“We Are The West is interested in exploring the convergence of sound and space often taking to the road to record in experimental locations, searching out how the acoustics of place converge with live narrative. They have performed in storm drains and shipping containers, sheep farms and convents, and most frequently converge in the underground parking garage of an office building on Santa Monica Boulevard the Saturday before each full moon.”
“Beautiful, cinematic folk.”
“We Are The West push the limits between traditional folk music and the candor of more modern alternative influences [with] a resonating glow in their tonality that can only be described as sounding and feeling remarkably organic.”
“One of the lifeblood bands of LA’s music scene.”
As vast and indefinable as the West itself, the intrepid sound stylists of We Are The West reach beyond the setting sun to create an eclectic symphonic landscape. Brett Hool (voice/guitar) and John Kibler (bass/voice) formed We Are The West in a shipping container on a sheep farm in Holland, and began performing as a duo in an abandoned convent in Brooklyn, before heeding the call to continue West to Los Angeles. Originally described as “a two-man orchestra of stunning vocals, meditative guitar, and exploratory double bass”, the duo paints with a broad palette of sound incorporating drums and percussion, woodwinds, strings, brass, pump organ, accordion, and unique vocal harmonies to create their dynamic and transporting songs.
After a series of site-specific EPs, their soulful and intricately crafted debut LP The Golden Shore, and providing the soundtrack for 2 Hearts (#1 movie on Netflix, June 2021), they've emerged from the pandemic into the warm sunlight with a brisk and immediate collection Only One Us, their finest work yet:
This record came together very naturally and was delayed very unnaturally. Back when corona was just a beachy brew, we gathered the new songs we'd been working on in our underground parking garage shows and headed downtown to Whispering Pines. Our main bubs Lord Huron kindly let us in, Ben Tolliday (LH, Hozier, Rick Rubin's Broken Record) set up his magical microphonic machines, and we set about recording them live. Deep into overdubland, we hit the road in the new year, touring up the coast until Brett took a step to nowhere and broke the heck out of his leg after a gig. The break hit the brakes on everything for a few weeks right until the whole world hit the brakes with the new corona, and everyone knows the story since. With a fresh titanium tibia in the band and no gigs on the horizon, we started a radio show The Golden Hour on Malibu's homegrown KBUU. During lockdown we magically met Kyle Mullarky (Babe Rainbow, Little Wings, Zeb Zaitz) who invited us to his ranch to mix the songs, then turned us onto John Golden who mastered it. Our first gigs in a year and a half have been all acoustic affairs at the family farm in Malibu and new tunes are already growing alongside the crops.
Long-known for their monthly underground parking garage concert series, We Are The West recontextualizes a genuinely deep musical experience every Saturday before the full moon. On these moonlit nights, the band transforms an everyday, Los Angeles office parking garage into an extraordinary performance space. Different opening guests – from established artists and acclaimed bands to chamber groups and avant-garde sound experiments – rotate into the collaborative performance space.
Fond of merging the acoustics of nature with their own musical landscape, We Are The West’s national tours have included performances in natural desert amphitheaters, mine shafts, tow lots, redwood groves, sunset coves, and masonic temples, in addition to traditional theaters and festivals. Onstage they have supported a versatile range of artists, from indie rockers Lord Huron to chamber artist Kinan Azmeh of The Silk Road Ensemble. We Are The West recorded each of their four EPs in a different improvised locale: their LA parking garage, a barn in western New York, the high desert of New Mexico, and a ranch in Sebastopol, before crafting their acclaimed debut full-length LP The Golden Shore in a warehouse in downtown Los Angeles. Their whimsical, energetic recordings have been featured in compilations for Textura, Sound and Motion, and the Surfrider Foundation.