No Filler Music Podcast - Erlend Øye's Groove Machine: A Deep Dive Into The Whitest Boy Alive

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

If you're a fan of Kings of Convenience, allow us to introduce you to their groovier, disco-infused brother The Whitest Boy Alive. Fronted by 1/2 of the KOC duo, the indie pop band's short run in the late 2000s produced two solid records that blended dance, disco, and pop with Erlend Øye's signature soft vocals and playful lyrics. Tracklist 1517 Burning Inflation Figures Intentions High On The Heels Dead End Gravity This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. Hello, it's me, Quentin, from Nofiller. Coming at you with a brand new episode for 2025. Except not really because this episode was recorded back in November. of 2024. We just weren't able to release it at the time. So we thought this would be a great first episode for the new year. We are covering Why to Spoil Live and their two full-length

albums, Dreams and Rules. And if you don't know anything about Why to Spoil Live, you might know the lead singer, main singer-songwriter dude. It's Erland Oya, who is one half of Kings of Convenience, without a doubt, one of our favorite groups of all time. But what's great about Whiteis Boy Alive is this is nothing like Kings of Convenience. So it's Ayrland and Iric that performed together under Kings and Convenience. And they are just, I mean, modern day Simon and Garfunkel just really pretty, like simple love songs, beautiful harmonies. Whiteisbore Live is just this tight-knit disco pop. group. I can't express enough how much I love this group. So anyways, enough yammer in. Let's get to

the tunes. Here we go. This is our first episode of 2025. Here we go. This is Whitest Boy Alive. Welcome to No Filler, the music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. With me as always, my brother Travis. You just said. My name is Quentin. With me as always is my brother Travis.

And today we're covering and dude this blows my mind that we haven't covered this band yet. And the 300 plus episodes that we've done so far, widest boy alive, the disco side project of none other than Ireland Oya of Kings of Convenience.

I was just as shocked as you were here because I went back and searched our library, our vast library for 300 plus episodes. I like to call it a catalog. Yeah. You know, I personally, I celebrate our entire catalog. Office space. So we definitely covered, I don't want to say covered, but we played the single that they put out because they released a single in 2020. And that was like a, you know, stop what you're doing right now, Q and listen to the

a single moment, you know what I mean? It was quite the tease, man, because I thought, all right, we're going to hear like a full length soon. But it was just like a one and done thing. It was, when it came out, like, we were both, like, floored by it because it's like, we weren't expecting it. I think it had been a decade or something since they released anything. No, yeah, 2009 was their last record.

So, yeah, we were blown away by it. It was an awesome single. And like, it was like, oh, this just mean they're, they've reunited. They're going to put out a whole record. But anyway. Anyway, so yeah, it's not like this band hasn't been featured on the, hasn't been featured on the show before. But, yeah, surprisingly, we haven't done an episode on them yet. Yeah, yeah, deep dive.

We've done at least two episodes on Kings of Convenience. We've actually done three, I believe, dude. The only album of Kings of Convenience that we haven't covered is Declaration Independence. Yeah. Yeah. Which, I'll find its way. Yeah, Kings of Convenience. I think we've talked about them probably plenty of times with, like, they are.

for both Quentin and myself, like, they're my favorite band. Yeah, I think in terms of like longevity and like just the joy that they bring me, they're up at the top for sure. Absolutely. Yeah, so let's, you know, let's figure out the timeline in between. Like, where were they at as Kings of Convenience when he decided to dip his toes into this other group and do something completely different? So in 2003 is when Wides Boy Alive formed.

Okay. It was originally just, I believe, just two members. It was just Erlonoa and Martian Oz. That's an amazing name, dude. Well, I think it's Martian. Probably, M-A-R-C-I-N. Yeah. In 2003, and they were more just like an electronic act.

with just Oz and Illinois. But then they added on more members and kind of like flipped a switch to where they continued to do like electronic disco kind of music, but completely live. You know, all instruments are live instrumentations, you know, acoustic, I guess. Not acoustic, but you know what I'm saying? No electronics. Yeah, with the full group behind them, the full band. Yeah, recording everything live in the studio.

But you were talking about, you were trying to. to figure out like what on the timeline. Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah. So that was about around 2003, he started messing around with his friend Oz. Okay. That was right. Wow, man, that's crazy to think about how long ago that was.

Well, that was between his first, their first and second record. Between Quiet as the New Loud, which came out in 2001 and right on an empty street. I mean, it has to be said about Ireland, Oya. He's like one of the most prolific musicians. That's a really good point, dude. I mean, that guy, he's got his hands in everything, man. That's a good point. He's actually all over the place in the electronic world, too.

