Vocalists Ram Vela and Ryan Ermis appeared timid and unsure of their voices. On their first release, 2005's Anhedonia Falling, both guys held back, which made their voices sound strained. However, the potential that this could be a great band was evident.

Shortly after Torch Songs was released in 2008, seeing them live was like watching a brand new band. It was like the guys took the original Whitman sound and intensified it. The new Whitman was getting comfortable playing on stage, and with each other. The liveliness of the songs obviously showed they were having a great time being rock stars.

Vela conveyed his vibrant personality that everyone knows and loves into the delivery of his vocals, which gave him an approachable frontman stage presence. The biggest shocker, however, was the normally a quiet guy Ermis belting out his high notes in “For Heaven Sake” with such an excited grin on his face. Even now, he still keeps to himself off stage. But once he's on stage, he lets his inhibitions run free.

Five tours and three album releases later, Whitman is a solid indie-rock band that has really come a long way since that first show. The band's lineup has changed; substance abuse issues left the band looking for a new drummer to record a recent EP. After a session drummer helped out in the studio, the guys still needed to find a full-time replacement for playing live. But all the elements have come together for Whitman recently.

I got together with the band to chat about the last couple of years since I gave them their first interview. It was just like old times, full of laughter and silliness. Nevertheless, we did get down to business and talked about the recording of their upcoming release Culdesac and how far these guys think they've really come as a band.

We'll start with Eric, the new drummer. How did you come into the band?

Eric: I moved to Austin about a year ago, and I was intensely looking for a band. I'm from Ohio. I was looking at bands on Craigslist and I eventually lost my faith in that. Then I had some close friends tell me not to give up on it so I tried it one more time. I found these three.

Ram: We posted a listing on Craigslist and we tried out about five or six drummers and was down to two really nice guys. We chose him because we knew he was a better fit for our style of music. It worked out really well. Plus, your kit sounds amazing.

Eric: Aw, shucks.

Kyle: He's been an awesome addition to the band. It's been a long time since we played. The three of us have been the core members since we started Whitman. It's been a long time since we had a fourth member that really felt like they're a part of the band. We've been going through the alternating drummer thing and we were really lucky to find Eric. We clicked on a personal level really quick.

Ram: Yeah, I'll never forget at that first tryout he came to. I immediately wanted to go over to his house afterwards and just hang out with him and just shoot the shit with him. After all, we do the same thing as our day jobs. That was just kind of weird. He's a teaching assistant for a special ed class, and I'm as well teaching a special ed class. I just wanted to talk to him. We hit it off really well.

Eric: Now we're friends.

So how recently was it when you joined?

Eric: It was late May. I started auditioning in the middle of May somewhere.

Ram: So we drilled him for about a month to a month and a half before he actually played his first show on July 8th.

Kyle: Boot camp.

Ram: And it was a really successful show.

Kyle: And he's held it down ever since. It was like he was born to be in this band.

Eric: It's natural. It's just the chemistry. Even in bands I've been in before, I hadn't had the chemistry that I have now with these three guys. So far so good.

Ram: Sometimes we have sleepovers.

Eric: We pop popcorn.

Ram: We pop popcorn. We stay up all night watching movies.

Kyle: We watch old movies. Casablanca.

Ram: Gone with the Winds. You have to put this in the interview by the way. I'll never forget. Our first tryout with him, Kyle asked this question. “So Eric, uh, how's your situation with alcohol? You an alcoholic? You do a few pill poppin?” He's like “Well, I'll be honest with you. No, I don't but if you have weed, I'll smoke it and if you have beers, I'll drink them.”

Kyle: We were blown away. Carried us away.

Eric: It was like a moment of silence.

Kyle: Lifted off our feet.

Ram: It was like “If you have beers, hey I have some beers. Let's drink them.” So yeah, it's good times.

Kyle: Obviously, we've had problems in the past with drummers with substance abuse.

Ram: Yeah. I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future with this kid. Not this one. He's not going to blow up anytime soon.

