Wishy
Wishy has changed in some ways since the release of their first album in 2024; they’re more accustomed to productive jams as a full group that have given way to some of their new material. But in other ways, they’re the same band they were in the beginning.
Wishy’s sophomore album, “Nature’s Pill,” came out Oct. 2 — and it’s a sonic catalog of what’s different and what’s only become more ingrained over time. Now, Wishy is once again on the road in the U.S. and Canada. Just a few weeks before they left, vocalists and guitarists Kevin Krauter and Nina Pitchkites joined me for this quick interview.
Listen to this interview anywhere podcasts are available.
Photo courtesy of Rian Archer
The following transcript was generated with transcription software and reviewed for accuracy. Minor errors or omissions may remain.
YY: Your debut album, which came out a couple years ago, was sort of this dreamy rock record. And the EP that followed sort of dipped further into the gentler side of that album. From what I've heard so far of the new album, it kind of sounds like you're returning to a more rock centered approach. So is that a fair assumption to make?
NP: I would think so. I mean, I think we still have like a good blend of like pop and rock elements. But I don't know, Kevin, if you want to speak more to that.
KK: To me, it feels like sort of like a synthesis of both, if I can use a four-dollar word. But yeah, I don't know, it kind of feels like allowing ourselves to occupy both spaces, you know, and it's, it's hard to say how much intention goes into it. At the end of the day, it's just like new songs that we're excited about. And it's not so much like this album. We're doing this thing different, you know, more of just like, "here's some more stuff that we like." And just so happens that it's kind of a bit more rockin' than the last EP, you know? But at the end of the day, it feels like when we get together and jam, we rock out. That's our bread and butter.
Yeah. And speaking of jamming, I just wanted to bring up your most recent single, at least at the time of this interview -- it's called "Sensational." the writeup for the album calls that song "quintessentially Wishy, and yet unlike any Wishy song you've yet heard." I was reading that it sort of came out of a jam, and there was some drum loop experimentation in there at some point. Do you think that's what made it a bit more unusual, or do a lot of your songs come together out of that environment?
KK: I think the more we've gotten to know each other as a band, that's become more of an instinct of like jamming when we're on tour, like before or during a soundcheck, like in between, you know, in our moments where we can find time to just do that. That's kind of been a newer development, because up to now it's been more of just like, I'll write songs for the band, bring them to the band, we'll figure them out and that's that. But yeah, this one, as well as some others on this album, were definitely born out of more of a collaborative spirit, you could say.
Right. I was reading, too, that it was more of a collaboration across the full band rather than just the two of you writing separately, which is kind of how it sounds like your first album came together. To your ears, because no one's heard the full album yet for the most part, does this new record actually sound more cohesive to you?
KK: I think so. I think it sounds, at the very least, a little more intentional. You know what I mean?
NP: I mean, this album was written in a very intentional way for the most part, I think. There's a song on there called "Blitz." That was one that was supposed to go on the last album but ended up making it onto this record. But yeah, I mean, we kind of just do what we always do, which is like, have fun, make what we want. And, you know, "fuck the rest," as "Sensational" says, TBH. Yeah, I don't know, like Kevin and I were writing more together on this record as opposed to in the past, where we've mostly written separately and then brought it to the table later. But yeah, I mean, super stoked with how it turned out.
Yeah, I was actually surprised when I found out that "Triple Seven" was written more piecemeal, because to me, it does sound like a very cohesive-sounding body of work. What do you think made you want to pull a track from the archives to put on this album that was mostly written sort of around the same time?
KK: Well, that specific track "Blitz" was just one that just wasn't really working last time around, but one that we never wanted to give up on and, you know, just felt like we can give ourselves one freebie, like one leftover dish in this smorgasbord, I guess.
Another point of continuity between the two, your co-producer Ben Lumsdaine -- did you actually track half this album live in the studio?
KK: Yeah, just about half of it.
NP: Yeah.
Awesome. I would imagine that probably takes a lot of the difficulty out of like, you know, "how do you adapt this to a stage?"
NP: Right.
KK: Yeah. Those songs that we tracked live together, you know, as you can imagine, definitely hit the hardest when we play them live, I would say.
And then I want to just pivot quickly to to videos. I don't often ask about music videos, but I mentioned "Sensational" earlier. That video I think is probably one of the coolest I've seen in such a long time. It was made by a friend of yours, Jess Dunn, who's an artist in Indianapolis. I know you can't necessarily speak to her whole process, but can you give us a little bit of a behind-the-scenes of how that video came together from your perspective?
