Whereas it could haven’t been a simple path, Chicago’s The Walters have discovered their method again to one another on their debut LP ‘Good Firm,’ a document full of affection for one another and a reminder of the experiences confronted alongside the way in which.
Stream: ‘Good Firm’ – The Walters
Change is nothing new to indie pop quartet The Walters.
The group has damaged up, reunited, and most not too long ago launched their long-awaited debut full-length album, Good Firm. Their journey has been one in all transformation – navigating private {and professional} adjustments, and studying what it means to develop each individually and collectively. Ten-plus years after they first got here on the scene, The Walters are again and higher than ever, sharing a document meaning simply as a lot to them because it does to their followers.
“Good Firm is the album we’ve all the time needed to make – a mirrored image of our story, our friendships, and the highs and lows alongside the way in which,” say The Walters – comprised of singer/guitarist Luke Olson, guitarist Walter Kosner, bassist Danny Wells, and drummer Charlie Ekhaus.
“We grew up on albums. They’ve formed us as people and musicians. In in the present day’s music world, albums could not carry the identical weight they as soon as did, however to us, they continue to be the purest expression of an artist and an period.”
After releasing their now-viral single “I Love You So” in 2014, The Walters rapidly caught the eye of music lovers throughout the nation. Dealing with such a fast swap in recognition, from native sweethearts to a nationally recognized act, the band felt this new sense of stress . Coping with all of this, together with touring and their private lives, finally took its toll. Not lengthy after their Lollapalooza efficiency in 2017, The Walters known as it quits.
“There was simply a number of immaturity and failure on our half to comprehend we had been on the up and up, that issues had been actually profitable,” Olson displays. “We simply fell aside.”
However The Walters’ story didn’t finish there.
In 2021, seven years after its unique launch, “I Love You So” unexpectedly went viral on TikTok – introducing The Walters to a model new technology of listeners. The music’s sudden recognition reignited conversations among the many band members, sparking a realization that their music nonetheless resonated deeply, even of their absence.
With broadly revered hits “I Love You So” and “Candy Marie,” The Walters realized the affect their music holds in society. The unwavering assist proven by followers all over the place was surprising. If something, it’s the rationale the group determined to offer music one other strive.
“There’s undoubtedly no method we may have made this document even a yr or two in the past,” Walter Kosner shares. “We wanted to undergo this course of to have the ability to lastly get to a spot the place we are able to simply make the most effective music we are able to.”
Provides Olson: “We’re in a a lot more healthy place, and the creativity is actually flowing. A few of my favourite songs on the album are ones the opposite guys wrote. I simply love singing them, and to be in that area is extremely thrilling.”
Because the 4 matured, they realized what really issues: Their followers, one another, and the music.
After stepping again from music, the band seen they couldn’t reside with out it. This transformative expertise led them again to their roots, and to at least one one other. When surrounded with Good Firm, an individual by no means needs to depart the facet of these round them. The Walters are tethered collectively, an inevitable pairing. They embrace this and their rediscovery as a bunch, fueling their return to music.
The Walters inform Atwood Journal, “Good Firm is a mirrored image of who we’re – whether or not it’s taking part in in somebody’s automotive on a street journey or found in a crate of vinyl a long time from now. After ten years as a band, we’re proud to lastly share our first full-length album.”
Lengthy-awaited and deeply felt, Good Firm is the return followers have been dreaming of. The Walters didn’t simply reunite — they got here again with goal, crafting a debut that’s dreamy, nostalgic, and richly reflective of who the’ they’ve grown to be. It’s a portrait of who they’ve turn out to be, the results of hard-won development and renewed connection. Greater than a comeback, this document is a rebirth: The Walters’ authenticity bleeds into each music, reaffirming their voice and imaginative and prescient as a band reborn.
The Walters are at present on tour with half•alive throughout their “Persona” tour. Good Firm is making its debut, alongside the reintroduction of the beloved band to longtime followers and new listeners alike.
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:: stream/buy Good Firm right here ::
:: join with The Walters right here ::
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A CONVERSATION WITH THE WALTERS
You’ve talked about that Good Firm is the form of document you’ve all the time needed to launch. What’s it like releasing your first ever LP, particularly one so significant and private to you?
Luke Olson: It’s a bucket checklist second for us as a band. We began in 2014, after which we had been damaged up for some time. We by no means had been in a position to actually make an album that we thought-about an album. It was type of like six or seven music EPs. I feel we’re simply actually proud that we had been in a position to see this by. Clearly we love the music, however it’s like extra of simply exhibiting ourselves that we are able to do it. All people loves a very good album, and we simply have by no means had that. So hopefully this generally is a begin of us making a lot of them.
Referring to your music “Damaged Hearts and Recollections,” how have your life tales and romantic adventures formed this album?
Luke Olson: Nicely, it shapes it quite a bit as a result of there’s a number of love songs. I suppose all the nice and the dangerous that comes with relationships. You virtually subconsciously write about it, like damaged hearts, it might’t be tied to at least one relationship. It comes from experiences in all of them.
Charlie Ekhaus: It’s all in there, a method or one other. All of it comes out in music.
With tour on the horizon, are there any songs particularly off the album you’re excited to play reside? Will touring this album really feel totally different than different reside exhibits you’ve performed?
