Amiture Music is an experimental rock band based in New York City. Originally launched as a solo project by New York native Jack Whitescarver in 2018 under the name Amiture, the project has since evolved into a fully-fledged band. The current lineup includes Jack Whitescarver on guitar and lead vocals, Max Beirne Shafer on bass, Allie Wrubel on percussion and keys, and Justin Fosella on drums. Their latest single, Mountain, marks their debut in this new era. Alongside a studio recording, I sat down with the band to discuss their musical influences and process.
Q: You’ve gone through a lot of change, especially with the new band name. I was wondering if you could expand on that.
Jack: I feel like this project has always existed in chapters…But it also is very organic.
Since we came to SXSW last year, this group kind of ended up forming out of that trip. As we kept playing and figuring out if Amiture was gonna keep going or not, it kind of came to an end point last year. As we were playing together, it started to feel like there was actually a through line to the music that we were writing, and so now I think the new name is a way to articulate a different kind of musical objective.
I think before, the project was way more ambiguous with what it was trying to do, and now it’s very clear that we’re collaborating as musicians. Not, like, as artists, necessarily not as filmmakers, or like people who are experimenting with music, but firmly as musicians. So that’s why it is called Amiture Music.
Q: Do things outside of music, like visual art, ever inspire you?
Jack: We like to read and watch alot of movies. I’ll give you a very specific answer which is that there's one song that is like 100% inspired by Last Summer by Catherine Breillat. It’s literally called “Last Summer” and the lyrics are about it, and it’s almost like a song in reverence.
Q: Where do you get your inspiration?
Jack: I get my inspiration from these musicians, from Allie, Max, and Justin. I’ve now started thinking about: ‘If I'm gonna bring an idea to the band, what could each one of these people do specially?’ And Ifeel like weve gotten to know each other so well that that’s actually possible.
Q: What does your songwriting process look like?
Jack: Again, with this new form of the group, there are definitely songs that I write in a basic way and then bring ot the group and then it gets fleshed out. But even those songs, where they end up is totally unpredictable. I think there's definitely an important belief in the group as a creative entity that makes it so we know something will happen, but we dont necessarily know what it will be. And I think having faith in that transformation is important.
Jack: it's often small ideas, whether its like a guitar riff or something and we just jam on it. And sometimes we will jam on something and if there's one phrase, then i go home and ‘songify’ it. So it's really back and forth. Everything takes a long time
I was just gonna say it seems very organic.
Jack: Yeah it's super organic, like we don’t have deadlines. We’re about to record this album, but we're only starting that because we’ve spent a year working like this.
Q: Who were your favorite artists growing up?
Jack: Julie Andrews and Enya.
Max. I was a Beatles kid.
Allie: I liked Green Day.
Jack: And we all love the Beach Boys, which is a really important influence.
Justin: Anything Phil Spector.
I saw you did some stuff with Chanel Beads, I'm a big fan of them.
Jack: Yeah, we played a show with Maya, and they are great. They make such beautiful music. We saw them here a year ago and it was just incredible. They’re really good. We like this band Family Vision, I like this band YHWH Nailgun, and yeah, there's some great stuff for sure. Our friend Eliana Glass…
Max: Bella Lista
Jack: I’m always interested when there's really interesting singing. So I like what they do with that, Chanel Beads. The voice is always the most interesting thing to me
Q: How did you start singing?
Jack: I started singing when I was really young. I wanted to be an opera singer and I studied opera when I was in high school, and then I had a really bad throat surgery…It was bad for many different reasons, but one of them was that it really affected my vocal cords. I couldn’t sing classically anymore. Then I had these weird, inadvertent textures in the sound that I wasn’t in control of. I think from there, [I’ve just learned] how to sing with that specific effect, and now I probably think the least about how I’m singing now than I ever have because I’m playing the guitar and it’s hard to multitask. But then I think it has allowed for a certain kind of purity.
That makes sense when you said you wanted to be an opera singer. I can definitely hear that a little bit in your sound.
Jack: When I listen to music, I always crave that kind of deep impact with singing, and I love listening to opera now.
Q: any solo projects?
Justin: He [Max] has music out
Yeah, I was gonna say it was really cool to find out you worked with Otto Benson (FKA memo boy)
Jack: Yeah Max is amazing, really good computer music.
Justin: He helped me arrange everything I’ve ever written, in my life.
Jack: I feel the band wouldnt not be as good if it wasn’t for your capacity to arrange.
Max: Well, thank you.
Jack: I would hire you for that.
Max: Could get some jobs out of this.
Q: What's an album you've been really into lately? Or an artist?
Jack: I really love this musician, Lisa Germano. She has an album called Lullby for a liquid pig that is, like, one of the most beautiful things ever made. I would love to play a show with her.
photos by Jake Abrams
How do you all like Austin?
Jack: I like austin
Max: yeah i love the food, foods are really great. Weather’s nice
Allie: Mr. Brew.
Max: Mr. Brew was fun
(Laughs)
Jack: I love the highways. It’s like LA, but better, honestly.
Q: How was the tranistion to New York from California?
Allie: Well, I came during the peak of the pandemic. I lived with my brother, and spent some quality time with Jack during that period. It was a very lonely time.
(Laughs)
Jack: The reason he’s in this band is because we ran into each other at the gym. Bedstuy YMCA, and I was like, “dont you play the drums??” and that was literally it.
Q: What was the timeline of you all meeting and coming together as a band?
Justin: Me and Max met in highschool. Jack and I met for brunch.
Jack: Basically recruited these guys to be the rhythm section. Then Justin got knee surgery and we had to get a replacement drummer, and that's when Allie joined to replace Justin for SXSW. [When] we got back,we didn’t know what we're gonna do with the band. Then I was like wait, we should just play.
Max: Yeah, we got along really well.
Q: Who would you want to collaborate with?
Justin: I’d only say David Sylvian or something.
Jack: Daniel Lanois. That would be cool.
Max: I’d like to continue our collaboration with Dan Howard
Jack: Oh, we are working with this guy Dan Howard. He is the best recording engineer in New York City. And drummer. Keep an eye out for Dan Howard. He’s gonna be doing a lot, for sure.
Jack: I think we’re just working on staying in our little bubble. I would love to feature Lisa Gerard on an Amiture record.
Q: What has been the most memorable gig you’ve played?
Justin: With me, what comes to mind for some reason is the Downtown music festival performance.
Max: That's pretty memorable, yeah.
Justin: Because I actually thought we sounded awesome, but then [Max] had like a hundred -and-two fever.
Jack: It was this concert that was in a WeWork, but it was full of people, and Max was really sick, like [he] couldnt even talk.
Max: And it's two sets back-to-back.
Jack: Because he also plays in this other band Arson, and it was crazy, but it was really like one of our best sets. The stage was just like a little circle in the middle of the WeWork. (laughs)
Justin: Yeah, I just loved being up there with you guys.
Max: People were getting angry, people were fighting, it was very strange.
Jack: Yeah, that's definitely our most wild performance.
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