Like, with some of his solo stuff that he's been putting out for decades now as well. Dude, he put out a record this year with the group called Lockeum, Comitiva. I don't know if that's just another side project of his. It could be, like, that could be just another group of his probably is. But he also appears, let's not forget, dude. He appears on, I think, two tracks on Melody A.m., which is. I mean, one of the best, I think, electronic kind of dub albums. That's from WorkSop.

Yeah, yeah. Early 2000s, dude. We did cover that record, and we probably played one of those tracks. For sure. So, yeah. So over time, they added in a couple more members to the group. Sebastian Mashka. So Erlindore plays, he's obviously main singer.

He's a guitarist. Martian Oz plays bass. He's a bass player. Sebastian Mashkat, sorry about that, plays drums, and then Daniel Nintwig on Rhodes Piano and Krumarsinth. I don't know if you're not familiar with Kings of Convenience. I always like to refer to them as the modern day Simon and Garfunkel. Yeah. Because they're all about those luscious, you know, just beautiful harmonies, very pretty soft, heavily acoustic songs. And White's Boy Live is not that, dude. And yeah, like you were saying,

Erland Oya, what he does on his own, nothing like Kings of Convenience. And we're going to pick up on that now. I mean, now his voice is his voice, you know, which is great because it always that soft, you know, beautiful Harland Oya vocals. But yeah, like you're saying, White of Spoil Life, you even said it earlier, like disco.

Couldn't be further from, you know, soft folk pop music, right? And that's what makes, and dude, God damn, hey, I just remembered because you just showed me all the album art. We got to give a shout out to the, this is kind of random, but I'm a nerd like this, but we got to give a shout out to the illustrator who did all the album art illustrations for White Dyspoor Live. His name is Jeff McFetridge. Anyway, he's awesome.

I've been following his art for a long time. He does these really, really awesome. This black and white doodles. Yeah, these black and white doodles. But it's always kind of like the surreal kind of like very simple illustrations. But like he, you know, he does, he does artwork for magazines. It reminds me of Shell Silverstein stuff. Yeah.

But anyway, just a random thought. All right, dude. So I'm sure a lot of people are thinking, too, like, what's with the name? Wides' Boy Life? I mean, you look at him. They are. You look at Arlanoia, especially.

Look up a picture of Arlindoya, dude. Yeah. I mean, that's kind of... Do you know the origin? Yeah, yeah. So who is the widest boy life? It's a kind of a fictitious, like, idea of a person that they had in their head when they were writing the songs for their first album Dreams.

So it's a person whose personality is still to be formed. Oz says, who goes to a big town and sees all kinds of opportunities and possibilities and maybe starts down the road to becoming a real person. Hmm. That's the kind of person and the kind of experience that we were thinking about when we made the first album. Dreams was really all about moving to the big city and following your dreams. Dude, I would have put money on it being some sort of joke about Aeron LaDoya.

I know. I know. Like somebody in the press called him that and then he just like ran with it or something like that. For real. I mean, that's in my head, he might really be the widest boy in life, dude. I'm going to stick with that story

because it's funny. So we're just going to jump into the first track on the first record, which I like to do, you know, because it's like, all right, if you're curious about what Ahrlandoi can do outside of Keyes of Convenience when he's in another proper band,

so you buy the record, this is what you're going to hear. Track one off of Dreams. This song is called Burning. Never time to my mind. Caught on the motion. Never time to my mind. Caught in the motion and I don't want to stop. Never time to.

What I always love about this group is like, it's a guitar-driven group. You know what I mean? Yeah, dude. That is something that like stands out. It kind of sneaks up on you on each track. It's disco. It's funk, you know, it's. And dude, it's just so clean.

Yeah. If that makes sense. Like, it's, they're just right. right there in the pocket. So something about their songwriting process. Once a track is written, it's bashed into shape

during live shows. So it says, this way, songs are kept lean and minimal, very much in keeping with the band's recording ethos or rules, the rules that they place on themselves when recording.

Ireland explains, We aim not to layer too much when recording. A song has to be capable of being played live by all of us. and makes us work harder. There are so many shortcuts in the studio. All this makes for an exciting, highly accomplished live show.

That's the thing, too. Like, the recording, it's just very simple. It's just them with their instruments. And they're just, I mean, dude, they're just such a tight-knit group. It's really fun to listen to them play, dude. Well, that's what's always so great about listening to Kings of Convenience. It's just two guys and their instruments.

