Name: River Whyless @ Three Links
Start: 2018-07-28T20:00:00-05:00
Location: Three Links

River Whyless @ Three Links

The team at Margin Walker is comprised of a tight group of friends hyper-focused on creative live music bookings, marketing, and event production in Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and Houston.
With offices in Austin and Dallas, Margin Walker works closely with the following venues:  Mohawk, Sidewinder, ACL Moody Theatre, Barracuda and more. In the DFW area, the team fills the calendars at nearly 18 venues including The Bomb Factory, Trees, Club Dada and Three Links. MW is also partners with Paper Tiger in San Antonio. Last but not least, the team also curates and oversees Sound On Sound Fest.

Margin Walker presents

For many bands, and especially those who’ve been together for several years, recognizingmaturation, progress or palpable evolution is a daunting task. Is it continued creativeaccomplishment that signals progression? Or perhaps it’s profitable commercial endeavors? Theanswer is often quite unclear. Six years, two albums and countless gigs after first forming as aband, River Whyless, the North Carolina-bred folk-rock outfit has discovered their evolution is asubtler albeit monumentally important one. Deep in the throes of writing and recording their boldnew album, Kindness, A Rebel, the four musicians reached a necessary and collectiveunderstanding. Namely: this band is their lifeblood, their family and their love. To that end, withunspoken acceptance, the members of River Whyless, each songwriters in their own right,collectively put aside their respective egos, coalesced around each other’s creative vision, andfully embraced the beauty of their enduring partnership.“It was a feeling of openness and hope and acceptance,” says singer-violinist Halli Anderson ofthe multi-week sessions with producer Paul Butler (Devendra Banhart, Michael Kiwanuka) thatresulted in some of River Whyless’ most dynamic, genre-bending and heartfelt material yet.Creatives regularly waver between honoring their own creation and rallying around larger ideasfor the benefit of the group. But with every member of River Whyless now charting a life outsidethe band, and also writing on their own, when coming together to record Kindness it was nevermore crucial they be open and honest with each other.To that end, singer-guitarist Ryan O’Keefe remembers an early brainstorm session that saw allfour musicians seated in his living room, each passing around their phones to hear rough sketchesof songs the others had written. And while each member acknowledges one of their self-pennedsongs may not have ended up on the album, working together as a group to land on the best RiverWhyless songs -- the ones that speak to hope and betrayal, maturation and stalled momentum, thekinds of weighty topics their younger selves could never have taken stock of -- was essential toboth create a killer album and, more importantly, move forward as a united band.“We’ve reached a point where we just understand that the songs are more important than theegos,” says drummer Alex McWalters. Adds O’Keefe bluntly: “This album gets to a deeper areathan any of our others before it.”Working with a dynamic producer like Butler had already pushed River Whyless out of theircomfort zone. “He pulled out elements of our writing that maybe we were timid about doing,”O’Keefe offers. But it was the experience of working on one specific track, in particular – theopening “All of My Friends” – that best exhibited how much the band had grown. Havingscrapped the electro-driven song when Butler took an initial disliking to it, Anderson “had to dowhat I call my walk of abandonment,” she recalls. “I tried to accept the fact that this song wasn’tgoing to make the record. So I let go of the song.” But a few days later, upon discovering a smallburbling tone on a synthesizer, their passion for the song was reignited. Says O’Keefe, “It was thefirst time I felt like we captured a song in the moment of creation. Lyrics were changing in themoment. Melodies were changing in the moment. Singers were changing. It was really difficultand emotionally intense but so gratifying when we were done.” Adds Anderson: “The spirit wasrevived and the song was reborn in the studio. We were all letting it be.”Most importantly, the illuminating experience proved to River Whyless that even after manyyears together they were still making new creative discoveries. Getting to that point, however,was hardly easy. Following 2016’s We All The Light, each member had taken on additional responsibilities in their personal lives: O’Keefe, recently married, and bassist Dan Shearin,engaged, were busy building their first homes; Anderson relocated to Oregon; and McWaltersenrolled in grad school to study creative writing.And, of even greater consequence, after years of pounding the pavement, the band began towonder if this dream they called River Whyless was strong enough to keep pushing forward. Aseach band members’ life evolved, however, it was River Whyless, they realized, that served astheir anchor and kept them whole. O’Keefe says his awakening on this front arrivedspontaneously one night in Santa Fe, NM. Following a tough support-gig tour and just beforeAnderson was set to move to Oregon, he dropped her off at a motel. “And as we pulled away itfelt like an ending,” he admits looking back. Watching her through the window, as the car droveaway, “it was as if I removed a pair of tunnel-vision goggles and could see the world and my lifefor the first time since we started this band. I felt