Walter Kosner: We performed just a few exhibits already and it’s been so good. I can’t inform you how good it’s been to play totally different songs. At any time when we had been touring we performed the identical two albums, similar singles and now half of our set is all new music. It’s been actually enjoyable and it’s thrilling to see if some folks react to the brand new music, or in the event that they’ve heard the music earlier than the live performance.
You’ve been by a number of ups and downs as a band. How have these experiences formed you as musicians, and contributed to your newest document?
Luke Olson: We had been damaged up for a short time, our band has all the time type of been like a rollercoaster. There’s one thing lovely about that, all of us are able now in our lives the place we are able to do that band in the best method. We will be good to one another and never take it with no consideration. Possibly once we had been in our early 20’s it was slightly more durable to see what the scope of this implies to our lives. Now we’re totally conscious that this band is a really important a part of our livelihoods so we’re taking it critically.
After taking a break as a band, what impressed you to step again into this area? Likewise, what elements of the music business did you miss?
Walter Kosner: There have been totally different instances through the years that a few of us needed to do the band, or we weren’t prepared. In 2021, the band began trending on TikTok with the primary music we made I Love You So. When that occurred, we began getting a number of calls from document labels and it received us all again in dialog, speaking in regards to the prospects of what we may do if we began the band once more. Everybody was feeling impressed, and it felt like a very good time to do it.
Danny Wells: So far as lacking elements of the business, we missed taking part in reside and recording. However I’ll communicate for everybody and say, we don’t actually miss the business facet of it.
Walter Kosner: So long as you possibly can preserve it between your mates and make music that you just love and carry out, that’s all that basically issues.
Moreover, what did you study throughout your hiatus and the way has this adopted you throughout your return to the business?
Luke Olson: This band is simply essential, all of us most likely have considered it each day of our lives indirectly or one other. I Love You So going viral was the universe, it pushed us even when we didn’t ask for it.
Danny Wells: Everybody realized totally different stuff on the hiatus, like Charlie received actually good at drums. Luke began shredding on guitar extra, I realized write songs. Walter grew to become an excellent higher author than he was. The time without work helped in a number of methods.
Walter Kosner: I received into driving Uber and doing deliveries. As you grow old you type of understand what issues to you. The entire time we had been gone, you’d all the time see followers saying they wished we had been nonetheless collectively, and the way a lot our music meant to them. When you hear that sufficient, you understand that it’s type of essential not only for you, however in your followers. With the ability to make music that folks truly hear and it truly imply one thing to them is so massively essential to us.
This newest document is the right reflection on who The Walters are. What albums have formed you to turn out to be the folks you’re in the present day?
Luke Olson: That’s a tough one. I suppose a number of the classics, The Seashore Boys, The Beatles, and The Strokes are essential. I might say these are the tops, it’s simply all of the nostalgic traditional music, we attempt to mix and make it type of fashionable.
Walter Kosner: Oasis, The Chili Peppers, all of us simply actually like what we take into account to be actually enjoyable, good pop music. We hearken to a number of the identical issues, however we additionally department out quite a bit. I feel that type of helps our sound. Charlie produced all our music just about up till this level. Him and Danny undoubtedly have extra of a R&B background and I feel that helps with the manufacturing. It simply type of adjustments our sound, it doesn’t make it simply this one factor.
This album is your most collaborative work but. How have your processes as a band modified as you may have grown collectively?
Danny Wells: We’ve been doing stuff extra remotely, which has been cool. Lots of stuff collectively too, however we type of have our personal studios at residence and we’ve made a few of our greatest stuff. Every one in all us would begin individually after which we introduced it to the band. That’s been a brand new factor since COVID.
Walter Kosner: It’s been collaborative. There’s a music on the album that Danny sings, and he’s by no means sang a music earlier than. Songs are coming from all totally different instructions, it’s not simply the identical. We used to only write chords, and a melody and lyrics, after which convey within the instrumentals. It was type of the identical factor each time, and this time it’s type of all over.
Luke Olson: Nicely, we additionally used a number of producers and writers for this album. As an alternative of simply the band writing every music, we introduced a number of folks to assist and it exhibits within the songs.
I liked the music “TV” off your new album. What are your favourite tv exhibits for the time being?
Walter Kosner: White Lotus, Succession. Darkish is my favourite present. It’s a German psychological time journey present, it’s one in all my favorites of all time, extremely suggest.
Danny Wells: I’ve been watching Yellowjackets, that’s a very good one.
Luke Olson: I’ve been watching Peaky Blinders probably the most, for like the previous couple of months.
Danny Wells: At the moment popping out although, White Lotus rocks.
Luke Olson: Yeah I want to observe the brand new White Lotus. I’m comfortable you favored that music, it’s one in all my favourite ones too.
You launched a music known as “Good Ole Years.” What would you take into account the nice ole years to be?
Luke Olson: Wow. That’s a very good query. It’s most likely totally different for everyone, however I suppose it’s simply the years whenever you had been oblivious to the world. While you had been throwing eggs at Dairy Queen drive thrus. Having the cops known as to your guardian’s home.
Walter Kosner: Yeah, whenever you had been residing in a bubble. I used to be throwing slushies at a gasoline station, the identical time Luke was throwing eggs.
Danny Wells: I used to be operating into the woods, throwing snowballs off a bridge.
Charlie Ekhaus: While you didn’t have accountability. Possibly we’re within the good ole years proper now too, ?
Luke Olson: Yeah that’s type of it, proper? It all the time is altering what the nice ole years is, in ten years we are going to look again at the moment.
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© Rachel Briggs
an album by The Walters
