Brooklyn Music Feature: In The Belly of the Whale

Sipping whiskey at South bar, Todd Bogin and his guys plop a seat at a booth, uneasy to start talking about the band they’ve birthed over the last year: Whale Belly. It’s been a string of good luck, community support, and hard honest work that has brought the four-piece together to make a name for themselves in the Brooklyn music scene. And now that they’re here, there’s no sign of quitting in sight.

With their debut album, Smile At The End of The Slope, Whale Belly has grown a following not only with fans, but amongst fellow musicians and venues, forming tight-knit friendships with local bars and cafes that happily welcome the band for open mic nights and impromptu jam sessions. Nowadays, you can catch the band playing at venues like Rockwood Music Hall and The Glasslands, turning skeptics into true believers.

With drinks being fully enjoyed, I sat down with the guys to talk about their strange coming together, their life in Brooklyn, and what’s in store for the group come 2011. Below I present you, Whale Belly.

With Todd being from Chicago then moving to New York, can you tell us how the band formed?

Todd: A lot of this is reoccurring theme. I played bass in this band and was encouraged to do most of my own stuff, that’s how I met Josh the violinist. Me and Josh started playing a little bit and then Roots Cafe opened next door – they did a lot of open mic nights and music nights and the owner, Jamie, booked me a lot. Then a lot of the people who work there started jamming with me for shows there. Then I started writing songs kind of in that idea of what worked best with the crowd there.

I’ve always wanted to work with Nick (engineer/mixer). I ran into him in like June 2009 and I was working on some demos and I gave him demos and he wrote me back saying “let’s discuss making an album.”

It formed really organically.

What made you want to move to Brooklyn?

Todd: I grew up in a town called Naperville and it’s a town I really don’t like. So I wanted to get out of there – and I have family in New York. I came and visited here my entire life and I thought it was the coolest city in the world.

What weird observations have you made since moving to Brooklyn? What do you love about it here?

Dan: Especially in this neighborhood, South Slope, I guess I love this area; still there’s a lot of new people moving in – young people, artists, and musicians. But there’s still like a sense of an old neighborhood, like the two old guys talking shit and smoking a cigarette. I love the music scene too.

Your new album, Smile At The End of The Slope, isn’t a typical folk album – it’s playful. What did you experiment with on the album and what was your goal?

Todd: The theme of the album and the sound is the complete insanity and the isolation of it that’s yet so intriguing and fascinating. I think that was the goal behind the lyrics.

Dan: It’s definitely a melting pot record. There’s so many different people from different influences and musical backgrounds coming together and supporting the songs, and I think that’s something that really came out in the record.

Todd: From the lyric stand point, my goal was to write an album that dissects New York and looks at it from a complete outsider point of view, but doesn’t necessarily insult New York, but in this insane humor kind of way. I tried to experiment with that – there’s no throwaway lyrics or moments. It’s people actually playing their instruments orchestrating this music, and we worked our asses on it. We know it had folk songs but we didn’t want it to be a folk album – it’s a big sound folk record that isn’t really made. It was very fun, very peaceful how everyone came together. That’s why we call it Whale Belly too – there are some biblical references in the album, but during the recording process everyone got sucked into – in the belly of the whale. You can listen to that in the album, it’s total honesty.

Nick: It’s still a very live feeling, because it was fresh for everybody. It was a cool common goal.

What has been your experience as a band in New York?

Todd: It was kind of a very special moment because in New York there’s not a lot of that (support). I don’t think there’s a lot of collaboration in New York. We got lucky, a lot of great people helped us out.

Nick: Yeah, this is the biggest sense of community that I’ve seen develop since living in New York.

Todd: We’ve been very lucky so far, we’re all just hard-working broke dudes and we’ve been reviewed by a lot of people and gotten a lot of press I feel like through good music and word of mouth, but I want to keep working hard at it. But we’ve got great responses show wise. We’ve done a lot of shows together with the same bands that help build that community.

Dan: The music’s fun since it involves so many people on stage. It’s a fun show – it’s fun to play, and it’s fun to watch I think. Once this album started to happen, the network got bigger and that’s why it’s fun in New York – it’s not too common.

Josh: It’s all family.

To experience a band that believes in creating authentic sound and building a community in one of the most competitive cities, is refreshing and something you just have to see live for yourself. Get more Whale Belly at Whale Belly Music.com and be sure to catch them performing in Brooklyn this January.

*By Alisha, who is so glad to have finished transcribing an audio interview from scratch!

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