Kyle: Apple of our eye. All right. That was fun.

Whitman has been on five tours across the country. How were you able to do those five tours and still have jobs?

Kyle laughs.

Ryan: Well...

Kyle: You take that one.

Ryan: We worked really shitty jobs that weren't too important and we could take time off.

Kyle: It's a matter of priorities.

Ryan: Yeah, exactly.

Kyle: We did what we needed to do.

Ram: Flexibility is key.

Kyle: When you wake up in the morning, you just got to ask if you want to go to work or if you want to go on tour. At the time, for the people that were in the band, tour was the answer.

Eric: I've yet to do the first tour.

Kyle: You've been to San Marcos.

Eric: I've been to San Marcos. That's true.

Ram: And about in a week and a half, he's going to Rio Grande Valley. That's 300 miles away.

Kyle: Get his first taste.

Ram: First taste of road.

Eric: First mini-taste. Yeah.

Kyle: He's itching. He needs to go on tour.

Eric: I'm itching. That's right.

Kyle: Burning.

Eric: It's just eating away at me.

Ram: Yeah, we're gonna eat some Mexican food. We're gonna get all fucked up. Awesome.

You just recorded your EP. Who did you record with? What was the process like?

Kyle: It was recorded at Jacketweather Studio under David Dreesen, the same producer who put out Torch Songs and we actually went into the studio to record demos. The entire EP is called Culdesac. It is recorded live. The only rule we had in the recording process is if it could be done pre-1972, we could do it. Those were our rules. So we did everything analog. We did everything live all together in the same room. We did it just to have demos but we really felt that it captured a side of us that we hadn't recorded and captured before. We were really impressed with the results so we decided under lots of fans' demands to put it out.

Ram: It was a 72 hour session, just a weekend in the studio and we recorded it live. We're pretty happy with it. Pretty happy with it. Ryan, you wanted to put an overdub on something, Dreesen would be like, “No, we're not doing that.”

Ryan: It was very strict. On one little part, I wanted to add a 3rd harmony but since we wouldn't do it like that live, it just got shot down right away. So there's nothing more than two part harmonies but we're really happy with the results.

Ram: We like to capture our live show, our energy that we possess live on that EP. I hope it shows.

Kyle: I think it changed our recording philosophy a lot. I mean Torch Songs was a labor of love and I think we're all very proud of it, but I think Culdesac really showed us a different side of ourselves that we were really impressed to find and really excited about. Which is one reason why we want to put it on vinyl. Cause it's the perfect record to be put on vinyl.

Ram: Yes, we discovered the G chord.

Kyle: So if anyone wants to help us put it out on vinyl, speak now.

Ram, I read on MySpace you jammed with Weezer.

Ram: Yeah. I won a contest on 101X.  

Kyle: Yeah.

No big deal.

Ram: Yeah. It was fun.

What song did you do?

Ram: Well, 101X had this contest. Weezer came through town and that was just an opportunity for some of their fans to just come on on stage and jam with them. All I had to do was jam “Beverly Hills” and “Island in the Sun” and yeah, I got to meet Brian Bell.

Kyle: But to win the contest you had to cover some songs.

Ram: Oh yeah, to win the contest, I had to... it was weird. I was on my way to Central Market and a girl was like “You got to prove to me you play guitar. You gotta play 'El Scorcho' or 'Beverly Hills' or 'Island in the Sun.'” Well fuck, do you think you can wait until 9:30 because I'm gonna get some green chili sauce for the green chili enchiladas I'm going to make for my kids tomorrow so I gotta be home in a certain hour. Can you wait that long? “Yeah, just call me back before 10.” So I called back the DJ at 9:30, played a little “El Scorcho.” “You're on the list.” I'm like fuck yeah, this is an awesome opportunity to promote Whitman. Gave Weezer a Whitman CD. So I gave Brian Bell a Whitman CD. I gave Pat Wilson a Whitman CD. I touched River Cuomo's leg.

Kyle: There's an awesome picture of it.

