WILLIS
interview by Zoe Redlich
Let’s start at the beginning. How did you guys find each other and begin playing together?
Murphy: We all went to school together and had our own music things going on. Glenn (drums) and I (bass and vocals) were in the band at our church and when we both stopped going, we decided to make our own band. We hit up our friend Trey (guitar) about having a jam session, to see if he’d be interested in joining us. Trey came over, we started playing and it was dope. We wrote our very first song as a band that day. It’s called cherry yum diddly dip, or CYDD, and it’s on our first EP. This was in 2016. Then we decided to add another person, so I called my good friend Edward (guitar) to see if he’d be interested in joining us. He’d been in a couple of bands and was doing his own solo thing, so I just told him my vision for the band and he was in. We already had a studio and one day Glenn brought his younger brother, Will (keyboard), to hear us practice. Will didn’t play keyboard at the time, but we kinda just talked him into playing keys for the band. We played our first show in December 2016 and have been doing our thing ever since.
Why the name Willis?
Willis is actually Glenn’s real first name. Him and I put a lot of thought into the name for months, and eventually decided that we just needed a 2 syllable name for the band, and I thought it looked better in all caps so WILLIS became our official name.
Your instrumentals are incredibly strong, and compliment your lyrics perfectly! How much creative energy goes into the instrumental aspect of each song in relation to the lyrical part?
Thank you so much. We each have a different vibe and style when it comes to our instruments and how we play, so it’s easy for us to make the instrumentals. I’d say only about 15% of of all the instrumentals that we have (a lot), actually end up becoming real songs though. The instrumentals have to invoke a certain feeling and we decide what the vibe is. I put so much effort into my lyrics it’s crazy, but I only write lyrics like 2 or 3 times a month. Basically, each song has a full episode of my life. Whether it be lessons learned, moving forward, thinking in hindsight, or just a little regret. But it’s not all sad. I just try to make every single lyric something that people can emotionally relate to.
As you’ve been producing music for years now, have you found that your sound has evolved? For example, “The Kumite” was all instrumentals, but since then, all of your songs have had vocals. Is that an intentional shift?
Oh, for sure, our sound has evolved. Sometimes it gets hard to listen to our old songs or watch old footage. We learn something new and get better everyday and I hope our sound reflects that. We made ‘The Kumite’ in like an hour while recording our first EP. We were 5 songs deep into our ‘Locals’ but we felt like it needed a sixth song - but we had to get it done fast so we just made it an instrumental. Glenn and Will made it at their place in like 30 minutes, Trey added some guitar and it was done. Nothing intentional, just us being kinda out of material at the time. ‘Locals 2’ only took us two days to record. Our next record, “Locals 3”, comes out in 2019 and it’s gonna be crazy.
One evolution we’re all happy about is that you released a music video. Are music videos something you want to pursue in the future?
Absolutely. Music videos are something that I’m very passionate about. Right now, I’m just trying to develop a team of dope people that can help us make the best music videos and art that we can. I’ve got so so so many ideas.
Speaking of music videos, the Real Estate Sale video is pretty awesome. What’s the process like of giving visuals to a song?
Thanks! We filmed it all in like a day and a half. It was crazy. The process is way way way easier giving visuals to songs. I like to use a lot of imagery in my lyrics so that kinda helps create the visual. I’m good at developing plots and stories so when I have a vision that I think will work, I’ll take the idea to the guys and we make it a lot more in depth.
Again, visually speaking, you have a very distinct style in the use of colors and images for your album covers. How do you decide on these?
It starts by listening to the record a lot to find underlying themes in each song and try to make something out of that. Sometimes I think about it while I write lyrics and sometimes it’s about where the music takes us visually. I use different colors and textures to describe our sound and how it matches the vibe of the songs.
In fact, how do you decide on anything as a five-person band? How do you handle the creative process when there are so many minds involved?
We each come up with different ideas on how the songs and visuals should sound and look. Sometimes there are good ideas and bad ideas. And when we can’t come to a conclusion at the moment, we just trust each other that someone will think of something dope and we can take that idea and go more in depth.
What are the benefits of being a group instead of an individual artist?
Accountability for sure. This is a lot of work and I love having other creatives working with me. It’s encouraging. Right now we’re in the process of routing a tour and also recording a record, so we’re always trying to push the best out of ourselves and make each other better.
What advice would you give to any bands trying to get their music out into the world?
Just make music that YOU wanna hear. Chances are that other people wanna hear something like it too.
What was the thought process behind your song "I Think I Like When It Rains"? Can you go into depth a little about that? It's one of my favorite songs of yours and I'd really like to know what it was like to create that piece. What did you want people to envision when listening?
My thought process behind writing it was realizing that I used love from a distance meaning that I wouldn’t know how to tell people how much or what they mean to me. I always had to be doing something even when I was already doing something. Like thinking “what’s next?” I wasted a lot of time thinking about what’s next instead of making right now worth it with relationships. It’s a hindsight song. I think because of how things are in today’s society, we can’t do anything but think about how we wish things were how they used to be. But when we were going through it at the time, it doesn’t seem so nice. Hopefully people hear this and can envision a time when they were carefree.
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