“I Love Pushing Boundaries”: Whethan Is in Full Bloom in “Life of a Wallflower” Sequel

A seed is planted, it anchors roots and a flower blooms. The pedals fall as the flower wilts and returns to the soil. The cycle of life sources the old to empower the new, a concept that's very much present in Whethan’s new album, Life of a Wallflower Vol. 2.

You can trace the project's DNA to its predecessor back in 2018, but Whethan’s latest effort is entirely distinct from his debut. And it's apropos that he constructed a sequel to Life of a Wallflower when he did.

Whethan "hit the reset" button on his creative approach, he tells EDM.com, while enduring Mother Nature’s volatility during and after the pandemic. The outcome is a swathe of fresh creativity while adopting the soul of the original project.

"I felt like the world kind of slowed down for a little bit for many reasons," Whethan recalls. “It gave me more time to reflect on myself and work on this new sound and a bunch of different sounds."

"Trying to collaborate with many different artists in many different fields. This is very reminiscent of six years ago when I did the first project. If you will, this feels like the return or the next part in the series.”

[embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=JleoqidnXR8[/embed]

World-building is a fundamental component of Whethan’s music. He keenly pays attention to it in all mediums, whether the immersive vices of the Cyberpunk video game’s futuristic metropolis or the cruel, captivating beauty of the Dune films. The latter specifically seems to sometimes inspire Life of the Wallflower Vol. 2 with its rich desert theme and sounds. It's appropriate that the lonely Wallflower sprouts in such difficult terrain.

Whethan is a world traveler who is always pursuing something new. Take for example Middle Eastern instrumentation and rock music, each of which he's enthusiastic about exploring further. His youthful curiousness for discovery tethers the two volumes of Life of a Wallflower.

“It's a blessing and a curse. I can't ever seem to want to make the same thing twice,” Whethan says. “I love pushing boundaries and seeing what kind of new sounds I can come up with. This one is different, but the energy and feeling are similar. The sounds aren't the same, but they might evoke the same emotion or the same feelings that the first one gave me. But in a modern current landscape twist.”

It’s been nearly a decade since Whethan’s debut original release, “Can’t Hide,” a song predating Life of a Wallflower by two years. His relative longevity makes it easy to forget that he's very much in bloom.

The 25-year-old producer and DJ has been touring as an artist since he was in high school. It’s an unusual circumstance that’s rotted the careers of many young artists plagued by the entertainment industry's seedy side. That’s not Whethan’s story. He has fortunately been nurtured by a caring team and there isn't much he'd change about his work-life trajectory, perhaps only the composure that comes with time.

“Just chill out,” Whethan says. “Looking now at where I'm at, I could just think back to certain times when I was just so stressed out and just destroying myself mentally to the brink to try to finish something or do something that maybe deep down I know wasn't really, but I don't know.”

He’s even hesitant to call that a mistake, highlighting an important truth about tough learning lessons.

“That's that part of me that's like, well, you never know,” Whethan says. “It's like the picture of the guy cutting in the rocks and the diamonds are right there, but you don't know until you break that next rock.”

“So I always believed that it was all for a reason. That's why I don't look back with any regret but, definitely, just chill out. It's going to be okay. Trust the process.”

[embed]https://youtube.com/watch?v=HTBu8dE-Zs0[/embed]

Whethan was well into his senior year of high school when he got a life-changing offer to tour with The Chainsmokers in 2017.

“I was still in high school while I was setting up my team,” Whethan recalls. “I had enough credits to graduate. The Chainsmokers had offered me a slot on their tour, which even looking back is still one of the most massive, insane tours I've ever seen. It was super eye-opening at the time, especially in high school, to just go and see what a tour of that scale looks like. It felt like a Taylor Swift-sized tour. There were multiple semi-trucks and stadium arenas every night. Getting a taste of that was truly amazing.”

The logistics of a high school senior skipping class to tour the U.S. for a mainstream act’s world tour sounds like a wonderfully absurd movie plot. But in reality, it was surprisingly seamless in its execution.

“My school was down with it! They were super supportive," he continues. "I had been talking to my guidance counselor during my senior year because people started to pay attention because things were starting to make their way on the internet. They were supportive and they wanted to look out for me. They said, ‘You have enough credits to graduate early if you want to get out a semester early and go do the tour.’ I just said, ‘Yes! Let's do it.'"

"The parents were super supportive too. My dad is a math teacher in high school—not the school that I went to—but a different school. Even watching him, someone who's in the education system, say, ‘I think this is a good move. I think you should do it,’ was amazing.”

Whethan has often trusted the process. It’s led to a remarkable career from a young age and a phenomenal new project earning rave reviews. It’s hard to gauge what’s next for an artist who’s constantly adapting, but in whatever way dance music's Wallflower branches out, he does so full of life.

You can listen to Life of a Wallflower Vol. 2 below and find the new album on streaming platforms here.