The Wild Unrest: An Interview with Singer-Songwriter Beth Whitney

                                            Photo by ​K.L. Loomis


                      "Which heart beat is yours and which one is mine," sings Beth Whitney on Tides Are For Sirens, such a question seems to endure the length of the album, where one begins and where one ends, how our lives and stories are tied into one another, how we survive, how we heal, how we go on when we are almost convinced we can't. The Wild Unrest is a very personal album with wide open arms, it pulls listeners in because we have all, in our own unique way, reached such low points, treacherous internal crossings where wild waters rushed against us, and yet we've all dared to cross, if we're lucky we survive what we think we cannot, we bear losses that cannot always be made whole. "I'm in such a strange season that I find myself re-reading chapters of my life that I thought I'd known well," Beth says, "we are all hurling through space trying to make sense of our experiences. I think a good song can unravel and weave a piece of the mystery in an edible way." This music has been deeply lived in and indicates that it is possible to emerge from even our darkest chapters, that our epilogue is survival, the internal and external, wild crossing. "There is something to be said for sitting in the pain for its time," Whitney says, "scrambling out of it before its ready doesn't seem to be working, and the pressure to convey positivity and joy every minute is not a good one." That an album might be something like a loved one who skips their meals to sit with you till the fever lifts, "I hope it is like that somehow."


AHC: What has this journey in music, so far, been like for you, the highs and the lows, and what life lessons do you feel you've picked up along the way?

Beth: To tell the truth, this question has me stumped out of the gate. I'm in such a strange season that I find myself re-reading chapters of my life that I thought I'd known well. Looking back over my journey with music, I suppose the whirlwind of it could boil down to a few moments that symbolize the whole thing. I remember a house show in Atlanta, GA, singing "Brother" (about my older brother who passed) and someone in the audience must have seen my foot tapping lightly and joined, and pretty soon, everyone had joined in to a solemn stomp laying a bed beneath and throughout the song. The grief I'd buried took wing for a moment and it felt like every person there was mourning someone or something. It felt like a glimpse into the ancient, divine, and eternally human. It felt like I was home. 

AHC: What first drew you to music and what was your early musical environment like growing up? Were there pivotal songs for you then that just floored you the moment you heard them? Which musicians, throughout the years, have you learned the most from? Or writers, artists, filmmakers, teachers/mentors etc? 

Beth: I'm one of the youngest in a giant family. We sang all the time and since most the parts were taken, I was usually singing harmony or alternate parts. I didn't realize until I'd grownup that most families don't burst spontaneously into song. There was a songwriter at the church I grew up in named Jeff Quill. He wrote honestly and humbly and it stuck with me. I've probably learned the most musically from my mom, and poetically from my dad.

I lived in Nashville for a time when I was 19. I was too young for it honestly and my brother had just died so I was in that thick fog. Some wouldn't be too young at 19, but I was. I was also very isolated and not in a great situation. One day, like a rockstar, I was sitting in the parking lot of a TJ Maxx. I remember not wanting to go in, but not wanting to leave either, and Mindy Smith's "Come To Jesus" came on the radio. I laid my head on the steering wheel and just let her music do its work. 

Music and I are committed to one another we don't always like each other. I drove home from Nashville confused and defeated, and resolved to not play music anymore unless I was specifically asked. A friend from Ontario (thousands of miles away) called shortly after I got home and asked if I'd sing at an open mic down the road from me that his friend was putting on. I did, and that's when I made a new friend, Rory Corbin, and a thriving community of music began in my little hometown, and began to renew and redefine my love of music.

I met Aaron (again) at Whitworth University and we quickly became forever companions in music and life.

As far as inspiring writers, I really love John Steinbeck. During the writing of The Wild Unrest, I must have read 8 books by him and remember audibly gasping sometimes at how he describes the human condition and the world around us.  

Recently I've been listening to Gregorian Chants, Courtney Marie Andrews, and Jeffrey Martin.   

AHC: Do you remember the first song that you ever wrote or played? Or that first moment when you picked up a pen and realized that you could create whole worlds just by putting it to paper? 

Beth: A kind old man named Leroy gave me my first guitar when I was 16. Held it out to me and said, "Could you use this?" and even though I'd never played guitar (besides a Nirvana bass line my brother taught me when I was 12) I remember looking at it and deciding that, yes, I could use it, and I would. So I took it home and it was just bliss to make chords and add melodic poetry. It felt like magic and a whole world opened up. The strangest thing is that every instrument I have has a similar story...someone handing me an instrument and telling me to play it. 

