Interview: Whitelands

Modern-day shoegazers Whitelands have become faces of the UK’s shoegaze revival scene. After a fruitful tour opening for dream pop legends Slowdive in 2024, as well as the release of their ethereal debut Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day, the band have returned with 2026’s Sunlight Echoes, a vivid shoegaze LP that brilliantly focuses on refined pop songwriting. As the band set out on another tour, this time as headliners, I caught up with vocalist & guitarist Etienne and drummer Jagun just before their recent show in Manchester. 

---

Josh: You’ve described the sound of the new LP, Sunlight Echoes, as being less inward-looking than your debut. Was there something in particular that prompted that change, or would you say that’s something that’s naturally come about based on your evolution as a band?

Etienne: I think it’s been a natural evolution, yeah. When you’re interacting with people and seeing all these different sides of the world – on our first tour with Slowdive, we got to see a lot of new things and meet new people, and it really opened up our world. I think that kind of interaction with the outside world, for myself, that was what did it.

Josh: Related to that, one of my favourite things about the new LP is that it has a sense of confidence that you don’t always see on a lot of shoegaze records. Would you say you approached the record with that confidence in mind, or was it something more subconscious that you didn’t really think about?

Jagun: I think it was more subconscious, personally. I think it was quite natural, I’ve been saying to people how the new album shows more about our growth as people and as a band, and how our confidence has built over the past few years compared to the first album.

Josh: Would you say that’s indicative of where you’re going as a band, in a more confident & outwards facing direction, or possibly something more minimal? Or is it too early to tell?

Jagun: I think, personally, although we did want to be more confident in our sound, it’s more just about being more confident in ourselves now. If people can hear that in the music, though, that’s great. 

Josh: One thing that a lot of people have been saying about the album is how much they love the pop tendencies of the new album, particularly the hooks you can find in your songs. It’s especially noticeable in the singles like “Heat of the Summer” and “Glance”. With a genre like shoegaze where there’s so much importance placed on effects, do you find yourselves deliberately trying not to overcomplicate things when writing?

Etienne: I think some of the best songs in the genre originally came from the 90s, where shoegaze wasn’t really just a defined genre, it was treated as something more like ‘indie pop mixed with something else’. Like, you listen to Ride and think to yourself ‘this sounds like Britpop’, Slowdive have the ties to indie rock, early MBV are indie and jangle pop, even behind all the effects. I think a lot of songwriters tend to forget that shoegaze is an amalgamation of genres, not just a genre by itself. So, we pick up a lot of the older fans from the 90s based on that, with people saying ‘this sounds like it’s straight from that era but more modern’, and we think that’s the reason it does. 

Josh: And to build off of what you’re saying about the 90s, how was the experience of collaborating with Emma Anderson from Lush? Obviously, you’ve worked with shoegaze veterans before, such as Simon Scott doing your mastering, or touring with Slowdive in 2024. Would you say it was intimidating actually sharing a track with someone so entrenched in the 90s scene, or was it nice having that guiding voice?

Etienne: We’ve known her for a very long time, she’s a very sweet lady. She was there at Slowdive, too, in Brighton I think? We’ve met her socially a few times and she’s really lovely to talk to. We all kind of grew up in West London, so it was interesting to talk to people like ‘oh, you’re from Brentford!’. In fact, me and her went to the same uni, but years apart. Shoegaze is such a small scene, that everybody kind of knows everybody. We’ve hung out with people like Andy Bell and Debbie Googe backstage.

Jagun: I was gonna say, the tour with Slowdive also really helped with that sort of comfortability. We were thinking through it, like, ‘these guys are legends!’, but since we’ve been a shoegaze band we’ve been in the same rooms as these people, so it does feel quite comfortable. On top of that, they’re all just really lovely people, so it’s quite easy to do that. 

Josh: How would you say the tour has felt so far? Has playing all the new stuff come naturally?

Etienne: It always takes some work, but yeah. 

Jagun: Naturally, we’ve been rehearsing a lot – some of these songs we’ve been playing for a while and others it’s our first time. It’s this weird mix of some things being comfortable and some tracks taking a lot of getting used to, but I think we’re at a pretty comfortable stage now. 

Josh: Were there any particular pedals, or pieces of gear, that you’d say were particularly notable in contributing to the sound of the album?

Etienne: For me, it’s definitely my Strymon Dig. It’s the pedal I use the most, ‘cause I like using two delays at the same time. I’m not really fond of reverb, I feel like it really washes things out, but with the Dig you can just tap in the tempo and it feels like it’s locked in. We used it on “Heat of the Summer” with some really short delays. I also really like the compressor I’ve got, a Diamond Comp Jr. It's used to help a lot of jangly rhythms really come out the right way. A lot of shoegaze bands are using loads of distortion and stuff for their compression, but I just do it that way between the cleans and the distortion. 

Josh: A couple more questions. In a few other interviews, you’ve mentioned being influenced by the likes of Geordie Greep’s The New Sound, particularly in terms of the drumming. Are there any other non-shoegaze influences that you’d say were particularly important on Sunlight Echoes?

Jagun: I don’t really draw influence from shoegaze, I think “Heat of the Summer” was the first time I actually drew influence from a shoegaze song! I always say my biggest influence is Zac Farro from Paramore, I come from that kind of background. You’ve already mentioned Geordie Greep, but also Yussef Dayes as well, that kind of jazzy and quirky sound is something I hope comes through at times. I was mentioning this to Etienne the other day, on “Glance” I was heavily influenced by him. I was like, ‘what would Yussef do on this?’. It’s got quite a-

Etienne: Quite a shuffle to it?

Jagun: Yeah, exactly! Most of the songs we write are normally Etienne’s vocals and guitar first, so I’m hearing it thinking ‘how do I build around this?’. So yeah, Yussuf Dayes and Zac Farro are the main two for me.

Josh: Last question, because we’re getting pretty close to doors opening! Have you felt yourselves trying to move away from the legacy of 90s shoegaze bands, and carve out more of your own path? Do you still feel that sort of distinct connection to that music at this point, or are you more focused on making yourselves the faces of new shoegaze in this country? 

Etienne: During and just after the first tour with Slowdive, I was very inspired by them and Neil Halstead. I wanted to be like Neil, I was using the [Epiphone] Casino & JC-120. At some point, though, I thought that it would just be better for us to carve out our own legacy, y'know? I started using Marshalls and the ES-325, which is sorta weird for shoegaze. I feel like we should build our own place in all this. People are saying we’ve cemented ourselves now, and that we’re less inspired and more a band in our own right.

Jagun: To add onto that, there’s always gonna be that similarity. We’re in the same genre, of course, and there were those comparisons there when we went on tour with Slowdive, but naturally we’re a completely different group of people to those guys and we all have our own influences, dreams and aspirations. So naturally, we are choosing to carve our own legacy. I appreciated the Slowdive tour, because it felt like something of a ‘handing of the torch’ – not to be the new Slowdive, but so we could further the scene in our own way. 

The second album by Whitelands, Sunlight Echoes, is available through Sonic Cathedral Recordings now.

Josh Holmes

---

Edited by Isabelle Tu

Photos courtesy of Josh Holmes and Alex Francis