Q&A: Urby Whale of Noah and the Whale band discusses troubles and triumphs

Noah and the Whale recently released a new album called “Last Night on Earth” and is currently on a tour that will include a stop at the El Rey Theatre on Wednesday. Band member Urby Whale spoke with Daily Bruin’s Andrew Bain about the band’s origins, writing processes and memorable experiences.

Daily Bruin: How did the band meet, and how has it evolved to where you are now?

Urby Whale: Well, I went to school with our old drummer Doug. Charlie (Fink), the singer, was Doug’s younger brother. They formed Noah and the Whale when Charlie was at university and started playing together. Tom (Hobden) joined on violin. When (he) left to go on holiday, I had just broken up with the band I was in. Doug phoned me and said, “Would you like to join on violin?” And then, Tom came back, and he’s much better at violin than I was, so I hung around playing a variety of instruments. After “First Days,” Fred (Abbott) joined on guitar and piano, and Doug left to become a doctor and now we’ve got an awesome drummer named Mike (Petulla).

DB: What was the inspiration for the name Noah and the Whale?

UW: I think it’s always difficult for anyone to try and come up with a band name. We nicked (our name) from a film called “The Squid and the Whale.”

DB: “The Last Night on Earth” has a much more upbeat feel than “The First Days of Spring.” Did anything in particular lead to this change of tone?

UW: A variety of things, I guess. We always want to do something different and challenge (ourselves) with each record we do. We don’t want to retread familiar ground. In the (time it takes to make the new record), you’re not only that number of months older, but you’ve also been listening to almost two years worth of music, and you’ve been getting better because you’ve been playing and you want to try out new things. So you’re in a completely new headspace whenever you come to make a record.

DB: Does the band have a particular writing process?

UW: Well, Charlie is in (charge of) the songwriting. Charlie will come up with songs in a variety of stages. Sometimes, they’ll be almost fully realized and sometimes we’ll destroy that and take it in a new direction. Other times, you come in with fragments or maybe a bit of a verse and we’ll play it through together, and it’ll go in new directions that way. This was the first time we had taken more than about three weeks to make a record. (In that time) you can edit and re-edit and reflect on what you’ve done and really whittle down what you’re doing. We tried to make a very kind of lean, focused, potent record. It’s our shortest record to date.

DB: What has been your best tour memory as a group? Have you ever had anything become a complete fiasco on tour?

UW: Well, we did get all our gear stolen. It happened in Manchester. We came out and the vehicle in question followed us and (stole our trailer, which) had literally all of our vintage gear. That’s probably the worst thing that could happen for any musician ever. We’ve had some amazing experiences. We did a show in a theater in the south of France, which I believe they’d been having shows at for I think over 2,000 years. It’s carved out of the mountain (and) the acoustics were phenomenal.

DB: How did you get your gear back?

UW: Thankfully, we received a lot of coverage at the time, and it seems as though the thieves panicked and offloaded the stuff in a farmer’s barn. They returned to collect it several weeks later and, as they were heading to the barn to re-steal our gear, they saw another barn door open full of farmers’ gear which I guess they assumed was easier to sell, and they stole that instead. The farmer’s benevolence came back to sadly (haunt him). It’s very bizarre. And then, we were receiving photos of our stuff (from the police) and it was all there. But, because the police had found it, they couldn’t open it for a full 24 hours. So, they said, “Well, we’ve got your cases,” and we looked at the photos and all our cases were there, and we said, “Well, there’s gotta be some stuff in there,” and they said “We can’t tell you!” We were reunited live on stage with our long lost gear (at the last show of the year).

DB: After this tour, what is your plan? Are you going to get right back into writing, or are you going to take a breather?

UW: Well, this tour at the moment doesn’t really have a definite end in sight. At the moment, we’re rolling until the end of the year, obviously. Already, we’re looking into dates for early next year, which will inevitably lead to festivals next year. More dates are constantly being added. We’re having a brilliant time. The group has never been better. We’re (also) really enjoying playing the new album live. It’s got a kind of accessibility and immediacy that the “First Days” material maybe didn’t have in the same way. We can actually go out and play a big show now.

Email Bain at [email protected].