The first song I wrote was for an English final in high school. The class gave me an instant standing ovation and I thought, "What in the world?" It was about people in society who are often sidelined and forgotten. 

AHC: What do you think makes for a good song, as you're writing and composing, is there a sudden moment when you know you've found the right mix, that perfect angle of light, so to speak? 

Beth: I think what draws us to songs is the same as what draws us to people...honesty, understanding, a cathartic rest, beauty of some kind.. On the technical side, originality is a big one. We are all hurling through space trying to make sense of our experiences. I think a good song can unravel and weave a piece of the mystery in an edible way. There have been times in my life when I am trying to explain to Aaron how I'm feeling and its just too hard so I'll put on a song and just point to the cd player (or whatever) and say, "This. This is how I'm doing."

AHC: Do you consider music to be a type of healing art, the perfect vehicle through which to translate a feeling, a state of rupture/rapture, hope lost and regained? Does the writing and creating of the song save you in the kinds of ways that it saves us, the listener?

Beth:  Yes. Absolutely. In its best use, I believe music is a type of healing art. It is just like food in that way. Done well, it will do good work in the body and mind. 

This album was tough because I wasn't sure whether to share this collection of songs with anyone at all. The first people I played it for were unbelievably encouraging and each time I got feedback I was like, "Seriously? Its not too sad though?" There is something to be said for sitting in the pain for its time. Scrambling out of it before its ready doesn't seem to be working, and the pressure to convey positivity and joy every minute is not a good one. 

AHC: What are your fondest musical memories? In your house? In your neighborhood or town? On-tour, on-the-road?

Beth: I did love growing up singing with my family. It was easy and fun..a simple but rich way to connect. We are are scattered all over the country now so it makes it a bit difficult, although I was able to get my younger sister on this latest album. One of my favorite parts of touring has been talking, jamming, and getting to know our hosts after the shows. In the studio, my favorite part is always laying down harmonies or alternate parts on other artists projects, even more than singing lead on my own. 

AHC: When you set out to write a song, how much does 'where the world is' in its current moment, culturally, politically, otherwise, influence the kinds of stories you set out to tell?

Beth: The individual stories, especially those that have been left untold, within the larger picture are what seem to shake me the most, so I write those. When I was at a Gettysburg Museum, there were huge rooms that diagrammed army strategies and important dates, but I was fixated on things like an old pair of soldiers boots, a widow's handbag, the picture of three children found in the coat pocket of a soldier. Those are the trails I want to explore. If we change the heart, we change the world. I don't know if it works the other way around. 

AHC: Your new album, The Wild Unrest, tackles themes that so many of us can relate to in a myriad of ways, the seemingly never ending struggle with life’s darkness and strangeness, how we find ways to unplug and connect with our loved ones more deeply, these are some of the great challenges for many in this day and age. Could you talk some about this record, how long did it take to write and put together, what the binding themes of this work are for you personally and your hopes for where all of this lands?

Beth: I had a tough go during and after the birth of our son 4 years ago. Postpartum depression is unbelievably common, especially in the US, but it came to me in a format I didn't recognize, and it grew. I was throwing all my creative energy and resources into my band at the time. It was an exciting season of writing and collaboration but having a baby on the road is no joke, and after that, touring extensively, and raising a new little one, I had nothing left to put into solo work, the work that has carried me through other difficult times. The songs were perched for a while I think, but I started actually writing the album when we moved into a cabin in the woods. It gave me the space I needed to figure out who I was again, what kind of family we wanted to be, and what sort of music was waiting to be made. While the wilderness theme is certainly prominent, it wasn't on purpose, but it mirrored well what was happening in me. My hope for this project is that it would be a companion for other folks who are having a hard time. 

AHC: Do you have any words of advice or encouragement for other musicians and singer-songwriters out there who are just starting out and trying to find their voice and their way in this world? 

Beth: Trust your gut. Don't be afraid to invite people in to what your doing. Don't lose yourself. 

What are the kinds of things that you tell yourself when you begin to have doubts or are struggling with the creative process? Or what kinds of things have others told you that have helped push you past moments of self doubt/creative blocks?

Beth: The pep-talks I give myself are really not that great. Ha! So I try to remember to reach out to others if I need a high five. With this album, there was a defining moment where I resolved to push through, no matter what. When I was questioning whether or not to record the album at all, I recalled a moment my grandma showed me profound compassion, skipping a meal with the whole family to sit with me when I was sick. It stuck with me forever. I hope this album is like that somehow.  


For more visit: www.bethwhitneymusic.com/
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