I mean, obviously they have drumming and other instruments besides just their acoustic guitars and their, you know, classical nylon string guitars. But like, it's just them and their vocals sometimes. And, yeah, it's really stripped out. And they obsess over the sound of their recordings. That's something we learned. I remember when we were recording one of the deep dives on the Kings of Convenience is that they kind of obsess over it to a point where, like, they'll just kind of trash

an entire recording and find a whole other studio to record in if they didn't like the way it sounded. Yeah, and that's one thing I will say about their records, like if you get them on vinyl, they sound incredible. Yeah. Because they obsessed over that kind of stuff, over the production, the recording, like all that stuff. Erland further explains here, says, we don't use backing tracks like many of our peers. To play these songs, we have to rehearse a lot and be brave.

we don't hide behind anything. I think that's a big takeaway. It's something to think about when you're listening to them. Like, it's just raw, dude. It's just them with some mics pointed towards their instruments, dude. They're not hiding behind any effects or no overdubs, nothing. All right, let's jump to track three off of dreams. This song is called Inflation.

Shout out to Oz. Oz and Sebastian did, the bass, bass player and drummer. They're so good on this record. I know that was pretty much just all them. I mean, of course not. Well, I mean, the guitar was, yeah, yeah. But I mean, they're just the solid, solid backbone of the song. And Ireland on the guitar, man, I mean, just the instruments are so expressive.

Even the drums. Yeah, it is. so expressive in this band, dude. Yeah. And his vocals, the lyrics are great. You know what I was thinking like whenever I was listening to this? It's how awesome would it be if Kings of Convenience put out a cover record of them doing White I Spoil live songs?

That'd be awesome because I was thinking, man, this would be an interesting Kings of Convenience song. Like I could kind of hear it in my head, but probably just because of his voice, you know, it's so linked with me to Keynes of Convenience, but like, I don't know, I can almost hear how they would pull that off. But anyway, yeah, what a killer track, man. I mean, it's not even my favorite song of theirs, dude. No, I mean, dude, every song of theirs is so catchy. I know. It's so good, man. Yeah, it's hard not to, what's the, what's the Eddie Murphy quote? Popping and squirm, whatever. Hoping and squirming. It's hard not to hop and squirm. It's hard. It's hard to hop and squirm.

hard not to hop and squirm, dude. When do we hear these tunes? So, Airline speaks of his bandmates. He says, they all grew up in Germany and share a real understanding of house and techno. That's Kirish old dude. Krish. Yeah. They grew up with Theo Parrish, Chicago, and Detroit music.

I mean, Detroit, dude. That's the birth place of techno, man. Of, of techno, yeah. I think that's what makes these guys so cool is they're doing house and techno, beats, you know, and rhythms. But just as a tight-knit actual band playing actual instruments. All right, dude. One more track from Dreams. This one might be my favorite, man.

It's hard to pick one. But here we go. This is Figures. It's been a long time since I've listened to these songs, man. Holy shit. It's just so good, man. Yeah, man. I visit these albums quite often.

So, like, this, I feel like the guitar playing, I immediately thought of Ethan Durell did. Oh, whoa, okay. Yeah. Because this is almost like. Which, so, so how do you, how do you, I guess if you don't know who Ethan Daryl is, we did a full, full-length episode on that band.

We did it with Joel Fruth, of all people. Yeah. The sound guy at the door in Deep Ellen, Texas. But yeah, well, I mean, no, their emo for sure, right? But yeah, he did have a very unique. That was the point I was trying to get like, yeah, it's kind of had like an emo, almost like a math rock vibe post, post-punk. Yeah. Oh, now I'm just throwing a bunch of labels.

Well, like, you know, hemo and math rock kind of guitar tone. But with Ethan Dureal, like there's this, there's that one track. Their song names are kind of hard to. I think it's, I get shot in every film I'm in. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a tangent, but yeah. Anyway, I mean, I, you know, I'm just kind of, you know, it's funny, I went back and I, I went back and I looked at our, the, yeah, this is the sidetrack tangent here, but I went back and I looked at the reviews that we've gotten for no filler. Because we've gotten a few reviews on iTunes.

By the way, if you like this, if you like this podcast, go rate us on iTunes and give us a review. That would be helpful. We have like, what, five? I mean, we have a decent amount of, like, ratings. When I say decent, I mean, it's, it's like 23, but I mean, that's not, that's not, you know, but anyway, there's the one, you know, we have, of the six, seven reviews that we've gotten, like written reviews, one of them is two stars. And I always go back and read with this guy, I say, because he was the one who, he was the one who wrote out the phonetic, like, pronunciation of cockto twins.

