Kevin Whelan and Charles Bissell of The Wrens clashed in a new interview on The Guardian about the breakup of the band. According to Stereogum, Whelan released his half of unreleased Wrens music, and Bissell is now planning to release his own songs as a solo album. It’s a situation he described as “incredibly weird and sad.”
From the article, it’s clear that Whelan traces the tension between himself and Bissell to 2014, when the Wrens signed a record deal and Bissell posted: “My best years and work are clearly behind me. Which is sad, because I’ve pretty much burned every available moment of the last four years at least doing this.” Whelan was upset about Bissell’s public discontent with their music, as he said, “You’re gonna bring people on the journey like you’re Kim Kardashian? It’s repulsive to me. We can throw it in the garbage and start again, but we don’t need to tell the Joneses.”
Whelan also said that Bissell had wanted a larger financial stake in the album but Bissell denied that completely. “[Whelan’s] story is that I worked on the album for too long, but that simultaneously somehow I also had nothing to do with [the Aeon Station] songs,” Bissell says. “I suddenly found myself being portrayed as often as not as the baddie, as if I had somehow held him back, intentionally or at least thoughtlessly and selfishly even, which I’ve gotta say, was really confusing and weird.”
On the notion that Bissell deserves an increased financial stake in the recordings, Whelan said: “If you hire someone to paint your walls and it takes 10 years, how should you pay him?” He closed his comments with: “I let my dreams sit on the bottom shelf for a long time. It’s a betrayal that I let a decade of my life go by and did nothing.”
In September, Kevin Whelan released the first song from his upcoming album Observatory that is scheduled to drop on December 10 via Sub Pop. “Queens” is released under his new project, Aeon Station, and is a hypnotic rock song with an explosive chorus.
Leave a Comment