really did. And our Uber driver made us get out and walk because he didn’t want to sit in traffic anymore.
J: Oh, haha, okay then. Yeah our set was okay. I was shit-talking Brisbane—
I bet they responded well to that…
J: Yeah, they loved that.
Melbourne is a mean girl, it’s a bitch. Everyone in Melbourne hates other cities.
J: That’s cause Melbourne’s kinda the best.
Eh… It’s actually Sydney though, isn’t it? Sydney’s the best?
M: Really?
No one else is going to tell you that but I want you to know that it’s true.
J: Well we’ll be there!
M: I went there once when I was eighteen.
Beaches, trees, getting kicked out of clubs at 1am…
M: Oh yeah, what’s the called again?
The lockout laws.
M: Oh yeah.
Trust me, they need it. Those crazy kids. Someone’s got to tell them when to go home.
J: There are lots of bros there, right? I could get in a fight there pretty easy…
You should! Just kidding.
M: What’s that fighting juice called?
Fighting juice? I have no idea. GHB?
M: No, no… someone was talking about some kind of fighting juice thing that has rum in it and bros drink it and get into fights?
Oh, Bundy and coke or something like that?
M: Yeah! Bundy!
J: What is Bundy? It gets you super jacked?
Haha oh my god. It’s rum. I don’t think it’s the rum itself that starts fights. I think it’s the people who drink it maybe. Have either of you ever been in a fight?
J: Yeah. I had my wallet stolen in Barcelona, once. Me and the bass player of Unknown Mortal Orchestra were on Absinthe, like the real Absinthe. We did that shit and then like, thirty seconds after that, this dude came up to me and offered me marijuana and put his arm around me, and Jake was like “dude, do you still have your wallet?” and I didn’t. So I turned, and in this weird Absinthe rage I pointed him out and I fucking charged at him and dove and tackled him. And I used to play football so—
M: You were a kicker, dude…
J: I learned how to tackle!
Oh my god, are you a jock or a hipster?! You have to choose one!
J: We’re both jocks! [Max] was a three-sport athlete, I was a two-sport athlete. So anyway, Barcelona. Jake started shaking this dude and being like “give me the fucking wallet, dude!” and all his pickpocket friends totally dispersed. And I’m not like a violent person but I was really drunk. That was fun.
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Source: Vice Noisey