Aud Whitson’s debut EP, A House That Can’t Get Quieter available now, captures the essence of minimalist folk with raw emotional depth, crafted using just voice memos, midi instruments, and the natural soundtrack of her environment, like chirping birds. Based in Lawrence, Kansas, Whitson intentionally focused on storytelling, drawing inspiration from artists like Owen and Elliott Smith to create intimate, reflective lyrics. Tackling heavy themes such as grief, depression, and existential chaos, she aims to shed light on often-taboo subjects, hoping to inspire empathy and understanding. The track “Feeling It” explores the universality of grief, revealing how both major and subtle triggers can bring about profound emotional responses.
Songs that inspire Aud Whitson's writing:
Q: In your opinion, what are the essential qualities that make a “good songwriter”?
That’s a good question. I think a huge thing that stands out to me is when someone says something in an undeniably new way. There are times where I am dumbfounded by how well someone manages to take an age-old concept and make me feel like I have never heard a song about it before. It can be an emotion, a dynamic, or a situation- anything. Those are the songs that leave me like “Why didn’t I think of that?” and it means I am completely hooked.
Q: What is the basis for writing attention-grabbing music in this day and age?
Honesty. People love honesty- singing what you’re thinking and working through as a person and not censoring yourself, it’s not only happening in sad folk music, look at Sabrina Carpenter- she’s a great example of showing folks that people can have fun and feel seen at the same time. Or BRATlike the biggest album of 2024 and it was Charli spilling her guts on a club, pop record. It’s been happening for ages, but I think especially now people are getting an even stronger radar for dishonesty. It just hits different when someone is being real with you and willing to write about their humanity amidst the shiny stuff. With social media becoming so relentless, I think we need it now more than ever.
Q: Can you pinpoint some specific songs and songwriters that changed the way you write music?
The first song I fell absolutely in love with as a teenager was “Holocene” by Bon Iver- during this time I was also listening to artists like James Blake, Novo Amor, and Birdy. These were the artists that made me fall in love with indie music but I didn’t really hone my writing style until I was a bit older and started listening to really self-referential emo stuff like Phoebe Bridgers, Elliott Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, and Mike Kinsella’s solo project Owen. I think this is the music that made me realize I don’t have to make up overly romantic stories or write in a really esoteric way. This is when I started writing more literally- still artful but far more straightforward and honest. Putting less pressure on myself to sound poetic has actually made my writing more poetic I think.
Q: Can you name any new artists you find inspiring?
It depends on what you mean by new- but for the sake of literalism I am going to stick to artists with Debut records post 2020. First huge stand out artist for me is Sweet Pill- “Where the Heart Is” is an insane debut record- it is so colorful and cohesive. It fully builds its own world which to accomplish on a first album is crazy. Same with Ethel Cain- your first full length project being a concept album is bold and she came out swinging with one of the most impressive sounds on the scene. When I was looking into artists with post 2020 debuts she didn’t even cross my mind because that album already feels like a hall of fame record so in my mind I was like “surely it’s older than that”.
Q: For your new album, what inspired the lyrical content, album title, and overall vibe?
This EP was born out of a lot of sadness. I didn’t write these songs with a plan to release them necessarily, I just was writing to sustain myself through some really difficult experiences. I was listening to a lot of Elliott Smithy stuff at the time and decided I wanted to try my hand at some very homey production to see if I could give these songs life with very minimal resources. Once things started shaping into something I really believed in I decided to reach out to Chase Horseman to see if they thought the songs had legs. We very intentionally kept things tape-y and lo-fi, working with the stems and midi I recorded and adding some sounds with Chase’s mellotrons we were able to uncover a really magical sound.
Q: Do you find that you ruminate over writing songs and hold on to them for a long time before including them on a record? Or do you prefer to write them, release them, and be done with them?
Do you ever re-visit old material to do a re-write or once it’s done it’s done? Well I ruminate over everything so naturally yes, sometimes for better and sometimes for worse. I’ve gotten pretty good at knowing when to stop writing a song. If I write a song quickly I usually don’t edit it much at all- any song I write in under 30 minutes is like print and release because that means I had a visit from the muse and I believe in it right away. Other times I have a concept but I don’t know how I want to present it to the world yet. It’s like the feeling of having a word on the tip of your tongue- sometimes it’s like “I know it will come to me” so I just give it as long as it takes and other times it drives me slightly crazy and I’m like “I have to figure this out right now” and I get stuck in a loop. Usually those songs suck- you can’t force it.
Q: Were there any lessons you learned in the writing and recording process for your current release that you will take with you into your next project?
Yes yes yes!!! This project helped me realize I’m not half bad at production and composition. It feels good to have played a heavier hand in writing parts around my voice and guitar myself. I have done it plenty of times before but I always let my lack of knowledge fuel insecurity that gets in the way. I think I will probably be taking this lofi approach to engineering into my new music for 2025. It’ll be fun to explore and see how it develops as I learn more. Overall I’m trying to be less polished in many ways.