Rebellious roots
White Hills defies labels, mixes genres with ‘punk rock ethos’
White Hills’s sound does not fall into any genre.
It has been categorized as psychedelic, experimental, desert rock, gothic, but its roots remain rebellious.
“I’ve always felt that the music of this band in general and how we conduct ourselves is rooted in punk rock ethos,” said White Hills guitarist and vocalist Dave W. “It’s kind of taking the bull by the horns and no one stopping you.”
Most people can only take so much banging, clanging and grinding noises that come from something under construction but not Dave W.
“I live in an area which is under a lot of real estate development and there is a constant barrage of noise and yet there is a very rhythmic nature to the noise of construction,” he said. “I started to hear a rhythm within this noise and talked about trying to take these rhythms within this development and write music from it.”
Dave W. also found meaning in the construction to be relatable to today’s world issues.
“A lot of areas around the world there is a massive swapping of property and real estate and massive building projects and it is very disruptive for communities and in my opinion especially in New York there are a majority of things being built that is ugly,” he said. “The purpose is for profit and they’re built cheaply. There is no aesthetic process. It’s disposable like our society and our culture in general is out of something ugly and gross. It’s like you can get something beautiful out of it in the sense that there is a rhythm to the universe. There is a rhythm within this construction like I try to take something so ugly and make something beautiful and positive out of it.”
There is no timeline on when White Hills new music will make it on an album and the band isn’t in a rush.
“I’m trying to focus on just writing the music and not anything else,” Dave W said.