Whippoorwill is Alysia Kraft (guitar, vocals), Staci Foster (guitar, banjo, harmonica, vocals), and Tobias Bank (drums, vocals). Kraft was raised on a family-owned Wyoming cattle ranch, Foster alongside the rivers of the Texas Hill Country. Foster and Kraft met by chance at a porch picking party at SXSW 2013. The two exchanged songs throughout the night before parting for separate tours, later naming themselves “Whippoorwill” for the bird cooing through the pauses in song on the night of their meeting. Tobias Bank (Von Stomper) joined the band on drums in November 2016, bringing depth and musicality to the rhythm section and adding third part harmonies to a rich set of singing. Finding immediate collaborative cohesion in the new lineup, the band spent two years touring the American West honing a sound both expansive and raw, rootsy and otherworldly, and always landing in the grittier ‘alt’ corners of country and folk.
The band has shared the stage with Bonnie Raitt, Big Thief, Shovels and Rope, Mipso, Horse Feathers and Aaron Lee Tasjan. With palpable chemistry, dynamic live shows, and a long-game approach to their creative work, Whippoorwill has become a Colorado darling and one of the region’s most-hyped bands on the brink.
On November 15th the Fort Collins alternative folk-rock trio will release their debut album The Nature of Storms. Produced by J.Tom Hnatow (Horse Feathers, Vandaveer) and mixed by Duane Lundy (Jim James, Ringo Starr) at Lexington, KY’s Shangri-La Studio, the album is the product of two years touring the American west honing a sound both expansive and raw, rootsy and otherworldly, and always landing in the grittier ‘alt’ corners of country and folk.
Today Glide is offering an exclusive premiere of the music video for “Cold Sound”. With gorgeous vocals in the spotlight, the song is an infectious folk-rock tune that carries enough pop brevity to make it accessible for a wider audience. As a trio with two guitarists, the stripped down rock sound lends itself to letting the vocals and harmonies shine while also allowing for some guitar solos. It’s easy to hear how the group is cued into a big, powerful sound that could easily fill a large venue.
Whippoorwill’s Staci Foster describes the process and inspiration behind the video:
“Ben Hess, the director/filmmaker for ‘Cold Sound,’ came up with the video’s concept 30 seconds after his first listen to the song. (We were part of a collaborative film experience in which bands and filmmakers were paired and given 53 hours and 14 minutes to complete a music video). Ben and the band had never met. With ‘Cold Sound’ I was trying to write myself out of depression—to break out of the empty shell of myself that I’d become following a breakup. The song was meant to be my own catharsis and release. It was eerie how much Ben’s vision for the video aligned with that feeling right away.”
WATCH:
Photo credit: Pork Pie Photography
