Q&A: Whitworth Brings Day Dreams to Life on Debut Album ‘Earth to Dreamer’
WHITWORTH IS MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE DAYDREAMER - Lead singer and producer Owen Ragland brings his inner world to life through the NYC and St. Louis-based indie rock project. He released his first full length project Earth to Dreamer this summer, blending lush production with vibey guitar riffs and soaring vocals. While Ragland was already an accomplished producer creating electronic tracks and beats since he was 13, working on this album was the first time he took a stab at vocals and the results speak for themselves.
Ragland focused less on figuring out how to sing on the tracks but more on creating music, he would want to listen to, especially in the car. This led to deliciously warm melodic lines that seemed to swirl and dance through the speakers. Earth to Dreamer feels like an ode to creativity, place, and an added energy that comes from working with other musicians. The album has a perfect balance of psychedelic sounds, groovy lines, and powerful lyrics. The production is crisp and clear, coming through at a professional level and the tracks sit perfectly alongside indie favorites like Still Woozy and Peach Pit.
We got the chance to catch up with Ragland and dive even further into the dream, read more below.
LUNA: Your debut album Earth to Dreamer is an exploration of how to build a brighter future. Was there a specific event or point in your life that sparked this idea and desire to expand on it out through an album?
RAGLAND: The COVID-19 pandemic really put me into a sort of daydream state of music making which ultimately became Whitworth and the beginnings of Earth To Dreamer. I was initially fascinated with the routine I was able to create for myself during the pandemic. Writing music every day and creating videos filled every waking moment and while I did want to return to normality I also grieved the idea of leaving my own creative safety net. That feeling of returning to “normality” really set in motion the Earth To Dreamer album concept.
LUNA: On your YouTube page you bring us into the beginning of Whitworth, showing that you created a studio in your living room but had never sung before creating this project. What was the main motivator to create this album?
RAGLAND: I wanted to provide a context for my voice that felt truly like me. I had not sung before and was making purely instrumental music so the beats and melodies were there, I just had to figure out how to use them to bolster my voice. I honestly wrote this album for myself more than anyone, I was just making the music I wanted to listen to in the car.
LUNA: Earth to Dreamer has a beautiful blend of lush production, vibey guitar riffs and dreamy vocals. When did you begin honing your skills as a producer?
RAGLAND: I first began producing music in GarageBand at age 13 releasing my first electronic album at age 15. I was obsessed with Logic Pro throughout middle school and made rap beats for my brothers who were performing out in the local scene. Growing up in Saint Louis I connected with a lot of underground artists and this led to a growing roster of production clients throughout my young adult life and presently.
LUNA: Whitworth is spearheaded by you writing and producing tracks for the project. There are a couple of different collabs across the album, do you find yourself enjoying the process of working with other artists on tracks like “Take a Look Down” and “Purple Cotton Haze”?
RAGLAND: I love the process of collaboration and was really intentional to bring other artists in on as much of the project as I could. Working with Rei Kimura on “Take a Look Down” was a blast and we actually wrote the bulk of that tune collaboratively in LA over the course of a few days. Chloe Berry and I worked on “Purple Cotton Haze” in NYC with producer Sam Poon and it ended up being a no-brainer to put it on the record because crowds loved hearing it live. In addition, I hosted recording sessions for overdubs and rewrites in Saint Louis over the course of a week with my band and singer Madeline Cho.
LUNA: Whitworth is described as a St. Louis and NYC-based project, how did this come to be and does it affect how you can all create and play together?
RAGLAND: Whitworth became a NYC and St. Louis-based project after I moved to NYC and met my now bandmates who helped turn Whitworth into a live experience. Since then I've moved back to STL but most of my backing band, my management and my video team remain based in NYC, while my merch, executive production, and myself are now based in St. Louis. The spread-out team has made it tricky to coordinate shows but I think it’s made everyone involved take things more seriously and the moments we are all together even more meaningful.
LUNA: Follow up, I find that place can have a large impact on the music that people create, do you find yourself being inspired differently between St. Louis and NYC when it comes to your creative process?
RAGLAND: Absolutely, St. Louis is where the Earth To Dreamer record was born, but NYC shaped the sound and gave me a new standard for everything from mixing to intentionality in the production. Saint Louis is a beautiful community with a lot of really amazing creatives working in their own unique lanes. It’s also a much slower speed overall than New York and this makes it a lot easier to write new ideas. New York has its own inspiration for me and a lot of that comes from the constant interaction with strangers. Just walking around Manhattan can lead to new relationships which spark ideas artistically and help bring new perspectives to my work.
LUNA: You just wrapped up your first tour this summer after releasing the album, what are some things we can hope to see next from Whitworth?
RAGLAND: (This summer was actually my second tour) but you can expect to see a lot more of Whitworth Live across the country in the coming year and the release of some really fun collaborative singles. Additionally, we have an Earth To Dreamer tour doc in the works and just released (as of 8.24) a full live album set recorded in the redwood forest on the back of “Grace” the tour school bus.
LUNA: If you could wake up one day and be an expert at anything that isn’t music, what would it be?
RAGLAND: I would love to wake up one day and speak literally any other language than just English. Languages are a whole other music to me but I’ve never been able to fluently speak anything aside from English.
CONNECT WITH WHITWORTH
