Known for the sparse, haunting qualities of his mostly solo recordings of what he refers to as “roots-folk music,” in which his husky voice is often accompanied by little more than a banjo or acoustic guitar, William Elliott Whitmore sought to add some new pitches to his bullpen for his new ANTI- release Radium Death.
A press release explains that Whitmore would take a two-hour drive from his Iowa farm to Iowa City’s Flat Black Studios to work on the material with cousin and producer Luke Tweedy. The tracks were often built in the studio, with various guest musicians sitting in on the sessions.
“I purposefully went into it wanting to make a little bit of a departure, sonically, using an electric guitar a little bit more and adding more…
…instrumentation, more full-band type stuff,” Whitmore explained in a statement.