Originally inspired by a Slowdive KEXP live session, members of Whitelands combine their disparate musical backgrounds for an updated, bleary spin on shoegaze that gives voice to marginalized perspectives. Begun in the late 2010s as the solo project of U.K. musician Etienne Quartey-Papafio, the project made its official full-length debut as a band with 2024's Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day.
After playing in a school band as a teen, singer/guitarist Etienne Quartey-Papafio started Whitelands as a solo outlet. Named for the college at London's Roehampton University where he played his first show, the project's unfocused self-titled debut appeared in 2018 with a mix of jagged indie rock and grungier, hazier fare. A year later, he clicked through a recommended-video link to a re-formed Slowdive's 2017 Live on KEXP session and found his focus. He gradually assembled a band consisting of drummer Jagun Meseorisa, a onetime choir member who was making R&B music; Vanessa Govinden, a touring bassist for Black feminist punk band Big Joanie, and last in was guitarist Michael Adelaja, who had experimented in genres including techno. Something they all bonded over was various life struggles with neurodivergence and racial identity.
Following a series of echo-washed self-released singles with titles like "How It Feels" and "Born in Understanding" that were firmly rooted in shoegaze, the four-piece signed with Sonic Cathedral. The revamped project's official debut album, the self-produced Night-Bound Eyes Are Blind to the Day, arrived on the label in February 2024. Full of recurring themes like light, struggle, and acceptance, it took its title from Kahlil Gibran's 1923 book of prose poetry, The Prophet. ~ Marcy Donelson
