Well the EP is out.
Some pics for you and ALL FOUR OF US WEIGH IN
Hi guys.
The EP came out last night, and all of us here at Widemouth are very happy. We’re on the map baby.
I asked all four band members to send me something about what recording was like, or their favorite part of the record. In descending order of length:
Levi
Recording Well was the warm, mildly electric process of enjoining ourselves to the music and to each other over a long, dusty spring. I remember Lily approaching hysteria at the end of a session, collapsing on the floor and pantomiming her high school drum line. The whole thing was like that, getting to know each other better through the corners of our eyes. The album feels like a descriptive record of that space and the corresponding fuzziness of caring about things. That said, I was on my phone the whole time.
Lily
Getting to record this EP with the band has been an undeniably incredible experience. Never in my life would I have imagined getting to create music I can confidently say I’m so proud of with my best friends. Coming out of such an intense, constraining music program and then being welcomed into such a loving place with no pressure to be the “perfect musician” was better than anything I could’ve asked for. They truly are my family.
One of my favorite moments of the EP is the end of Rubber Boots at 2:21 when the drums start to build on the toms with different fills. This was one of the first ever Widemouth songs I was a part of the arranging process for. I remember being back in the Bienen practice rooms before we were blessed with all the equipment we are owners of now. We even brought our own lamp a few times to make practice feel more homey. We were playing around with what a drum part would look like and when I started playing those fills at the end it just felt right. Everything in that moment felt right.
Now we’re here at the release of our first ever EP and I’m so lucky for everything that came out of that Bienen practice room. Many months later and many more songs arranged, but I still get that same smiley, giddy feeling whenever I get a notification from the infamous “Make Mouth Wide Again” group chat.
Mak
Hello Substack! I’m Mak (ena lei Carnahan), I write, sing, and play guitar alongside Jamie in Widemouth. A little bit about me: I am from LA, I’m 20 years old, I’m a ginger, I love to thrift and cook, and I just drove in the snow for the first time. Eeeeek! Choosing a favorite moment on the EP is quite tough because I truly feel like every second of this project is special and thought out, and probably has some awesome memory associated with it. But that being said, I have done it.
I know you’ve heard a number of times now that this band is like family to us. Growing up, Christmas was different every year, depending on who was speaking to who at the time, and everything felt fragile. That's not to say that there wasn’t love- there was so much of it- but there was rarely a sense of consistency, of showing up in the little ways and relying on each other to do the same. Making this record was like that for me: taking the red line to Andersonville, following Jamie’s unreliable navigational skills to Sam’s, and spending hours in the basement listening to each other, throwing out ideas. We got to show up for each other through these songs.
A moment that stands out to me was when we were putting the finishing touches on Rubber Boots. We had already recorded all the guitar parts, bass, drums, and vocals, and we were back at Sam’s to see if there was anything else we could sprinkle onto the song. Sam suggested that we play the song through once and record whatever sounds came out of my mouth. I remember being sort of freaked out at the thought of that- just having no control and singing in a room of people listening to me. But we turned the lights down and I closed my eyes and made whiny sounds over the song. I don’t even really know what happened, but when I took off the headphones I just remember feeling like ‘wow, something weird and sort of magical just happened.’ And I knew there was no other group of people with whom I’d feel comfortable just closing my eyes and whining into a mic with no plan for three minutes. Moments like that are what I’ll remember, sitting in the basement piecing these songs together into what they are now.
I love you all and I love this EP! Make some tea while you listen to it in true Widemouth fashion.
Jamie
My grandma - I call her Meme, but known to non-grandchildren as Esther - painted the cover art for the EP, as well as for both singles (when I say it like that, it sounds like we asked her if she could paint a cover for our EP; really we just looked through her instagram and found ones we liked). She’s my dad’s mom, and a beautiful painter. She’s also sort of the standard-bearer for a family of artists; my dad, Michael is a painter, and so is my aunt Claire. Aunt Maria is a playwright, Ani a musician, Ben a storyteller, Luke a photographer, Jamie formerly a painter. After dinner at family gatherings, my grandpa used to play traditionals, story-songs like “The Spanish Enemy,” on a beat up old classical guitar while we all sat around drinking coffee and singing along. Growing up among Eders, it was almost a foregone conclusion, that we make art.
I’ve always written, played music, spent some time drawing. I did a “series” of “paintings” when I was in 7th grade which featured birds painted on wooden slats, perhaps indirectly inspired by my dad’s project the year before of painting birds on slats of wood. I sold them at the flea market, and most of my customers were Eders.
Being in Widemouth is different, for me. I feel like I’m finally just making art; songs for their own sake. And more importantly, it’s just a part of my life now. These guys are my best friends, or, well, one is my girlfriend, but still, and we’ve figured out how to be in a band together and incorporate each others families and friends and significant others and fears and hopes and love for music and for each other, and unincorporate the feeling that we all got at Northwestern that everything we do is quantifiable and in service of our ultimate success or failure. I feel like I’m living as an artist, and tearing up writing that cause I can’t believe it’s taken me this long.
And releasing with Meme’s paintings on the front, beyond their visual appeal, is also an acknowledgement that for me, being in this band is an extension of growing up as an Eder. I’m really indebted to my dad’s family - I mean, my family, but my dad’s side - for all the ways that they’ve learned to live as artists, one by one, and to appreciate creativity in each other.
My favorite moment of the record right now is probably the 3:23 mark of “Well,” when the voicemail from my mom’s dad - Peepaw to me, John to non-grandchildren - comes in. He, like Meme, is the standard-bearer for another large, loving sprawl of people, who are perhaps less artistically inclined but who have learned to live well, fully, in so many other ways. He’s calling me on my birthday, as he does every year, and it’s always funny in one way or another. He says, “Bulldog! I hope this is recording, and I hope I’m not too late. I know it’s your birthday, and I’m just worried you might go overboard. You’re a long ways from home and you know how young guys can kind of wander, and get into a lot of trouble and things like that.”
Yes, Peepaw, I know! And no! You’re not too late! Miraculously!
Thanks for indulging us. Now pictures:
LOVE YOU GUYS SEE YOU AT SPACE 12/6