incredibly small, fragile, irresponsible, foolish,at a loss for what to do next and very alone. The reality of what we had been trying to do for adecade came crashing down in an almost laughable way. We didn't talk about it and I don't knowif anyone felt the same way but, at that moment, I changed.”Shuttling between Oregon and North Carolina in recent years, Anderson admits she too foundherself struggling with her “core identity” at the time. It was not until she got in the same roomwith her bandmates last year to write Kindness, A Rebel that she, for the first time in ages, feltcompletely whole again. “It's strange to say but the only place that I felt completely me was in themaking of Kindness, A Rebel,” she says. “There's something about creating music in the studiothat allows one to forget the pomp and circumstance and be more present, more instinctual.”Music, and her band, she realized, “remind me of where I belong.”A year of change was a sentiment Shearin also shared: in the run-up to recording Kindness, ARebel, he’d seen his life shifting drastically with a host of significant milestones, and perhapsmost significantly, the sudden passing of his father. “This rocked me incredibly hard and shapedand colored the rest of the year,” he says, noting that his bandmates and manager "weremonumental in helping me through this experience." During this time, Shearin found “a profoundpeace and beauty in loss -- recognizing the growth that can rise in the place of what is gone.”Later, this was echoed as they wrote the album, as the immediacy of the process forced eachmember to surrender his/her own vision and trust one another with the bigger picture. AsMcWalters notes, everybody relied on the collective group to wade through their respectivechallenges. Trusting each other's creative instinct in the process was a necessary act of “lettinggo, an embrace of our weaknesses and a celebration of our strengths." He adds that "it wassomething of a revelation to me to realize that our weakness can be interesting, that imperfectionis as compelling as the talent that surrounds it.”Simply getting in the same physical space with one another to write new material provedchallenging. To combat this, last fall all four members retreated to a secluded cabin outsideBoone, North Carolina for several days and began brainstorming ideas for their new LP. “Itallows you to live and breathe the music... even if just for a little bit,” Shearin offers of thisforthright method of creative incubation. It was in that cabin the early seeds of what becameKindness began to take shape. The band bounced ideas off each other, followed inspiration whereit might lead. They were so focused in fact that all the musicians were loathe to return to theireveryday lives. “We dragged our feet to get there and then we dragged our feet to leave,” saysAnderson, who calls the album “a giant massage for my soul.” What also became apparent during this getaway was that River Whyless was eager to stretch theboundaries of what constituted their sound. Whereas earlier albums centered on a largely beatificbrand of heartfelt folk music – seen most prominently on their 2012 debut album, A Stone, A Leaf,An Unfound Door – with encouragement from Butler, the band began to experiment with a moreaggressive and innovative sonic palate. “This time it was more like, let’s just see what happensand go with it,” says McWalters, who notes he wanted to embrace “a more straightforwarddriving feel” to the album’s highly rhythmic percussion. To that end, the band balances its moretraditional harmony-anchored leanings as seen on “Van Dyke Brown” and the genteel acousticlament of “War is Kind,” with more overtly rock leanings like the Middle Eastern-tingedpsychedelic scrum of “Falling Farm” and the guitar-and-piano jangle of “New Beliefs.”This musical diversity is a direct reflection of each band member bringing his or her distinctflavor to the fold. Though, as Anderson admits, the band has never been more cohesive in itscreative vision.“It’s always difficult to have differing opinions on songs and try to find a compromise,” sheadmits, but “that’s the fun thing about collaboration,” O’Keefe notes. “It becomes somethingbeyond your own self. “And honestly,” Shearin adds, “ if not everybody is onboard to give it theirall and get behind an idea then it can end up feeling empty in a way.” Simply put: where RiverWhyless has previously been distinct songwriters operating under a single banner, they wereready to now explore what it mean to be a true collective.Not that it required much heavy lifting. “Because we spend so much time together and we liveand love one another, even when we don’t think about each other when we’re writing we tend towrite about similar sentiments,” Anderson says. “The same types of things are often affecting allfour of us.” Concurring, McWalters says when River Whyless plays music “we can almostpredict what’s going to happen next and can read each other’s mind.”“It’s so important to always keep an open mind” when writing, Shearin notes, if largely to leavethe door open for the band to veer down unexpected and exciting new avenues.Despite having never felt more unified in their vision for the future, much as they’ve navigatedtheir freewheeling career to date, River Whyless is choosing to not predict what lies ahead.Allowing their creative union to continue guiding them, they insist, remains their only constant.“It feels like you’re on a journey with your family,” McWalters says of the satisfaction of beingin a band like River Whyless. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