NP: So we met up together to do photos, like press photos that our friend Conor Shepherd, who does album artwork for us. So she was there taking press photos of us and we did all this in one night, where Jess came and like, set up her camera to take a bunch of photos of us, like of each one of us individually. And that's how the little photo cutouts came about. So that day was like a two-in-one press photo shoot slash music video shoot, which is something we're very familiar with. We did that for our "Donut" music video from way back when. Same thing. We turned a photo shoot into a music video and it always ends up looking really cool. And Jess really blew it out of the water. She cut out over 2,000 individual pieces of paper and like stop-motioned them together in sequence. And she has a Substack that she posts on and has documented her process throughout this video, so I recommend people check that out. She's got a website, sesseka.com. She's incredibly talented. So it was basically mostly photography. I don't know if there are any elements of actual video footage in that video.
KK: It's all stop motion and paper cutouts.
NP: Yeah, which is insane. And she just blew it out of the water. Her creativity is like, I don't know.
KK: Unmatched.
NP: Yeah, unmatched, exactly.
Yeah. That's a really good pairing, I thought.
NP: I agree. Just so many fun words in that song that she was able to like, you could see it in the video where, you know, the word wet would be like dripping with little water droplets, stuff like that. So just a lot of very nice words that she could play around with.
I wanted to talk about this big tour that you have coming up. You toured the last album pretty heavily, and after this new album comes out, you're going on another big tour of North America. I think I counted 26 dates between October and December. What lessons did you learn from the first few years of touring as a band that you think you'll take with you on the road this fall?
NP: I said this in one interview, but basically learning how to communicate with all of my band members in a way that's productive but also having fun at the same time and trying to get shit done. I don't know, just a lot of like personal lessons in terms of just interpersonal relationships that have been really important to me.
KK: Yeah. I think that's the most important thing at the end of the day is like learning how to keep things copacetic, and the effort that it requires to do that with your band members. You can't just bottle everything up and just ignore things, you know, like if something's bothering you, if you're feeling a type of way, it's best to just get it out there in the open and hash it out. And I think we've gotten pretty good at that. Because essentially it's like going on family vacation every time you're out on the road. We both have siblings, so we're used to arguing with our siblings. You know, people get on your nerves no matter how close you are. And oftentimes the closer you are, the more they get on your nerves. And so navigating that is something that's unavoidable. So thankfully, everyone in our band is a total sweetheart, so it's not too hard.
NP: Straight up.
That's good. And obviously the more you do it, the closer you get, for better or worse.
KK: Yeah. And the more experiences you have together where you've like overcome obstacles. And so you can just feel like you can rely on each other more. And like, I think another big lesson we've learned over the years is you don't have to catastrophize things, you know, not everything's the end of the world, most issues you face on the road, you can overcome. It might be expensive, but everything's ultimately going to be okay. And it's better not to panic, you know?
And you just came off a relatively quick run of shows supporting the Beths and Beach Bunny. I'd imagine at this point you're probably pretty comfortable adapting your set to either open or headline, depending on what you're doing. Do you feel reasonably warmed up for the next big run in the fall?
KK: Yeah, pretty much. I feel like we're a pretty well oiled machine, at least with Conner, our main drummer. We have a backup, a friend, Tyler, who's our backup drummer when Conner can't make it. And we gotta learn some new songs with him. But that's always, you know, a pretty painless process and really fun to have him along, too. But yeah, I'm feeling really good. All the new songs feel really good to play. And yeah, ultimately I think the excitement about that just helps with the whole process.
Night one of this upcoming tour is a record release show in your hometown. It's been dubbed Wishy Fest. There's a great lineup of bands, there's a charity involved. So what exactly is that night going to look like?
NP: There's going to be, I think, eight bands playing. They're, I'm pretty sure all from the Midwest. We've got a couple from Chicago, a band from Cincinnati. Graham Hunt and Good Flying Birds are like our co-headliners, I would say. Good Flying Birds is originally from Indy. They're based in Cincinnati now, and Graham Hunt, I believe is from Wisconsin.
KK: Madison.
NP: Madison, yeah. But just expect a great time. Expect some duckpin bowling that'll be free of charge when you buy a ticket to the show. And the majority of the proceeds will go toward Food Not Bombs, which is a local Indianapolis organization whose whole goal is mutual aid and serving the community and a lot of unhoused people with resources.
KK: Yeah, they have a community garden, they focus on food security in the community.
NP: Yeah. But it'll be a great time. Doors will open at 3 p.m., and I'm sure it'll go well into the evening.
What do you hope listeners take away from "Nature's Pill?"
NP: A childlike sense of wonder, you know?
KK: Yeah, totally.
NP: Everyone's so serious. Let's have some fun.
KK: Let's have some fun, while we can.
NP: In the words of our song "Sensational," it's your life, you can do what you want.
KK: It's your fucking life. I hope people connect with it on an emotional level. There's a lot of emotion behind some of the songs. While it is pretty fun and upbeat, there's some deeper emotions behind some of them. And hopefully it can help people to feel those emotions in a whimsical way.
