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Whisper Signal: no comparison
By JOHN BENSON
When Ohio act Whisper Signal — Erik Adkins (vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Jon Gerlach (trumpet), Jason “Jay-Bird” Goodwin (bass), Eric Baltrinic (drums, percussion), Preston Caldwell (programming, keyboards, guitar) and Daniel Holmes (guitar) — started creating music just over two years ago, the band members admittedly didn’t know what the reaction would be.
However, one thing the group wasn’t counting on were various unexpected comparisons that left the outfit scratching its collective head.
“We get a lot that kind of blindside us,” said Middlebranch native Adkins, a 1997 GlenOak High School graduate. “I’d call it like low rock, melodic. The other night we had a show in Akron, and somebody said we had a metal thing going. I don’t see that. Our influences as a whole are all over the map, so we’ve heard funk, soul, blues, jazz. All of those things are key elements. A friend of mine said he heard a bit of Fugazi in it. I honestly don’t hear it. We’ve gotten the Elbow thing and Jeff Buckley and Radiohead.”
These days, all a band has to do is have the vocalist sing one falsetto note and the Radiohead tag is instantly thrust upon the band.
“Oh yeah, at first it was kind of like, ‘That’s cool,’ but the Radiohead thing gets overused on so many bands,” Adkins said. “If you have melodic guitar parts or any processing or falsetto thing, people are like, ‘Oh, it’s Radiohead.’”
Radiohead aside, Whisper Signal’s varied style can be heard on its recently released full-length, 10-track debut “post•hu•mous,” which includes the energetic and ambient “Comaglow” and “7 Minutes Down.” Adkins hinted many of the album’s songs were honed during the time he spent overseas teaching English. The musician said when he arrived in Germany, he was overwhelmed by the regional scene, which didn’t necessarily fit into his sound. However, what happened next was surprising.
“I didn’t expect what happened to happen, because I get over there and a lot of the music was really heavy metal or different kinds of electronic music,” Adkins said. “And I started playing these clubs, and people were intrigued by it. I didn’t expect that. It was just me and an acoustic guitar, and it went over really well.”
Ironically, the same scenario exists in Akdins own backyard, with the results being similar.
“I’d say almost every show we play, it’s almost that fine line of the bands that don’t make 100 percent sense with us, but it works,” Adkins said. “I think it works because of that. We just played a show with more of a straight-ahead rock thing going on, and then the last band had like a Depeche Mode thing going on, and we kind of filled in all of the gaps.”
So, did Adkins fear Northeast Ohio audiences, known for their love of hard rock and metal, wouldn’t get Whisper Signal’s sound or style?
“At first, I was concerned that it would be [over their head], but so far it seems like everyone is into it because I think the things about it that people might not be able to fully embrace or understand, they just go with,” Adkins said. “It seems like there is always enough there for someone to get whatever they can out of it. And it’s not like it’s forced or there’s a struggle. That’s kind of the goal of the whole thing because, at the end of the day, if someone doesn’t understand where I’m coming from lyrically, that’s OK, as long as they feel something, whatever, happy, sad emotion. That’s all I ever wanted.”