Three Links

Adam Torres

For many bands, and especially those who’ve been together for several years, recognizingmaturation, progress or palpable evolution is a daunting task. Is it continued creativeaccomplishment that signals progression? Or perhaps it’s profitable commercial endeavors? Theanswer is often quite unclear. Six years, two albums and countless gigs after first forming as aband, River Whyless, the North Carolina-bred folk-rock outfit has discovered their evolution is asubtler albeit monumentally important one. Deep in the throes of writing and recording their boldnew album, Kindness, A Rebel, the four musicians reached a necessary and collectiveunderstanding. Namely: this band is their lifeblood, their family and their love. To that end, withunspoken acceptance, the members of River Whyless, each songwriters in their own right,collectively put aside their respective egos, coalesced around each other’s creative vision, andfully embraced the beauty of their enduring partnership.“It was a feeling of openness and hope and acceptance,” says singer-violinist Halli Anderson ofthe multi-week sessions with producer Paul Butler (Devendra Banhart, Michael Kiwanuka) thatresulted in some of River Whyless’ most dynamic, genre-bending and heartfelt material yet.Creatives regularly waver between honoring their own creation and rallying around larger ideasfor the benefit of the group. But with every member of River Whyless now charting a life outsidethe band, and also writing on their own, when coming together to record Kindness it was nevermore crucial they be open and honest with each other.To that end, singer-guitarist Ryan O’Keefe remembers an early brainstorm session that saw allfour musicians seated in his living room, each passing around their phones to hear rough sketchesof songs the others had written. And while each member acknowledges one of their self-pennedsongs may not have ended up on the album, working together as a group to land on the best RiverWhyless songs -- the ones that speak to hope and betrayal, maturation and stalled momentum, thekinds of weighty topics their younger selves could never have taken stock of -- was essential toboth create a killer album and, more importantly, move forward as a united band.“We’ve reached a point where we just understand that the songs are more important than theegos,” says drummer Alex McWalters. Adds O’Keefe bluntly: “This album gets to a deeper areathan any of our others before it.”Working with a dynamic producer like Butler had already pushed River Whyless out of theircomfort zone. “He pulled out elements of our writing that maybe we were timid about doing,”O’Keefe offers. But it was the experience of working on one specific track, in particular – theopening “All of My Friends” – that best exhibited how much the band had grown. Havingscrapped the electro-driven song when Butler took an initial disliking to it, Anderson “had to dowhat I call my walk of abandonment,” she recalls. “I tried to accept the fact that this song wasn’tgoing to make the record. So I let go of the song.” But a few days later, upon discovering a smallburbling tone on a synthesizer, their passion for the song was reignited. Says O’Keefe, “It was thefirst time I felt like we captured a song in the moment of creation. Lyrics were changing in themoment. Melodies were changing in the moment. Singers were changing. It was really difficultand emotionally intense but so gratifying when we were done.” Adds Anderson: “The spirit wasrevived and the song was reborn in the studio. We were all letting it be.”Most importantly, the illuminating experience proved to River Whyless that even after manyyears together they were still making new creative discoveries. Getting to that point, however,was hardly easy. Following 2016’s We All The Light, each member had taken on additionalresponsibilities in their personal lives: O’Keefe, recently married, and bassist Dan Shearin,engaged, were busy building their first homes; Anderson relocated to Oregon; and McWaltersenrolled in grad school to study creative writing.And, of even greater consequence, after years of pounding the pavement, the band began towonder if this dream they called River Whyless was strong enough to keep pushing forward. Aseach band members’ life evolved, however, it was River Whyless, they realized, that served astheir anchor and kept them whole. O’Keefe says his awakening on this front arrivedspontaneously one night in Santa Fe, NM. Following a tough support-gig tour and just beforeAnderson was set to move to Oregon, he dropped her off at a motel. “And as we pulled away itfelt like an ending,” he admits looking back. Watching her through the window, as the car droveaway, “it was as if I removed a pair of tunnel-vision goggles and could see the world and my lifefor the first time since we started this band. I felt incredibly small, fragile, irresponsible, foolish,at a loss for what to do next and very alone. The reality of what we had been trying to do for adecade came crashing down in an almost laughable way. We didn't talk about it and I don't knowif anyone felt the same way but, at that moment, I changed.”Shuttling between Oregon and North Carolina in recent years, Anderson admits she too foundherself struggling with her “core identity” at the