Gokto Twins. Anyway, he says, he goes, these guys aren't very impressive. They seem to spend the whole podcast trying to apply genre labels to music that doesn't need such labels. And here I am, dude. But like, what the it's a fucking music podcast, man.

And that was born from our music blog days, dude, because sure. But like, we had to place labels on it, man. You have to. You know, that's what you do if you're going to review music. And especially if you're going to review rock music. You gotta, I mean, shit, dude, the entire kitchen's a distinction episode, we were going over the map, dude, of like, you know, and like getting out our compass and stuff and leaving breadcrumpt trails, we could figure out how to get back of like the shoe gaze map.

The reason I like doing that is because I'm hoping that I mention another genre that I think is in the same vein. And that will, you know, that'll get one of our listeners to check out that genre. Well, that's the only reason, dude, yeah. I'm trying to be like, hey, hey, guys, go listen to Ethan Dorel if you like that guitar style. Exactly, dude. But yeah, you know, the reason I wanted to point that is like, you know, most of their songs have like a very discoy kind of funky vibe to him. And I feel like that song, the guitar playing very much kind of in my mind is under more of the kind of the emo math rock kind of umbrella, you know. Yeah.

So we're going to jump to their second full-length album. rules, which came out in 2009. So they have a little bit more to say about the widest boy life, dude. It says that on the next one, what's he up to? The guy has become more grown up and has started to deal with the rules of the world. Some are to be followed and some are to be abolished. I'm talking about the rules of the world, brother.

I'm talking about the rules of the world. So in this album, Daniel is now a full-time member, who plays a guy who plays rogues the rogues piano. Okay. Rhodes, I'm sorry, Rhodes piano. So you're going to hear a lot more Rhodes in this album. Here we go.

This track is called Intentions. Announcing your intention. Easy attention. Say something. Tension. Don't know. Let that be a reason. The front and center

Rodes piano is just so great, man. It's like, hey guys, check it out. I'm in the band full time. I'm a full-time member of the band now. What do you think of these chops? But it's just funny because, like, man, how often do you hear a road's front and center on like an indie, an indie pop rock record?

You know what I mean? Like, oh, incredible. And yeah, I also, yeah, you know, the guitar is, front and center on a lot of whitest boy alive stuff. But, you know, for this song, he stepped aside. I mean, there was a very

awesome well-timed guitar part that came in during that little interlude. But like, for the most part, it's the Rhodes is the star of this, for the song, you know what I mean? And again, the bass, dude, the fucking bass line. Get out. Get out here. Yeah. Oz's is, you know, might be

a underrated bass player, dude. for sure they're all underrated man I mean Ireland is a legend for sure but anyway that's true that's true besides Ireland um all right man I should jump right into the next one dude I got nothing else to say about these boys

let's just play some tunes we're gonna jump down to track six on the record this song is called High on the Heels Yeah I think that's like the most discuey of the songs we've heard so far you know big time bringing in that synth dude Yeah, I mean, I guess

I guess that's what stands out the most on this record. I guess it's that Rhodes. Yeah, dude. Yeah, for sure, that's a little bit, something a little bit different between the two albums. I personally like dreams over rules. I just like the simplicity of it, you know,

minus those keys. Yeah, a little bit more stripped down, yeah. Yeah. But, I mean, you can't go wrong with any widest boy life song, dude. I mean, it's all great. Yeah, it's all to tapin, you know. It's all to taping. So we're going to jump down.

This is another one of my favorites, dude. This is track 10 off of rules. This song is called Dead End. Yeah, this one had a little bit more of a bite to it, you know? Yeah. A little bit more aggressive, if you would call it that. Despite the bite, dude, I mean, the subject matter of his songs are just, I mean, that's straight up Kings of Convenience right there, dude. You just, you know, sorrowful, like, what could have been.

Don't look back. If I do look back, I'll never get over you. I mean, we've talked about how they approach songwriting and how, like, the reason that they write, you know, because they're not, they're Norwegian, right? So, like, they're not, English is not their native language. And, like, they write simple love songs because the, because the words are so, like, more, more simple, you know? like they're not they're not writing about really lofty like uh you know this is not a shins a shin song yeah or it's not a steely dance song you know or it's like what the hell are they talk about you know yeah that kind of stuff well and they mentioned too that like translating it

from norwegian to english uh the words seem to carry a little more weight like the love language between Norwegian and english something like that if i recall but you know what hey if you want to If you want to get the actual quote, go back and listen to us one of our three Kings of Convenience. Yeah, we don't remember which one. Yeah, I don't remember which one. Probably the first one that we covered. Probably, probably. That's when we would have went into their, you know, their origins.

