River Whyless Isn't Your Typical 'Folk' Band

In 2019, the four members of River Whyless secluded themselves in the North Carolina wilderness to record the follow-up album to 2018’s critically acclaimed Kindness, A Rebel. Eyeing a spring 2020 release date, the album took shape without the help of an outside producer, something the band hadn’t done since its 2012 debut, A Stone, A Leaf, An Unfound Door. While River Whyless prefers the alone time to focus on making music together, the delay of the pandemic gave the Asheville quartet some unexpected free time to fine-tune Monoflora, which was finally released in April 2022.

“We had the ability to really push the mixes in the direction we wanted to go and tweak them. At the same time, there’s a little bit of a trade-off there: The more options you have, the less you find happiness within something. … But I think the record turned out better because we had the time,” says vocalist/guitarist Ryan O’Keefe, adding that the band even spent a year crafting the album artwork.

It's safe to say that the extra care and attention resulted in a multi-layered album that fuses folk, indie rock, Americana and roots music. For fans of the band, it’s not necessarily anything new, but such a blend allows River Whyless to seamlessly skip across genres, even if it makes the band hard to pigeonhole in one over the other.

“When people ask me on the street what we play, I never really have a good answer. I end up saying 'folk rock' or something like that, but that’s going to mean different things to different people. I really have no idea,” O’Keefe admits. “The genre thing is always tough. We’re definitely not a pop band. We’re definitely not an indie-rock band. … I think, ultimately, 'Americana' can be a broad term. It includes a lot of roots music and the idea of these alternative rhythms, as well. It’s really hard. We’ve never figured it out. One time someone called us ‘nature pop.’”

“Oil Skin” and “Mourning Dove” from Monoflora are two examples of what the band does best, but maybe you should decide for yourself: River Whyless is playing at Levitt Pavilion Thursday, September 1, with Heavy Diamond Ring.

With three singer-songwriters — O’Keefe, Halli Anderson (vocals and violin) and Daniel Shearin (vocals, bass and harmonium) — River Whyless is a “very democratic band,” O’Keefe explains. Shearin's house in Swannanoa also served as the space and studio for the latest round of recording.

“We all have our own style of writing, though with this record, we really tried to do as much of it as we could together,” he says. “Generally speaking, it’s a pretty open conversation. We try to leave it as open as possible throughout the writing process to allow anyone to bring in ideas. I think we do a fairly good job at that.”

Add in the percussion work of Alex McWalters, and River Whyless is the soundtrack of a babbling Appalachian stream as it curiously winds its way down the mountainside. The ebb and flow of the musical styles allow listeners to pick up on a variety of sounds. Whatever they may be, O’Keefe explains, Monoflora is a smorgasbord in that sense.

“I think there are a lot of layers, and I think that has to do with the fact that we were recording it on our own without having this very strict beginning and end to the recording session, so we were able to fill in gaps where we thought they needed to be filled in,” he says of the record. “It seems just to kind of be what we’re becoming, in a way. When we sit down to write, more and more it seems to trend in the direction that you’re hearing on Monoflora, which I think is this songwriter-driven music with a lot of layers and a lot of experimentation in both rhythms and harmonies in the music. We’re very rarely satisfied with ourselves with a very straightforward production. Sometimes we kind of get in the way of ourselves, but most of the time I think it unlocks some secret doors within the creative process, just kind of always trying to...find those first instincts and then push the envelope.”

River Whyless, 6 p.m. Thursday, September 1, Levitt Pavilion, 1380 West Florida Avenue. Tickets are $35.