Rediscovering Reason

It'd be easy to open this story with a quote from LL Cool J, something about not calling it a comeback or something or other. However, Whitley – or Lawrence Greenwood as it would say on his birth certificate – isn't remotely interested in such hyperbole. You can instead call his return to making music a resurrection. You might recall early 2010, after two albums and fed up with the rigours of touring, Greenwood retired the Whitley name and retreated to London to hang with his family and generally rediscover himself. Flip forward to, well, now and he's finally emerging from indefinite hiatus – it all began with a surprising appearance on the Splendour in the Grass poster and now with a brand new album – Even The Stars Are A Mess.

“It was definitely more of a, 'I'm sick of this, let's move on' kind of thing, but in retrospect I was just really burnt out, out of control with what I was doing and needed tIo completely restructure what was going on within my head and as a system of releasing music as well,” Greenwood confesses honestly. “That's been done – I manage myself now, it's very DIY, I put my own posters up – that kind of business. It's just about being in control of what I'm doing, it's about maintaining a sense of honesty about what's going on. I think bands have a propensity to try and push themselves onto people that might not necessarily be sympathetic to the music they make – I don't want to be one of those people. I like the idea that there are people that like my music and I can just play for them and to them.

“I was worried that I would lose track,” he continues, explaining the daunting task of taking on his own management. “But to tell you the truth, it's just given me more of a sense of strength and a sense of purpose towards playing more interesting music. Now I have a good idea what the direction I want to move in is, so I can play that and also then, just as easily pivot and do something else because I know how much time I've got. I'm now more aware of the hours I can spend on something, if that makes sense.”

Many hours were spent on his third album Even The Stars Are A Mess, but possibly not as many as the kilometres covered during the process. During what can only be described as a monumental undertaking, Greenwood visited Yucatan Peninsula, Havana, Cuba, Panama, London, the Netherlands, Peru, Tuscany and Bennabio, just to name a few.

“Well it started basically because my girlfriend, at the time, was moving to London,” he confesses. “As the years progressed, I began to travel more and more; that relationship – as they tend to do – ended and I went off on my own and went to some fucking crazy places, in Mexico and Chernobyl – that was nuts. I can't fucking believe I went to Chernobyl, I look back on it and think, 'What the fuck was I doing next to that reactor?'. I didn't just go to Morocco, I walked over the fucking Atlas Mountains, you know. I was looking for the places no one goes to to put myself through something. And I did, I did go through it and I feel like I benefited from it.

“For the first two years, I really didn't feel like it was benefiting me,” he continues candidly. “I felt very lost, very confused, very upset, and dissatisfied – which I think is a normal state of mind for somebody to be in, in the society we live in, especially working in the industry we work in. It's very disorientating and, I think, for sensitive people, it's an absolute gauntlet.”

Most of these confronting emotions and fears all make an appearance at some point or another on Even The Stars Are A Mess.

“Definitely,” he agrees. “It's a summary of that inward gazing. [The album title's] a Werner Herzog quote, he meant it in a moment of frustration, that he hated where he was in the jungle, in the Amazon. He looked up at the sky and commented that even the stars were a mess. When I heard him say that, I thought to myself, 'That's a really beautiful metaphor for the chaotic existence that we all have to trudge through'. If you can accept that we look up to the stars – and they're beautiful things – and realise that they're just fucking everywhere and chaotic – if you can apply that metaphor as an analogue to your life, then for some reason, things might be a little bit easier. Well, they do for me anyway.”

There are many, many stories to accompany Whitley's journey and the making of Even The Stars Are A Mess. The album is a masterful piece, an atmospheric affair that, overall, feels like the record Whitley was destined to make. First single My Heart Is Not A Machine has preceded its release while Final Words seems like the worthy opponent and the album's competing highlight. His impressive vocals and lyrical prowess both remain but when questioned on his own personal highlights, he mentions only one thing.

“There's a particular reverb unit that is just drenched all over the album,” he laughs. “We ran entire mixes through this thing – it weirdly sums up this mood that I feel. It's a melancholic sound that has a wisdom to it and that's how I'd like my music to be perceived – a hopeful, melancholic wisdom. This sounds like something a proud parent would say and I really hope it doesn't sound obnoxious, but I cannot choose between the first six songs on the album – they just feel so perfect for what I wanted from the album that I cannot choose between any of them. They really just sum up exactly what I wanted to do and, to me, they don't sound like anything else.”

It's not a half-baked plot – the shows are locked in, the band is sounding sharp and support act Esther Holt is booked. But this time, there's a great sense of calm surrounding Greenwood, and he actually sounds happy to be back, to be resurrected and, this time, it's undoubtedly a new phase. He's making the music he wants to make, has eliminated the 'Chinese whispers' that he felt encompassed his team previously, communicates with his label directly and feels generally and entirely in control of what his career for perhaps even the first time.

“I couldn't be more comfortable,” he exudes. “I'm terribly excited by playing new music with my friends and just being around the people that I love. This time, I plan to just have good people around me and stay in control.”