Ram: Awesome picture. The guy is a creepy looking dude.

Kyle: None of us could afford to go watch Ram.

Ram: It's on YouTube. It was really fun. I'm glad they got a copy of Torch Songs.

Anything come out from giving them CDs?

Ram: No.

They didn't say anything?

Ram: Well, I wasn't the one doing that. Of course, the guys that got picked had their demos. Oh fuck, it's like being a trail donkey to one of them. I was like second on the list from some guy. “Here Brian, I want you to have this.” Fuck, I'm right behind him. So I'm like "Here Brian, I want you to have this." So it's right after another band, but then I was like he didn't even give him a t-shirt. I had a Whitman t-shirt so I was like "Have a Whitman t-shirt too." He's like “Oh, thanks.”

Kyle: You know, what came out of it was two weeks later, when Brian Bell came back from tour, his little six year old son listened to Torch Songs and spent the next three months running around going “It's bacon when I'm hungry. Whiskey when I'm dry.” Guarantee it. I don't know that for a fact.

Ram: Overall, it was a fun time, man. Playing with one of the first bands I started listening to as a kid.

What else are you up to? Any new tours in the future or are you going to wait for the new EP to be released?

Kyle: We're gonna wait for the new EP to come out. We're writing songs and we're kind of planning on laying low until we get enough material for another record.

Ram: Yeah, focusing on playing local shows. This is actually the probably the best time to be playing local shows. These are the best local shows we've ever played. We're playing to very big crowds as of late, which is great. People are coming to the shows. It seems like our fan base more than doubled since our last tour. It's just great to see everybody's happy faces from the stage, you know. It's good times.

Kyle: I think when Torch Songs came out, we all decided that Austin was a hard city to make things happen. So we intentionally left, to go out into the world and find a fan base and we did. We literally have fans all over the country. A lot of independent bands who were in our position can't say that. I think we came back home to a really warm welcome that we didn't expect and that's been really awesome. I guess you don't realize what you have until it's gone.

Ram: Please. Oh my god. Did you just quote Cinderella?

Kyle: I did.

Ram: *starts singing* “You don't know what you got until it's gone.” I've been saying that the last couple of days. It's so true though. Shit, man. Power balladry. Thing of brilliance and cheese.

Ryan, I had a question for you.

Ryan: What's that?

I remember the first time you sang at that first show , you were really timid and shy, and kind of nervous. When I heard you recently, you're belting it out. How did it progress? Did you take lessons?

Ryan: No.

Did you just kept screaming and yelling until you got comfortable?

Ryan: I think it's just figuring out our sound and getting more comfortable as a band. Getting more comfortable to what I need to be singing and how I need to be singing it. Same thing with Ram. He's changed a lot too.

Ram: If you listen to Anhedonia Falling and you listen to Torch Songs, it's like whoa, this is different. That's because when you start out, you don't know how... I personally didn't know how to sing. I didn't.

Ryan: We're just getting more comfortable with how our voices fit in with the band, where we need to be singing and what we need to be singing. It's just a learning process. Every instrument, not just the voices, but every instrument had to find it's place.

Kyle: Absolutely.

Ram: And five years down the road, we found our place vocally.

Ryan: You know, you can really hear the evolution on the records too. Torch Songs is a million miles from Anhedonia Falling.

The first time I heard it, I was like “Are these the same guys?”

Kyle: You'll have the  same moment when you get the EP.

Ram: And if you come to a show, you'll have the same moment as well.

Kyle: Life's about changing, man.

Ryan: We've grown a lot as musicians together. One thing about this band, it seems to always be getting better. It hasn't gotten stale. The song writing hasn't gotten stale. It's just always on the up and up. We're fortunate.

Kyle: If it ever did, I think that we would realize it, especially between me, Ram and Ryan. It's been a relationship that is just forever accelerating with one another musically. There's really no idea or turn we could take in a song in music that we wouldn't follow each other down. I think that's become a very important part of how we work together.

Whitman will release Culdesac on December 19th exclusively on vinyl.