The Grey Expectations Crew – Kit Whitacre

KIT WHITACRE

Co-producer, Engineer, Mixing, Vocals, Electric Guitar, Saxophone, Organs, Synth, Harmonica, Percussion (More Tambo!)

Well, it’s time to get the blog rolling. Not like anyone will read this… or care… but it took me a couple weeks to clean up this website.

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, let’s get things started by introducing my man Kit Whitacre, whom I’m extremely grateful to have co-producing this album with me. “Grey Expectations” is soooooo much better because of all the work he’s put into it.

NOTE: I have no concept of dates or times anymore, so let’s just assume that all dates are within like 10 years going forward.

How We Met
I met Kit at a poker game at a mutual friend’s house sometime around 2015. S/O to Dave Bowen and Rick Morrison. We started talking about music. He told me he was in a couple bands. I probably told him I wrote greeting cards for Hallmark or some shit.

He was pretty young at the time, maybe 23 or 24, but he acted much older. Had a good head on his shoulders… humble… great listener… and unlike most of the other Annapolitans his age, I didn’t feel inclined to slide tackle him into a vat of Old Bay.

I ended up running into him a lot after that, but even the first time I met him I knew there was something about him that made him special.

You’re going to hear me say this a lot about the artists on this album, but I distinctly remember telling him that one day we were gonna make some dope music. We eventually linked up to lay down down some vocals for a couple songs that I produced for RG Cashmere Johnson, then I moved to VA and Kai was born… and I probably disappeared for a couple years.

Uniting for “Grey Expectations”
When I found out that Alex and I were moving to #Wisconsin, I knew I needed to get some drums tracked with Robin Eckman before I left. I reached out to the engineer I’d been using previously, but he was booked. In hindsight, it was a blessing in disguise. It had been a year or two since I’d seen Kit, but I hit him up and asked if he was available to record some stuff in his basement studio #MustardMansion.

Initially, we just needed a place to record drums, but as the album started developing, Kit’s role expanded dramatically. It had been a couple years since I’d seen him perform, and I was blown away by how much he had advanced as an engineer, producer, singer, and musician. Even at that time I didn’t realize just how damn talented he was, but he got to see more and more of it each session.

We had a few sessions with Robin… recorded some drums… and then I headed to #Madison where I began writing and sequencing.

By September, 2019 I was pretty close to done with all the writing and was able to piece together some solid demos using Robin’s drums and Tony Quintero’s guitars, bass, and congas. BUT… I still had a lot to do. Not only did we have to add musical and vocal layers to these “demo” tracks, but in developing the story for “Grey Expectations” I felt it was necessary to add… oh about 7 new tracks. Initially we planned on 10 songs. The album is now at 17. 🙂

I had always planned to return to Annapolis to record vocals and instrumentation, but after adding new songs, I knew I’d have to be gone at least a month. I was there for two.

From Wisconsin to Annapolis
I’m still not exactly sure how this worked out so well, but Kit just happened to be visiting his dad like 3 hours north of Madison. We worked it out perfectly so that I would drive an hour and a half north and his dad would drive an hour and a half south and there… at a Denny’s… we would begin our adventure to complete our “adventure” album.

The 16-hour drive worked out great. We listened to the demos and discussed ideas, and the whole time Kit was sitting there with his notebook jotting everything down. I don’t recall what we ate, which states we drove through, or where we slept, but I remember all the important stuff. I also got to know Kit a lot better. Spend 16 hours in a car with someone, and you’ll bond real quick… or want to kill each other. Both of us are still alive.

Making the Album
We made it to Annapolis on a Thursday, about 2 hours before Kit had to go to work. The next day we started bright and early at like 11:30 🙂 and began getting all the sessions prepped for Robin, who was coming in on Saturday to track drums. This is probably a good place to end for now, but I’ll continue the story in future posts.

To be continued…

– Tyler Durdin and Wolves & Sheep