The White Rabbits’ latest album Milk Famous might not sound the same as their previous work but according to pianist and singer Stephen Patterson’s father; this is not such a bad thing when it comes to making quality music.
“He would always play Beatles’ records and the thing that he would always say was ‘There’s just so much variety,’” Patterson recalled in an interview with The Daily Cardinal. “I can still remember him saying that—‘so much variety’—and he just kind of drove it into my head that like that was a positive sort of thing.”
Milk Famous came out on March 6 and certainly boasts a different sound from prior albums It’s Frightening or Fort Nightly, but Patterson insisted most of the same techniques are at work.
“I can see … why you might approach this as like, ‘this is different,’” he said. “But to me it’s all the same, it’s just like a different shirt or sock or something, but it’s still the same.”
Yet it is difficult not to acknowledge the absence of those pounding tom toms that garnered them so much recognition for past tracks like “Percussion Gun” or “Rudie Fails.”
“It’s not like we were attempting to wipe some slate clean, this is just the next obvious step for us,” Patterson continued. “We had a great time touring on It’s Frightening and playing songs off that record, which involved a lot of sort of bashing away at drums and a lot of aggressive sort of songs. That makes for a hell of a live show, you know?
“[But] it can get a bit, um, after a while if you’re doing something like that and you’re phoning it in it feels really bad.”
He insisted the rhythmic element still has a strong presence on the album.
“It’s shown in a different way—maybe something a bit more, um, perhaps a bit less obvious than like, ‘we like rhythms and we’re going to show you by bashing the shit out of these tom toms,’ you know?” he said.
Perhaps the most notable difference in the recording process this time around stems from The White Rabbits’ past success, because this time they were allowed plenty of time to make the album.
“We had three months in the studio,” Patterson explained. “And we were able to write in the studio and explore ideas, things that failed, and then learn from those and other things where before we would just explore an idea and if it failed, oh well, we had to just go with it.”
Some might also think the band has added an electronic component to the mix, but as it turns out, these synth-like sounds actually stem from organic piano and drums recorded slowly on a tape and sped up on playback.
“We’re very aware of the fact there are synthesizers out there that are going to do the same thing in a flash,” Patterson said, “but we prefer to not know how to use those things and try to figure out how to replicate that sound by just doing what we know how to do. And it ends up sounding a lot cooler.”
At Friday’s show at The High Noon Saloon, concertgoers can expect a fresh sound but no less energy from this band on the rise.
“I think um, people would get bored … if we did rhythm with every song,” Patterson surmised. “Not to sound obnoxious, but there’s much more to us than that.”
Come see what The White Rabbits are all about this Friday, April 6 at The High Noon Saloon on 701 E Washington Ave. The show begins at 9:30 p.m. and tickets are $12 in advance or $14 at the door.
