The Return of The Wha’s

Kompis — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 19:12:21 +0000

It made me a little bit sad when I heard the news lately that The Nancy Wha have split up. You can imagine how happy I was when I noticed that they will continue to play their music as The Wha’s. I asked Henrik, singer and guitarist of the band, for a short statement what their plans are now, what happens with the announced Nancy Wha EP:
“Yes, we will continue as The Wha´s and we are all very happy about it. What happened to The Nancy Wha was that the drummer and the second guitarist, who hadn´t really been in the band for a long time, quit the band because they wanted to play another kind of music.

Well, we were surprised first but then we noticed that it was really a good thing and we felt reliefed cause now we could play the music we wanted to. We found a brilliant new drummer and decided to change the name to The Wha´s. It felt like a natural thing to do. Then we found a great guy who plays organs and we all felt that the band was completed.

The EP won´t be released in it´s current form, but the songs are likely to be released as The Wha´s and sound the way they were supposed to. We now concentrate on new songs, but we´ll keep our old ones as well.”

Check out the music of The Wha’s on MySpace.

… With A Punkish Attitude

Kompis — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 20:34:31 +0000

50K MM: For all those who don’t know The Nancy Wha yet please tell us something about you. Where do you come from, who are The Nancy Wha?
TNW: Most of you probably don’t know The Nancy Wha The Nancy Wha is a bunch of friends who play rock music together. The band was formed in Vaasa, Finland, in the year of 2005 by four frustrated guys. Today we are 5 years older (not wiser), and have grown into a Helsinki based quintet. We have widely different carreers aside of the band, but to call The Nancy Wha a hobby would be an unjust understatement. This is about passion, about working for something we truly believe in. In our music, you hear enthusiasm, you hear energy, you hear excitement, you hear love. It is honest music, made by honest people. This is one thing that hasn’t changed along the way. Our influences come from a wide range; whether you like The Smiths/Morrissey, The Libertines, The Beatles, The Clash or The Strokes, there’s surely something for you in our music. Still, The Nancy Wha has created a style that can be described as nothing but The Nancy Wha. It’s rock, it’s pop, it’s indie, performed stylishly with a punkish attitude.

50K MM: You’re currently working on your debut EP. Please tell us something about that.
TNW: You will hear both old and new songs on the forthcoming EP. All in all, it has been a long process, but now we are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. The recording was done out in the countryside of Southern Finland early in the summer of 2009. The songs were captured analogue on a 16-track reel tape machine. If you ask us, that’s a nice way to work, and many others will surely agree. The mixing was done in London by Dan Cox at Urchin Studios, owned by Gordon Raphael. Now it has finally been mastered, and it’s sounding excellent, since each step of the process has been done thoughtfully, without compromises. At the moment we’re sorting out all the matters concerning the release.

50K MM: It seems like you did not have the patience to fund this EP on SellaBand. What are your further plans there?
TNW: Well, this time we felt that we were ready to get an ep out, while our following figures on Sellaband didn’t seem to support that. So we decided to do it by ourselves. As an unknown band it can be hard to get the funding quickly enough. However we will still continue to seek funding through SellaBand, and after getting the ep out, we will do more to promote ourself on Sellaband. It might be easier when you already have something to show. And it’s not like this is the last you’ll hear from the Nancy Wha. We’ve got the tracks for an entire album waiting in the rehearsal room, so there are more releases to come. If people are kind enough to chip in their ten dollars to see that happen, we are more than thankful. As soon as we reach the 50 K we will do everything to satisfy those who believe in us!

50K MM: When will the EP come out? What are your plans for promotion?
TNW: In April, if everything goes according to plans, but since everything isn’t quite sealed yet, it might be earlier or it might be later. But we’ll make sure to keep our fans up to date. The promotion of our EP will pretty much be done in a DIY spirit. We haven’t got a big company to back us up, so this is our chance to show the world what we are capable of by ourselves. Convincing 100 people by playing an awesome gig means way much more to us than showing a high budget tv-commercial to 100.000 viewers would do. And of course, sending promo cd’s to cool magazines and radio stations will be part of the promotion, as well as reaching as much people as possible on facebook, myspace, twitter etc.

50K MM: Do you have any plans for touring after the EP release?
TNW: Absolutely. Dates and venues are still to be confirmed, since we havent been able to decide upon a release date yet, but we will hit the road to promote the EP, that’s for sure.

50K MM: And at last: One thing about you and your music that everybody should know.
TNW: The EP is great, but the physical copies strictly limited, so get one while you still can!

50K MUSIC » The Nancy Wha

The Return of The Wha’s

… With A Punkish Attitude