But I like the kind of like this back and forth. I think they sometimes refer to it as like call and response type where they're passing and back and forth through each other. There's a moment in the song where like the guitar strums a couple of chords. and then like the bass or the drum and they kind of hand back and forth to each other. That was cool when they did that. But yeah, man, I mean, like you said, dude,

they're just so tight the four of these guys. Yeah. Just to shame they're not making music together anymore. Yeah, but just solid, dude. And you know what I always think back to when I hear this music? Pull up YouTube, everybody out there, and search for, just search Why to Spoil Live, Berlin. and I always remember that performance.

Yeah, 1517 is a song that they're playing. Yeah. But like there's this video of them performing out of like this little studio space, I guess. And they... I think it's a store. I think they're playing in like a... Something like that, but it's like a concert space. Or they're putting on like an impromptu concert, I think.

But it's just incredible, man. Like the energy watching them perform live. Yeah, man, what a blast. Just amazing, man. Yeah, dude. Incredible band. I can't, it's, it truly is incredible, dude, that we've gone 300 plus episodes without doing an episode on these guys.

It's crazy. How did that happen? Exactly. But yeah, dude, we've got to find one of those other staple bands in our lives that we haven't talked about yet. There's got to be more out there. But yeah, dude, I kind of wanted to bring this up earlier, but we just dove right in. But I have to talk about the music festival that I attended.

over this past weekend. Because it was, dude, it was a top, probably a top five musical experience of my life, dude. And I've been talking about it for months now on this podcast. But yeah, I got to see Drop 19s, Ringo Death Star, and Slow Dive on the same night. And it was fucking amazing, dude. And I was like reflecting back on like bands I've seen in my life. I've never really seen a proper shoegaze band. Like, I've seen dive.

And so, like, this is my first time, like, hearing. And, you know, slow dive is arguably the best. They're one of the OGs, man. Yeah, you know, the Mount Rushmore. Alongside, my bloody Valentine. Yeah, you got your slow dive, you're my bloody Valentine. And a lot of people argue that Ride is maybe like the third if you had to pick three of, like, you know, the Mount Rushmore. Does Mount Rushmore have four? It's Q. It does, doesn't? I think so. Yeah, so there's a fourth

one probably to be picked out there. But anyway, it was amazing, dude. Like, they were spot on. They sounded amazing. Sound quality, just general at the show was incredible. And yeah, drop 19s, dude. It was amazing. I got to hear them play. They basically played every song that we featured on the episode. episode on on Delaware. If you go back and listen to that, that was probably a couple years back. Yeah, dude, incredible experience. If you've, if you're a fan of, of, of, of, of,

shoegaze or slow dive and you get a chance to see them highly recommended, it was fucking euphoric, dude, and it was blissful. I was floating. Probably if you look down, I would have been like levitating, like a couple of inches off the ground, dude, because I was just, and that, dude, that, it was called levitation fest in Austin it happens every year maybe that's why because shoe gaze does kind of do that to you man yeah that's the whole point of it it's it's it's blissful and like dreamy and like all those good things and slow dive slow dive does that version of of of shoegage really well

they're not really about they're not really about the uh the wall of sound the wall of sound yeah like my bloody valentine just it's just all in your face especially on uh level Loveless. Yeah. Anyway, so catch them on tour if they're out there. You know, this was a music festival. I'm sure both of those bands are on tour. So you may get a chance to see them if they're coming to a town near you.

I highly recommend it. And then shout out to Ringo Death Star. I actually bumped into the singer on the way out and shook his hand. Nice. And said, that's always fun, huh? Just told him, you know, told him I was a big fan and that they played an awesome show. Elliot, his name, Elliot Frazier. We covered them earlier this year, actually.

So go back and listen to that episode. Anyway, all right, Q. Well, that was Writersport Live. Glad we finally got to talk about them. Yeah, go listen to their three records, man. Doesn't get any better. They only got two records, but that's good. All right.

Go listen to their two records and then listen to their single that they put out in 2020. and then go listen to Keynes of Convenience, you know? Make it, make it, make a day of it. Right. We're going to fade out with gravity. Another one of my favorites from rules. And as always, you can find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network. That's Pantheon Podcast.com,

home of many of the great music-related podcasts like ours. And if you want to get in touch with us, find us on Instagram, just search for No Feeler Podcast. And that'll do it. Thank you, as always, for listening. My name is Travis. And I'm Quentin. y'all take care

funning games somebody sees but they should not see the innocence is killed not written certainly not shown but eventually what's meant to be covered up gets known With her because she's mine.

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