time. It was not until she got in the same roomwith her bandmates last year to write Kindness, A Rebel that she, for the first time in ages, feltcompletely whole again. “It's strange to say but the only place that I felt completely me was in themaking of Kindness, A Rebel,” she says. “There's something about creating music in the studiothat allows one to forget the pomp and circumstance and be more present, more instinctual.”Music, and her band, she realized, “remind me of where I belong.”A year of change was a sentiment Shearin also shared: in the run-up to recording Kindness, ARebel, he’d seen his life shifting drastically with a host of significant milestones, and perhapsmost significantly, the sudden passing of his father. “This rocked me incredibly hard and shapedand colored the rest of the year,” he says, noting that his bandmates and manager "weremonumental in helping me through this experience." During this time, Shearin found “a profoundpeace and beauty in loss -- recognizing the growth that can rise in the place of what is gone.”Later, this was echoed as they wrote the album, as the immediacy of the process forced eachmember to surrender his/her own vision and trust one another with the bigger picture. AsMcWalters notes, everybody relied on the collective group to wade through their respectivechallenges. Trusting each other's creative instinct in the process was a necessary act of “lettinggo, an embrace of our weaknesses and a celebration of our strengths." He adds that "it wassomething of a revelation to me to realize that our weakness can be interesting, that imperfectionis as compelling as the talent that surrounds it.”Simply getting in the same physical space with one another to write new material provedchallenging. To combat this, last fall all four members retreated to a secluded cabin outsideBoone, North Carolina for several days and began brainstorming ideas for their new LP. “Itallows you to live and breathe the music... even if just for a little bit,” Shearin offers of thisforthright method of creative incubation. It was in that cabin the early seeds of what becameKindness began to take shape. The band bounced ideas off each other, followed inspiration whereit might lead. They were so focused in fact that all the musicians were loathe to return to theireveryday lives. “We dragged our feet to get there and then we dragged our feet to leave,” saysAnderson, who calls the album “a giant massage for my soul.”What also became apparent during this getaway was that River Whyless was eager to stretch theboundaries of what constituted their sound. Whereas earlier albums centered on a largely beatificbrand of heartfelt folk music – seen most prominently on their 2012 debut album, A Stone, A Leaf,An Unfound Door – with encouragement from Butler, the band began to experiment with a moreaggressive and innovative sonic palate. “This time it was more like, let’s just see what happensand go with it,” says McWalters, who notes he wanted to embrace “a more straightforwarddriving feel” to the album’s highly rhythmic percussion. To that end, the band balances its moretraditional harmony-anchored leanings as seen on “Van Dyke Brown” and the genteel acousticlament of “War is Kind,” with more overtly rock leanings like the Middle Eastern-tingedpsychedelic scrum of “Falling Farm” and the guitar-and-piano jangle of “New Beliefs.”This musical diversity is a direct reflection of each band member bringing his or her distinctflavor to the fold. Though, as Anderson admits, the band has never been more cohesive in itscreative vision.“It’s always difficult to have differing opinions on songs and try to find a compromise,” sheadmits, but “that’s the fun thing about collaboration,” O’Keefe notes. “It becomes somethingbeyond your own self. “And honestly,” Shearin adds, “ if not everybody is onboard to give it theirall and get behind an idea then it can end up feeling empty in a way.” Simply put: where RiverWhyless has previously been distinct songwriters operating under a single banner, they wereready to now explore what it mean to be a true collective.Not that it required much heavy lifting. “Because we spend so much time together and we liveand love one another, even when we don’t think about each other when we’re writing we tend towrite about similar sentiments,” Anderson says. “The same types of things are often affecting allfour of us.” Concurring, McWalters says when River Whyless plays music “we can almostpredict what’s going to happen next and can read each other’s mind.”“It’s so important to always keep an open mind” when writing, Shearin notes, if largely to leavethe door open for the band to veer down unexpected and exciting new avenues.Despite having never felt more unified in their vision for the future, much as they’ve navigatedtheir freewheeling career to date, River Whyless is choosing to not predict what lies ahead.Allowing their creative union to continue guiding them, they insist, remains their only constant.“It feels like you’re on a journey with your family,” McWalters says of the satisfaction of beingin a band like River Whyless. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

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River Whyless @ Three Links

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